God always has a way out

There is a passage in Scripture where the Lord tells us that even though we sometimes find ourselves in difficult and tight situations, he always has a way out. God always has a way out for us. And I am going to use this passage as a basis, it is found in Second Corinthians, Chapter 4, the Apostle Paul says:

“…But we have this treasure in clay vessels ─ see the contrast? A humble, fragile treasure and vessel that is not up to the treasure ─ we have this treasure in earthenware vessels so that the excellence of the power belongs to God and not to us…”

In other words, who should always get the glory? God. God often manages to coordinate circumstances and situations that reflect our weakness and his power. And sometimes God calls us to do extraordinary things in difficult situations, where it would not seem that we can do it because he wants to show that everything is possible for those who believe. So, that is why we have to live... my wish this afternoon is to encourage you to believe in a God who never abandons his own and who always has a way out of every situation that we may face. Paul says:

“…The power of God, not of us, we who are troubled in everything, but not anguished… ─ look at the antitheses, the contradictions that he establishes here ─ … we are troubled in everything but not anguished, in trouble but not desperate, persecuted more not helpless, knocked down but not destroyed, always carrying the death of Jesus everywhere in the body so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies…”

May the Lord bless his holy word. Notice that contrast always between the negative and the positive and a God who always allows the positive to outweigh the negative. And that is my wish this morning, is to encourage you to believe in that almighty God who wants to give you a way out.

And why am I talking about this? God put in my heart these last days, we have chosen the month of October to reflect on our sanctuary, and the fact that we have 12, 15 months ahead of construction and expenses, glory to God that up to now we have seen his hand . We can say, up to here Jehovah has brought us.

And this campaign that we are renewing in your hearts, as I always clarify, is not the product of a crisis or an emergency situation, but on the contrary, it is simply because we want to maintain the same safe step that we have maintained up to now and as the runner who measures their abilities in the middle of the race, and who wants to make their energy last until the end, we want to become aware because you have a very important part to play. Your leaders have a part to give you honesty, good planning, vision, energy, strength, but you have a part that is to support and support them and together we can make that boat that I mentioned a while ago, you saw that ocean liner, a huge ship where that ship is going through a strait, very tight and I have told them that this is how we are in a sense, in times of economic difficulty in this nation and in the entire world, with a multi-million dollar project that it would seem that we cannot get to it because first the cost we have cut it to half of what it would normally cost.

This same week our architect and the owner of the construction company that runs the project told us, look, Roberto, this is not an 8 million dollar project as you say, it is 9 million dollars, and we are pretending to do it for 4.3, less than fifty percent of the cost, and praise the Lord. At 50% of the work, God has been with us and we have seen his hand. Praise God for that. That deserves a round of applause to the Lord, amen.

But with a tight project, that is the word that you have to keep in mind, a tight project, in a tight situation, but we believe that God gives us the solution and gives us the way out. That is why I say that there is always a way out for the children of God. And I want to bless you this afternoon, not only with a word to encourage you to continue giving and having vision and encouragement and enthusiasm for the future of this project, but I also want to invest in your life, with a word that you can apply to all dimensions of your life.

For your marriage, your children, your career, your work, personal, at home, in the neighborhood, your friendships, your personal overcoming of your emotions, your past, the difficulties that you may be going through at this time in your life financially, maybe you're fighting to keep your house or maybe you lost your house, maybe you're in a situation where you're afraid you won't have a job in a few months, your job is laying people off and you're still there, and you're saying, Lord, what's up? to spend with me? Maybe you've even lost your job. Or maybe you are in a situation where you do not have your documents and you are thinking, well, when is this immigration problem going to be solved here in the United States? And you feel anxious about the future of your children and your situation. Jam, jam, many of us are in a jam. Each one of us, our church is in a tight spot, but you know what? God tells you, there is always a way out. Amen.

That is the message, the children of God have to make that word a motto for our lives. I believe, brothers, I have always said it, my wife knows it, I always say, there is always a solution. When I have searched and dug and knocked on doors and I don't see the solution, I say, no, but my God can still give me a way out, and I keep looking, I keep trying, I keep knocking, I keep asking, I keep asking until I receive from God the word that he has promised me.

And when one lives like this, brothers, even though the situations are difficult, one says, no, but my God is more powerful and can get me through. If I had the time I would take different passages of Scripture and show you over and over again how a persistent theme of the Bible is that when there seems to be no way out, God has a way out.

So at random I can choose a passage, remember when Elisha and his servant were surrounded by the Syrian army and the servant was trembling with fear, because they were surrounded, there was no way out. And Elisha knew there was a way out and he said to God, Lord, open the eyes of this coward so he can see what I'm seeing. And the Bible says that God opened the spiritual eyes of this man and saw that surrounding the army that was surrounding Elisha and his servant, there were chariots of fire with angels that were protecting them. And God blinded the Syrian army and Elisha had to spare their lives because he took them as if hypnotized to where the king of Israel was, and they found themselves surrounded in Israelite territory. And Elisha exercised mercy and forgiveness on these people.

Because God had a way out. The servant did not see her, but there is always a way out in the spiritual world. And that is why I encourage you to live a creative life, live a daring life, live an entrepreneurial life, live a life of excellence, dare to do great things, because on that path you may find yourself in trouble. When you dare to leave your comfort zone and enter the zone of heroism and creativity, you may find yourself in difficult situations but at that moment you have to say, God has a way out for me. The God who brought us forward and put us in the desert, he will take us to the promised land. Amen.

The God who brought us out of Egypt, although it seems that the sea is before us, and behind the army of Egypt, he can still open the Red Sea so that we pass dry. And that is the problem, when you dare to enter the zone of greatness, along the way you will have scares and you will see yourself tight, but God tells you, do not be afraid, there is always a way out.

So, here we have this passage where the Apostle Paul says, but we have this treasure in clay vessels. You and I are fragile, brother, by ourselves we cannot win the battle that life throws at us. We always lack intelligence, we lack strength, we lack resources. The big dreams that God puts in our hearts, the message of the Gospel, the call to the church to bless the nations and conquer for Christ, that message is incarnated and fragile, brittle, imperfect men and women, prone to sin, prone to make a mistake. That is a wonderful treasure, but it is in you and me that we are weak and brittle people.

What happens now? Instead of embarrassing us, he says it brings glory to the Lord. Your dreams are limited because you are limited, but with God, when you achieve your dreams that redounds in blessing and praise to the God who brought you forward.

So my wish is to tell you, dare to believe. Rise up, as that chorus says, don't live a mediocre life, dare to believe in Almighty God. And the Apostle Paul talks about that in this passage, about how many times we find ourselves in very difficult situations.

But notice the interesting thing, God put that passage in my heart to encourage them to have faith in times of difficulty. We live in a time when the world seems to be falling apart. Wars and rumors of war. Divisions, an almost unprecedented financial crisis. It's not as big as 1929, the great depression that happened here in the United States and in other parts of the world, but it's the second biggest crisis so far in the world.

But we still don't know where it can go, who knows. Maybe things will work out, maybe not. we are in tight situations. And in this time God has given us a visionary project to launch ourselves into. And that is why I believe that God put this word in my heart, because many times when we preach about the God who blesses us, prospers us, opens doors for us, we simplify things too much and what I see in Scripture is always that God He tells me, look, despite the fact that he is in trouble, despite the fact that you have put yourself in a shirt of eleven rods, as they say out there, despite the fact that your own humanity betrays you and has thrown you and you are in the middle of the road , and you think that the resources will not come, God is with you.

And you can say as the Apostle Paul says, before in all these things we are more than conquerors. Hallelujah! The essential paradigm of Scripture is that difficulties may come along the path to blessing, but there will always be a way out and a solution, not that there will be no difficulties, in the life of the child of God there is a cross, there is a crucifixion, but there is also there is the day of resurrection and victory.

That is why you have to live believing in God and do not live a mediocre, conservative, timid life, staying safe because you have to understand that when you launch yourself, God will open the way before you. I have gotten into this with you, in that project, and thank God halfway there is less to look forward to in terms of expenses and dangers, but there are still some. But I have always said, even if unforeseen difficulties came, even if the budgets had been exceeded, even if I was here telling you, brothers, the expenses went up by 500 thousand dollars, glory to the Lord that it has not been like that, I would say but, do you know that? I know that God is going to get us through, I don't know how but there is a way out there, there are some invisible chariots of fire around us that are defending us.

The word says that he will not allow your foot to stumble on a stone because he will command his angels over you to guard you in all your ways. Hallelujah!.

That is God's promise for my life. And that is why we can always dare to move forward, not settle for what we have, with what is certain, because God says, I will be with you. So, there is a series of antinomies, there is a series of antitheses that the Apostle Paul raises here, he says:

“…. We are troubled, from the original Greek tripomenoi, but we are not distressed..."

If you go to the original Greek the idea is even more revealing. I think the Spanish translation is not very similar to the English one. One of the few cases in which English beats Spanish in translation. The original Greek idea is, we are restrained, but we are not strangled. The idea is, it tastes like the shirt is tight on you but it's not a straitjacket. You can move a little. There is still a space for you to move a little and from there you can get out of that situation of predicament.

“…We're restricted, I'd say, but not strangled, cramped but not totally prevented from moving, like we still have options. In English it says, we're hard pressed on every side, but not crushed. Perhaps your situation at this time in your life is a little tighter than you would like, but brother, that little bit of space that there is in your life, that is your position of leverage, that is your position of jumping towards what is next.

What the child of God needs is just a little bit of space. Someone said, Archimedes, a great Greek philosopher and mathematician said, give me a lever and I will move the world. If you have a foothold with God, that's all you need. You may not have as much space to jump as you would like, but just a little is enough and you can get to the other side.

So always remember, there is room in your life, there is room no matter how cramped your situation is. Look what the Apostle Paul says:

“…troubled but not totally strangled, then he says too, we're in trouble but we don't despair. We are perplexed but not in despair. How cute in English he says, I feel perplexed, we are perplexed but we are not desperate. How many times in your life have you had situations that you say, but where is God? why has this happened to me?

Job asked the Lord, look, but if I have behaved well, I have blessed the poor, I have behaved morally well, I have educated my children in fear of you, I search myself and I search myself and I do not find sin in myself life, why has this terrible tragedy befallen me? And God had an answer for him.

And I believe that the children of God are going to find ourselves in situations many times, we are going to lose a loved one, we are going to have a moral failure, our marriage is going to fall apart, we are going to lose our home and it would seem that the promises of God they failed us. And we wonder, but Lord, if you told me that I could get ahead, if I thanked you for that house and I bought it with so much sweat and blessed it and I thought that you had given it to me and now it is given to me snatch, where are you? I am perplexed.

But do you know what the word says? Do not despair. The son of God may be perplexed but he does not despair. Because? Because as Job said, but I know that my redeemer lives. You always have to say, Father, I don't understand my situation, but I know that you are good. I know that you are merciful. How do you tell a mother who has just lost her child violently? Woman, keep believing in your God that he is good and almighty.

How do you say to a nation that is experiencing terrible atrocities right now, as there are so many nations in Latin America and how do you believe in a good, merciful, kind, all-powerful God who governs history. The children of God say, we do not have the answer at this moment but we know that God has a plan, God has a purpose and God is good and is in control of the universe and of history. Perplexed but not desperate. We always have to believe. The Lord has the answer.

Even if the night comes and even if the dawn comes and even if you spend a sleepless night and you are asking him, Lord, why? Remember that maybe when the sun rises, your answer will come there. Never condemn God, never stop believing in the love, the mercy of God, and in due time, if you bless the hand of God that has struck you, God will caress you with that same hand and will bless you and give you the answer. What do you need.

The children of God, although not everything makes sense, we believe that God has an explanation, we are in trouble, we are perplexed, it is the idea in the original Greek, we are perplexed but we are not in despair. In English it says puzzled but not utterly perplexed. Perplexed but confident there is an answer.

And then the Apostle Paul says, we are persecuted but we are not helpless. We are persecuted but we are not forsaken. In other words, how many times have we felt that the enemy is on our heels? As a pastor many times I have felt the stinking breath of Satan behind my life and there are moments in our lives when we know that my family is in spiritual warfare.

I was talking to a brother yesterday and he was talking to me about his struggle with addiction, 20-something years old who had beaten his problem and recently had a relapse and we looked at different aspects of his life, and at the end I said, look, there can be many things, circumstances, things that you do not understand in your own psyche, but in the end God would like to take a man who is already in his twenties free of an addiction who is being a blessing to his community, the eyes of the church They are grateful for the blessing he is bringing to their life and their marriage, and Satan would love to knock that man down to the ground and God's community says, where is God?

So you have to be alert. Brothers, we have to be alert because every child of God is in spiritual warfare, whether they know it or not. the enemy wants to persecute us and that is a part of the fight of the son of God, but God says, you know what? Even if the enemy is there, the Bible says, that even if the enemy rises like a river, God will make a barrier between you and him.

The psalmist David said even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil. Because? Because you will be with me. You are not helpless. The Bible says, even if an army encamps around me, my heart will not fear. Even if war rises against me, I will be confident. Hallelujah!

Even if you are in struggle, in battle, in difficulties, believe that God will never forsake you. He says, I won't leave you or forsake you, just in case you didn't believe the first thing. I will not leave you nor forsake you, says the Lord.

Yes, we have opposition and persecution but we are not defenseless. And finally, the Apostle Paul says, yes, maybe we are knocked down too, do you see the progression? Maybe you are in trouble, God is with you. Perhaps you are perplexed, God is with you. Perhaps you are persecuted, and they will almost destroy you, but God is with you. And finally, perhaps the enemy God allows him to touch you because Satan can never enter those intimate dimensions of a man or a woman of God, without having to go through the toll booth, through God's front door. God sometimes mysteriously allows us to get into pressing situations in our lives.

Job was allowed to be touched. God allowed Satan to touch Job in many ways, he lost his children, he lost his fortune and he even lost his health, but God told him, but don't touch his soul, he told Satan.

There are times that by mysterious ways, although you believed, prayed, fasted, behaved well, sometimes you will find yourself in a situation where you slipped and fell. You lost your home, you lost your health, you got a withering diagnosis, you lost your marriage, maybe you failed in some way in your life, maybe there was something you said, but wow, I never thought I could get to that point. of destruction and suffering in my life. Sometimes the devil gives us one of those blows that knocks us down, but do you know what the Lord says? That even if you are knocked down you are not destroyed.

It says, we are shot down but not destroyed. We may be cast down but we're not destroyed. We may be knocked down but we're not knocked out. There's a difference. They may knock you down but, says the word that God will lift you up. The word uses the image of a boxer, a boxer may get hit and fall to the ground, but you have to count to 10 and if you get up before 10 you can still give the devil a file. Amen. So children of God, look, they might knock you down and have to count, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, but you get up before they give you the full knock down. Amen.

That is the word of God for our life. There is always a solution. There's always an exit. Even if you go to the extreme in your life, that has to be the motto of your life: God is with you. There is a progression and that is why I am going to finish, I have ¾ parts of my sermon, but I do not want to tire you anymore, I am not going to give you indigestion because I believe that there is enough there for us to eat spiritually.

I want to invite the musicians, come here. My brothers, what does this have to do with two things, your life and our church? With our church, we are in trouble, as I was saying, we are undertaking something noble, serious, creative, something that I think should capture the imagination of the entire city, including a group of immigrants, none of us, as the Apostle Paul says , we are rich, there are none here, that I know of, and if there is, please identify yourself at the end of the service, a chief executive officer of a large corporation, because I am going to ask you why you have not already given that million dollars what do we need.

No, but you know what? The Apostle Paul says, among you there are not great potentates or people with a lot of money, we are not a church as there are so many churches, that 3 or 4 people can give between them 10 million dollars. No, but glory to God, the Lord loves to work through ordinary people like you and me. The Lord loves to work through a town that people say we are a burden to this nation, but God says, you are a blessing to this town. Hallelujah!

While the great churches and the great powers often have to be squeezed to release something, one touches you in the name of the Lord and honey flows out of you in the name of Jesus.

Remember, we have a great cloud of witnesses around us. We can be an inspiration to many people. God has called us to something great. God has called this community as well as many other communities in our city to give an example that the supposedly poor people, those on the other side of the wall, God enjoys working through them.

I believe that God has great destinies for each one of you, brothers. The limit is in you not in God. God has planted greatness within you. And God says, I will not leave you nor forsake you. I will open the Red Sea before you, don't stay in Egypt, don't stay in poverty, don't stay in small dreams, don't stay safe, don't stay in your family past where there is no one who has outstanding, you break the gap, you are the beginning of greatness in your family, you have to live up to the call and God's endowment in your life.

And what if right now there is a drought in the world, God opens the way. God opens water in the middle of the desert. God makes water flow from the rock, says the word of God. that is why you can dare to walk in the desert because God has an answer. There are wells that are under the ground that God can use to give you water while you are in the desert, even if your boat is in trouble, God is with you.

Ultimately, brother, look, I'm not that interested today in encouraging them in terms of the project ahead of us, do you know why? Because if I can help you believe that the Lord accompanies you when you do heroic things, the other will come in addition. What we need is to believe God, what we need is to believe, I am going to live a mediocre, small life, considering only what I have at hand. Am I going to live comfortably, in what I know, in my family past, my national past, my undocumented status, my status as a woman who did not go to school, who was always just a housewife, or am I going to believe God for big things, I'm going to go to university, I'm going to learn English, I'm going to learn to use the internet, I'm going to learn to use a computer, I'm going to learn to use an Ipad, the Lord is powerful to make you come out forward.

Believe God. Dare to believe big things. Throw yourself to the maximum because God has called you to greatness and there is always a way out. God bless you. Let's stand up in the name of Jesus.

Give to the Lord. I ask you to take a moment right now, brother, put in there the most powerful chord that occurs to your mind, believe God. Let's believe the Lord. We are going to confess greatness this afternoon. God calls us to greatness.

I want to see you in 5 or 10 years improving beyond what you think. Your children studying, you improving yourself, you doing great and extraordinary things, our temple built, everything we need for a powerful church, Hallelujah!

The people of God giving an example to the world of a winning people, because they have the power of God in their favor. This is what God has called us to believe. Confess this this afternoon. Say, God is with me. God is powerful within me. The one who raised Jesus from the dead moves within me. And I am destined for greatness.

There's always an exit. Thank you Lord, we declare blessing on your people. We believe in a mighty God. We believe in a faithful God. We believe in a God who has called us to greatness and we thank you for your word, Lord. You are not a man for you to lie nor a son of man for you to repent. Hallelujah! Glory to the name of Jesus. Hallelujah! Give glory to the Lord. Give glory to the Lord. Declare the greatness of God. Father, do not let a single word fall to the ground, may your people be blessed and edified by the word that has been declared this afternoon over their lives and their spirits, over this project as well, in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah!

God's people say, amen. Glory to the name of the Lord. Blessed be his name.