Ana and Simeon - God's promises are fulfilled

I want to invite you to turn to Luke in Chapter 2. There is a text here that I want to share with you, the presentation of Jesus in the temple. I have wanted to put aside for a moment this series of sermons that I have titled "Complex Faith" and in this time closer to Christmas, I also want to honor the Christmas theme and that is why I am going to put aside for a It's time to complicate your mind and I'm going to calm it down a bit with a more tender Christmas message. And then I will make life difficult for you again, in a couple more Sundays, we will continue with this series that I hope will be a blessing for you, an edification. But today we are going to talk about this event in the life and ministry of Jesus, very close to his birth.

All the accounts in Scripture about the birth of Jesus, his childhood, the beginning of his ministry, in fact, his whole life, have something to do with the person of Jesus, the gospel message and they project and present some aspect, some spiritual truth that we have to remember. And we have to integrate our life.

This text is no different, it marks a special moment in the beginning of Jesus' earthly career, we are going to read it, and there are two characters that I want us to reflect on a little bit and learn from them, Anna and Simeon. It says here, Luke 2:21.

“…After the 8 days to circumcise the child… ─ a Hebrew custom was that at 8 days the child was presented to the Lord and as if he was integrated in a more formal way into the human community and was presented before God to receive spiritual blessing and Jesus and his parents submitted to that custom and 8 days of birth arrived and they presented themselves to the temple to circumcise the child and to consecrate him to the Lord.

Circumcision was that simple surgical operation that marked a man as the property of the Lord and a member of the community of Israel.

“…And they named him Jesus, which had been given to him by the angel before he was conceived. And when the days of their purification ─ of their fathers ─ according to the Law of Moses were fulfilled, they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord…”

How God managed to introduce himself, himself, I don't know but he can do it. God was introducing himself. What do you think, those are the mysteries of the Trinity and the incarnation. Man, God, appears before the Father. And says:

"... as it is written in the law of the Lord, every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord..."

That is what was in the law. That is to say, the firstborn. You know that in Israel all the firstborn belonged to the Lord, the first male, the first part of the harvest, the first animals, the best belonged to the Lord, they were consecrated to the Lord. That is why the Bible speaks of the first fruits, of bringing the first fruits to the Lord. And every firstborn that opened the womb, that is, that was the first fruit of the woman, that man was considered set apart for the service and for the purposes of the Lord. They all were, but that particular firstborn male was very, very important. And again, the Lord submits to that one. Who more than the Lord who was conceived precisely to fulfill the purposes of the Father.

“…And they also came to the temple to offer, according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons…”

Some believe that Mary and Joseph presented a simple sacrifice to the Lord because they could not offer much more than that, they were members of the poorest class and therefore their sacrifice, their surrender to the Lord at that moment was something simple, two turtledoves, two pigeons. They weren't members of the ruling caste, by no means.

"... and behold, there was in Jerusalem ─ and here we enter our story ─ ... and behold, there was in Jerusalem a man named Simeon and this man, just and pious..."

I want you to think about those two words because we are going to deal with them later.

“…just and pious, he expected the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon him…”

Very important, there are several things there, he was just and pious, he expected the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon him.

“…and it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit ─ note the ministry of the Holy Spirit throughout this story ─… it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he saw the anointed, the Messiah, of the Lord. And moved by the spirit, ─ again the presence of the spirit ─ … moved by the spirit came to the temple. And when the parents brought the child Jesus to the temple to do for him according to the custom of the law, he, Simeon, took him in his arms and blessed God saying, "Now, Lord, let your servant depart in peace, according to your word because my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples. Light for revelation to the Gentiles and glory to your people Israel. And José and his mother were amazed…”

Picture this, I can't get away from stopping the narrative a bit. Joseph and Mary have this mysterious being whose birth has been accompanied by the announcement of an angel, and mysterious things that they, humble, simple people, not very learned or very intellectually developed, do not fully understand what it means. They do not have a theology study. I don't know if perhaps they didn't even know who the Messiah was, that this is prescribed and prophesied by the prophets. I believe that these people, José and María, certainly did not know how to read or write, brothers.

However, they see this, they bring their child for what they think is going to be a run-of-the-mill ceremony, like baptizing a child or something like that, presenting it in church. And suddenly this mysterious old man comes and full of emotion talks about it and says, “Lord, now I can go now, I can die now. You say goodbye to me in peace because you have prepared it." Imagine if that was said about your son in the presence of all the peoples and he is a light for revelation to all the nations of the world, the Gentiles and is the glory of your people. That is, your people are glorified and honored in it. How would you react? Because sometimes we think that well, if the angel announced to Mary and if he was born by immaculate conception as the Catholic brothers say, well, what else do you ask? You already know that this is an extraterrestrial being and that it is something wonderful, but they are still learning who is the being that was born among them and from them.

And he says that they were stunned listening to what this strange man, who doesn't know them, doesn't know the child, but then there must be a connection, at that moment they connected with the shepherds who came, with the magicians who came from the east to bring them gifts for a king, and they said, “Hey, what do we have in our family?”

And then they were amazed at everything that was said about him. And Simeon blessed them, blessed Mary and Joseph, and said to his mother, Mary, "behold, this child is set for the fall and rise of many in Israel."

It's what I say, I can't suppress this. It is that Jesus, this connects with my sermons of complex faith, Jesus not only came to carry a humble and simple little lamb. He also came to destroy and he came to bring down and he came to break, and he came to create division as well. he was not only the humble shepherd boy, he came to provoke conflict.

Behold, this one is set for the fall and rise of many in Israel. And for a sign that will be contradicted, in other words, it will cause controversy. Not everyone is going to believe in him and some are going to deny him and they are going to condemn him and they are going to deny that he is who he says he is.

And a sword, it's like the Holy Spirit put it in a hole, but look at that hole and a sword will pierce your very soul.

When did that sword pierce the soul of Mary? When she saw her son crucified. A mother seeing her son, even if he was the Son of God, suffering unspeakably, that sword pierced his soul at that moment. Notice how God, in his mercy or whatever, because I'd rather not know that, frankly. But the Lord does what he absolutely wants to do, and he wanted to declare that there.

This is how God's revelations are, by the way, brothers. God's revelations are sometimes sinister. God's dealings are sometimes strange things in one and he does what he wants when he wants and how he wants. God is not just here to do what we want him to do.

It says, “…so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed, what was hidden, all the rottenness, all the hypocrisy that was in Israel and in its religious system and apparatus, all of that Christ brought to light, the thoughts of many hearts.

When Christ is in a place, brothers, the cockroaches begin to run like when they turn on the light. That's the thing when you're in the presence of God, you're an x-ray coming into your life and revealing everything.

So that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed, this is Simeon, he says, then there was also Anna, a prophetess, daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher, very old, for she had lived with her husband 7 years since her virginity and it was life 84 years ago. Do the math. 7 years married, 84 years widowed, how much is it? 91. And she did not get married I imagine when she was born, she was 14, 15 years old, she was already a woman, that is, 104 to 106 years old more or less she had this woman, but she was still hard as a coconut, strong in the Lord, full passionate for God, full of spirit, strong in the Lord.

He says that he did not leave the temple, serving night and day with fasting and prayers. There are people out there who work 6 hours a day and they can't fast anymore, they can't pray, they can't go to church because they already have a headache. This woman was 100-odd years old and fasted and prayed. Glory to God for those passionate people. I would like to be one of those, I hope it is and you too, we want to raise a church of people filled with the spirit of God.

She had been a widow for 84 years, she did not leave the temple. He was presenting himself at the same time, a divinely arranged appointment, he thanked God and spoke of the child to all those who awaited redemption in Jerusalem. Glory to the Lord.

What a beautiful passage. I think I could close here because I have already preached half of the sermon interpreting it as I read it. The characters that appear in this passage are exemplary, they are there for a purpose, they are there to point to something, to exemplify something, to embody a spiritual truth.

We have to learn moral, ethical and spiritual lessons from them. Simeon and Ana are like an incarnation of virtues that we can learn and that is why God chose us for this story at that moment.

Another point here in preparation, Luke is the writer that I would call as the writer of the Holy Spirit. Luke wrote the book of Acts, you will remember, which is the book that most powerfully expresses the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit in the life of his church. And he also wrote the Gospel according to Saint Luke. And one of the distinctive attributes of the Gospel according to Saint Luke is its continual pointing to the work of the Holy Spirit. If you explore Luke in the light of what I am saying, you will discover that of the four evangelists he most strongly emphasizes the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus and in his ministry and in the ministry of the disciples.

So it is no coincidence that this text that we are reading points to two people filled with the Holy Spirit who are being led by the spirit for a unique encounter with the Son of God. Luke emphasizes the role of the spirit in the entire ministry of Jesus.

I also want to tell you something else and that is that the Holy Spirit does not appear for the first time in the New Testament. He knows that the Holy Spirit does not appear in Azusa in the year 1906 for the first time, the Holy Spirit is in Scripture and in the history of humanity and in creation from the very beginning of eternity, it has no beginning, but from creation at least. It is the eternal and ever moving Spirit of God.

If you go to the Old Testament you see the spirit of God working through the judges, the prophets, the anointed kings, the great men and women of God, the great moves of God in history are always energized and enabled. by the Holy Spirit.

We see it in the creation itself, it says that the spirit of God moved over the waters. The spirit is active in all of God's creative acts. it is God himself moving in the midst of his creation, in power, in action, and brothers, you know something, that if you want to have a creative and powerful life, you need the move of the Holy Spirit in your life. That is what this passage tells us.

That Simeon and Ana are two people who move under the anointing and power of God's spirit, and that we also need as the same Son of God, we need our life to be a continuous search for freshness from the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes what the spirit requires is simply a touch from us, a slight call and he is there ready to refresh our waters when we need it.

I believe that this passage should serve as a reminder, a call to all of us that your life be like that of Simeon and Ana, your movements, your decisions, everything you do directed and governed and coordinated by the Holy Spirit. All of God's creative acts have the Holy Spirit. It is God moving in the midst of his creation in power and action.

I see the Holy Spirit as the executive element, the manifestation of the person of God who creates, who works, who moves, who energizes, who makes things possible and that is why we, the children of God, cannot simply see the Holy Spirit as an implicit, generic presence in our religious life. No, you have to focus on it continuously.

Many churches and many Christians simply make a casual mention of the Holy Spirit. And they treat it like something by deletion is there. But no, the key to a spirit-filled life is when you see the Holy Spirit as a continuous focus of your life. You are always making him fall in love, calling, exalting, celebrating, asking, swimming inside him, refreshing, taking his temperature and spiritual pressure to see where you are in terms of the spirit. And when you feel that it is declining, time to get back into the waters, time to ask, Lord, refresh me, because I no longer feel the same in prayer, I no longer have so much adoration, since I kind of go to church and it's the same, I already pray but it's a routine, I already read the word but it doesn't excite me.

When you feel those things, when you don't feel that you are alive in the presence of God, get back into the waters and refresh your cultivation of the spirit. It has to be like that in all life. Because that is what enables all creativity in your life. Nothing is possible for the children of God truly, genuinely if they are not motivated and energized by the action of the Holy Spirit. You can do many things in the flesh.

I can stand here, recite a sermon, and fool you with some semi-eloquent words, but you know what? If the energy of the Holy Spirit is not included in my word, it will rebound from all of you and it will do absolutely nothing. Only when the spirit is within those words and it reaches the heart and explodes within you, and comes to life, then there is change and there is impact, and that is why before I stand here, I have to make sure that I have the approval. and the seal, and the backing of the Holy Spirit to preach to you.

Because frankly, I certainly can't fool myself, I'm not going to fool the devil, I'm not fooling God, maybe I can fool you but sooner or later you're going to realize it and you're going to say, Lord, have mercy on the pastor. , touch it somehow. In the things of the people of God they have to be done in the spirit.

A church can grow, it can prosper, it can have a great choir, it can have a lot of religious apparatus and all those things and people see it from the outside and say, wow, what a church! Look, but that does not mean that the spirit of God is moving in that church and my passion and my desire is, Lord, always move in the midst of our people.

And I do believe that God moves in this place. Some will think not, but God moves in this place. With everything and wrinkles and blemishes and warts and sins, the spirit of God is in this place. The spirit of the Lord moves in this place. I believe, because God is merciful, not for us, but for him who is merciful and because he knows that there is a place for him in this space.

And we have to be like that in our life. Simeon and Ana exemplify that. The Lord himself submitted, brothers, to that law that it is by the spirit, it is not with the sword, it is not with the army, it is with the spirit. When the Lord incarnated as a man, God, he kind of abandoned his divine autonomy and submitted to human rules. And like every human being, he himself needed the anointing of the Holy Spirit and that is why he is presented in the temple and blessed. That is why he goes and is baptized with his cousin John, and that is why the spirit of God descended on his head in the form of a dove and filled him and baptized him.

And when he came out of those waters that were spiritual and liquid, it says that the Holy Spirit impelled him and moved him and threw him into the desert to have his first frontal encounter that would enable him to begin his public ministry. Because the first thing he had to do is confront the devil directly and defeat him judicially, submit to him throwing the best hits he could and he homered them all and then having defeated him legally, because later he came back but that was a judicial defeat , which he gave to Satan in the desert.

Now, once it was already clear that Satan had no part or lot with him, he then goes out and goes into his public ministry. He knows that many times, this is a small part of the sermon, so that God can take you where he really wants, so that God can fulfill his final purpose with you, there are fights that you have to have first with the devil. And you know what? Unfortunately none of us make it out like Jesus unscathed. I can show you some marks that I have around from my encounters with the devil. I wish I could tell you that I was 100 percent unscathed, but no.

But many times for God to prepare you and to complete what is needed for you to start your call, you have to go through those preparations first. So that he may be recognized just in his word and considered pure in his judgment, says the word of the Lord.

Now, the Lord is born by the spirit, because it is incubated by the Lord, the holy being that is born of Mary is the result of the deposit of the Holy Spirit. When he reaches old age, he is baptized by the Holy Spirit, impelled by the Holy Spirit he enters into that demonic test. And once he comes out of that ordeal, his first public appearance, in a sense, as a new minister of God is when he goes out to the synagogue and they hand him the scroll of the law to read, and coincidentally he pulls out the book of Isaiah. and read and say, the spirit of God is upon me and has anointed me to proclaim liberty to the captives, sight to the blind, healing to the sick, to declare the good day of Jehovah's salvation.

How wonderful, brothers. The ministry of Jesus is again and again seeking. He moves by the anointing of the Holy Spirit and we have to do the same in our lives. That's why I think this passage is so important, because at the very beginning of Jesus' ministry these two people, Anna and Simeon, exemplify that filling of the Holy Spirit.

Look at the first thing I see about Ana and Simeon, they are humble, poor people, nothing outstanding, ordinary people, like you and me, and perhaps even less. You would have seen them there in the temple, with thousands of people in the court of the gentiles or the court of the women or the court of the men and you would have passed them by, there was nothing in them physically that called much attention to them. attention. But you know what? They were superheroes in disguise, they were Superman and Wonder Woman in human dress, but they were people filled with the Holy Spirit.

And that is what makes the difference in life. Maybe they never went to a seminary, maybe they never preached a sermon, maybe they never read a concordance, I don't think they could even read or write, but they were people filled with the Holy Spirit.

And I always say that the Holy Spirit is the normalizer, the leveler of human inequalities in the church. You may not have much teaching, you may be a humble person, but if you are filled with the Holy Spirit you have everything you need to move forward.

Now, it is good that you educate yourself, that you grow in the Lord and that you learn more and that you read and study, because all of this is fuel for God's fire. Amen. But the basis of everything is that powerful fuel that is the spirit of God and that is why we have to look for that before anything else, before a doctorate or 4 discipleship courses, look for the raw energy, naked of the spirit of God in your life, and fill yourself with that first: prayer, fasting, the word of God, consecration, surrender to the Lord, stripping yourself more each day and seeking the presence of God, desiring it with hunger and thirst, as the psalmist says.

As the servant bellows for the streams of the waters, so my soul cries out for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God, he says, when will I come and present myself before the house of God?

So you have to live your life. My soul thirsts for God, but not for the God of religion, not for the God of Sundays, but the living God, the God of power. And if you live like this, the Lord will visit you, the Lord will do things through your life. Ana and Simeon, although they were poor, humble in condition, but they were people filled with the Holy Spirit. And that is very important.

That is to say, although they were humble, God is not a respecter of persons. The Bible says that the eyes of God run through the whole earth looking for those who have a perfect heart to show his favor towards them. The only thing you need is a heart desiring the glory of God, a heart that puts the presence and the move of God above all other things in your life and God will touch you and God will treat you and will to deal with you Ordinary people but full of spirit.

What other things do we see here also in these characters? Another thing that I see is that they were faithful people. Say with me, faithful. They were long-term people. They were marathoners, they weren't just 100 yard people, they were long term people. They were both old people. Ana was over a hundred years old, Simeon I think he was there following in the footsteps, but you know what? They had preserved the faith, they had retained what the spirit had entrusted to them through the many years.

How does Paul say at the end? He says, I have kept the faith, something like that, I have run the race, I have fought the good fight and the reward is simply waiting for me at the end of my life. Listen to me, I would like to end my life and say what Pablo said and you too. Hold on to what you have, who do you say that to? To one of the churches in Revelation? Hold fast what has been entrusted to you.

What things has God spoken to your life, my brother, my sister? Perhaps one day God touched you and called you to his kingdom and with tears you went to the altar and gave your life and perhaps it was a time of difficulty and you threw yourself at the feet of the Lord and God pulled you out of the hole, from the muddy mud, as it says, from the depth. And what happened? You returned home blessed, you saw the hand of the Lord straighten your path, but normalcy came and you forgot those first promises to the Lord, you forgot your first love.

God is speaking to someone this afternoon. And God tells you, retain what you have received, do not forget your beginnings, do not forget those first steps that you took when you loved me above all things, when you promised me that it would be mine and you have forgotten of that, and now you just give me a little. Go back to first love and cultivate that first love. Lives in the. And when you see that it decays, remember again where it was and pick it up and dust it off and put it again in a visible place.

Simeon had received a promise, at what age? 30 years, 40 years? who knows. Did an angel appear to you? I do not believe. But he got an impression inside, very powerful, who knows if it was a dream, it's possible. But I think that sometimes we romanticize the things of God too much and project things where there are none. Who knows if it was simply that in some powerful way God told him, look, you are not going to die without first seeing the Promised One of the nations, the salvation of the world.

And Simeon absorbed, was impregnated with that promise. He was impregnated with God's promise and lived his whole life with that promise there, hoping one day before he died that he would see God's betrothed. and he lived that way and when the time came, God told him, today is the day.

If God has put something in your life, a call, a concern, an impression of something that he wants you to do, an impulse of consecration, a delivery of something, a promise that you made to the Lord, do not forget it. . Retain it, cultivate it, bless it and salute it and live in it until you see its fulfillment. If it is from God it will be fulfilled, it may take 10, 20, 30, 40 years but be faithful to the Lord. Hold on to what you have, the Lord says to someone here or to some this afternoon. Retain what you have received, just as I gave it to you and do not compromise it. Be faithful.

God likes the people who live there, every day. If God put you in a position, stay there and do not look if you are happy, if you are excited, if you are bored. You are a soldier, if they put you there, stay there and cultivate it until the last moment.

The church is full of people who hold onto their visions simply based on their emotions. No, you serve the Lord out of integrity. You serve the Lord out of conviction, not out of chills or pimply skin, or angels yelling at you or something. No, it's because God said so and I'm going to do it and the meat that fits. Spot. Faithful to the Lord.

Ana, at the age of one hundred or so, is still there as a young girl, fasting, praying, interceding, crying out, visiting the temple every day, announcing the word of God. listen to me to reach that age consecrated to the Lord, those are the people that God loves, you know? The people delivered to the Lord and who retain what they have received and who are faithful and these two people, that is why God called them to be witnesses of something as sublime as the presentation of his Son.

Two things about Simeon. Simeon says the Bible, that he was just and pious. I have been haunted by Simeon's character and qualities through the years. I looked for the two words, because when I see words like that in the Bible, I always try to get the most out of them and then I went to the original Greek, which is translated into Spanish just and pious, and I looked for these two words because they are there. It says, Simeon was just and pious. The word fair in the original Greek is dicaios. How well they listen, you can see that they are intelligent people, they even speak Greek.

And the other pious word is eulabes. Say all eulabes. How many dicaious and eulabe people do we have here in church today? And these words are like two stars revolving around a sun and the two words shade each other. It's like one can understand them better when they are at stake with each other. And what I thought when I looked it up in the original Greek and the suggestion of these words in Greek literature and in the New Testament and the Old Testament, verified what I thought.

Because you can say just and merciful. It is not a repetition, it was something that was in the person of Simeon that I wanted you and I could embody in our own lives. And when they ask me, well, pastor, what do you believe? One of the things that I believe is that we need a balanced spirituality and as a church we have to look for both.

The word dicaios, which has many different variants in Scripture, generally refers to measuring things, weighing them, and judging them and discerning their true nature, going beyond appearances and seeing the reality of things. That is the entimation of the word dicaios, diacrino, from there comes the word critical, in fact, to criticize, to analyze.

And what the Scripture says is that that word, dicaios, refers to character, it refers to what I would say was the walk of Simeon. Simeon was a man of integrity, Simeon was a man who lived what he preached. Simeon was a man of good reputation before others. Simeon was a man that when you searched within the leaves, you found fruit.

There are many people that you look for within the leaves and find nothing, that is why the Lord cursed the fig tree, because it reminded so many Christians and so many Jews that they appear very religious but do not bear fruit. But Simeon in that sense of justice, fulfilled the justice of God and this is what I say, brothers, look as Christians, we have to look for that life that supports what we preach, a consistent life, but there is more than that.

Because right now I know that many of you, or some of you, are listening and say, oh, that applies to me, glory to God. It's the others, these hypocrites who are around me. No, look, that applies to you.

Because the word pious refers to the passionate part of the Christian life, and you know what happens? That is why I say that these two words are qualified. We have to look for spiritual, passionate people, but also that when you measure them on the scale, they give the measure, they give the size of true Christians, the character.

What God is looking for, brothers, every day more and more in us, in me, is a character that reflects the character of Christ Jesus. Integrity, spiritual solidity. I was sharing with the brothers this morning, for example, excuse me if I am brusque and harsh in the way I express myself, but that is not my desire.

Every year when there is the congress of women that is so blessed, so many lives are touched, women are impacted, filled with the spirit, the word of God flows, it is a wonderful time of worship, but you know what? Many times the leaders, including my wife, return home a little sad. Because especially at the beginning, like this last year, there are so many ugly moments of conflict, women who want the first seats. A sister took, imagine, there was a table that said reserved and these sisters at ease, or whatever their name is, took and sat there and removed the sign.

And when this sister who was one of the ushers arrived and asked, look, sisters, this is reserved here, was the sign not there? And you know what? Sister, here was a sign, where is it? And a little sister with the coolest smile, she took it out from below, she had sat on top of it to hide it, like a naughty girl would do things.

Other sisters just have to put up with them so they don't pull each other's bows. Ushers who are offended and I say that with pain in my heart, but it must be said because we want a tight measure. And now that happens in all the churches and I know that this is not our province. Unfortunately some of these people are from our church and are sometimes among the oldest. Sometimes the younger ones behave much better than the older ones.

There are also shepherds and that is every year, because they do not abide by the laws and react violently when they are called to their attention and asked to be as kind as possible. These sisters are about to smear themselves with shoe polish before going there in the morning because they know they are going to confront the devil himself.

So, do you see why I say that, brothers? Because where is the character of Jesus? Where is that justice of God? just and merciful. There are people who believe that because they are pious they don't have to be fair. What this idea of dicaoios says is that he was a man who reflected the character of Jesus.

Do you know when you and I are going to know that we truly have the righteous character of God? When Frances the bartender comes up to you and touches the glass and you pull it down, yeah, brother. Little brother, can you add a little more to fit another car there? And you say, of course, brother, of course, of course. And you bite your pride and take your cart and push it a little more and put it in there. Or when you stop occupying two spaces because it's a BMW and you don't want anyone to ride it so you want space between the two sides, but you're stealing space from a brother. That's being fair.

And look, I have to take my own medicine. There are areas in my life that I have to deal with, but it doesn't let me rest because I know that's what God calls me to do. And you and I, this church, have to every day, and you have to ask yourself, does my life reflect the character of Christ? To what extent am I reflecting the love, patience, kindness, meekness, subjection, tolerance of Christ? The fruit of the Holy Spirit, because sometimes we are titans with gifts, but what about the fruit of the spirit? For me one like the other is evidence of the presence of the spirit in your life, do not compartmentalize and do not divide, everything is, everything.

So, Simeon was just but he was also pious. The word pious, eulabes, what it means is that he also loved God, was passionate about the things of God, kept the rites of faith, attended church, tithed, fasted, kept promises, was passionate about God, merciful. That's the idea. The idea of piety means that, it is passion with God, it is not just a sanctimonious person. No, he is a passionate person towards God. It's that vertical part. It is just the horizontal part, my treatment with others, the type of man, woman, that I and you are, of husband, brother, friend, worker, driver, that people that I do not have hidden spikes and can touch me and there's not going to be anything there to sink them into. Because we have been treated by the water of God that has been smoothing the rough edges. But we are also people who jump, because this is not about removing either... No, glory to God, God wants passionate people who jump and jump and sing Pentecostal choirs, who are anointed, who go to church, all of that, but also that that humble and simple part of the Christian life is in its place. Do I understand myself, brothers?

It is a fair and merciful balance. And Simeon exemplified both. And he was a man also filled with the Holy Spirit. Sometimes when people hear me say this they think I'm throwing water at the Holy Spirit. No, quite the opposite. It is that for the Holy Spirit to truly move in your life, you need the foundation of a Christ-centered character. And don't tell me otherwise because that's what the word of the Lord says. And I struggle with that, it haunts me continuously in my life, because I apply it to myself, you also have to apply it to yourself because that often ruins the party for me, when I remember, I still have a lot to express the character of Jesus, but I know that this is where God calls me.

But I also want to be passionate about God, I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Simeon was a man who moved, his life says he was filled with the spirit. The spirit of God was with him and in him and everything he does is characterized by the spirit. He receives revelation from God. God told him, you are not going to die until you see my anointed. And he says that impelled by the Holy Spirit, in the spirit, is the translation in the original Greek, the spirit takes him and takes him to the temple at the indicated moment so that he can witness the presentation of his Son in the temple. Because God wanted a human witness, apart from Joseph and Mary, who were inevitably implicated.

I believe that Ana and Simeon, for me, perhaps I am a little romantic, were like representatives of the independent human race, witnesses, that God had brought and wanted them to be there at that moment to be witnesses when that incredible moment occurred when the Trinity was there, the Son, being presented, the Father, receiving the presentation, and the Holy Spirit moving, bringing Simeon, and all three of them present at that moment.

And Anna and Simeon, a man and a woman, like Adam and Eve, but already advanced in age, representing the human race, welcoming the Son of God to his ministry, and saying, welcome, Messiah, welcome Son of God to the earth. We bless you and we open the doors for you.

You know what? Because God has given man dominion over the earth. He gave him the land. And God himself is governed by authority. What, his own authority, he submits, and he declared man authority on earth and said, I want two members of the human race to welcome my Son and be present and be a spirit-filled people. and people already advanced in age, who have mileage. Do you know why? It's one of the things that I say that this culture glorifies young people, but you know what? The old also have a lot to do.

I told the brothers, look, one of the things that God has told me to say to you is, don't throw yourself to death because the years are passing. The best of your life are still ahead. Yes. And as the years go by, the hotter, hotter you get, you know? Amen.

For me, there is no anticipation of a decrepit old age, brothers. I want to serve the Lord with fire and passion until the last of my days. And I believe that what happens is that the more battles you have fought, and the more things have been taken from you, the more prepared you are to receive the true anointing of God in your life. Because it is that God does not only move through the young or the old, God moves through empty vessels that can contain his spirit. And sometimes God has to empty us of a lot of things so that then his glory can rest upon us and the old have struggled a lot and we've lost a lot and we've experienced a lot and then God can say, now, you and I can deal. Now I can use you.

Don't give up, don't throw yourself to death, don't give up, don't think that you are like a candle that goes out and the wax dries up until there is nothing left. The best times are ahead of you. While the outer man wears out, the inner man is renewed from day to day.

Says the word of the Lord, that even in old age they will bear fruit, they will be vigorous and green to announce that Jehovah, my strength, is upright and that there is no injustice in him. God does not give the young more than the old, he is not unfair, he gives everyone the same. It gives one thing to the young but to the old it gives another. If they told me, do you want to go back to 20 years? no way, I honestly tell you, brothers. I see myself at 20, 25 and I am afraid of myself, honestly. I am ashamed.

God gives you according to what is inside you, brother. And God can use you at any age, the only thing is that you be faithful, that you fill yourself with the spirit, that you love him above all things, that you retain what you have received, that you seek his presence, that you let yourself be moved by his spirit, that you love the intimate place of God's presence and that you pay the price and that you divest yourself of all secondary interests, except the glory of God in your life. Live for him, consuming yourself with desire for him.

And that is that when Simeon has fulfilled his purpose, and God has fulfilled the promise that he had given him, he says, Lord, now you send me away in peace. Notice something, he doesn't say, fire me in peace, no, he says, now you fire me. yes or no? In other words, what he is saying is a certainty, I am leaving now, my ticket has already been stamped on me, because I have fulfilled my purpose here on earth. Nothing can hold me in this world. He does not ask, Lord, give me 20 more years of life. No. Lord, I've done it, glory to God, I'm going with you.

Because one has to live like this, brothers. The only thing that puts up with us in this world is how I can be used by God, that's what must put up with you. How can you be useful to the Holy Spirit, to the Kingdom of God? Paul said it, I would love to be with Christ because being with Christ is so much better, but if my staying here on earth is worth anything, then praise God, I'm going to stay.

And those are our perspectives, brothers. We say the opposite, I am going to cling tooth and nail to life, and if God wants to take me, I will have to say yes. No, it's the opposite. The child of God lives in terms of eternity. How can God use you? What gives you value and worth is to what extent you serve for the Kingdom of God. To what extent the spirit of God enjoys being in you and moving through you. The rest is secondary. Get rid of everything so that like Simeon and Ana you can be used, used, for the great purposes of God and the moves of God in history.

Let's get rid of everything. Stand up, please. The Lord calls us, brothers. The Lord calls us this afternoon to fill us with his presence and I believe that the advance of the time of adoration was to prepare us. I give glory to God for the praise team and the enemy sometimes frankly, brothers, the flesh moves and tries to prevent certain things, but no. what God tells me, look, church, fill yourself with the Holy Spirit, give me my portion and God says to you, give me my portion, look for me above all things because I want to do great things.

There is a lot that has stayed with me, brothers, in the sermon, but allow me only this little thing. Simeon tells the Lord that he is the consolation of Israel. That is what Jesus was. Simeon saw it as the consolation of Israel. Why the consolation of Israel? Israel had suffered a lot and had been punished a lot, it had been humiliated a lot, it had been shamed a lot, it was under the Roman boot and the Messiah was the glory of his people, he was the consolation for his people.

And Simeon discerned that, that history was going to change with the coming of the Messiah, and the condition of his people was going to be different afterwards. Look, I believe that today the church is like Israel, in shame, in sterility and what we often do is fabricate glory, because we want it and as good Pentecostals we invent glory. But it's not genuine glory many times.

And that is what I have been preaching many times. Sometimes it is but sometimes it is not. And the church of Christ in this time is in shame. And the word of God does not flow with generosity as God wants. The prophetic word, the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the church as Israel is in shame at this time before society, before principalities and powers and before itself.

And I believe that God has a visitation from his spirit in which he wants to change and lift up the head of his church and restore its honor. I don't know for how long, but so that the church can rejoice again and celebrate the gifts of the Holy Spirit and have authority for a time on earth. And there is a visitation of the Holy Spirit that comes to console the church and to give it the glory that the church deserves, and people like Simeon and Anna are needed who have intuited this imminent visitation of the spirit of God and who are eager and preparing. and that when that comes and manifests, you can discern it and celebrate it and acknowledge it and declare it and announce it to others. And that is the time we are in now. And it takes people to lose everything and give everything up so that God can announce to them, this is the time of my visitation.

So let's get ready brothers for what's coming. Says the Lord, prepare your house, prepare your temple, clean yourself and heal yourself. Surrender everything, die to everything you can because my visitation is imminent and I want you to be there and to discern and see it. I want you to be one of my witnesses and announce it to others. We are being called to that. I am being called to it.

Believe it and receive it and say it no longer to the generic Gospel, religious, mediocre Gospel. Now, time like Ana and Simeon, dry in the flesh but the spirit burning inside and manifesting itself, because there is less meat to burn. Now what remains is the skin, the parchment. The flame is seen in the entrails because the skin is so transparent from old age. So it must be with us. That the meat is almost transparent. It's never going to be completely transparent, I tell him, but there's a lot of flesh to weaken yet. But so the power of God can be manifested in us.

May the glory of the Lord visit us in this Christmas spirit, we receive the visitation of the Holy Spirit and we say, Lord, come and fill us, fill us and deal with us. Cleanse us, strip us of everything that is not yours, Lord, of every agenda that does not come from you. Forgive us for being so hard to soften, Father, but we want you to fulfill your purposes in us, Lord. And we want to be suitable instruments through which you can manifest yourself. Do it, Lord, for the love of yourself and not for us because we don't deserve it, but for the love of yourself, Lord, do it.

We adore you, we bless you and we kiss your feet and hands, Lord. Our God and our sovereign, our king, our heavenly Father, we love you, we love you, we love you, Lord. glorify yourself. Thank you, thank you for your ineffable gift, Lord. Blessed and praised be your name. Thank you Jesus, amen and amen and amen.

Glory to the name of Jesus.