reasons found

Today while I was preparing myself, I came across this topic, I don't know how many times I have said it, maybe I have said it many times but, one of the meditations or devotionals that I usually read is called The Upper Room. And two weeks ago I came across one of the meditations that was very interesting because it made me reflect a lot, and that reflection came to me, and I would like to share part of those things that I read in that devotional with you and add others that I myself I have been thinking and reflecting.

But I titled this sermon "mixed motives", or "mixed intentions" if you will. Reasons found. And I would like you to go with me to the book of Luke chapter 7. Luke chapter 7, I am sure that this is a story that many of you are very familiar with, we have read it a lot, we have seen the faith that is manifested in this story, but today I would like to teach you something different.

It goes like this, Luke 7 beginning in verse 1, says: "After he had finished all his words to the people who were listening to him, he entered Capernaum, and a centurion's servant was sick and about to die. When the centurion heard of Jesus sent him some elders of the Jews, begging him to come and heal his servant. And they came and begged Jesus earnestly, saying, "Jesus, he is worthy that you grant him this, because he loves our nation and has built us a synagogue, and Jesus went with them, but when he was no longer far from the house, the centurion sent some friends to him saying, "Lord, don't bother, because I am not worthy of you coming under my roof."

I continue reading a little further on in verse 8, and it says: "I have soldiers under my command and I say go and go, and to another come and come, and to my servant do this and he does it." And upon hearing this Jesus was amazed from him and turning he said to the people who followed him, wow, I tell you that not even in Israel have I found such faith. And when those who had been sent returned home they found the servant who had been sick healthy.

This story is a story that when we read it we can see the type of faith that is manifested through this man, this centurion, a man of high rank in the Roman army, and he recognizing, I don't know if you remember in a preaching from the pastor, that he was referring to those standards of authority and how God moves in standards of authority. This centurion recognized that Jesus had an authority to heal, and that He did not necessarily have to be in the place, but that He only by declaring the word could happen. And that is a part of history that we always exalt.

But today I would like to show you a different part of this story, one that many times we don't see, but that is there. The idea of me speaking to you tonight about conflicting motives has to do with the fact that many times our intentions collide face to face with God's intentions for our lives. God's intentions, there are times when we approach God only when we need something urgent, when something presses, when something presses, when the pineapple turns sour, when there is no money in the bag, when there is no milk in the refrigerator, when they give me bad news, many times we approach God when everything turns black, dark, gloomy.

And you see people who drop to their knees, cry, shout, jump, put themselves in hands if necessary, all to see God working to do something. But when everything works, when everything is resolved, what happens? They don't even show up there. Like piush, people like ah push everything is fine now, well I can go on with my life, I don't have to keep praying so much, I don't have to make that extra effort to keep praying because everything is fine now. But I don't think that's what God wants, because on the other hand, what God wants is to aim at deeper things in our life. So today when I talk to you about this idea of mixed motives, what we are really aiming at is how we can resist the idea of approaching God solely out of personal interest, or self-interest, but rather that we can do it with a genuine desire to grow in our relationship with Him.

When I was reading this meditation, this reading from Luke 7, I noticed something, and it was the following: if I direct your attention to verse number 4, if you notice, the centurion sent some Jewish elders, these were Pharisees, they were part of the group of Pharisees, they were leaders, priests back then. He sends these Jewish elders to talk to Jesus, and they tell him: "hey look, this man is my friend, very close to us, you know how relations between Jews and Romans are and we have to keep things cool, you know no, we can't stir up this anthill so, this man is very cool, since he is a very good person, well, the guy deserves that you grant him what he is asking of you.

And excuse the expression but the truth is that these old people were being very licking eyes with Jesus, do you know why? Because those same elders were the ones who questioned Him when He healed on the Sabbath. help me Look with me, Luke chapter 5, look at what happened, Luke chapter 5, here is the story of Jesus healing a leper, in verse 12 it says: "It happened that while He was in one of the cities a man full of leprosy appeared who, seeing Jesus with his face to the ground, and begged him, saying, Lord, if you want, you can cleanse me, then stretching out his hand, he touched him and saying: I want to, be clean. And instantly the leprosy left him, and he commanded him not to say anything to anyone unless he sees, he said, show yourself to the priest and offer for your purification, as Moses commanded, and his fame spread more and more, and many people gathered to hear him, to heal their diseases, but He withdrew to deserted places and prayed." I am introducing you as if you were telling a story.

After that healing of the leper, comes the healing of a paralytic, this is where the interesting situation becomes. "It happened that one day when He was teaching and the Pharisees and doctors of the law were sitting, look who they are talking about, these are the elders He was talking about in Luke 7, who had come from all the villages of Galilee, Judea and Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was with him to heal, he was with Jesus to heal, and it happened that some men who brought a bed a man who was paralyzed, tried to take him inside and place him before him, but not finding how to do it to him. Because of the crowd, they went up on top of the house and let him down through the roof with his bed, placing him in the middle before Jesus."

Look what happens here: "When He saw their faith, He said to him: man, your sins are forgiven. Then the scribes and the Pharisees began to ponder saying: hah! who is this that speaks blasphemies, who can forgive sins but God?". They began to question Jesus. Another account of this same situation is in Luke chapter 6, verse 2, I start in verse 2, in verse 1 sorry, it says: "It happened on a Sabbath day that Jesus passing through the fields, his disciples plucked ears of corn and ate, rubbing them with his hands, and some of the Pharisees said to him, listen, why do you do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath days? In other words, the Pharisees were criticizing Jesus, Jesus, how are you going to let your disciples pick grain on a Sabbath when that is forbidden?

Jesus answered them, "Not even this have they read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry, how he entered the house of God and took the showbread, of which it is not lawful to eat but only the priests and ate and gave also to those who were with him. Jesus put them as it were between a rock and a hard place.

Later, later in verse 6 look how it says: "It came to pass on another Sabbath", I think Jesus did it on purpose sometimes, it had to be on the Sabbath. "It also happened on another Sabbath, that He entered the synagogue, and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered," he had it numb in some way, "and the scribes and Pharisees were watching him to see if he would heal them on the Sabbath, so that I could find something to accuse him of." Yo, can you imagine this scene? Jesus there trying to teach, concentrating maybe, trying to read Isaiah or Jeremiah or something, and you write them like: "Look, let's get this guy in here and see if Jesus notices him and see if he dares to do something." on the Sabbath." Trying to deceive him, as I would say in my good Puerto Rican, trying to catch him in a blunder.

But look at what verse 8 says: "But He knew their thoughts, and He said to the man whose hand was withered, hey, come here, get up, stand in the middle of all these people." standing up, then Jesus said to them, I am going to ask you something, who are the scholars, the teachers of the law, is it lawful on the day of rest to do good or to do evil? Look how Jesus put the situation for them, it is not, it is good to heal or not to heal, what he told them was, it is good to do good or to do evil. Save life or take it away. And looking around them all he said to the man, hey, stretch out your hand, and he did so and his hand was restored. And what happened to the scribes and the Pharisees that verse 11 says: "and they were filled with rage and spoke among themselves what they could do against Jesus", look, they had a conspiracy against Jesus.

Tell me if they are lambeojos or not, when one chapter later, then for their own benefit, for their own intentions, for their own intentions, let me meditate on what I was going to say, because to this centurion, a Roman leader, that the Romans had a government political, they had power and political authority over the Jews well, ah, since you have to maintain good relations you know Jesus, what happened yesterday in chapter 6 as if to say, that buddy that happened yesterday, forget about it, but this man, you have to do something for him. Do you think that Jesus did not know the thoughts of these people? Obviously the verse says, and Jesus went with them, the verse does not say, and since Jesus knew their thoughts, and knew what they were up to, He wanted to teach them a lesson. It doesn't say that but you can infer that it was there.

"Jesus went with them, but when he was no longer far from the house, the centurion sent his friends to him saying, Lord, do not be upset because I am not worthy of you coming under my roof, so I did not even consider myself worthy of come to you but say the word and my servant will be healed". I mean, this lesson here, this hidden part of history gives us a lot to say. And I am not saying that we are lambeojos with God, I am not saying that. But we do have to be very careful that every time we approach God, that we are careful not to approach Him with equivocal intentions.

There is a verse that I really like in Hebrews that says, because the word of God is alive and effective, sharper than any sword, than any sword (laughter), sharper than any double-edged sword, which penetrates to where? to the marrow, to the depths of being and what? and discerns the intentions of the heart. In other words, when we are before God, my brothers, look, you can come, an illustration that I used a long time ago, you can come, kneel on this altar, shed tears, leave two or three little runts on the altar and then leave. He goes and sits down, but if his life is not aligned, it is not transformed in light of the intentions that God has for his life and his heart, we are living an incomplete experience of what God wants to do in our midst.

Look at that story from chapter 5 of Luke that talks about the paralytic who was healed, obviously, it's obvious, it's like he fell from the bush, if you have a group of friends who bring a paralytic and break the roof to put that boy in it in front of Jesus, what do you think they wanted Jesus to do, to heal him so that the boy would jump out of there, right? But what was the first thing Jesus did, your sins are forgiven, listen to me, Jesus knew that they wanted that boy to walk out but the first thing that Jesus saw, the first need that He saw is that this boy needed a restoration on the inside. I had heard of Jesus and who knows if he said as many of us say, yes yes yes, I believe in God, yes, ok we believe in God, but my life is demonstrating that belief yes or no.

And Jesus realized that there was something that had to be treated there rather than the legs that didn't work for him. And obviously that buddy was formed there, ah, but who is this who thinks he can forgive sins, the only one who can forgive sins is God. And He says the text again, He knowing their intentions, which was what He says, well look, so that you can see that God forgives through me, I am also going to teach you something even more powerful, and I will he said again, your sins are forgiven, and that stretcher your friends threw you on, pick it up, and raise your paw and go walk over there again. In other words, my brothers, when we approach God, we come with some intentions, that cannot be hidden, we cannot hide the desires with which we approach God, but they cannot be the singing voice in that relationship, you know why? because God has intentions with you too.

And there is a very big difference between us wanting to try to mold God to our intentions instead of us molding ourselves to God's intentions. God wants to heal you, God wants to prosper you, God wants to provide for the situations you have, God wants your marriage to work well, God wants your children to work well, God wants things to go well for you at work, God wants you have your papers to have a legal status here, God wants you to enjoy healing in your life, that you can go out and enjoy the fresh air on the beach, in a park with your friends, eat ice cream at 10 at night without any fear that you are going to gain weight the next day, God wants you to enjoy all that, but above all that, what God longs for and desires is to have a very direct connection with you, because you are his creation.

He molded you, he formed you, as the scripture says, because your eyes saw my embryo, when it was being formed in the most intimate part of my mother's womb. God is our creator, and he longs and desires to have a direct connection with us. Not necessarily look, everything I mentioned, that's like who says on the site. For God, the main thing is a direct connection with us, a living relationship, face to face, but there are times when we get closer only for these secondary things, oh well, Lord, if I get these secondary things, well then, look, I'm going to continue working with you in this friendship relationship between you and me.

But there are times when God works the other way around, He wants to have a connection with you, to know you, well He already knows you but He wants you to know Him as He knows you. And then as Jesus says, hey seek first the kingdom of God and his justice and what? And all these other things, look, are going to be added to you little by little, and what's more, who knows if other things are going to be added to you that you didn't even ask for, because God wants to give them to you. Who knows if you are signing up for a lottery to have a little apartment where you want to live or something like that, and suddenly God does a miracle, what? a little apartment, I want to give you a house, and you fall into a lottery for a house with four bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms with a garage and everything.

I will end here, the challenge that we have my brothers, I am going to tell you like this, the challenge that we have every day is the following: as human beings we have our emotions that go up and down, our emotions that are influenced by everything that we live day after day, today you can feel uh with the mood in heaven, you come home and listen to a message that was left on the phone and the message is not very good and that mood poof, they go away. What happened to Jesus, two weeks ago we were celebrating Holy Week on Palm Sunday, the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem is celebrated, everyone took off their robes and threw them, they threw palms and they said, ah , osana to the king, osana to the one who lives, the whole world, the same people who were yelling at Jesus, aahh osana osana the Messiah has arrived, the one who is going to save us has arrived, five days later those same people were shouting, ahh what crucify, he is a bandit, he is a deceiver, ah for the cross everyone, they want Jesus or they want Barabbas, eh Jesus for the cross and Barabbas release him, the real bandit was the one who released him.

In other words, tell me if the human being is so crooked, so to speak, many times we don't even know where we are going to walk, and God knows these things, God knows how we function, He knows that we want to please Him and we, in ourselves there is wanting to please God, but there is also that failed side with which one fights many times, but look, God whatever, knows these things. And the desire of God through his son Jesus, is to be able to say to each of us look, your sins are forgiven, those weaknesses from which you limp, your Achilles tendon, my desire is to restore that Achilles tendon but also That is why my wish is fuf, as if to fill all the aspects of your life, that I be the center of the axis of your life, so that all the other aspects that you are looking for can each fall into place.

Let's not have mixed motives my brothers when we approach God. It's like every time we come here on Wednesdays that I tell you this, to get closer to this prayer experience in a way, yes, it's spiritual because we're getting closer to a God who is spirit, it's emotional because our emotions are ugh, running , there are times when we don't even want to leave the house but we get here however we want, and we have to wind up a lot of people so that they can even raise their hands, it's something emotional but at the same time my brothers it's something rational, God wants us to praise him, that we adore him with our spirit, with our emotions, but at the same time with our intellect and that we come in an understood way, look, Lord, I am getting closer to you, I have my needs, I have my ailments , but at the same time I recognize that you are good, that if it were not for you I would not be here right now, and that our adoration is a adoration well aware of what we are saying, it is not that we just come here uuhh, and look what happens to you uuhh, and but tell me uuhh, but boy I want to listen to you, uuhh, when you finish crying tell me, although he also knows the language of crying.

But you get the idea where I'm going. God desires, God desires my brothers to fill all those aspects of our life, but we have to have our motives, our intentions very clear before Him. We cannot fool Him my brothers, I am saying that myself and I am here like wow Lord, I have to apply a lot to this message, I also have a challenge ahead of me. So I encourage you, my brother and my sister, that when you leave here, you go home, even more so when you get in the car and go home, think about it, think about it, Lord, perhaps I Have I had conflicting reasons with you? Have I gotten closer to you rather because of those things that can be added to me instead of really getting closer just by growing in my knowledge of you? I rather hope that it is that second one that I said, that we are getting closer to God by knowing Him, as He knows us, and that afterwards, as He wants, all other things continue to be added to our lives.

We are going to stand up and we are going to pray, Father I thank you Lord, for this time that we have been able to share your word Lord and, although it has been a short time Lord, but I know that Your word is alive, it is real, and Your word fulfills the purpose for which you send it. So Jesus look, as I always tell you, I ask that as we leave this place, that this word continue to reverberate in the midst of our hearts, Lord, that it continue to echo in us, and that it help us to align ourselves even more Lord, to the intentions that You have with us, the plans, the desires that You have in your heart for our lives, that we do not impose our things on yours, but that we be humble before you Lord, and recognize that everything has its time , there is the time in which we can present our prayers, but there is also the time in which we just have to sit and enjoy being in your presence, knowing you as you know us.

So, Father, I ask that You bless my brothers and sisters tonight, Lord, cover them, take them safely to their homes, Jesus, and that even during tonight's sleep, that You make known to them the desires and the intentions that You have for each of their lives, and that our intentions can align with yours, as You wish. Once again I ask for your blessing on all the families that are here, especially with the Ciprián family, I declare your blessing once more on them Jesus, and that You continue to lead them through these valleys of tears and that they may be transformed into a spring, springs that strengthen their lives Lord, take them from glory to glory and from power to power, only You make it possible. We thank you for this time and in the name of Jesus we declare your blessing on each one of us. Thank you Jesus, amen, and amen.