Better to give than receive

I am going to tell you why I am so happy. Because the hand of God sustains me. Amen. There you have an answer and I can say it. And because always in victory he has carried me, is carrying me and will carry me. Another of the reasons why I feel joy, my brothers, is when I see each one of you, each time I see each one of your faces, and at least with those with whom I have had the opportunity to speak and to be able to know the stories of their lives a little more, to be able to know their achievements and to be able to know some of their struggles. That brings me joy. Because the mere fact that I am seeing you here makes me understand that in you there is a God who is in action. And although many times the winds and storms may roar and the waves try to rise to try to sink our boat, with everything we can remain firm because the Lord is the one who goes with us at all times.

You know what? I also enjoy the fact that although many times there are people who go through life without having God present, God is so good and merciful that with everything and that, God walks behind that person. and the person goes around doing their own thing and God is like, okay, you're doing your own thing but I'm there. You were going to fall into a hole and suddenly God somehow or another prevented you from falling in today, maybe you twisted your ankle, but you didn't fall in the hole.

And those who fell into the hole, God helps them to get up, because the Bible says that if a person fell into the hole 7 times, I added the hole, 7 times what? God will raise him up. and tell yourself, which one I'm going for, which of the 7 times I'm going for. Don't worry, 7 is a symbolic number, that means God is there. God is there willing to help you whenever.

Another thing that brings me joy, my brothers, is to see how God is working in us as a church. I see the dynamics of these services on Wednesdays that you arrive and when I see your faces I know that many of you arrive, as if to say, dragging yourself, some of you perhaps arrive wanting not to be here because someone loved you bring, and I'm glad that someone brought you, and I'm glad that you're here with your back teeth, but I'm glad you're here because something is going to stick to you. And maybe I just said this and you're there, like, yeah, right. Trust me. Something is going to hit you.

But even when I am happy about that, that same joy is sometimes when I say to myself, wow Lord, you are going to have to continue intervening here because we, the pastors, the leaders of this church, we alone cannot carry all the load , you're going to have to keep doing something beyond our efforts.

I see how this service is growing, and I give glory to God for that. Many of you know that these have been prayers that we have had because this makes me understand that the church is becoming aware of how important it is to set aside times to pray and to seek God, to congregate. There are people who say, ah, Omar, your service… Look, I rebuke that. This is not my service, if you hear someone saying that tell them for me, hmm hmm, it's not like that. This is a church service that is dedicated to God, the mere fact that I am here directing it is as if to say, a side note, but here if it is someone's service it is God's service. and we are all the protagonists.

But the most we can see is that God is working in the midst of each one of us. I want to bring your attention to something. From my pastoral perspective, when I see everything that God is doing and all the things that can bring me joy, at the same time I can see many challenges that lie ahead and these 4 weeks, my brothers, that we have had to be able to commit ourselves before God and being able to give, we are talking about offerings themselves as such. My wish has been that all of us can understand that this is not a church that is just asking for money all the time, I don't want you to be confused. Because that is not the main purpose of Congregación León de Judá. The main purpose of the León de Judá Congregation is to see God being glorified through all the things we do, through each one of the people that make up the church.

But at the same time we recognize that precisely because God has that kind of call on us as a church, the challenge that lies ahead is very great. Every time I walk out that door back there and I see all those pieces of steel, I'm like, wow this is interesting. How God is leading us.

I wanted to prepare an illustrative graph so that you can have an idea of how things can go depending on how we understand what God is doing in our midst. Some of you will understand this graph from the first time I post it but I am going to take my time to explain.

Look at this graph, I'm talking about projections of the León de Judá Congregation, a first example. I'm going to explain the colors: the blue color, the blue color bar means the pastors or the main leadership of the church. The red bar is the people and when I talk about the people I mean the needs of the people, counseling needs, services needs for children, services for youth, services for families, educational needs, the spiritual need of being able to lead an abundant life as God intends and being able to be part of a church that can provide that kind of nutrition to the lives of these people. There's the need for companionship, for people who feel lonely, who don't have a family and need some group of people they can connect with. There is the need for people who come with immigration situations, people who want to educate themselves, or to see how we can [without audio]

As the church grows, through that red color of people, the needs grow. And what's more, I would dare to say, the demands are growing. Because then people start to demand, well, if I come as this need I demand that the church solve this for me. So, that's the color red.

The color green, what is it? Finances, cherries, avocado, ripe plantains, rice with beans and chops. That is the color green. Now, I wanted to put this, as they say, in a progression of years from 2011, 2012 to 2014. I couldn't fit another one so I left it until 2014. It's not that I have little faith, I know that I can reach it there to 2020 or something, but I put it up to 2014.

Imagine if, as we grow as a church, the color red, that more people continue to arrive, but if as a church we do not develop this conviction that for the church to function it needs my energy and my material resources and financial so that the church can function, because it is not that the church is going to wait for a millionaire to come along who converts, who is a member here, or the church cannot wait for someone to play the lottery and then give the tithe of that lottery prize, and give it to the church. Since the church cannot wait for that, and it is not going to do it either, we know that much of what we can do depends on how we commit ourselves before God to contribute to that work.

Now, imagine if by 2010 the membership grows, glory to God, it's a good problem to have, right? Now, if that number of people increases, if the number of needs increases, if the number of issues, problems, dramas and melodramas that people bring increases, but if the cherries, the avocado and the chops do not increase, and if That doesn't even add up, there aren't going to be more pastors and leaders who can care for all that group of people, what's going to happen? If by 2013 the membership continues to grow but the cherries continue to stay the same, and we cannot recruit more pastors to meet the needs of that group, what will happen? If for the next year, glory to God, there continues to be an exponential growth in the membership of the people but the avocado and chops do not continue to come in, and therefore we cannot recruit more pastors or leaders who can work with those needs, what is going to happen? Tell me what is going to happen? Tell me, a girl, what will happen?

That same thing is going to happen, we are going to be speechless. Because we're going to be burned, ladies and gentlemen. We are not going to give vast. This is going to happen to us. Thanks, Jonathan, you didn't let me get this out. That is what is going to happen to us. The fish will swallow us.

But, if as the years go by, look at this other example, we are here in 2011. If by next year membership increases and people become aware of that vision that a lot of what happens here is going to depend on how we work here and how we work here, so that this group can be built as it should be, if we then commit and this bar continues to rise so that this other one can rise and be able to hold that bar in the middle. And next year that level of commitment continues to strengthen and we don't have to depend on financial campaigns, but people give because they love the work of the Lord, and that green bar can continue to grow, the chops, the avocados, the rice with beans, and thus we can continue to support a pastoral staff, a solid, healthy, well-blessed leadership that can support the needs of this group, and so on. Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you?

Just an illustration, my brothers, to let you know that what lies ahead is great. It is not just building a building, we are talking, as I have said on many occasions, we are talking about lives that are going to be impacted with the love of God and that workers are needed who can support this work in different perspectives. And it is not, my brothers, that we are asking you to remove the ring and put it in the offering basket. We are not asking you to take out the car and house keys and put them in the offering basket. Only what we are wanting to communicate from the pastoral leadership is that we can all understand that for many of these things to happen it will depend on how we commit ourselves to that call that God has placed in our hearts and that we can contribute to it. not only with our prayers, with our fasting that we can do, with the mere fact of coming and attending church, but it will also depend on how we can contribute to that work.

I tell you, my brothers, every time I talk about this it gives me shin guards, because I know that this is a very delicate and very sensitive subject. A lot of people have been abused for that. Many people have wanted to turn them, as they say, upside down and squeeze everything they have and then they leave them lying there. But that is not the intention of this church. The intention of this church is that we can all grow to the height of the man, of the woman that God wants us to be.

What we want to see is families walk through those doors and they're about to kick each other out, but when they get here all of a sudden, first of all the grace of God takes hold of that family, there are counselors who can talk to that couple, there are counselors who can talk to the children of that couple, to be able to help them and to be able to restore the family dynamics. Someone arrives who wants to study and all they have is a fifth grade from their native country and suddenly, they can come here and connect with different resources so that person can move forward with their life. That we can get involved in different sectors in our community to be able to make a difference, to be able to be light.

And not only that, but that God can continue using the ministry of the León de Judá Congregation to impact other ministries around us, my brothers. León de Judá Congregation is not just about us here enclosed within these 4 walls, León de Judá Congregation reaches beyond. Because wherever you go, you are taking the Lion of Judah Congregation with you. And you can make a difference wherever you go, wherever Pastor Roberto goes, he carries the name Congregación León de Judá with him as well.

But as we have been reading well, my brothers, there is something that when one loves the work of God it is like that it comes out, it comes out of… When someone has done something good for you, what do you do? You seek to respond to that favor in one way or another, right? And if it was something very significant, I'm not saying that someone tells you, oh, look, I felt that it was from the Lord that I gave you $20 so you could put gasoline on it to your car. Ah, amen, thank you, thank you, Lord, because you did it like this.

But if there is someone who does something super extremely meaningful for you, you are going to be out of your league trying to find a way to return that favor to that person. the same is seen in our relationship with God.

When God does something for our lives that is very significant and we do not have this attitude of wanting to take God and turn him upside down and take everything he has and then leave him lying around and we get away with the benefit we get, God is not going to to deal like this with us. It is very difficult to take God and turn him like this and shake him. I think he's going to do it to you before you do it to him.

But if we know how to proceed with that relationship where God does something for us and we out of gratitude, out of love, to go out of our way for him, we have to do something in response. In order to let God know, God look, I want to show you how much I love you by doing this. And it is not just one way, we have many ways to show this gesture of gratitude to God, but out of love for him we can, we can respond to him with all that we are, with all that we have.

I ask God for something, my brothers, and with this I close. My wish is that all that we are doing as a church, to cause, to provoke awareness in each one of the members of this church, is that we can understand that in giving there is a much greater blessing than in the mere fact of being able to receive. And that is a mystery that is here. That is part of God's law.

When in the book of Acts it says, because it is better to give than to receive, it is there for a reason. It's good to receive, sure, we all like to receive. We are blessed when we receive, but the blessing is much greater when we give. When you give of what God has given you, even if it is a word, even if it is a gesture of affection towards someone, even if it is one of committing yourself financially for a period of time and saying, look, Lord, for so many days I I'm going to bring this. What's more, I'm going to tell you, I hope that after this fourth week we don't say or think like, okay, the 5 weeks are up, well, now I'm going to continue giving a dollar offering. From next Wednesday onwards I am going to continue giving a dollar.

You know what? I set myself a challenge, that from now on if I can continue giving my 20 dollar offering, I will continue giving my 20 dollar offering. I'm not going to say, I'm going to dream of writing a $100,000 check, I don't think my faith has moved to that level yet, and I thank God for that person who did dream of doing that, and I I sat down with this person recently and he explained to me the full context of how that change happened in his life and I have to admit that God was in the middle of it.

But God deals with different people on different levels. God deals with you as God wants to. God is working with me, my brothers, I tell you, I open my heart as a pastor, God is challenging me at that level of my finances to how dare I believe in him, that he is the provider of all things to my life. And I hope each one of us has learned the lesson of daring to believe him, that when we give with joy and when we're giving with a sense of commitment, saying, Lord, I'm doing this for you, I'm not doing it because the pastor is asking me to, because the church is asking me to, I'm doing it because I love you, because I love your work, because I love this church, and because I've been blessed through this church, I want the bless so that this church can continue to bless others wherever you take us.

If we come up with that understanding, look, it won't be so difficult to put it in the basket. If you have any questions, any comments, feel free to call me, Pastor Omar, I want to talk to you about this. For that we are. I believe that we are going to reach that point where we are going to have more pastors, that if I don't give up, there will be another one who will be able to talk to you. And I pray the day that comes. But for now, if you have any questions, any doubts, 617 541 4455 extension number 13, or else, God knows number, call him.

Brothers, do you understand what I have been sharing with you? I hope, I really, I hope to God that none of you leave here with a mentality that, ah, what you're doing here is squeezing the greens out of everyone. No. If you walk out of here with that thought, you have been listening with the right ear, or the left.

Hear the voice of God, my brothers. God is challenging all of us. I am in the same boat as you. God knows there are times when it's hard for me to loosen up my pocket too. and God is testing me with that. And I know that as I respond to that, I am going to see the blessing of God. I'm not saying that I'm going to see it financially, no, because God's blessing can come back in many other forms.

Next Wednesday I am going to tell you a testimony. Well, not a testimonial, a testimonial/request that I want to share with you, so I'm going to leave you with that for now, to be continued again.

We are going to stand up, my brothers, and we are going to pray. Beloved God, I thank you once more. Lord, I close these 4 weeks with joy in my heart. And I hope that my brothers are feeling the same joy knowing that each one of us is part of a wonderful work that you are doing in our midst.

Yes, Lord, I declare it like this, that each and every one of us, even those who think they have nothing to give, you want to use all of us to build your work, Lord. Your word says it very clearly, that the harvest is great and the workers are few, and you are looking for workers to work in the harvest. You are looking for workers to contribute to the development of work in that harvest.

So, Father, I beg you is my request, Lord, as pastor of my brothers and sisters, it is my request before you, Lord, that these weeks that we have had to reflect on this dimension of us being able to give, contribute to your work with our finances, by being able to understand that dimension of faith, Lord, to be able to believe in you that when we give you you are capable of responding to each of our needs and supplying each one of them, Jesus.

I ask you, my God, that tonight something is sealed in the hearts and minds, in the spirit of each one of my brothers and sisters, and Lord, that you move us in that dimension of a faith that is delivered by Complete to you, Lord, a faith without reservations, without conditions, without questioning things, but surrender to you with that simplicity of a child and believe you, Lord, in everything you say, in all your promises.

Father, I ask that your blessing accompany us now to our homes, be with us, Lord, protect us on the way back home and that tonight, my God, you allow us to have a deep, peaceful, restful rest. that the anxieties of the different situations that we may have, my God, do not rob us of the opportunity to recover our energies, Lord. And that tomorrow if you allow it, my God, we can get up with a new perspective, Lord, towards life and be able to use everything that tomorrow can bring and do it in your name, not in our own strength, but do it on yours.

I declare your blessing on each one of my brothers and sisters, Lord, on each one of them that when they go out through those doors, they can feel your presence, that it accompanies them and that it strengthens them at all times. We bless your name and thank you, thank you, thank you, Lord, for tonight. We ask it all and we surrender it all to you, Lord, in the name of Jesus. Amen. And amen.

Brothers and sisters, greet each other.