Love as the force of our motivation

Today I would like to share with you a reflection that I have been doing in recent days. I believe that whenever a new semester of discipleship begins, the opportunity opens for one to be able to reflect on different principles that are very basic to our faith but that at the same time have a lot of meaning and are very deep.

I am sure that every time a new discipleship begins all the teachers have already taught this class over and over again and I am not just talking about discipleship one through four. Here I include crown, I also include any class that is given here at the church level. All of the teachers who teach these classes in one way or another, because we know that we are working with the word of God, we know that those words breathe new life into our lives every time we are exposed to teaching them. And just as God does that work in the people who teach, that is my way of being able to understand that God prepares us to be able to minister in the same way to the students who are in each class.

That is why I believe that through discipleship our lives are transformed because we expose ourselves to what is in the word of God and through that God speaks to us, God forms us, God challenges us and teaches us the way in which he wants us to live.

I personally, who teach the level 4 class, the level 4 class always has to do with leadership, our service and how we achieve this through the fruit and gifts of the spirit, and we study all these topics, to prepare us to better serve, not only in the church but also outside the church.

And one of the classes I always start with has to do with the subject of love. And I know that perhaps for some the subject of love sounds like an old story that you already know, you can tell it yourself in your own way, but in this class I cover the subject from another perspective, because I am not talking so only about the love of a couple or a friendship, but we are talking about that agape love, that love that comes directly from God, that love that is sacrificial, that love that leaves itself to serve another.

And we cover this topic. I ask different questions and there are times that I even get scared because I ask questions that are not so conventional, where I force people to think in ways that they had not thought before. And there are times that I see his eyes when they open that it's like, Pastor Omar, what are you saying? But not. It's not that I stray so far from the Bible, it's that I stay very Bible-centric. But we examine different things that are in that dimension of what the love of God is.

And I would like to be able to share with you today some thoughts and some ideas and I want you to think about the following. I want you to visualize love as the force of our motivation. Day after day there are different things that motivate us, if you are the head of the family, one of the things that motivates you is being able to get up every morning, whatever time you get up, and get ready to go to work, like who says, and earning the beans for that week, one of the things that motivates you the most, to be able to do that, is your family because you have to provide for your family. And you sacrifice yourself for them, you don't want your family to be in need, so you do… that's something that motivates you for every day, whether it snows, rains, shines, or shines, or is sunny, or cold, or hot, you get up and you acquire what you have to acquire for the provision of your family. TRUE?

A couple finds their motivation in their spouse. God has allowed you to have the wife or husband that you have and day after day what motivates you to be able to express your love to your partner is the mere fact that that person is there. And God wants you to nurture that relationship.

The people who are around you in your work environment in some way or another if you consider yourself as a believer, as a child of God, God is calling you so that you can reflect that love of God in those places where you are too, regardless of the time, regardless of the circumstances, we are children of God wherever we go.

But I dare to say that behind all this the greatest motivation that exists is love and it is not just any love, but rather the love of God acting in our midst.

The Bible teaches us in First John, Chapter 4, verse 8 and verse 16 it says twice, it says the following, and what it says:

"…God is love…"

TRUE? How many of you remember when you were a child that you were taught that song that said:

God is love, God is love...

Wow, I took them there…light years, I took them. We learned that God is love. And in Romans 5, Paul also mentions that we who have been justified by faith, in other words, those who have accepted the Lord Jesus through faith, verse 5 of that Chapter 5 says, that the love of God it has been poured out in our hearts.

So, I start to think, that love of God that was poured out on us, what was the best way in which that love was manifested? Obviously through the person of Jesus. What does John 3:16 say? That is the greatest verse in the Bible, remember that, because in such a way, the greatest way, he loved, the greatest love, God, the greatest being, to the world, the greatest creation, that he has given to his only Son, his greatest possession, Jesus, so that everyone who believes in him does not perish but has eternal life.

That was how the love of God was manifested, in the person of Jesus. When we accept the Lord in our hearts, when we make him part of our lives, we do not say that Jesus is just a person hanging on a crucifix on the wall of our living room, but we say that Jesus is part of our lives , that love has already been activated in our midst, according to that word of Romans 5:5. The love of God has been placed, injected, shaped in our midst through the person of Jesus.

Now, if that love is in us, how can we verify it? My best answer to that question is when we can respond with love to God and neighbor. That is the best way that we can verify that the love of God is in us.

Your love for God, how do you manifest it? I know that you are going to tell me, oh, well, when I kneel next to the bed and I am praying with God, talking with him, when I read the Bible, when I go to the field and I hear the birds sing and that is my way to express my love to God. TRUE?

That's part of it, I'm not going to tell you not to do it, that's part of it. But there is something more that you can do, and it is the mere fact that this love is also verified through our service, what we can do to other people. In Matthew Chapter 22, Jesus is asked a question and the question was, Jesus, what is the greatest commandment? Remember back in the time of the Jews there were 600 plus commandments that those people lived under.

But out of all those 600 or so commandments, Jesus focused on one that was double and he replied, easy, you will love your God with all your mind, with all your strength, with all your heart. And what did he say afterwards? And you are going to love your neighbor as you love your grandmother, what is she like? How do you love the mother-in-law? You will love him as yourself.

Hey, I ask myself this question. Ask yourself this question. How do you love yourself? How much love do you show yourself? You're too hard on yourself, like you screwed up something and you're there beating your head with sticks until you get two or three bumps. Or are you a little softer, more tolerant of yourself?

How do you eat? Do you spend eating pizza every day at McDonald's or things like that? Or from time to time you prepare a good salad with your lettuce, your tomatoes, your broccoli and things like that? Do you spend it drinking soft drinks every day? I know some out there that Coca Cola is the water they drink. How do you love yourself?

Are you working 50, 60, 70 hours a week? Or do you work enough hours to be able to survive and at the same time have your own rest time, down time, chilling, going to play with the kids, going out for a walk with some friends? How do you take care of yourself? How do you love yourself?

Because if I am listening well to what Jesus is saying, just as I take care of myself and love myself, so I will love the people around me. If I worry about what my life is, what the environment of my life is, then I think it will make it a little more feasible for me to be able to love other people around me in the same way. But if I live life to the gutter, excuse the expression, the crazy life, if I live the crazy life then what kind of treatment am I going to have with the people around me. and this is a very interesting question because in one of my classes after I said this, I said to myself, but look, you know what? We are experts in putting on masks because we can fake a kind of love that we don't have as well, just to win the appreciation of people around us.

But there is something very interesting, my brothers, and that is that we cannot fool God. And if what we really want to transmit is the love of God, if we are not in good tune with that love, what we are going to be transmitting is another wave that is not God's. And there we have to be very careful.

But if I understand that this is a mandate that the Lord has given us, that we have confessed to the Lord Jesus, then I can think, my brothers, and I believe that it is fair to think this, it is a mandate, it is an order and We have the decision every day to act according to that mandate or not. very interesting, while I was preparing I came across this passage in the book of Galatians, I don't know if you can look up this passage with me, Galatians Chapter 5, verses 13 to 15. It has to do with how we use our freedom. I'm going to read it in the version God speaks today, but you can follow me there on the screen. Says:

"...you brothers have been called to freedom, God wants, look at this, the first thing is that God wants us to be free entities, that none of us be oppressed by anything or anyone, that we are not slaves to anything and nobody, God wants us to be free. But that freedom cannot be used to give free rein to your instincts, rather serve each other out of love, because the law, obviously what we were talking about, the 600-odd commandments by which the Jewish people lived, the law is summed up in this single command, love your neighbor as yourself.

If I practice love with the people around me, I won't have to worry about the other laws, because all the other laws are contained in that. When one of the laws says, do not covet what your neighbor has, do not covet your neighbor's car, house, dog, wife or husband, do not covet it, if you operate in love, if you operate in the love of God you don't have to worry about coveting this because in love of God you understand that you can't do that.

So, by honoring God and honoring your neighbor you are not going to go in that direction. If one of the laws says you will not kill, and if I live in the love of God, then I am going to refrain from everything that could lead me to take someone's life. If the law of God tells me that I am not going to have any other idol but more than God, God is going to be my only God. if I am in the love of God I am not going to make anything become an idol for me.

Oh, these flowers are going to bring me good luck today, look how orange, ah, this is my idol, this is my God now, little flower, little flower, what's in store for me tomorrow? No, if I know that God is the creator of that flower, it is beautiful and precious but more beautiful and precious than you is God. so we'll talk later.

If I am in the love of God I have to proceed like this. Now, my brothers, I push myself a little further, how can I serve the people around me? How can I show that love of God? How can I let God know that I love him and that I also love my neighbor around me?

Jesus spoke about a parable in Matthew, Chapter 25, verses from 37 to 40, he spoke of a parable where there is a king and this king was reaching the moment where he was going to let in all the people who were going to be part of it. of his kingdom. And one he identified as sheep and he put them on his right hand and the kids he put on his left hand. And then he began to say, ah, because you saw me that I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in jail and you came to see me. He said all those things to you who did, welcome, you are going to be part of my kingdom, you are the little sheep. And the sheep suddenly said to the king, but king, when did we see you hungry? When did we see you naked? When did we see you that you were in jail? When did we see that you were in one of those situations? And the king said, for how much they did it to one of these little ones, they did it to me.

And obviously we know the other side of the story that there were those people, who could not understand, who did not do what the king had mentioned and they became the kids who unfortunately could not enter to enjoy the Kingdom of God.

So, this story shows how important it is in the heart of God to know that what worries him, what God wants, what God longs for, is that his creation is well, that his creation is well cared for. Many people pray, what's more, I ask you, when have you ever prayed, ah, Lord, we entered this seventh heaven, Lord, let me know your heart. And we fell in love up there. I want to know your heart.

How many have prayed like this? Oh, I'm the only one. OK. I ask you how many want to know the heart of God? just a little bit. How many want to know the mind of God? Well look, do you know what is there in those places of God? us. That is what is in the heart of God. You and me. People like you and me. People who are not here are what is in the heart of God.

And that is what God wants to reveal to us. Look at another example of Jesus how he showed that love, in John Chapter 13, Jesus is reunited with his disciples and suddenly he accommodates the boys, he sits them down and he stands in the middle of them with one of her vessels, he takes off his tunic as a teacher and wraps a towel around his waist and begins to wash the feet of his disciples. So that you understand, the only ones who did that were, as they say, the servants of a home, it was a position occupied only by those who were considered the lowest at that time. They were people that no one could talk to and they couldn't talk to anyone. They were just people who were there to do a daily service and in some cases a little dirty, but they were the people who were destined to do that.

And Jesus stripped himself of his authority as Master and as Lord and took that lower place. And he washed his disciples' feet, and what did he say to his disciples? Just as I have done to you, you also have to do to another. The service. Jesus himself gave us that example of service.

Do you want to show that you love God? Do you want to show that you love your neighbor? It serves. Easy as that. But at the same time I know that it is not very easy. Why is it not easy, my brothers? And I am going to leave a little bit now of the notes that I have here.

I know that many times people have been hurt because they were supposedly participating in a love that was genuine. Many people have been told, I love you, you can count on me, you can trust me, but that love was betrayed at some point. That love was disappointed. That idea of a perfect life that one suddenly had due to an event, different events that happened, that image of what that perfect love was, was distorted and that scenario vanished, that dream disappeared.

And when I talk about this topic, I know that many people find it very difficult to understand or incorporate into their way of thinking the power to love in that way, in such an excessive way, in such a sacrificial way. Life teaches us that you have to seek your own good, whatever the cost. Society teaches us that, day after day, night after night. Look for what you want, if you have to step on someone's feet to achieve what you want, do it. It's your life, no one is going to live it for you.

They tell you all these messages and one kind of absorbs them, absorbs them and sooner or later you realize that you are like a crab sucking the life out of others for your own benefit. Or others are sucking the life out of you to take advantage of you so that they can be benefited. And this can be seen in different ways, this is seen in the context of a marriage that if its base is not the love of God, that dynamic can occur.

In you, young boys who are here, I tell you, your friendships can often take advantage of your nobility and draw from you an energy that God has placed in you too if we are not very clear about what God is asking of us. To us in the field of profession, where we work, look, if you are not well aware of colleagues around you, they can slip away in one way or another and try to get ahead of you and make you not look very good in front of your boss as long as they can acquire what is supposed to be theirs, or what should be theirs.

It is very difficult many times for some to be able to understand and live in the light of that love that God calls us to live. And although it is difficult, my brothers, it is not impossible. Do you know why? I ask this question a lot to my level 4 class. I ask them what is the ultimate purpose that love seeks to achieve? What is that ulterior purpose, that ultimate goal that love seeks to achieve? If we have said that God is love, we are saying that love is not just a feeling, a little tickle that we feel inside, but that it is a person.

So when I am asking what is the final purpose that God seeks to achieve, love? If you see it as a cycle, what God wants to do is restore and reconcile all of creation back to him once more. Would you agree with me on that theory? yes or no? God wants to restore everything once again with him, everything created, vegetable, animal, material and even human, God wants to restore everything back with him.

That was what he did through Jesus. Look at this passage in Second Corinthians, Chapter 5, please, this is a passage that many of us are familiar with. He says the following, in verse 17, many of us know him, he says:

“…So if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature, old things have passed away, and behold, all things are made new. You and I have a new nature, we have grown, we have been as they say, planted in a new nature and we have begun a whole process of transformation in our lives because God makes it possible.

What is he saying? Verse 18.

“…All this, all this work of us passing from an old life to a new life, all this comes from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation…”

You and I have the ministry of reconciliation. If you were wondering at some point, oh, but I don't know what God's call is for my life? Well, here's an idea. One of the ways that God wants to use you is to reconcile the lives of other people around you. If you settle for that for the rest of your life, amen. You do not have to be a pastor, pastor, counselor and scholar or whatever, by being yourself and asking God to use you as an agent of reconciliation, you are already fulfilling a large part of God's purpose in the midst of your life. God doesn't want you to be a bank eater here at church. God doesn't want you to heat that seat. The seat is neither hot nor cold. So, don't worry about heating up a seat. God wants you to be an agent of reconciliation.

But in order for you to become an agent of reconciliation you must first have reconciled your life with God. You have to have reconciled your life with God. I have to have reconciled my life with God.

Why do I say this? I cannot give what I do not have. If I have not experienced that reconciliation in my life, how can I lead others to experience that same reconciliation with God? therefore, a very important part of this message goes to each one of us, like me, how you are in this process of reconciliation with God. Wherever you are in your life, where is God in your life? As I said just now, is he hanging on a cross on the wall of his house? Is it hanging from your neck on a chain? Is it in a tattoo here? where is God in your life?

If you recognize that God is working within you, you are on the right track. God has shown a love in you. God has shown a favor, a mercy on his life and my life that we didn't even deserve. But God was pleased to do it, even when we were in our sins, the Lord however said, no, I'm going to send you Jesus for each of these people.

Imagine if God had said, me? I don't know Maria? Why am I going to send my Son through Mary? I do not know her. I don't know Juan, why am I going to send my Son for Juan? Oh, if only God had said that. I say to myself, thank you Lord that you did not think like that. But he sent it for each one of us a long time ago, that sacrifice still has value today.

That love that God showed continues to have action and value today in each one of us, in each one of you, in each one of your hearts. God wants to use you. Now, what I mentioned right now is very important, my brothers, I cannot feign a love that I do not have. I cannot pretend that I have this love of God in my life if I have not truly experienced it.

First Corinthians 13, how many of you have read it? What's more, how many of you have used it as the theme text of your wedding, if you remember, so to speak, at weddings this is read a lot, love suffers everything, everything endures. Thank God that's the love of God, right?

Look at your wife, your husband next to you, look into his eyes and tell him, I love you with the love of the Lord, because the love of the Lord is in me, I can love you. You can say it like that. First Corinthians 13, Paul says, look if I spoke the tongue of men and the tongues of angels, but I have no love, I am nothing more than a metal that resonates, a cymbal that makes noise and nothing else. And if I have the gift of prophecy and I understand all the secret designs of God and I know all things and if I have faith enough to tell this roof to get up and go to the roof of the other building, but I don't have love, all of that it was just buchipluma.

And if I distribute everything I own to the poor and even if I give up my own body to say, oh, yes, I was a martyr and I gave up my body for all these people, but I don't have love, it's useless. Each one of my actions, my brothers, each one of the gestures, your service, your ministry, the context of life in which you are, because I tell you, my brothers, what we are talking about is not only for here, the context of the church. It's not for you to go in there and get out of the car and put on the Christian mask and get in here and oh, God bless you, and how are you? Oh, the Lord tells you, and we do all this Sunday religious vocabulary and everyone says, wow, this man, this woman is on. This man has the love of God by living force, the love of God comes out of his pores. and when he walks out that door, he rides the car, mask off, and the old me returns again.

We have to be genuine in this, my brothers. We have to recognize that when we talk about this dynamic of God's love it is something that we have to experience day after day. So, what I am saying is not for the dynamics of us as a church, it is for you at home, with your husband, with your wife, with your sons, with your daughters, with your neighbors, in your neighborhood, in your area. work, when you go to the marqueta or grocery store, as you say, there you can reflect the love of God. You don't have to worry about putting on a mask, it's just a matter of a lifestyle that you have to adopt. All of us have to grow, that's why I say that this is not a story of yesteryear, this is a story that is vital, that is valid, still today, because all of us in some way or another need to continue growing. in that love that only God can give us and that through God's love we can then carry out our lives in all its aspects, in all its environments.

If you want your husband to get up in the morning and make you breakfast, you are going to have to reflect love to your husband. I'm not saying make love to him, I'm saying show love to your husband, okay? Let me clarify. That's a part, but I'm not saying that, I'm saying, reflect love to your husband. How do you reflect love to your spouse? Serving. And I also say that to husbands. If you want your wife to treat you with more appreciation, with more respect, you're going to have to love your wife, too. It is not just in bed, it is in the daily action of all the chores in life, every opportunity one has from the time one gets up until one goes to bed, if I have an attitude of reflecting love to my wife, an attitude of being able to understand who she is, what her needs are and how I can sacrifice myself so that she can grow, you will be sure that you will receive a reciprocal love there too.

The same can be applied to any other context in your life, with your children, with your work colleague, with your mom, with your dad, with your next-door neighbor, your upstairs neighbor, your downstairs neighbor, if you live in a three family home. Wherever it is, it's the same recipe applies.

It is true that the answer may be different depending on the context in which we are speaking, but it does not mean that one is going to stop acting in that way. Wherever we are, if we want to reflect our love for God, because that is the beginning of all things, if I want to tell God that I really love him, then I have to be able to live in this way in all the other aspects around my life, of me being able to show genuine love to the people around me, even if they step on my keys, but that you can continue to reflect the love of God.

I tell you something, my brothers, I believe that a large part of God's purpose for this church is for this church to be an agent of reconciliation in the lives of all those who participate in what is the Lion of Judah, from children, from the youngest, Sara Cuna's baby, to the oldest here in the church. God wants this church to be able to function with an agent of reconciliation.

For some reason God put us in this sector of the City of Boston, because there are many people who need to reconcile with God and with significant others around them as well. many people need to reconcile and it may be that right now these words that I am saying, someone is going over there, but I ask that you take that word and bring it to your heart, because you, I, need that dynamic of reconciliation .

Look, reconciliation, if I want to reconcile two points that are in dispute, that are apart, what does reconciliation do? Force for what? To put those two parts together again, right? and if something resists, you go back and bring it, and force yourself to bring it. That's the idea of reconciling, of reconnecting two parts that were apart, whatever the reason they were apart. If I go into it very deeply, I know that there are aspects of science that obviously say positive and negative attract each other, but if you take two poles, one is positive and what do they do? As is the magnet, if you take it so that it has its two opposite poles, what will happen? They will resist. That's another sermon, but I know that happens sometimes. That strong resistance and one cannot change what is already designed to resist. But there are other things that yes, that the purposes of God, these two forces can unite once again and fulfill a great purpose of what God has intended in the midst of their lives.

You and I play that role. You and I play that role. I made this illustration, and with this I am finishing. I make this illustration, about two weeks ago in one of the discipleship classes I ran into a sister who asked me a question that had to do with all the violence that is consuming our young people and as that conversation I did not want to rush to answer, but I kept thinking and meditating and what I was thinking another sister who was there, says, the most painful thing about all this is that our own children are killing each other.

And when I heard that I was like, wow, wait, here's something revealing. I have to pay attention to this. And while I continued listening to the conversation, I realized that many of these boys who are in bargains, who fight over land, over territory, over who dominates more than who, were boys who when they were 5, 6, 7 years old were family, true blood family, who were related by a grandfather, by a great-grandfather, or something and knew each other and were members of a family, and they were the kids who grew up together, riding bikes, throwing snowballs, and came to a stage in their lives where suddenly, there is an incredible rivalry and they fight and kill each other.

When I was listening to this conversation I said to myself, wow, what a great challenge the church has, because I quickly began to think that these families are represented here, those sectors where we come from are represented here, Mozart park, via Victoria, [ inaudible] corner in Dorchester, all those places are represented here. And I began to think, imagine that we do something to try to unite all these boys from all these sectors, we are going to have to bring in Swat, the shock force, the Boston police to maintain order here, because they are going to beat each other up.

But do you understand what I'm saying? The difficulty... no institution, look at this, my brothers, no institution in this world is going to be able to do that because it does not have the element that the church has, and the crucial element that the church has is the power of God working in the midst of we. Only the church can accomplish this.

And you know what? This is just one example, an example of gang rivalries that our young people are being affected by, but behind all this there are entire families and how can God use the church so that all these families can be reconciled? That all these neighborhoods can be reconciled, that one neighborhood is not throwing stones at the other, but can throw flowers at it, rather, because the love of God is at work in the midst of each one of them.

And yes, the church has to go and get into those neighborhoods, but the best way for this to happen is when you, representing the church, do what you have to do in the middle of those neighborhoods, instead of saying, oh, look at that , he hit a stone to that other's window and I hide, I don't know anything, I don't know anything, I arrived right now, if something happened, I wasn't here.

But instead of doing that and we can act in love and demand justice when it is necessary to demand it, look, I am sure that God can use each of these interventions for the benefit of our communities and for the purpose that God has with the church can continue to be carried out. God wants to use us as an agent of reconciliation. God wants to do a redemptive work in you, in your family, in your life, and through you in the lives of others.

But for that to happen, my brothers, we have to truly know that love of God. Never get tired, I close with these words, never get tired of growing in God's love. Never tire of growing in a love that can fill your life like no other. The more you delve into knowing God's love, the more your life will be transformed and aligned with God's purposes and intentions.

We are going to stand up, my brothers, I invite the ushers to come in, I know we have dinner too, and we are going to do this quickly but with a lot of respect too, my brothers. I know that I have gone too far, but I ask you to give me ten more minutes and we will close here.

The ushers can come in, let's get ready for dinner too. I tell you this, my brothers, the love of God is incomparable. God's love knows no boundaries. God's love knows no limits. God's love even though we resist, God's love always continues to flow in favor of each one of us. But we have to be intentional in knowing, in delving into that love. I can't do it for you, you have to experience it, you have to prove it. Knowing that kind of love does not happen like that in the blink of an eye, knowing that love is a life long process. Do not despair if you do not manage to know everything in a moment, but think that this is something that is going to be long-term, about how God can instill his love in the midst of your heart and that through you that love can be left feel in the people closest to the core of your life and also others beyond.

Don't worry about reaching everyone. Worry about reaching the people that God puts around you. God will take care of identifying other people to reach those you cannot reach. But at least those that God places close to you, worry about reaching them, about letting those people know God's love.

Lord Jesus, in these moments I beg you that as we prepare to partake of the supper, this bread, this cup, I ask you that these words, Lord, may continue to echo in our hearts, Lord, in our mind and help us to delve even deeper into the mysteries of your heart towards us who are your creation.

Lord, I ask that this moment that we are going to share now help us to strengthen and affirm ourselves in that love that you showed for us through your Son Jesus. Cover this moment, Lord, that you bring conviction to each one of our hearts, Lord, of how your love is in action in the midst of our lives, of how your love has manifested itself in us, and how it can continue to manifest itself through from us to the lives of others around us.

We thank you, Lord, for your son Jesus. Amen and amen. You can sit down, my brothers, for a little while.