How to reason when we don't know God's will

In chapter 15 of the book of Acts, it is a significant event in the history of the church of Jesus Christ. Believe it or not, this is one of the most important chapters in the Bible, in the entire Bible, it is chapter 15 and I am going to tell you why in a moment.

But let's read even a little because it is too long a chapter. It says here in verse 1:

“Then some who came from Judea taught the brothers in the following way. Unless you are circumcised according to the rite of Moses, you cannot be saved..."

Notice what these people were saying. If you do not get circumcised because it is the ritual that the Jews used to declare a child a bona fide member of the community of God, of the Jewish community. If there was no circumcision it was like there was no belonging in the Kingdom of God, according to the law of Moses, it was the sign of being part of the family of the Kingdom of God. And then these Jews taught the new believers, the Gentiles who converted to Judaism. If you are not circumcised you are not saved.

There was a theological controversy there. That was a far-reaching theological statement and this was going to cause serious difficulty for the Christian people who were just rising up at this time that we see in the book of Acts. It says here:

“… As Pablo and Barnabas had a discussion and not a small fight, read a salpa out, a terrible fight. You know that even in those days the Christians fought. That is not customary only here, in León de Judá or in the other churches in the city of Boston. That was consecrated by the brothers of the book of Acts. Because sometimes we kind of romanticize and idealize people from the early church. Oh, if we could be like the early church. Glory to God. There are churches that are called the primitive church, well they were primitive because they were like cavemen, sometimes they hit each other with pots, they lived with clean pots.

But there were always fights. Pablo and Barnabas fought over Juan Marcos, remember the story? And then they didn't keep working together, although they loved each other I'm sure and everything else, but they had a feud too.

Here we see that there was a serious discussion, I imagine those Jews. You can imagine him there all heatedly arguing over something that was absolutely important to them, I'm almost sure they came to blows.

“…no small discussion and contention…” They didn't just have a discussion but they also had a contention to make it clear that this was serious. "... with them, it was arranged, that is, it was decided, that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them, the Apostles and the elders, should go up to Jerusalem to discuss this matter...."

In verse 6 it says here, "... that the Apostles and the elders came together to hear about this matter..."

Let's leave it there. What's going on here? There is a topic that is very, very important. Well, by the way, let me tell you so that you guys have an idea, I didn't read chapter 14 because I wanted to jump ahead a bit and move on in the study, but what we were discussing in the previous week was the first missionary journey of the Apostle Paul with Barnabas. . They went out to preach the Gospel to different cities and now they have returned to Antioquia where they originally left. They arrive in Antioquia, have been away for a few months and discover... they remember that Antioquia was an eminently cosmopolitan city, it was like the Lion of Judah, there were Central Americans, South Americans, Caribbeans of all kinds, Africans, Asians, Anglo-Saxons, they were a tremendous swarm of humanity. Antioquia was one of those cities that was very, very varied, very diverse, there were many gentile people.

And there, as you will remember, God did something very powerful and there were Gentiles who turned to the Lord and received Jesus as their savior. And then things got complicated for the church, because until then the vast majority of the first converts were Jews, who had converted and received Jesus as their promised Messiah. Up to that point everything was fine, because it was just adding a component to Judaism. In reality, for many Jewish converts to Jesus, everything would remain more or less the same. The Jews, an ethnic group already accustomed to their laws and their customs, would now continue with Jesus as Messiah. That was all.

But at the moment these Guatemalans and Salvadorans and Dominicans are beginning to convert and they complicate the party for the Jews because these people come with other customs, they come with a number of complications, many of them are married, are polygamous, have two or three wives and have children of different women, they eat pork and a lot of weird things, they don't dress the way Jews dress, they don't keep the rituals, it doesn't have the cultural and historical background that Jews have and all these people come waving the little tail to the synagogue, here we are, we converted, we are yours. And so the Jews have to ask themselves, what do we do now with all these people?

What's up, brothers? When a church begins to be effective in evangelism, when a church begins to attract weird people, some of those people were here this morning at the service. What do you do when you go to greet a person who is a man but has the breasts of a woman and dresses as a woman and is there, and you go to greet him. What does one do with that person? You pass it by and I put it down and [inaudible] what is this doing here. No, but the truth is that it complicates your life. It's much easier when everyone dresses as a man or a woman. You already know what to expect. But when there are those complexities, what does one do?

Because? Because if the church is doing its job, those people are going to arrive and you have to enjoy their presence, brothers, let me say it. But they make life difficult for one, because what does one do? There is Mrs. Checha looking at the pastor saying, let's see if the pastor is a man of God and he's going to kick him out of the church or leave him there. There is pressure, there are different people who think differently, they say, well, okay, so come to church but dress like a man and stop being a scoundrel. And they already want the next Sunday for that person to be sanctified with his Elvis Presley-type hair pulled back, looking at women badly or whatever. They would be happy for it to be so, but there is a process many times and the church gets complicated.

Look, the only churches that don't have a problem with this matter is the church that is dead and that are all 50-year-old people in the Gospel and they are also dead here in the service and nobody behaves badly or anything because there is no no one new who is coming to the Lord, with the difficulties, the contaminations, the problems of life.

Now, when a church is doing effective evangelism, all kinds of weirdos are going to come into the church and praise God for that. But, the church has to be very wise and understanding in how it treats these people, in what God is doing his work in them.

You don't know the things that one fights here in the church all the time. Because? Because it is a very diverse humanity and so when one preaches one has to be careful here, there, one has to be an incredible lawyer so as not to alienate it, also preach the clear word of God, etc. Ours is a very complex community, but since we are doing evangelism and since new people are coming to the church, sometimes they come living together, they are not married, when they have children, there are people with problems of sexuality, of sexual identity. Others come with eyes that haven't been sanctified yet and a tremendous amount of stuff, bad habits and teenagers with earrings and stuff in their noses and tattoos and twenty thousand things, all of that is part of the life of a church that is reaching out to the community

But that forces the leadership of the church, and the church to seek a lot of divine reasoning to know how to relate to these people, how to lead them to holiness and the definition of what God wants, but also not to do it in a way like a fish that you he pulls too fast and the hook and it escapes, how to also use wisdom. It is a science of the spirit and you must have a lot of wisdom and tolerance and love and mercy and grace as well as a commitment to the holiness of God or to the word of God.

I believe that in our church that is what we always try to do, find a balance, that is why sometimes people do not know if we are an impious church or we are saints or what, because they do not know why there is everything and the people think like maybe we are not insistent enough on holiness, others out there don't come because the church is too insistent on holiness. But you have to find the balance.

I see here in this passage from Acts, chapter 15 the first Christian church, the primitive church, fighting in contention, precisely because of a problem that they did not expect. The Lord did not leave specific instructions for them about what to do when the Gentiles arrived. Moreover, the theology was not even so clear. Remember when Peter that the Lord gave him that vision of the canvas coming down, of course you remember because I preached it and you remember everything I preach.

The Lord sends an angel to Cornelius who is a Roman centurion, he is a Roman soldier. God knows how many heads Cornelius cut off around there, how many lashes he even gave to Jews too. He was a Roman centurion. You don't get to be a captain in a Roman army if you haven't lopped off a few heads and given a few sticks around. And yet, this man was so fearful of God, he wanted to serve the Lord, he read the Jewish Scriptures, he prayed, he gave alms, he did good works, and the Lord was moved to send an angel and send for Peter and Peter did not want to go because they were gentiles. And the Lord gives him that vision of that canvas with four-legged animals and all kinds of things and tells him, "Kill and eat, Peter." And Peter says, “No, Lord, because I am a holy and committed Jew. I don't eat anything unclean." The Lord tells him, "Do not call unclean what I have sanctified." He was preparing him so that when they came from Cornelius' house and sent for him, he would be theologically and mentally prepared to go to that house of Gentiles and preach the Gospel to them.

Because it is that God is always ahead of us, brothers. There are so many things that sometimes... that's why I tell you, you always have to be very careful with what you say. No, I'm never going to do this, I'm never going to believe that and we criticize people because they do… Look, how many things have you had to change in your life that you wouldn't even have dared to do before, even though that was from God, on the contrary, that is from the devil, but over time we have seen that it is not, that it is good and that it is from God and that although I may not do it, but I have to give you that freedom, my brothers, so that you think differently .

So the first thing that God did was with Cornelius and his family, to set the stage to prepare this Jewish community, now converted to Jesus for what he wanted to do in the rest of the world, because remember, Israel is a tiny dot in the world. world and God in reality, came through the Lord Jesus Christ to save all humanity, but the Jews believed that they were the center of the universe, the only ones.

How you change the minds of people who think they are the only ones on earth. God had chosen them as the starting point, but not as the end of the thing. God wanted them to be a holy leaven that touched all humanity, but they stayed stuck between them.

So God wants to change his mind, God is establishing the foundations for the history of the church and so he first makes the issue with Cornelius, he also makes the matter of Antioch that they begin to convert, in Samaria the Samaritans begin to convert and then the church does not have the biblical tools to decide what is happening, what do we do with these new people who are arriving with their different customs, do we turn them into Jews too? We force them to keep all the laws of Moses, as well as believe in Jesus Christ so that they then have to go around with all the tools and all the clothing of the Jews and all the foods and customs, or we just allow them to accept Jesus as Lord and savior and continue with your customs.

It was a problem, today in the 21st century one says, well, what was the problem? Why did they care so much? No, imagine that someone came and told him that men have to wear skirts, for example, also to preach, you have to stand here with a skirt so that the pastor can preach or strange things. There is a problem, because one thinks, no, things have to be this way.

And these people experienced cultural, spiritual, theological, biblical shock, they did not know what to do. And as I say, unfortunately the Lord Jesus Christ had not... I say unfortunately because everything is in the providence of God, but they had not been told how to deal with that situation. Just like us pastors many times we have situations that we don't know how to deal with, what explanation to give to people, what decision to make in a rare case, which is appropriate in the matter of counseling.

And so, they had to make that decision. Now, when Paul and Barnabas return from their first trip to Antioch they discover, as it says here, that there were Jewish people who were telling the new converts, in the absence of Paul and Barnabas, that they had to keep all the Law of Moses. and circumcise themselves because otherwise they were not saved. And so that was causing a great sadness among the Gentile converts because they said, wow, but why do I have to leave this, why do I have to leave the other. For them it was completely strange all this that they were teaching him. And they were causing a lot of consternation.

And then, Paul was already clear... Paul was an enlightened man, understood in the things of God and Paul knew that Christ, his death on the cross, was what was needed to ensure that a person was saved, not the works of the law.

Here is something very important, brothers, this is for you and me. I need you to understand this because it is key in our Christian life and it is one of the great controversies of the church through the centuries. What is it that makes you aspire to enter eternal life? What is it that guarantees that in this world full of sin that you are going to make mistakes, falls, zigzags in your Christian journey, what is the anchor to which you can hold on in the midst of life's battles? What is it that guarantees you when you die, you will enter the presence of God, what is it? The death of Jesus on the cross of Calvary, yes or no? the blood of Christ shed on the cross of Calvary, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. That is what pays the price of his guilt, that we all have it before God. No one can be justified before God, except by a perfect sacrifice of Christ Jesus.

How did the Jews before Jesus came and died on the cross to earn the forgiveness and acceptance of the Father and earn the ticket of a good Jew? How did they do it? Bringing sacrifices to the temple, right? Offering sacrifices. It was all an external ritual that guaranteed that the Jewish people and that every pious Jew could say, I am a member of the congregation of Israel, I can call myself a good Jew, I am acceptable in the eyes of God. Because? Because I practice the rituals that my religion prescribes and that was what every good Jew thought would guarantee him entrance into the Kingdom of God and belonging to the tribe of Israel. This is how it was taught in the Law of Moses.

When Christ comes into the world, what God really intended from the beginning of time becomes real and the idea was that no one throughout history could truly be justified through an animal sacrifice or a rite. That wasn't enough to pay off the guilt.

So, what Paul says, look, brothers, all that we have learned about the law and everything else, was simply a methodology that God was using so that we would understand that through these rituals no one can be saved and preparing us to accept Christ Jesus as the ultimate sacrifice, once and for all and then all you have to do is plug in, so to speak, stick to the sacrifice that Christ made on the cross, stick to the blood of Jesus, say, I believe that what he did on the cross, that is what gives me justification and eternal life, no, nothing that I go to Rome on my knees and go up the Vatican with my knees bleeding, or that he tears me to pieces in one place, or to stop eating meat for a hundred days, or whatever, none of that justifies a person before God. Because? Because none of those things is enough to pay the debt that you owe to God.

When you sin, you offend God in such a way, a single offense against the absolute holiness of the Father, is so great that nothing you can do here on earth is actually enough to pay for your sin. Imagine us committing thousands and thousands of sins in a lifetime. And even when we are in the Gospel we still sin and offend God.

So what is it that guarantees that you can come before the Father and present yourself before the Father and say, hey, all my sins are paid for, all my sins are neutralized. The only thing that justifies that is the blood that Christ shed. He in a sense stood in your place and when he died on the cross, you were dying in him and he was dying for you and he was already paying all the debt of all the sin of humanity, past, present and future in the cross of calvary

So, what a human being does when we say, receive Christ, accept Christ, recognize Christ as your Savior, what we are saying is that you are saying to the Father, Lord, through what Christ did in the cross write my name in the book of life. I understand, acknowledge and accept and validate what you say that he is the propitiation, he is the payment for my guilt. I accept that and therefore write my name.

So, you enter into the plan that God established that salvation is through the shedding of the blood of that perfect lamb that is Christ Jesus.

That's very important because when these Jewish people come and tell those Gentiles, you know what? If you are not circumcised and if you do not keep the Law of Moses, you cannot be saved, logically, theologically what they were saying is that what Christ did on the cross is not enough for your salvation. Salvation, they are saying, is Christ plus circumcision, and the works of Moses.

And Paul says, that doesn't make sense. By the way, if you want to study this in more detail, read the book of Galatians, which is why it is so important to know the Bible. The book of Galatians was written precisely to clarify this matter in a systematic way, whether we are saved by the law and by Jesus or simply by Christ Jesus.

So, all this was the controversy... Paul tells him, no, don't confuse these people, don't put burdens on them that we ourselves, when we were under the law, could not bear, we ourselves knew that the law did not even take away from us the sense of culpability. We could not keep all the rituals of the law, we always knew that we were in deficit, we were always trying to do something more to earn a few more points with God.

And Paul says now, no, now in Christ Jesus already... the law was simply a scaffolding, a scaffolding, it was to help us reach Christ. As Jesus was coming, the law was given to us to keep us entertained, so that we could do something. But when the true arrived, the scaffolding, kick it and then we were left with the true, which is Christ Jesus.

Now, they don't want to stay with the scaffolding if we have already reached where we had to go, says Pablo. What happens now? Remember that this is in time... Paul is not the Pope of the primitive church, Paul is simply a great man that God is forming. Today we read his writings and say, no, the writing was inspired by the Holy Spirit, but think that Paul at that time is still a well-known man but he does not have that great authority either.

So, that's why he says, you know what? Where are we going? So that they decide what is going to be done here. Where are you going? To Jerusalem, because there are the 12 Apostles that Christ established as his authority. That is where they reside. It is like Rome today, that is why it also has its history, why Rome became the seat of Christianity for many centuries. But at the beginning of the history of the church it was Jerusalem because the Apostles are there, the Apostles reside there. So he says, you know what? Let's go there, let's go to the authority. Christ left an established authority, they are the ones who are going to decide what is going to be done in this case.

How important it is that there is authority in the church, that we know who to listen to, where to go to seek advice for matters in our lives, and that we respect that authority. So, they send a delegation that goes to Jerusalem and presents the case of the situation to the Apostles in Jerusalem. And the Apostles then listen, it's like a trial, they listen to Paul, they listen to James, I don't know if Peter was present, it seems that he wasn't, but they allude to what happened with Peter and Cornelius and all these things. Paul talks about the events that they have seen, they have witnessed all these Gentiles becoming different cities and they say, this is going to continue brothers, a clear decision must be made. We cannot be here and there playing one thing and the other. What are we going to decide? This is fascinating in a sense.

Let me tell you, if you can go eat a chop after this service today, thank God that it was decided there that way. Yes, you can go to the [inaudible] that's because this was decided here, that you could be like the Jews in Jerusalem, the Assyrics, not eating, imagine a world without locusts, brothers, the Lord rebuke the devil. Imagine a world without shrimp, brothers. It is inconceivable. There were gentiles who said, well, the second or third woman, okay, but don't take my chop because that's essential to me.

So they handle this matter... and with this I am closing, brothers, what matters most to me in this matter is how the Apostles decide this situation. I believe that here we have something, I believe, of how you can when difficult situations come into your life, what are the tools that you are going to use to make a decision in your life, some moral, ethical decision, because unfortunately we cannot send an email to Jesus Christ up there in heaven, Lord, I have this problem, what do I do? And he sends you an email, where the Lord tells you, do this and that.

We have to use human tools illuminated by the Holy Spirit. And I sometimes wonder why God didn't make it clear to his church what he had to do. Today that causes us some very serious problems, there are so many things today, brothers, that divide the church in so many different ways.

Think, for example, contraceptives, birth prevention, how many Christians use contraceptives, and they feel very comfortable doing so and they thank God for that resource that God has brought to humanity. But there are Catholic brothers, millions of them, and the Catholic Church teaches that no, that using contraceptives is not a practice that God approves, and yet we are happy and thanking the Lord for such a great blessing. Because? Because the reasoning of the Catholic brothers is very interesting. Something as simple as that where some Catholic brothers because others are already very enlightened and have gone over to the side of the evangelicals because it suits them.

But the point is that many Catholics reason, well, sexuality was made for birth, that is, the sexual act of the husband and wife is to procreate children, so I say, wait a minute, don't go so fast, wait a minute. is that true? We can say, the Bible does not say anything, it is simply human reasoning. They say that every sexual act is involved inside, in the meeting of the spermatozoon and the woman's ovum, there is an implication that life is going to be generated, so the sexual act is to create life, and if one puts impediments to that procreation of life, then one is going against the will of the Lord.

Can you see their reasoning? right yes? It makes sense in a way. And for many it is the reasoning that they accept and that explains, for example, so many Catholic families that have 4, 6, 8 children, because they use… but they also use their other way [inaudible] they have their way of trying to avoid having children, but it is a natural, organic way.

But they are reasoning that way, we cannot prevent God's purpose from being fulfilled, so we have to abandon ourselves to God's mercy and let God determine how many children we are going to have. They are reasoning. One could say, well, yes, but wait a minute, don't tell me that only the sexual act is purely for procreation, because what about pleasure? God will not have created the sexual act simply for the pleasure of the husband and wife. Haven't you also created it to foster intimacy between husband and wife? God will not have created it also simply for the man and the woman to unite, we are as if declaring to the world and to the airs of the unity of the feminine and the masculine that it is like God... although I know that when people are in that matter it he's thinking the least is [inaudible]. But it could also be a reflection of the love of Christ and his church, etc.

But the idea is, brothers, that it is not possible to say, well, the sexual act between the wife and the husband is purely something clinical, simply to procreate children, because then why not use a very large sheet that none of them can be seen? the two just to create a child and that's it, right?

The food, what was the food made for? Was the food simply to nourish the body? And then why don't you eat it without salt and boil it and eat it, because it is simply to give food to the body. We have created the food and we put seasoning on it, we are Dominicans, we put it in the fridge for three days with all kinds of seasoning and then we burn it so that what it is is not recognized and a number of things, because we like it. We have made food, yes, its primary purpose is to feed but also today it has become... you invite a friend to the house and prepare all the dinner and put the best tablecloth and you have decorated something. So you can't say, it's only for one thing.

I'm already gone so far I don't even know where I am. You get into these things and you don't know how to get back later. What I am saying, brethren, there are so many issues in the Bible, so many issues in things of the spirit that you can see how different people think in different ways, and sometimes we have to respect reasoning because there is no clear word. With this birth, for example, look, I respect my Catholic brothers who believe it should be like this, amen. Well, I say, look, I don't agree one hundred percent with your reasoning but it makes sense to me and amen, I respect that.

There is nothing in the Bible that tells me that it has to be this way. Now the Catholic brother must respect my point of view regarding the fact that contraceptives can be used, because in reality, he says, well, okay, this man is struggling and there is sense in what he says, he is struggling biblically. Amen. Let's just live and let live.

Now, there are other cases in the Scriptures that are very, very clear and it's not so easy to miss one. There are things that are clearly scriptural and the Bible says it in twenty thousand different ways and wherever you pick it up it is clear what it says and in that case you have to believe what the word says. Do not come to me with hunger, the world and the devil and things like that, not because this is what the Bible says and you have to stop on that. And I don't [inaudible] because I lose myself again in something else.

But, brothers, again in this case of the matter of the Gentiles and the law of Moses, there was nothing clear. What they had was the law of Moses and this absolutely extraordinary fact that Jesus had come as the propitiation for the sins of all mankind and by his blood and death we received salvation.

What does one do with those two pieces? And that is what the Apostles are trying to decide here. And there is one thing that they used, again, I don't have all the time… but look, when I see them reasoning with all those pieces I see that they used about five or six or seven elements that we are very good at using. always in our life for any serious decision in which we do not have a clear word from the Lord. If you want to write them down you can do it, but I see here the church of Jesus Christ trying to use the little light it had regarding a tremendously serious issue, of great importance and we many times in our lives, with our children, our marriage, our finances , church life, human relationships, courtship, work, we are going to be in situations where we do not have an absolutely definitive word from God about how to act. And what are the tools that we should use to decide in life?

Look, the first thing that I clearly see that these people use here is the Scripture. They, the Bible they had was the Law of Moses, the writings of Moses, and they are trying to find out what the word says there. But Moses was not clear about this, in light, above all, of the event of Christ Jesus and what is happening. That is, number one, when we have problems and dilemmas in life, we first have to go to the word, what does the word of God say? And that's why I insist so much on my brothers, know the Bible, study the Bible, understand the Bible, know the Bible inside out, immerse yourself in Scripture until the Bible colors your way of thinking and you can always use the word in everything, that you know where to go. What does Scripture say about this? What does the word say about the other? What does God say about this?

For me that is the number one question. And if the word of God says something, I have to go to the bank with that, you know? Even if I don't like it, even if I kick, if the Bible says it, I have to believe it and if it's clear I have to accept it. Number one: the Bible always.

Second, we have to use the illumination of the Holy Spirit. The Apostles when they give their final dictation in verse 28 says:

"... Because it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us, that is a scandalous expression, to the Holy Spirit and to us, we do not impose any burden more than these necessary things..."

The second thing, I have to understand, I'm trying to put order of importance, the Holy Spirit. Brother, within you is the spirit of God that enlightens you. The Lord Jesus Christ said that the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth. you are not alone there swimming between the Bible and the world to find teaching and solution for your problems. Always ask the Holy Spirit, give me wisdom, teach me what to do.

Just yesterday I had to preach at a September 11 event and I wasn't sure how to handle the topic because of the type of audience we were going to have. I have to say, Lord, I was struggling last night and in the morning, Lord, what do you want me to say? How do you want me to frame this meditation? How do you want me to use those minutes that I have been given? If I put myself only with my human reasoning, I am lost. No, I have to believe that the Holy Spirit is going to tell me and give me the answer.

This very morning, how do I choose this subject that is so big and so difficult, and put it within a framework that you can understand and that does not go too far, that in fact I have already gone too far, so the Holy Spirit will not He spoke to me everything I needed. But one has to search, Lord, always pray to the Lord to give you understanding, say, Holy Spirit, I need wisdom for this decision that I have to make. Talk to me and fight with the angel of God until you receive a word from God. Ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten you. God wants to give us wisdom.

The Apostle Santiago says if someone lacks wisdom, what does he say? Ask God, who gives abundantly and without reproach, and it will be given to you. In every situation in your life ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten you. Get addicted to the Holy Spirit for every decision, never leave your house without saying, Lord, I am not sure what to say to this person today in my work, but I ask for wisdom from you. Give me understanding. So they used the Holy Spirit, they prayed, and finally they said, you know what? It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us. Wow! A lot of cloth to cut on this.

But again, the word of God, the Holy Spirit. There is a third thing that God has not taken away from you and it is your human reasoning. You must also use your education, your reason, your common sense, there are many things that you have, God does not take away your ability to reason humanly. There are many people who are only looking for, Lord, a word. They want a little angel to come down from heaven, wagging its tail and whispering in their ear what God told them. And many people get lost in those byways too. They are always believing, God told me, and they are waiting for a withering word to come down from above, well packaged, and that is what they have to do. It came out of the mouth of God, there you have it, like a fortune cookie. That is what they have to do. Neither.

God uses your understanding, God uses your reasoning. It is good to educate yourself and read good books and train your education and your intellect, because God is also going to use your intellect to make a decision, he is going to enlighten you but he is also going to use your intellect.

I think that another thing that we also have to use is the dialogue of the faith community. For example, the Catholic Church has the idea that the patrista tradition, of the fathers Agustín, Santo Tomás, Athanasio, all the writings of these great men and women of God, such as Juana Inés de la Cruz, Santa Teresa de Jesús, the encyclicals of the Pope, all this is a chorus of teaching that is the church of Christ through centuries dialoguing in the light of the word of God, they say, that is also important, these people enlightened by God who have dedicated their lives to illuminate and elucidate these issues of the spirit, we cannot ignore them, it is like it is a whole network of biblical reflection that why are you going to reinvent the wheel? We are going to see what God has said to all these people and we are going to shake that in there in a sack and we are going to see what comes out of there. They say, not also….

And it is important to never make big decisions by yourself, talk to your pastors, talk to your cell leader, talk to a prayer and fasting sister, talk to a group of people you trust, talk to your mother, your dad, with wise people whom you trust. Seek wisdom from God's people, brother, in God's people there is no lonely ranger. I believe that you have to be united to a community of faith that helps them, that nurtures them. That is why we all need a church, we need a place to go and find God's word for life decisions. It is an important too.

Seek advice, take advice. There are wise people among the people of God who can… at least they can give you information that you can use for later… you make the decision, but let the reflection of the people of God enrich the decision that you are going to make. Seek advice, take advice. There is a verse in the Bible that says that he who takes advice grows old and that is… if it is not in the Bible it should be.

You have to take advice from the people of God. We must seek collective wisdom. It is important. Young people today believe that they don't need it, the Internet solves everything, Google is going to give me the solution. The spirit of Google is killing humanity today. No, seek wisdom from the spiritual community as well. that is very important.

Another thing that I also see is… circumstances and common sense. Paul reasoned and said, look, if we haven't even been able to carry Moses' load, how can we then throw it onto someone else? You are using common sense. You know what? God does not obviate common sense as well. I believe that God works through natural and logical processes to carry out his eternal principles as well. so look around you, what's going on. I believe that there is a lot of Pentecostal charismatic nonsense in this world because there are many Pentecostal charismatics who are not observing with their eyes what is the result of that rhetoric and that style. Is it producing wise, mature, deep, stable, biblical, creative people? Are you producing churches that are healthy, strong, impactful in the community, influential, well managed, solid? Instead of no, because so-and-so says that 17 fell here in front, well now [inaudible]

Look, observe with your eyes and truly ask yourself what result you are seeing at the end of the day. Is it producing healthy, wise, mature, stable, prosperous, blessed people or just a lot of rhetoric? Oh yes God is doing this but what is happening. Observe reality and if it doesn't make sense, don't... if the king doesn't have troops, as the story says, don't try to put clothes on him because he doesn't have any, if he's naked, he's naked.

It is important to observe, use common sense because God does not take away common sense. So, I believe that all these elements together helped the people of God to make a decision that today blesses us and that the church is still working on it, we have not yet reached a definitive conclusion, but we continue working.

The Christian life is very interesting, brother, live the Christian life, the one who gets bored is because of his bad head, the Christian life is very interesting. There is a lot of complexity and God wants to work with us. God did not give us everything ready-made, no, he wants to work with us in the process of sanctification and Christian growth. Many of us would like God to do everything for us, but he doesn't. God wants you to use your intellect, your human reasoning, your experiences, the reasoning of your community, the Holy Spirit, the word of God, good reading, culture, all of this together, become a consumer of all these tools, instruments that God He has put it in your hand to rule the world and for you to do what God wants you to do.

It's a good thing God didn't turn you into a puppet. No, God wants to conquer on earth with you because of him all this that is happening in the world is allowed because he is too generous to do it all by himself. The Lord wants us to be able to [inaudible] when we have problems we will [inaudible] amen.

We are going to lower our heads for a moment, I ask the Lord to make sense of all that we have said here. If he said something good, hold on to that and forget about the rest. But I know there was something good there that you can take home today, while you eat your chop and your pork, thank the Lord, thank God because God is generous, God is good, everything he created is well, culture, history, politics, finance, science, everything is good, everything is for us to enjoy from a position of respect and reverence for the Lord.

Thank you Father, make us mature men and women, a complex church. We want to be a church that reflects the richness of the Kingdom of God, we want to raise mature Christians, Father, solid people who use everything you have put in our hands, people who can rule the earth, Lord, subdue the world that you have created , and give glory to you for his mature way of walking on earth.

We bless you this morning. Thanks for being in your house. We rejoice, Lord, with the presence of your spirit, bless my brothers, strengthen them, return them to their homes with joy in their hearts and peace, Lord, and the certainty that you go with them, you are with them day by day and you are their God and you accompany them in every struggle and in every situation of life. I bless you in your anxieties and your struggles, in your zigzags, in your falls, in your failures and in your triumphs, in your aspirations and your desires, I bless you and I bless your church and the families represented here and the communities represented here.

We thank you for the privilege of being members of this family of faith. We bless you, Father, in the name of Jesus. And the people of God say, amen.