The past is gone

We have a special guest this morning, a personal friend we have known for many years, is Pastor Efrén Durán. Efrén is one of two pastors, his brother also, Edwin Durán, who has lived for many years in the Arecibo area of Puerto Rico

, I think it's Northern Puerto Rico. People that we love very much and that God... have a very nice testimony of how the Lord took them out of, let's say, religion so to speak, and led them to a frontal experience with the Holy Spirit and with the gifts of the spirit and did something very beauty in the life of his family, a radical transformation. That led to the formation of a church in Arecibo, which started in a house just giving lounge chairs and learning how to do the ministry, because their original church kicked them out of the Congregation because they didn't believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit and God greatly blessed that Congregation.

I have had the opportunity to preach there and share teachings with them. A church that loves to worship. They worship with such fervor and it is a very lively church, very full of spirit, lots of beautiful youth, beautiful things that God does through that Christian Community Congregation in Arecibo. Efrén has come here to Boston many times but he had never had the opportunity to invite him to preach. And recently I was there with them and I told them, look Efren, when you come back you have to come to the church and share the word with us.

So we are going to welcome our brother Efrén Durán and we are going to receive what God has for us through him. Efren, God bless you, a pleasure to have you here.

It is a pleasure for me to be here. I am going to reveal this, that he was entertaining Roberto's grandson who wanted to run away and I entertained him there with photos of my grandson. Thank you so much. I want to share a word with you this morning. I wanted to tell you that at the age of 17 I converted to Christ. These days, in a few days I turn 55 and I started pastoring very young. Circumstances forced me. I am not a pastor because I decided to or because I studied it, I felt at some point that God took me here and despite the fact that I did not want to, this is where I am. I fought with God for a long time but in the end I gave up, now I love what I do.

When I was 17 years old, when I converted, I converted with such conviction that while the other boys in the church wanted girlfriends and the rest, and the vacilón in the church, I was not interested in any of that. And I said Lord, I really want to know you and I know that you have one... so, newly converted I know that you have a woman for me, I simply pray that at the right time it will be. The only thing I'm going to ask of you is that I want a woman who is better than me. That is the only thing I ask of you, Father, I want a woman who is better than me.

And I took care of myself, I didn't have a girlfriend, I wasn't intimate with any woman, or anything like that, because I wanted to, when I got married, I wanted to give her the best… Sometimes men ask for a lot and give little. I said, well, I want to give her what I ask for, or what I expect.

In the end, I prayed and prayed and prayed until I said, one day I met who my wife is. It was just in the church that I got to know her a little more in terms of friendship. And when one day, I remember, I came home and said, wow, Lord, that woman is better than me. And soon after, when I was about 21 years old, I became her boyfriend. When I became her boyfriend I told her, since I converted to Christ, one day I said to the Lord, Lord, I want to have three children. And I told him, but I want to tell you, I want to have three children in one order, I want to have the girl first, then I want to have a boy, and then I want to have a girl and I want to have them very quickly.

And then, when I become her boyfriend, I tell her, hey, can I ask you a question? How many children do you want to have? And she tells me: I would like to have three. Three I tell you, in some order? And she tells me, I would like to have a girl first, a boy, and a girl. And I say, it can't be! I said, Lord, Lord, we have three children, we want a girl, a boy, a girl.

So I have three children: I have a girl, a boy and a girl. These days my eldest and second daughter are the same age. I had them real quick. And from the second to the third they take 18 months because there was an abortion. It was pretty fast, see? In the end, I have 5 grandchildren and I want to tell them that God gave me the woman that I asked for and God gave me the children that I asked for.

And I confess to you, I tell you before God, that my dating relationship lasted a year, a month and I never had a single argument with her, nor did she with me. We didn't have an argument between either of us, nothing. One day I got upset with her because she didn't take care of herself. I told him, of course, you don't take care of yourself, and you told me, do you want to fight? And I said, no. and she told me, because it takes two to fight and I'm not going to fight with you. The only thing that happened between us when we were dating was that difference.

Then God gave me the woman I wanted. God gave me the children I wanted. I thought I was going to have a perfect life. I got married and I confess to you that after 6 months of marriage I wanted to send her to the Lord. I thought I was going to have a perfect life, because now that I was a Christian and God gave me what I asked for. And I thought I was going to have perfect children. It took me 10 years to discover, it took me 10 years having them, to discover that I couldn't have perfect children. That the only one who could have perfect children was God and God decided not to have them, he made you and me.

So, in these almost 38 years that I have been in the Gospel, that I have been knowing the Lord, I have had great and extraordinary triumphs. I have lived normal moments and I have lived moments when being a believer and being a pastor I have been literally on the ground, literally on the ground.

And one of those days, a few years ago, I was studying, looking at the Bible and when I was looking at the Bible my eyes fell on that famous Chapter dedicated to women in the book of Proverbs, Chapter 31. When I read verse 25 I had to stop. Verse 25, Chapter 31 of Proverbs says:

"... strength and honor are his clothing and he laughs at what is to come..."

And I had to ask myself at that moment, I stopped because I had to ask myself, when you look at tomorrow, can you laugh? Because that woman in the book of Proverbs, when she looks to tomorrow, when she looks to the future, there is laughter in her mouth. And when I was asking myself that question I remembered that in the Bible another woman laughed, Sara. Sara laughed and it's interesting. I read Genesis Chapter 18, verse from 12 to 14 that says:

“… So Sarah laughed among herself, saying, After I am old I will have delight, my Lord also being old. Then Jehovah said to Abraham, why has he laughed saying, will it be true that I will give birth when I am old? There is something difficult for God. At the appointed time I will return to you according to the time of life Sara will have a son..."

It's interesting. Two women laughed, but each one of them laughed differently. The Proverbs woman's laugh was a laugh full of faith, full of hope, full of dreams. It is a laugh that pleases God. Sara's laugh is a laugh loaded with sarcasm. When you tell someone an irony, when you tell someone the opposite. You see someone ten pounds heavier than before and you say, hey, you look pretty skinny these days, right? And he makes one of those smiles that everyone knows is called sarcasm, irony. You are saying something that is totally contrary to what you feel. Sarah laughed. Sara's laugh was totally contrary to what she felt.

You are supposed to laugh with joy. She wasn't laughing with joy. She laughed sadly. Not the sadness of a third party. Not the sadness of an individual. The sadness of herself. Because? Because at some point she heard what he was saying about Abraham and for her. When she heard it almost 25 years ago she had started listening and absolutely nothing had happened.

When you look at those verses, you discover that she is a woman who is living in a very unfortunate condition. It is very unfortunate because if you look at the story calmly, what it says is that the angel of Jehovah appeared, some celestial characters appeared, the angel of Jehovah appeared to speak with Abraham. Abraham told him, stay there for a moment, I'm going to tell you to prepare food. He told Sara, hey, there I have the angel of Jehovah and with others and we are going to prepare food. Hey, the Scripture says they made butter, they made milk, loaves, and they caught a calf and roasted it. I'm not a cook but I imagine what I don't know must have elapsed in killing a calf, at least, killing and roasting it, and everything else, a few hours, correct?

And after that, they sat down and ate it. And after the meal is that the angel of Jehovah asks. Hey, where is Sara? You can believe and if Roberto arrives... not the angel of Jehovah, Roberto arrives at my house, not the angel of Jehovah, Roberto arrives at my house and when I see Roberto enter the door, my wife is in the room and I I tell her, mommy, here is Roberto. She runs out, if it's not fixed properly, she changes quickly but as quickly as lightly she changes, greets him and immediately says, do you want coffee? Want something? This one is a coffee grower so he is going to give him coffee, etc. I explain? But she's going to get out fast.

Now, imagine, 4, 5 hours have passed and Sara doesn't want to go out at all. They don't want to go out to see that important character who has come to visit them. She doesn't come out, in such a way that this character, the angel of Jehovah, is the one who has to ask where is Sara? However, we know that Sara was the prototype of a Latina woman because when God says, he is talking about the son, he says that Sara was in hiding, right? Behind the store, with the ear stopped, right? He's with his ear up like this.

Before I came here I bought Christmas presents for my wife, but it's a secret, it's a state secret. And so I'm telling my son in the marquee, Frenchi, I bought mommy a gift. When at the moment I see that Frenchi does like that. Frenchi was riding in his car, I see Frenchi stop looking at me and do this, and when I look back, my wife was at the door trying to hear what I'm saying in a low voice because she suspects that I have something, do I explain?

So, that's how Sara was. She's able to move and do something like that but she's not able to say, glad you're visiting. For me it is such an extraordinary pleasure. I am Sara. We will try to serve you the best that we can. Anything you need, don't be afraid to call me. It's not a bother. It will be a pleasure. We in our nature is to be hospitable. It is at least that. But she didn't, at all times she stayed there and then when she hears the voice of what the angel of Jehovah is saying, she laughs sarcastically, ironically, is it true? It is certain that?

Now why? Sara was a woman who lived in pain. Why was Sara a woman who lived in pain? Sara was a woman who lived in pain because she listened to God and she wanted to help God. She wanted to fix several things and she grabbed and told Abraham, look, since this issue doesn't come out, there's the woman. There is my servant, take the servant and... Can you imagine?

Brothers, I don't know, I am a man, but if I were a woman I would be crazy. Yes, I would be crazy, I would be crazy to tell my husband. Hey, fuck that woman and stay there. That night when I know that she is here, I would not sleep. I explain? I would stay there, what a long night, Lord. That bastard, what is he doing? This for complying with me, this unhappy will be having a good time too. That is what I am missing now. I don't know if I explain myself?

In the end, we know the story, the other woman got pregnant after a while and after she got pregnant things got complicated. Because the Scripture says that pregnant she was walking around and now she was making fun of Sara, because now she had something, as if to say, I have something here that Abraham wants. I have here the most that Abraham desires, a son, I have him here.

So, now Sara's life is complicated, why? Because the servant makes fun of her and humiliates her. And then Sara doesn't have a child, all the years have passed, where are the promises of God? Where is this God who promised us and who told us that he was going to give us great and extraordinary things, that he was going to give us children and that he was going to give us extraordinary offspring? Where is? And now what I have is this woman.

In the end, he also makes war on the woman inside the house, to the level that after that, he grabs Abraham and fights with Abraham as well. As if Abraham was to blame. Now it is also Abraham's fault because the woman has a baby. In the end he makes Abraham throw out the woman with the baby. Then when I was 14 years old.

Do you see her story? She was a woman like you and me, because I can't tell you specifically what's in your past. But I know what's in your past, I know. I'm going to tell you what's in your past. In your past there is exactly what is in mine. I tell you what's in mine? In mine there is sin. In mine there is pain. In mine there is guilt. In mine there is loss, and in my past there is shame, what do you think?

That was in Sara's past. That's in my past. I found out a long time ago that I cannot live there in the past. I found out a long time ago. Sara lived in the past. Sara's laugh was a laugh absent of faith, full of sarcasm that God bothered her laugh, because it was a laugh that was loaded with disbelief, that was the product of promises that simply had not been given the time. Because God promises, God is not obligated that God tells you something and runs away, I will prosper you. How many of us have received that word? And what we do is, we think that tomorrow morning the check will arrive. And to make matters worse when a testimony like this occurs, brothers, I prayed, I asked for the money and when I went to the post office there was a check for 10 thousand and we thought that this works for everyone, as if it were magic. Christianity is not magic.

Sometimes a promise from God is going to take a long time. But every promise of God is going to be fulfilled in the specific time in which God has it predetermined. Every promise of God will be fulfilled.

Sara was a woman who lived in pain. Sara was a woman who lived with guilt. Sara was a woman who lived with bitterness. Sara was a woman who couldn't laugh at tomorrow because Sara lived in the past. Sara couldn't enjoy today.

The principles of the people who are happier, they say, the principles of the people who are happier, say that one cannot laugh at tomorrow who does not laugh at their present. Whoever cannot laugh in the present cannot laugh at tomorrow. He also says that you can't laugh at your present, who can't laugh at your past. And also you can't laugh at your past who lives in the past. You can't laugh.

I told him that I could not create perfect children, but I am a pastor, I have lived there all my life. I have tried to live a life without hypocrisy, teaching my children what it is to love God. I have an excellent relationship with my children. I didn't come here to brag, I came here to tell you the truth. I have an excellent relationship with my children that we touch each other continuously, that we call each other continuously, that we see each other every day. After all, my three children got married and Roberto knows, right? You have to kick them to get them out of the house, right?

They are home every day with the grandchildren, every day. Any excuse from them is a good one to be at home and eat at home. And I love it, but I love that they are at home. That was part of my dream, that they would leave and come back and when they left they would never say, oh my God, I got married and I'm happy with the life I have, but I long to go to mommy and daddy's house.

So, praise God for that. But not one day when the towers fell in 2001, on 9/11, Tuesday, the 8th, Saturday, they fell on my house when my 19-year-old girl, we were together and we were happy because my other girl and her boyfriend are getting married in two months. They just bought a new yeta, and we're programming the yeta and there when we went out for the moment, we put the yeta there, and we're all at home, my wife was making food for everyone and we're sitting there when my 19-year-old girl tells me, Daddy, I'm pregnant.

There was her boyfriend and I couldn't speak. I felt that the world left me. I heard that she cried and hugged her mom. My son was there, he groaned and I kept saying, God, I've been teaching people for so many years, I've been teaching people for so many years, I'm an expert in solving problems for people, that's my specialty, and I am here and I listen to what my daughter tells me and I don't know what to do. I'm lost, help me, and when I say that, I have the mental image of a plane that is going down and I hear the voice of a pilot who says, hey, the engines don't have power, we have to throw away the things that don't work to be able to preserve life and at that moment when I have that mental image, I ask, what is important? What is it for? And at that moment I know the answer is too simple: my daughter. What is more important than appearance? What will the others say?

At that moment I said, I spoke and said, mommy, you asked her for forgiveness. I heard that you asked the Lord for forgiveness. Yes, daddy, I asked the Lord for forgiveness. Ok, well, I want to tell you that if you asked the Lord for forgiveness, the Lord forgave you. And if the Lord forgave you, I want to tell you this, I also forgive you. I told the boyfriend, do you have to say something? And he, with his eyes closed crying, did like this, he didn't even open his mouth. He did so. I understood it. I did not understand, from the school that I come from to do that to my daughter, where I come from, I come from a very bad place where I grew up. Anyone who does that to one of my girls has to hit it with a bat, do you understand?

So, he doesn't open his eyes, he did so, and I said, ok, later… I told him, my love, I don't believe in marriage by obligation. She told me, me neither, daddy, you taught us well. Me neither. I said, ok, perfect, I think that in marriage it should be a matter of conviction and I told him. Ok, I'm going to make a promise to you. I don't know if you're going to marry her, but I'm going to promise you here today, before God and before my family, that if you marry her, I'm going to treat you like a son. And I said, we stood up, and I said, seems like a good time to pray so we stood up, we prayed. When we finished praying I went to him and hugged him and kissed him on the neck, and I told him, I think things are going to turn out well. God is going to help us. And he cried, and cried, and cried. And after that I went to my girl and told her, did you understand what I said to him? And she told me, yes daddy. And I told him, if I told him that, imagine.

Now, what I want to tell you is this, the following, I have to tell you all this, because I am the pastor of a well-known church in Arecibo, my family in a very public place. So those early days were very difficult, they were very difficult when my daughter went out to any public place. Oh, did you get married? And she told him, no, I didn't get married, I'm going to have a baby. And my wife was there, and we were there, and people were: oh, excuse me, I would say, calm down, calm down, and we have a specialty in explaining this. Do not worry.

The best place for my baby to live was in my house. She felt safe there, she left the house, she didn't feel so safe. But there we were, many times just a hug was all she needed, and cry on my shoulder and nothing more. And I tell you, everything is going to be okay.

When we went to church I narrated in the church, everything that happened I narrated immediately, before the devil says it, I said it. So I stole the devil's shot and I stole the devil's shot and the devil couldn't say anything, he stayed with the desire. And then the church became the protectors of my family, the protectors of my daughter and the brothers were the uncles of my grandson who was going to be born. And that was a spectacle when my grandson was born and a joy, because it was all without appearance, it was there in the light. I explain? People like you and me who make mistakes, who crash but have understood what the goodness and mercy of God is. A God who has a word of hope, a word that if the devil steals your dreams, God is here to restore it.

That is the God of us. But I'm telling you this, one year my grandson is born in May, and in December we have a party for my mother's family and it's so all scattered around Puerto Rico and it was going to be done at home. And I said... those who live nearby well know, but I said, those who live far away, I'm not going to worry now to explain to them, so we have that family reunion, my eldest daughter is getting married, and now there is my baby My baby is white with blue eyes and my grandson is darker than Roberto. imagine. Yes, yes, he is darker than Roberto. Because the two girls of mine, I don't know if it's from heaven or a matter of the devil, they married two black boys, both of them. They are two extraordinary little blacks, I have a rainbow at my grandchildren's house, that's incredible. And the most that eats my coconut, do you know what it is? The first, the first black boy to arrive, that, that is the grandson of my pain, that is… I am crazy with that one, and that is crazy with me too.

Well, but my grandson is already, what do I know, he is 7 months old, and we have a Christmas party at mommy's house. And I have an aunt who is a Christian, a two-way Pentecostal, you understand that, right? And my white, blue-eyed girl with an 8-month-old baby, black, in her hands and my aunt says to my girl: I thought that the other one got married? And my girl tells her, Yes, yes, it was the other one, the oldest. And my aunt says: And the baby? And my baby says, ah, the baby is mine! It can't be, you adopted a baby? And my baby tells her, no, I didn't adopt this baby, this is my baby. And my aunt does…. And he went and left her.

I was under a tree drinking a Coca Cola, we had been together with the family, but it was lunch time and everything had gone and I stayed for a while drinking a Coca Cola alone there, when my baby come, daddy, daddy, I have to tell you. What happened? Titi, if you could see…. And to be light, the girl tells me all this. And I told him, ah, yes, yes, don't pay attention to him, you know that these things happen. No, my baby was laughing and she said to me, where is mommy (my wife, her mom)? Where is mommy and Mireli, my other daughter? And I told him, my mother lives here and next door my brother, my sister and I told him they went home for a little while to look for something. Oh, and my baby says, I have to go find them to tell them about this. She is dead laughing.

When my baby goes, dying of laughter, to tell them, I'm sitting under the tree drinking a Coca Cola, she laughs and I'm crying. Do you know why I'm crying? I'm going to tell you why I'm crying. I am crying because my daughter is laughing at what her pain once was. And that is the greatest experience that I have that my daughter is healthy, but that one day it happened. This is the most extraordinary evidence in my life, that my girl is a girl who is destined to enjoy the goodness, the mercy of God because she has understood what it is to stumble, get up, experience forgiveness, mercy and be restored. I explain?

I am thanking God that my baby is not parked in the past. The past has passed, and she has a different life. In fact, a year later he got married. You know who the bearer of the rings was, right? The black boy, my grandson, was the bearer of the rings. It was a wedding without appearance, it was a royal wedding, it was a beautiful wedding, it was a prophetic wedding. Now my baby is married, the one who was a boyfriend is now like my son. I explain? The relationship we have is an extraordinary relationship.

Now, they have 3 children: they have the black one, they have a vanilla one and they have a white one. That is very strange but it is so. That they have. Only those who can laugh at their present can laugh at tomorrow. Only he who can laugh at his past and alone can laugh at his present. And only those who do not live parked in their past laugh at their past.

Because? Because in the past, in tomorrow, there are the thieves of joy. In the past are the thieves of joy which is guilt, shame, loss, pain, everything I mentioned just now. Who can live in that place? In that place of guilt, shame, loss, pain, sin. Who can live in that place? It is a place of hopelessness, no one can live there. If you happen to be a Christian and you're stationed in that place, this morning is a good day for you to get out of that place. And you get out of that place and discover the goodness, the extraordinary mercies that God has for your life.

There is guilt, there is shame, guilt is a terrible thing. I explain? And then what's tomorrow? In tomorrow there is worry and fear. That's another terrible thing. Worry.

I remember when I was 12 years old I had a bicycle accident, I almost killed myself on the bicycle and my dad knows what he said? He kind of beat me up, he beat me up. He told me to take off your clothes, he gave me a leather strap, he took blood from me and told me, one year without a bicycle. Imagine, a year without a bicycle. And all my friends in the neighborhood rode the bike all the time and I was sitting there watching them.

One year, brother, before God, I tell you, before God, a year without a bicycle. And there I was, and sometimes my friends told me, hey, get on, get on, your dad isn't here. I didn't dare, I said, I get on the bike and when I get to the curve down there daddy comes and daddy comes and grabs me, he beats me again with the leather strap, and gives me another year. And then I said, no, not at all.

You know, I had the date exactly when the accident had occurred, and I said, the year is coming, the year is coming, I'm going to ride my bike, the year is coming. The year of cycling has arrived, the year has arrived. Do you know what happened? It is that worry is terrible. I said, I know that it's been a year and if daddy doesn't know? And if daddy thinks that what's going on is 10 months? And I get on the bike and daddy sees me and says, look, what is this unfortunate man doing that it's only been more than ten months and he grabs me and gives me another beating and stretches me out... Do you know what I did? And I tell you this before God, I gave my dad three months of grace just in case. 3 months of grace to my dad, just in case. Because that's what worry does, it steals today.

And if this plane crashes? And if it doesn't fall? And if I have cancer? And if it's muscular only? And if it is the assumption, it feeds on the assumptions, concern. Look at the anxiety we have over things that almost never happen. Definition, which almost never occur. It is born from the assumption.

Jesus says, hey, don't worry about tomorrow. Live this day. It's the only day you can live. Enough for each day its own evil. That's what Jesus taught us. Fear, fear is contrary to faith. Fear is terror, it steals your dreams, it steals your hopelessness, it steals your ability to dream. That is fear. That is fear. Everyone can live today. I can live today with my circumstances. Do you know when things get complicated? When I have to add the weight of yesterday to my today, the eternity of tomorrow. It's that things get complicated. I explain?

I am going to give an example that is perhaps not the best example, but it is this. Let's say that I am a woman and I am married to an unconscious man, like many Latinos, right? With an unconscious man and then it turns out that I have been married to him for 10 years and today I am going to pick up the house and this man came out of the bathroom and He left the shorts in the bathroom and I say, this wretch, 10 years, I've been married to him for 10 years, I've been collecting those damned shorts for 10 years. I'm 35. The statistics tell me that I am going to live another 40 years with this unhappy man. I have to pick up... I've been collecting shorts for 10 years, I have to pick up those shorts for 40 more years? When the man arrives from work in the afternoon, he knows that there is a war, right? I explain? He knows that there is a war, he knows that cold food, he knows that he goes to bed cold... What's wrong with you? Nothing. And he says, what will happen to the woman?

Now, if I'm happy and I'm happy and I go there singing and I go to the bathroom and I see the shorts on the floor and I don't think about being 10 years old, nor do I think about being 45 and I see the shorts like this, what's more, I do one….. for a little bit… I develop a technique and I do this to the shorts and throw them into the air, I do this, tac, I throw them and to the basket, and I continue walking happily. My life was not damaged, I explain? I am living for today, only for today. That's all I have to do.

But tomorrow there is worry, there is fear and that is terrible. I know what it is to live that. These days I was talking with a pastor friend of mine and he told me, hey, Efrén would like you to go with me to such a place to talk to some pastor friends of mine who have problems. What happened? Look, if you could see that they are very good people, from a tremendous church, but the following happens, the pastor one day goes to the computer and discovers that his 15-year-old son is viewing male pornography. Oh! He begins to work on the matter with the son but two months go by, three months with the matter and it doesn't progress. The man is totally hopeless. So the man, he is a very private person, he decides that there is a very prominent pastor, a friend of his, he says, I need to seek advice from someone else, someone to help me. He goes to a prominent pastor who is a friend of his, and tells him, I have a problem. And he tells her all his problem. In the end, do you know what the prominent pastor tells you? He tells her, I would like to tell you something but I can't tell you anything. Unfortunately I have the same problem as you. How about! Shepherds! Men of God, with hearts full of hopelessness. Men of God who lost the ability to dream because for some reason the enemy has entered them and has stolen their dreams and has stolen their hope for tomorrow.

What do you think if we interview those pastors. And I tell you, I want you to read Proverbs 31:25. "Strength and honor are his clothing and he laughs at the future", and you explain to me how you look at your life tomorrow. They won't be able to talk. None of them can speak, because their life is full of hopelessness. Instead of dreams they have nightmares.

Some of us as believers unfortunately when we look at tomorrow, we cannot look at tomorrow like the proverbs woman, some of us look at tomorrow like Sarah, we look at tomorrow with sarcasm, and we look at tomorrow with irony. I can tell you, I know what I'm talking about, okay? I went through that terrain.

To go down the slope, I tell you the following. About 6 years ago, about 6 years ago, my son left home, raised in the church, a good relationship with him, extraordinary, we get along super well. I found out that my son was addicted to drugs. For me that was terrible. Drug addict. He tried to resolve the matter while at home. It was so hard being at home. He never robbed us, never... but there he continued with his condition. He tried to force himself out of love for us, silent, depressed. I went into such a big depression. I reserved, how to talk about this? So hard.

I remember the day he left my house, it was a Tuesday at 9 in the morning. That day he left home. I helped him pick up the things in his car. And we said goodbye to him at 9 in the morning on the balcony of my house. We hugged goodbye, crying. I knew what that meant. The day he left, I stayed in the distance looking at his car, when it disappeared and along with the car that disappeared, I also felt that my dreams were disappearing, I also felt that my hope was disappearing. I said, Lord, I love you since I was 17 years old. All my life I have served you. I have tried to live a non-hypocritical life, Lord. I haven't tried to play church.

I closed the house. There was no one in my house, and I spent about an hour walking around the house like a madman crying, crying and crying, telling God, I need you to give me a word, I need you to give me a word, I need you to You give me a word because crisis comes to your life in the absence of a word. And when you have a crisis, your heart is full of hopelessness, the best alternative is not an antidepressant, the best alternative is a word from heaven.

And I was crying for about an hour and I went to my bed and dried my tears on the bed. And I have a bookshelf in my house that had like 100 books there and I couldn't see because my eyes were full of tears. I took any book that was there, any, I took any book. The book I picked up was "Living Fire, Mighty Wind" by Jim Cymbala. And I, some time ago I had been reading it and I had left it halfway through, I used to when I read a book, if by chance I am not going to continue it immediately I turn the corner where I left off. So I turned the little corner where I was standing and I looked and I said, oh, I read this. And I turned the page, and when I turned the page it said: “the hardest time of our lives was the day our daughter left our house.”

I began to cry, but there was hope, because then he would end up telling the testimony of how his daughter, product of prayer, came, how his daughter is married, how they are pastoring, etc., etc. And I was... you know the possibilities, among 100 books that are there, that I put my hand in and that I pick up a book and that it is precisely on a page where it has a situation similar to the one I am experiencing, and I am asking God for an hour, Lord, I need a word.

That was not enough. God had to give me a few words to cement my heart. Do you know why? Because I discovered in this process that an erosion of faith had occurred in my life, being a pastor. And that my heart had filled with hopelessness for some reason, erosion of faith. I needed to restore my faith in God. It was a process, it didn't happen like that, but in that process several things happened.

One day I discovered that my son was simply like that, his condition was that, because he simply had ties in his life, that the day he was freed from ties, his life was going to change. And that day that I discovered that, I got home, and I said, how stupid, my God, how stupid, Lord, if all I have to do is destroy the strongholds that are in my son's mind. If I destroy the strongholds that the devil has placed in my son's mind, his life will automatically change. So I started my personal war against the devil for the life of my son. And I started, morning, afternoon and night, morning, afternoon and night, morning, afternoon and night, doing the same thing.

I didn't pray for my son, I didn't pray, I didn't say, take care of Frenchy. I said, Father, thank you because you have Frenchy, he is well taken care of. Thank you because you have it covered. Thank you for wherever he is, no matter where he walks, you are a covenant God, he is bound with a rope of love. I stood in the pulpit and said, some of you ask me about my son Frenchy? I'm going to tell you. Here you will see him again playing and singing and worshiping God. One day they will see it. I have it seized with ropes of love.

So I said, Father right now the centurion taught me to send the word at a distance. The centurion said, don't go to my house, send the word, so right now I send the word to Frenchy's mind. I declare in the name of Jesus that every stronghold collapses in the name of Jesus in Frenchy's mind. Morning, noon and night, morning, noon and night. It had been like this for three months, 3 months. Thursday morning at 2:30 am I send the word and I say, Father, I am sending the word into Frenchy's mind.

I declare that every stronghold of the enemy collapses and when I am praying like this, I say, Lord, why don't you do me a favor? Why don't you send me a sign, send me a sign that what I am doing, this prayer in this way, is the correct one, do you think, Lord? Is it okay for you to do that to me? Thursday at 2:30 in the morning, that Thursday Frenchy came to my house at noon, he kissed me, I hugged him. Are you hungry? Yes daddy. I buy you food? Yes daddy. I bought him food. At 3 in the afternoon he tells me, daddy, can I talk to you for a moment? And I tell her, yes, my love.

And we went to the room and we were talking there and he told me, listen to this because it's so… remember the prayer I used to say. I send your word, I declare that all strength in Frenchy's mind collapses. Frenchy tells me, I'm going to tell you something, daddy. I don't see myself in church. I said, aha. I don't see myself in church but something is happening lately. And I say, aha. I feel, I say it has to be God. He tells me I feel daddy, that there are thoughts in my head that are collapsing. How about. And me, oh! He is using the same words that I pray. And I tell him, and I don't want to continue with this life that I am living.

And I tell him, do you have any problem to understand the love of God? And he tells me, no daddy, for me the love of God is very simple. For me, God is how you treat me, that's how God is. And I said, oh, that's good, well, I want to tell you what is collapsing, it's me. It's me that one day I told you that my love for you was so great that if I had to go to hell to fight for you, I would. I am in hell fighting for you, every day I am the one who sent the word collapsing the enemy's fortresses that are in your mind because the day they collapse you will return.

A week later, he told me, that day he left and told me, can you pray for me? I called my wife, we went to the room, we prayed for him. He cried. He gave us both a kiss and a hug, and left. A week later he told me, daddy, will you help me? I don't want to continue living this life. 5 years ago he returned. Today he is in the Lord, he is married, he plays at church, he worships the Lord. He does not have a perfect life, but he is a forgiven man, he is a forgiven man like you and me, he is a forgiven man. God is good. God is extraordinary. God does amazing things. Everyone can live today. That is the only thing that God expects.

God expects you not to live tomorrow because tomorrow there is guilt and shame, and the Scripture says that all that was your past, God took it and threw it into the bottom of the sea and God doesn't even remember that anymore. If God does not remember that, it is he who should care because he is the one who is forgiving, well why the hell am I going to remember something that God has already forgiven me and set me free. My tomorrow is safe, it is safe in the hands of the Lord. My tomorrow is safe.

Before they sang a chorus like this, I'm not afraid of tomorrow, I know he prepared my future, I'm not afraid of tomorrow, my life is safe in him. Your life is safe in him. He is your God. He is my God, I understand? We are children of an extraordinary God, of a powerful God, of an extraordinary God. Ah, extraordinary or interesting is this. I didn't start living with joy when Frenchi arrived. No. I began to live with joy when I began to believe. I explain?

The day I discovered, my God, if I'm praying wrong, that's why I'm like this in this anguish. And I began to believe, and I began to declare, and I saw my son playing. I saw him with his guitar, playing. He plays guitar and piano and I used to see him playing up here. And I started to say it. So my life changed because now when my son came, I saw him skinny and I saw it in his behavior, but despite that, I said, I see him like that, but I don't pay attention to that. I see it in another way.

Have you read the book of Hebrews that says, of those men who by faith say that they did something incredible. He says that they looked at him from afar, believed him, greeted him and confessed him. They did 4 things: they looked at him from afar, and when they looked at him, what did they do? The more I look at my son by faith, the more I believe it. And the more I believe it, the more I salute it, the more I am filled with joy and joy. And the more I am filled with joy and gladness, the more I confess it, the more it fills my mouth to say it. And while I fill my mouth to say it the more I want to look at it and word began to reach me continuously from the 4 winds, word reached me, people who told me, hey, I had an experience. I had a dream last night, I saw your son again playing in the church, singing and worshipping. I saw your son making a record.

Next year he will start recording an album. They have a band formed that sounds the best, and they already have plans to start recording an album. In other words, so many things that God began to show me from here and there, and then what happened? While these things happen, my faith was fed, the more I saw it, the more I believed it, the more I greeted it, the more I confessed it. My life changed not when Frenchy arrived, my life changed when I decided to believe. My life changed when my faith was restored because my faith was lost along the way and my heart was filled with hopelessness.

One activity of the enemy is trying to fill your heart with hopelessness. An activity of the enemy is that you look at your tomorrow and you cannot laugh. But I want to tell you, together, think about the words that God has given you. When you think about the words that God has given you, I guarantee you, I am sure that all of us here have enough of God's word planted in our hearts to look at tomorrow and laugh, to look at tomorrow and say, Hey, what has God said to me? What has God said to you? What has God said to you? Hasn't God told you that he has put his hand on your life? Has he not told you that he has laid his hand on your house? Has he not told you that he has laid his hand on your children?

I want to tell you, God is a covenant God, who blesses the generations of those who love him up to a thousand generations. He is like that. He keeps what he promises. He does what he says, but what does the enemy want? May you and I not be filled with despair, like those pastors who, between one another, are communicators of hope and those pastors were communicating hopelessness among themselves. Do you know why? Because the enemy had managed to hammer into their hearts and rob them. What message can they give to faith communities if they have lost hope to look to tomorrow?

But God this morning wants to remind us that he is the God of all hope, he is the God of all hope when he says, what was the extraordinary thing about Abraham. Abraham made many mistakes, he screwed up many times. But what was the extraordinary thing about him, says the Scripture, he believed in hope against hope. That in Spanish means, when there was no hope anymore because he looked at his wife and was, as we say in Puerto Rico, desbaratá, destroyed.

He looked at her barren, old, shattered, devastated. He looked at himself, and said, hell I don't have a choice either. When he looked at her and he looked at him and said, there is no hope here, there is no hope here, neither in that woman nor in me, there is no hope in both of us, when there was no hope, what the Scripture says is, he decided, he had the attitude of believing in God. He decided to have hope when there was no hope. He believed in hope against hope because he said, my God has two characteristics, number 1 is faithful, to keep his word and number 2 he is almighty to do it, almighty to do it. Your God, my God is almighty to fulfill everything that he has promised you, if you believe it and if you believe it, fill your mouth and confess it.

Now, I end with this, with something that God said to me at that time. He told me that never in my life have I forgotten and never will. If you have a word of mine in your heart, why do you live as if you don't have it? If you have a word in your heart why do you live as if you don't have it? You can get on your feet.

I want to invite you, so quickly, I know that we are ending here. I want to invite you quickly, if you are a person whose heart has been shaken like I was, don't feel bad, ok? Do not be sad. We are all shaken. If your life is being shaken, if your faith is being shaken, if your faith needs to be renewed, if your faith has been eroded by the blows of life, by promises that you simply thought were for today and are not for today, God made them but they are for tomorrow. But, calm down, every word of God will be fulfilled. I encourage you to come here and have a moment for a word of prayer.

If there is someone like that, if not believe me, I will start right now again, to preach again with the same joy, because I am sharing with you what I honestly believe in my heart, I have believed that it was for you. Amen.

I simply tell you, talk to God there. I want to tell you, nobody put their hands on me. It was an experience alone. I had her entering my house when I said, oh my God, how stupid if I'm praying wrong. Lord, thank you, it came to me by revelation. And that day I began to pray something different. No one was with me at 2:30 in the morning when I told them, send me a sign, at 2:30 and 12 hours later my son came with the sign in his mouth, the sign that the prayer I was making was correct. .

So if you have a relative who has some ties, I tell you, it would be good for you to start practicing sending the word to the mind, sending the word of the Lord to the heart to the mind, to break all strength, and that you live happily freedom because if they have a word of salvation, do not pray for salvation, for him, he will come, pray for him to break, to break what has him tied. Send the word so that what the enemy has built in his mind is broken and he is free. No matter who you are, no matter where you are, the word gets through. The important thing is that you send the word. Amen.

I encourage you so that in this hour you lift up your heart here and simply thank God if you think that something this morning, there has been something of God for your life, if you think that this morning something that I I have said, it has touched your heart because it has confronted you, it has confronted you with some reality of yours, or it has confronted you with some episode in your life that you are going through with a family member, where you have lost dreams along the way, I I mean this morning today is a good day to start dreaming. Today is a good day to start restoring those dreams that God had given you for so long and that you thought that God had already forgotten about that, that it was over, that perhaps it was a misunderstanding of some prophet who came by here, from someone who prayed for you. I want to tell you, it was not a misunderstanding. God is faithful. Every word of his will be fulfilled in his time. Amen.

Father, in the name of Jesus at this hour I praise you and I thank you because you have brought me here, Lord, to communicate, Father, a word, Lord, about this town in the name of Jesus, I pray that you bless us I pray that right now your Holy Spirit begins to move through this town, your Holy Spirit begins to move here.

You're here. You have been moving for a while, since we were adoring you this morning you are moving. You were the first to arrive at this meeting summoned by your spirit to touch, to bless, to speak to us, Lord, and at this hour I pray and I declare eternal Lord, that your Holy Spirit who is here is producing conviction in the hearts of my brothers to believe that on this day faith is being restored, that on this day hope is being restored, that on this day hearts are beginning to dream, that on this morning, on this day dreams are being restored in the hearts of life that they had lost their dreams along the way, simply because of life's blows, or because of blows from the enemy. Father, but in this hour, we are taking authority to resist the lie of the enemy and declare that the lie of the enemy is exactly that, a word of lie.

But your word is a word of truth and we are sending your word of truth to the minds of my brothers, to the minds of your children, of my brothers, of your people, declaring, Lord, that you are the God who comes to put dreams in their minds, to put dreams in their hearts. Lord, to sow hope, hope against hope, hope against hope, when they thought there was no alternative to believing Lord, this morning we are declaring that hope is being born in the hearts of your people, hope to dream, hope to laugh, hope to look at tomorrow with joy and joy, and declare that you are the God of their tomorrow, that you are the God of their present, but you are the God of their morning, that certainly each of them are children yours full of great promises that you have declared over their lives.

Father, that the name of Jesus, Holy Spirit, do a great work, touch, produce conviction, change attitudes of our hearts, change attitudes in us, Lord, do such a great work, oh, that when we leave this place we will leave with the deep conviction that there is a taste of you in our mouths, that there is a taste of you in our hearts, that there is a taste of you in our minds. Our whole being is saturated with the taste of the God of heaven, that there is a taste of your Holy Spirit in our life, in this meeting. Father, in the name of Jesus we are declaring this word. I bless you, I bless your house, I bless your children, I bless your business, your work, your studies.

I declare that those who are far away will return to the path in the name of Jesus I declare a word of salvation on those who are far away. I declare that fortresses are broken, that ties are broken. I declare that chains are broken in the name of Jesus as the chains and fortresses that bound my son were broken. I declare that in the name of Jesus and I send the word to your relative and I declare that it breaks and breaks in the name of Jesus and I declare that God does something new. I declare in the name of Jesus your new time over your life. I declare that times of refreshment are coming upon your life.

I declare on this church new times in the name of Jesus, I declare on this town and on this ministry, I declare a time of refreshment from the Lord, a new time. I declare that God is reaching around heaven and changing the time for this place in Jesus name and that you are going to see great things and extraordinary things in Jesus name. I declare it, I declare it, I declare it in the name of Jesus. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Lord. Thank you Lord in Jesus name. Thank my Lord.