Holiness is vertical and horizontal

Let's go to the word of the Lord in First Thessalonians, Chapter 3, in verse 12. The word of the Lord says there: “…And the Lord make you grow and abound in love for one another and for all, as also we do with you… – That is the Apostle Paul, as I do with you, let you also feel it with everyone else and with each other in the church. – … so that your hearts may be established and reprehensible in holiness before God, our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints…”

I use this text as a starting point for what I want to talk about this afternoon. The subject of holiness and how we define it. I want to talk to you in this series of sermons where we try to clarify and specify the beliefs of our church, what are the hallmarks of our congregation. I want to talk about a topic that is so important to the churches, the topic of holiness.

I believe that our church has a somewhat complex interpretation of what holiness is and I believe it is something that is important for you to understand, how we interpret this issue. And that's why I want to take this time now.

What is holiness as described in the Bible, as we understand it? How do we define it? That is why I chose this passage as a starting point, where the Apostle Paul calls precisely that town of Thessalonica to a life of holiness before God, a life of being blameless before the Lord. But not only that, but also before he talks about that quality of being blameless and holy, he talks about growing in love for one another and for everyone.

So, we see here this double aspect of holiness where it is not only holiness as we understand it, of being blameless before God, living a righteous life and everything else, but also expressing the love of Christ, expressing the qualities of character of Jesus to one another.

And that is going to be the way that I am going to approach this subject, because I believe that our church should do everything possible to maintain a balance in these two dimensions of holiness. I'm going to talk a little more about that.

So the first thing I want to say is the following, the call to holiness from Scripture is something very real, very present, very continuous, it is not something that occurred to God at the last moment, but from Genesis to Revelation there is an insistence on the fact that the people of God must live a holy life.

Being saints is not just as it has been interpreted at times in the Catholic church, and we say this with respect, we disagree, that saints are like these overdeveloped people who have to go through an exhaustive process of determining if they can qualify for that category of saints. And very few people, less than 1% if anything, reach that exalted level. The Bible expects all of God's children to live in holiness. You can say amen to that.

It is a universal call and the Bible over and over again speaks of the saints who are in this city or in this church in such a place, and it is something that is an integral part of the call of the Christian life. God calls his people in Israel to be holy, and there begins God's call to holiness, it did not begin with the New Testament but began with the people of Israel.

For example, in Exodus, Chapter 19, in verse 6, at the very beginning of Scripture one sees this call of God through Moses to the people of Israel, he says:

“…And you will be a kingdom of priests and holy people. These are the words that you will say to the children of Israel…”

That is, at the very moment that God was founding this nation of Israel, there was already a call towards holiness. Israel had to be a holy people with God and you know what? That is something that should always overwhelm us in our identity as a Christian people. It is that God tells us too, you also have to be a holy people for my glory.

And for the people of Israel that call to holiness meant that the people of Israel had to be different. When God calls us to be holy, he calls us to be different. Morally different from the wicked nations that were around Israel at the time the nation of Israel was founded. They were nations that, as we are going to see, lived by values that God disapproved of. And then God said to the Jewish people, you have to be different from those nations, the Amalekites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, all those nations that were around them, the people of Israel, they were supposed to be different. .

And today, in our times, God calls us too. Because we are surrounded, I am not going to say that we are going to see the world as perverse, as people who do not deserve God's mercy. God is calling us to see ourselves as better and those people out there, as the Pharisees did. Well, we, thank God that we are here in the truth, and the others to go to hell.

No, but we do have to understand while we still look with great mercy and compassion at the world out there, we have to understand that many people today live in darkness, live without the knowledge of what God wants for them. There are many people who are doing things that are contrary to God's will and who are convinced that they are right, or have convinced themselves and hypnotized themselves into believing that what they are doing is right, and then God tells us , you have to live a different life. As I asked my people of Israel to be different from those nations around them, you in the 21st century, in the year 2012, have to live a life with different values than the world around you lives.

Now, how did those nations live? How were those nations so that we can make a clarity about how we have to be. Well, those nations were pagan nations and they lived among other things, one of the problems they had with God was that they lived a riotous sexual life. His sexual values were completely undisciplined values. There was a lot of sexual immorality. There were cults of gods that were completely impure and contrary to the holiness of God. That is why I believe that in the Old Testament God emphasizes his holiness and purity so much, because the gods that these people worshiped were gods that promoted sexual debauchery. There were cults of priestesses, who were sacred prostitutes. There were phallic gods, and a host of other things. They were communities that practiced homosexuality, they practiced orgies, this kind of thing, and they were seen as something very normal. And the Bible says that God, for those things, removed these nations from the lands where they were and gave that land to a people that he expected and wanted to live in a different way.

Other things, those nations worshiped false gods. Gods who were actually demons and who claimed a worship that only the true God, Jehovah, Yavé, deserved. Also another point, those nations practiced human sacrifices, sacrifices of babies, children, supposedly to gain power, to gain the approval of those gods and they sacrificed people, as we see today in many still pagan nations, who make these sacrifices, to those gods who are actually demons thirsty for human blood. And then God said, you have to be different from those nations.

Today, in the world we live in, one sees through television, through the internet, through the values that are practiced in this society, a culture that is interestingly similar to that culture of 3,000 years ago. 4 thousand years, every day more and more, in a sense, man becomes more complex, more advanced culturally, intellectually but at the same time, in a sense that we are going backwards, resembling more and more the practices that these nations carried out thousands and thousands of years ago.

So, God was saying to Israel, you, my people, have to live in a different way. That means, among other things, that instead of worshiping false gods, I require that you worship only me.

What is the first commandment of the 10 commandments? You will love the Lord. In another version it says, you will have no other gods before me. And then he talks about loving him above all things.

The main hallmark was that, a total consecration. Brothers, how many of us, those of us who are sitting here, and I myself, standing here, can say, I love the Lord with all the strength of my soul, my mind, my being? Frankly, I tell you and praise God for such an enthusiastic reaction on your part, but I tell you, when I look at myself, I say to myself, I still have a long way to go. Honestly there are many things that I could still do to exemplify a life completely surrendered to the Lord and what the Lord asks of me.

I think we can all improve on that. But definitely one of the things that distinguishes a holy people is a life dedicated to the Lord. Everything we have, our family, work, money, free time, entertainment, intellect, dreams, everything is dedicated to the Lord.

Another thing, when God told the people of Israel, I want them to be holy, there was a whole series of laws that had to do with food, clothing, all these things. God's people had to stay clean because the body was important. So, we are going to see later that this area of food and rituals changed a little over time. In the New Testament, that dimension becomes more complex, but definitely in the Old Testament, holiness was accompanied by that idea of kosher meals and keeping certain restrictions.

Because God cares about matter and for this reason also another of the areas that God was very concerned about was the human body. How the Israelites treated their bodies, and they should have treated the body according to God's laws.

One of the interesting things about primitive cultures, for example in Africa, in Asia, to a certain extent as well, you will notice that the pagan nations, who do not know the true God, there is a kind of glorification of nature. Nature is extremely domineering. There is a cult of the sun, the moon, the forces of nature. Gods that have to do with nature. The body has control, human appetites.

When God calls Israel to be holy and calls us also to be holy, he is saying to them, look, your body is good, I have created the body, and therefore you have to treat your non-conforming body as if the body and matter were God, but according to what I establish as values about the body.

You have to relativize the body in a certain sense, but not denigrate it either. The Gospel, the Old Testament values the human body and tells us, you are the temple of the Holy Spirit, God dwells within you, therefore take care of your bodies.

Israel had to take care of his body. Look, I was telling the brothers this morning, and I'm safe, telling them that if you have a tattoo on your body, don't worry, I'm not attacking you with what I'm going to say right now, but you know that in the Old Testament God told the Israelites, you must not mark your body. They should not cut their body with knives and the like. They must not penetrate their bodies. And that's what I'm saying, the interesting thing is that modern culture, despite the fact that it becomes so advanced in many things, but today, how much industry there is for tattoos. There are television programs dedicated to tattooing the body.

Early pagan nations tattooed their bodies. And again, brother, please let your guard down, I'm not telling anyone, I'm not attacking anyone. I'm only talking about what the word of the Lord says.

If you got a tattoo before you met the Lord or at another time, look, don't run away from here now, I'm not attacking you, but I'm just saying something so that we understand how complex it is. Because? Because God says, that body that I created is a holy body. I want you to use it for good things, don't hurt it, don't treat it as if it were a wall where you paint anything. That body reflects my creative act and you have to take care of it.

And so we have to do with other things. That is why we cannot abuse our body. We cannot sexually use our body in a way that harms it, exposes it to viruses and pests and harmful things. Neither can we glorify the body and make it the goal of our lives, glorify it.

Today, as in the time of Greece and Rome, the human body has become a God and you see that television no longer shows normal people, people like us, but everyone has muscles that want to come out from the shirt, the women are all beautiful, the men have well-cared for and well-treated bodies and are perfect. Since the television series are eye candy, everyone is looking at them there to drool… it doesn't matter so much what they are saying, one is simply seeing precious and beautiful people, with pretty colors. It is the glorification of the human body.

And it's also like we're going backwards in a sense, like these nations. And holiness calls us yes, to see the body belongs to God, it is beautiful but to use it within the norms that God has established, to take care of our body, to live a sober life.

I think that also has to be translated into diet. I believe that Christians, if we are truly going to understand what holiness is with respect to the body, look, brother, we have to take care of what we eat, less chops and a little more fish.

There are people who cannot eat fish, it is because they did not get used to it. In the Caribbean, for example, what is eaten is chop and beef. And such a diet is harmful to the body, you need vegetables, you need fruits. I'm sounding like your mom now but it's true.

That's why so many Latino and African American people, this is happening all over the world, this nation is becoming an obese nation, unbelievably. We have to take care of our bodies, because it is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

It's not just not smoking, that's why I say we have to have a broad understanding of what holiness is. It is not only not smoking, not drinking, but what about not eating so much red meat, what about eating less, what about resting our bodies more, what about not working, working and taking a day to be with the family to meditate on the word of the Lord, what about changing our diet, what about exercising, what about taking a good walk when we get home from work and going to a park, getting some fresh air, walking with our wife holding hands. What do you think of Ruth, and tell her that she will always be faithful to you. They are beautiful things, brothers, that is part of that holiness and that care of the human body.

I mean, there was this call to be different. Another area in which Israel was supposed to be holy is in sustaining a pure, monogamous sexual life. God calls his church to sexual purity within a marriage between a man and a woman. Today, the world, unfortunately, is going in other directions, where there is terrible sexual debauchery, where there are efforts to normalize even polygamy, where marriage has simply become a convenience and when it doesn't work, it falls apart and falls apart. find another. But it's polygamy in disguise, that's all. Multiple marriages, indiscipline in that area.

Today, the concept of marriage has also changed and today a man or a woman, a woman with a woman, a man with a man, and there are even efforts for a man with children, all of this is happening in a culture that every day becomes rampages more and more. In this context, God tells the people of God, I want you to be different, that you be a holy people, set apart for me, that reflects the values of my kingdom.

Now, that's in the Old Testament. In the New Testament that theme of holiness continues. We see something and that is that in the New Testament the ritual part, the part of clothing, dressing, parties, sacred festivals, washing hands, whether or not to eat locusts or rabbits or other animals, these things change. in the New Testament, in light of what Christ has done on the cross of Calvary, of his sacrifice on the cross that has freed us from a number of things that, in light of what Christ says, are not so important, They are not so necessary, but they also have an important value to consider, but they do not have the force that they had before in the Old Testament.

But the moral law of the Old Testament carries over into the New Testament and continues that call to holiness. For example, in First Thessalonians 3:12, which I read at the beginning,

“…That your hearts may be established blameless in holiness before God our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, with all his saints…”

Another passage about holiness, Hebrews 12:14:

"...Follow peace with all and holiness without which no one will see the Lord..."

It is a strong call in the New Testament to live holy lives, lives pleasing to the Lord. That is to say, we see that from Genesis to Revelation that insistence of the word is very clear.

Just like my people Israel, I expected them to be holy, so I expect you to be holy. The grace that characterizes the New Testament, salvation by grace not by works, does not exempt us from that call to holiness.

And do you know why you don't exempt us? Because Christian holiness is linked to the character of God, to the person of God, and God never changes and will never change. God is totally holy. What does it mean that God is holy? It means that God is different from all created things. God never lies. God never exploits anyone. God never abuses his power. God is not a sensual God. God is a pure, clean God, he does not tolerate anything corrupt, anything crooked, anything false, and we who seek communion with that God need to be like him.

So, we see that God is unique, God is totally separate from all created things, although it is also an interesting part that in addition to God being separate, God is also involved in his creation. God does not exist there in the stratosphere completely separate from us, God is different from us, he is completely separate from what we are, but he is involved in his creation, in history and not only that, but he incarnated in the person of Jesus and became like one of us too.

What a wonderful idea. Perfect God and perfect man united in the person of Jesus, symbolizing that God who behaves in a very different way from any human being, but who is also involved, trying to bring creation to its original state of perfect holiness, of total perfection. .

And we too, brothers, are called like God to be separate too, to reserve ourselves solely for God and for the values of his kingdom. God's people are supposed to exist in that separation, in that holy distance from the world's values. As Christians we are called to two things, brothers, we are called to be separated from the practices and values of a world that does not know God, but we are also called to serve the Lord. We are separated from the world, God separates us to serve the Lord and be his instruments.

That is to say, that in a sense our holiness is equal to the holiness of God. God is apart from the world, he is apart from the world, but he does not stay apart, but is involved with the world. We are the same. We are separated from the world, in our values, our way of behaving, but God expects us to be involved in the world, to be the salt of the earth, to be the light of the world.

Know what? Your holiness is not so that you do not touch, do not interact with people, walk around fearing that they will sully you if you get on a bus or a train. No, God wants us to be totally involved in the world as we live a holy life. If you are a housewife, let your neighbor and your neighbors know that there is something different about you, but you are also a nice, pleasant, accessible person.

If you work in a school, you work as a nurse in a hospital or as a doctor, you are a teacher, you are a chef in a restaurant, you wash dishes in that same restaurant, if you are a businessman, a business woman, if you You run a social agency, you're a politician, whatever, yes, in a sense your identity must be very different from the world's values, but you are also involved in the world and you were a presence. You are always teaching the world how God wants us to live life, and your life sparks interest in people. Wow, why is he behaving like that? Why isn't he cursing like everyone else in the factory? Why isn't she criticizing the bosses the way other people do and complaining? Why don't you hide in the bathroom to smoke at 10:00 in the morning? And why is he there giving 8 hours of work for 8 hours of pay?

That is, God wants you to be holy, to be pure, for your values to be wonderfully different values, but God also wants you to be involved in the world as salt, as yeast, as an agent of transformation and change in the world. And that is the difficult call of holiness that God wants both.

Just as he is different but is also in the world working, so are you. First Peter, Chapter 2, verse 9, says:

"...More you are chosen lineages, royal priesthood, holy nation..."

Do you see there that aspect that you are something different? You guys are something special, but look what he says:

"...A people acquired by God so that you may announce the virtues of him who called you out of darkness into his admirable light..."

I think that one of the problems many times with the definition of holiness in many evangelicals is that they kind of believe that holiness is only to turn away from, but not to turn away for. So there is a mystical, separate people that does not interact with the world, does not mix with the world, and then that people, says the Bible, if salt loses its flavor it is useless.

The salt has to be mixed with the substance that is going to be salted, there is no such thing as a theoretical salt, if you are going to salt a meat, you do not add it to the wood of the table, you add it to the meat so that it comes out and influences it.

How are we going to be an influential people in the world if we don't mix with the world? Now, that poses some tremendous dangers, I understand that, but there is no alternative. We have to invite people into our homes, we have to be workers that people know.

Do you know what sociologists say over there? That once a Christian has been a Christian for two or three years, they already lose their evangelistic effectiveness. Do you know who the best evangelists are? The new people. Because he still has contact with family and friends and all this. Sadly, once Christians and evangelicals have been in the evangelical culture for a while, they lose contact with unbelievers and stop being salt, they no longer invite people to church.

Every time a new person comes and converts in the church, I don't just see that person, I see 4 or 5 or 6 who come with them too. His father, his mother, his friends, his brothers because that person wants others to know the Lord. Never stop having contact with unbelievers. May your holiness not prevent you from being an active agent. Amen. God has called you to announce the virtues of the Lord.

Another matter about holiness. Why is holiness important? Look, if you don't exemplify holiness, you can't, and I can't have fellowship with God. A holy God, a pure God, requires holy and pure people to associate with him. The Bible says that God cannot even look at sin. How are we going to be intimate with God? Many people feel separated from God and even in church, they pray but do not feel in contact with the Lord. They worship but have no passion for God. They don't feel like God is speaking to them. Perhaps one of the reasons is that your life is not consecrated enough to the Lord, because without holiness no one will see the Lord. Without holiness we cannot have fellowship with him.

We cannot receive anything from God either. Would you like to receive power from God? Would you like to receive revelation from God? You have to clean your life, every day ask the Lord for more and more, Lord, make me an instrument of yours, make me a thread, a connector through which your grace can flow into my life.

And finally, without holiness we cannot be used by God. God is not going to use an impure instrument. The utensils in the temple, the furniture in the temple, the temple itself was a sacred, holy place. They were things dedicated to the Lord and could not be used for profane purposes. And that's why it's so important that we too, who are instruments of God, are temples of the living God, live holy lives so that God can use us.

The Apostle Santiago says that a fountain cannot produce sweet water and bitter water. It cannot produce poison and also juice that quenches thirst. It has to produce either one thing or the other. How many of us can say, no, I am a source that produces only fresh water? What comes out of our mouth? How is our deal with others? How are our actions around us? Do we truly produce energies that are devoted to producing positive things, good things for the Lord?

I call for holiness, the great prerequisite. Holiness is at the base of all good things that a Christian can receive. Holiness is the sinequanon, to use a fancy expression, in Latin. It is that without which you cannot receive any good thing from the Lord. Being holy, seeking holiness, sanctifying our lives, improving every day the way we live life, and what we are before God and our brothers, I assure you brothers, is the greatest blessing that you can give to your life.

Many people think that the call to holiness, we do it because we are self-righteous, because we want to ruin the party for people. Look, on the contrary, it is love that calls us to call people to holiness. How many times do we hear this idea that because we demand sexual purity, that because we demand discipline in the Christian life, we do it because we are self-righteous, we are self-righteous, we think we are better than others, we have no mercy, we do not we have love That is what the secular world today uses to accuse us of insisting on a certain kind of purity in life.

But you know it's the opposite. What impels us, what forces us many times to insist that people accept the values of the word of God as norms for life, is that we love them, it is that without those values they will not be able to be happy. . The devil wants you to live as you want, and that you believe that this is the way to live, but in the end he pulls the rope and breaks your neck in a moment. He doesn't care that you run wild through the pleasures. But one day, AIDS, one day, a bullet in a nightclub, one day an accident while you're drugged or drunk, one day a marriage that collapses, one day some children who no longer want to hear from you and who leave for the world of perdition, one day you find yourself depressed, you find yourself filled with anxiety, you cannot sleep, you need pills for everything, you went after the money, you went after the pleasures of the world, you thought the world was yours, but In the long run, the collectors come and ask you with interest for what you borrowed from them.

So, God says, look, live life right from the beginning, control your appetites, discipline your life, enter into the truth of God, abide by the commandments of the Lord because in that life there is blessing, there is eternity.

The devil wants you to experience pleasures that burn your nervous system. In a disco all the lights shining everywhere, the interest of that woman if she is going to go with you at night at the end of the party, and yet the next day, what happens? Your system is totally burned. You feel depressed, you feel empty, you don't know why, and when you practice that over and over and over and over again destruction comes into your life. And one day you find yourself at 50 prematurely old and depressed. Your children are gone, they don't want to hear from you, the woman left with someone else a long time ago. What happened? The devil was blinded, he deceived you, he entertained you so that you would give him your vitality.

I see women and men when I sometimes come to church, standing there on that street, Alban Street and Massachusetts, at 30, 40 years old, one still sometimes sees women and men who still have a little vitality left. At some point they were beautiful, attractive people, full of life, but you see, the cable is already drying up. They have little time left. You see it in the dry skin, the fallen look, the mouth that reflects bitterness, the body that no longer walks in the same way. These people are living on pure card, they take drugs, have unbridled sex, get drunk, do whatever they want, live like lawless goats, but there is a price to pay and God says, no my son, come within the framework Heal of my holiness and you will live a happy life every day.

Perhaps you will not have those unbridled appetites, but what I give you is manna, it is eternal life, something that does not burn you, does not destroy you, does not dry you out, but is renewed within you every day.

What do you think is the best investment? Two hours and a bit here in the church, receiving the word of God, adoring the Lord, with people who have sublime values, who are persecuting, or four, five hours in a disco or doing things that are inappropriate? Which of those two lives do you think you are investing for the future? It doesn't take much to say.

That is why we have to live that disciplined life. That is the holiness to which God calls us. Holiness ensures our spiritual and emotional well-being. When you live within the values of the Lord, you have peace in your heart, even when the storm comes, you can say, peace in the midst of the storm.

Even when difficulties and trials come in life, you say like the psalmist, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear any evil because you will be with me, your rod and your silence will give me encouragement.

Brothers, when you live a life that pleases the Lord, no one can touch you, although when the devil comes and attacks you and you suffer, you know that in the long run your God is going to come and save you and get you out Of the test.

You know that your back is covered, the life of a person who has accepted the values of the Kingdom of God is a safe life and you also know that when you have a holy and pleasing life to the Lord, that ensures blessing and prosperity. of material God, too. God blesses a people who live in holiness.

That is why I tell you, I cannot wait to see what God is going to do with this community in the coming years, how you are going to change, how your children are going to be blessed, how your children are going to prosper. I want us to open this wall, push it backwards, forwards and that this be filled with families that seek refuge in the house of God.

Only in this way will the bloodshed in our streets be stopped. This is the only way to stop the premature death of our young people who insert syringes that poison their blood and kill them prematurely. Our daughters who become mothers before themselves are daughters as they should be. The church is the only refuge for the world and we have to announce this life that Christ calls us to live, so that many come.

I believe that the church is the only refuge for a community that aspires to have God's blessing and prosperity. So I want to, and we have to make sure that everyone we can attract to God's ways. And so we have to live those values, we have to exemplify those values. I call you and me every day to fight that good fight of faith, because it is not easy. You have to pay a price, you have to exempt yourself from many things, you have to battle against the cry of blood and flesh within us.

But when you do it like this, life is ordered, life is arranged, life takes its course and it's worth it, it's certainly worth it. We have to do everything possible. Holiness assures us of divine protection.

When you live according to the values of the Kingdom of God, God protects you from the attacks of the devil. And if the devil comes, the Lord stands up and says, he has to get through me first. And even if God allows you to be tested, God brings you out shining like gold, says the word of the Lord.

God will sometimes allow the test to come into your life, but if you spend it with God, that will result in a blessing for your life. You will be a man, a woman more like God wants you. You know that without proof there can ultimately be no true holiness. It is a paradox. But the truth is that we need God sometimes to kill the flesh a little within us so that we can then be as Christ wants us to.

Many times the cry of the flesh is so great within us that it has to be appeased a little. And that is why sometimes sufferings come, certain illnesses come, certain struggles, because God is inserting a syringe into us and is taking out a little of that extra blood that we have, it is weakening us a little.

Do you know that it is necessary that we are sometimes weakened? There are men who have too much testosterone inside them for example and need to have some testosterone taken out, a couple of good diseases, it solves that problem easily. It is the truth, brothers.

You see, the breaking of self, the breaking of the flesh is part of the way that God uses to make us more like Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ said, if the grain of wheat does not fall to the ground and die, it remains alone, but if it dies it bears much fruit. Is it not the Lord who also says, take my yoke upon you because my yoke is easy and my burden is light? He says, so you will find rest for your souls.

Many of the things that we suffer, the sufferings, the struggles, the troubles of life, is because the flesh is too alive within us. And God has to come in a little bit and placate her through difficult situations.

God uses everything, brothers, to create a man, a holy woman. But yes, I tell you one thing, that the normal, normative state of a child of God is protection from trials, protection from difficulties, and if they come, God will use them for your benefit, instead of for your destruction.

Finally, tying up the loose ends, I want to introduce this point that is so important to us as a church. This sets us apart as a congregation, although we are not the only ones who teach this.

Holiness is much more than abstaining from sexual impurity. I believe that there are many churches that limit holiness to what Sister García said, from what is given from the waist down. And we believe that holiness is purely what it has to do with sexual impurity, but holiness in the Bible is much more than that.

I want, this afternoon, to extend the concept of holiness in which we live. I want to extend it to the ethical dimension, the social dimension, the dimension of our relationships with each other. That's why I chose that first passage from Thessalonians 3, where the Apostle Paul talks about having that attitude of generosity with each other, and with others out there. Because that too is part of the holiness that God wants.

I believe that there are many churches that everything is the external aspect of holiness. And there are many people who I believe for this reason have not entered into a life that is more powerful and used by God, because they have limited themselves only to looking at that aspect of the Christian life. I talk more and more about vertical holiness and horizontal holiness. If I had had time in my preparation of this presentation, I would have put a cross right there. A cross has a vertical dimension and a horizontal dimension. And on the vertical part of the cross he would have written vertical holiness, that is, holiness toward God. Me and God. And many people think that holiness is just that, what happens between me and God, since God is holy, pure, I also have to be like that.

If I am right with God, well, that is what is needed. But they forget the other dimension of the cross, horizontal holiness. We are going to do an experiment this morning. I did it with the 9 o'clock brothers, cautiously extend your hand to the sides. Is it true that you are touching someone? Isn't it affecting someone? And you see, that is the part of the Christian life that we have to take great care of, because many Christians only think about this, my holiness and God.

But many times we don't ask ourselves, well, what about my relationship with my wife or my husband? How is my relationship with my children? How do my sons, my daughters see me? What do my friends and my friends think of me? If I could stand in a corner of the room, without anyone seeing me and asking a question, hey, what do you think of so-and-so? What words immediately come to your mind? What would they say? Picky, spiteful, gossip, holds a grudge, if he pays, be careful, he doesn't forget a single one, gossip, doesn't pay what he owes, calculating, manipulative, dominant. Or they would say, ugh, a generous, loving, hard-working person, you tell them a secret and that secret goes to the grave with them, tolerant, they see the good in you before the bad. He is a loving person, he gives of himself, generous with his goods, he is a trustworthy person, he has mercy on the fallen person.

They are important questions. How does the world see us and how do the people we associate with see us? That too is holiness. I think that one of the problems with so many people in the churches is that in the church we spend our time talking about holiness only in the vertical dimension, morality, and other types of things. But not enough emphasis is placed on how we relate to one another.

And you know what? I would say, brothers, that in the world what most convinces people to enter into the ways of the Lord is sometimes horizontal morality, even when we say how important vertical morality is as well. But I find that what most calls people to the ways of the Lord is how attractive we are, how kind we are, how we treat each other, the love we have.

How did Jesus Christ say? He said, Father, so that they may be one as you and I are one, so that the world may believe that you sent me. What is the greatest apologetic of the lordship of Christ before the world? The love we have for each other, the way we treat each other, how we treat our colleagues at work, how we conduct ourselves, the kindness.

There is a word that always persecutes me from the Apostle Paul, when he says, your kindness be known to all men. Gentleness means in the original Greek, your generosity, your love, your ability to see the hidden gold in the person, the opportunity you give to the fallen. That is horizontal holiness that is just as important as, in my opinion, vertical morality. Both things are important.

I believe that one of the problems, brothers, with Christianity through the centuries, and that is why so many mistakes have been made throughout history, is because the pastors, the teachers of the church, have not given equal importance to horizontal morality we give to vertical morality.

So the world has been left with a number of people who say, well, thank God because I now know who Jesus Christ is, I have given my life to him, I have refrained from killing people, from doing this, from doing that, but their hearts are still hard, they are not treated by the master of love, and that is why we see the great religious wars in the 16th century, the persecution of the Jews, the crusades where so many hundreds of thousands of people were killed. We see slavery in America, in England, Christian countries. We still see discrimination against blacks in the cities of the United States in the 20th century.

We see all these things that happen in Christianity, we see churches that have supposedly very holy people, but examine the quality of life in those churches, and ask yourself if you would like to live in that church and be there for a long time. Because it was not dealt with that dimension.

God wants a holiness that reflects a truly Christian character, that reflects the generosity, tenderness, and compassion of Jesus Christ. It is what the Bible calls the fruit of the Holy Spirit. You have heard the fruit of the Holy Spirit in Galatians, Chapter 5, goodness, gentleness, love, temperance, hope, faith, all these beautiful qualities of the Gospel. Those qualities, sweet and meek of the Gospel, then the fruit of the spirit is very important for complete holiness. It is not only to be sexually pure but also to be generous.

We are a church of generous people. I think that we are on the way to being, that we love others, that we forgive the offender, that we tolerate each other. León de Judá must be known for being a church of tolerance towards one another, of loving our enemies, of helping the poor, of not lying, of not gossiping, of being honest and hard-working.

When I hear from brothers who are saying false things about other brothers, it hurts my heart. I recently heard someone say that that brother has AIDS, and he said, pastor, I don't have AIDS, I've made many mistakes in my life, but thank God I don't have AIDS. But this sister is going around saying that this brother has AIDS in our church.

Do you think that is holiness? No. I say that to remove that thorn, brothers, I do not say it to attack anyone. In a Christian church there should never be gossip, never damage the character of a brother. If you know something harmful and shameful about a brother, take that secret to the grave, pray for that brother, that you are not the cause of that image of that man, that woman being lowered, because you are a person of love, of mercy, meekness, you reflect the gentleness of Jesus Christ.

Again, God calls us to do both things, to be pure, to be sexually disciplined, to take care of our bodies, to behave well in society but also to reflect the character of God, the purity of his kingdom, to be different from cultures that do not submit. God and his values.

What's in the world out there? In the world out there there is manipulation of people, using money to oppress, using information control to format people's minds, using the media, marketing, marketing, publicity to make use of the people and get rich and make money.

We Christians say, we will never use our power to manipulate anyone, we will never use the knowledge we have to take advantage of it. We will be people of love, good people, people who can turn their backs on us and know that we will never harm them, because what controls us is the love of Jesus Christ, the generosity of Jesus.

In conclusion, the most difficult thing to execute and the easiest thing for many of us to ignore is precisely that horizontal dimension of holiness, because it requires a long and painful process of treatment and perfection on the part of God.

If you want to embrace that holiness, my brother, my sister, you have to resign yourself to the fact that God is going to have to put braces on your teeth and He is going to squeeze the braces from time to time. The man or woman of God who wants to become like Christ has to resign himself to a life of discipline and treatment of the Holy Spirit. Every once in a while God is going to call you into the gym and say, you're a little chubby, get on the treadmill and start running about 10 miles. I'm going to put you on a diet. I'm going to squeeze you.

Sometimes we have to go to God's clinic. I fear those days of God's clinics, when God calls me and says, come here, Roberto, I have to draw a little blood from you so that you are more like I need you. And that is a continuous discipline.

If you are a son of God, a daughter of God, your goal must be, I want to be more like Christ every day. And that means that the Christian life is a life of certain discomforts as well. It's like the life of an athlete. An athlete cannot do what he wants. An athlete cannot eat what he wants. An athlete cannot go to sleep at the time he wants. It's a life of deprivation, but you know what? How beautiful an athlete is, how good he feels, how proud he is of his body, of his life.

So are we. We have to pay a price but the result is worth it. And that is why many times, since it is so difficult and so painful, we do not want to, but it is necessary. God wants to form a people that reflects the holiness of God in all dimensions and not only in the traditional and basic aspect, much in the inventory of holiness that we do not know much about.

I'm going to end this idea. León de Judá, our church, will always insist on the two dimensions of the Christian life. If you wonder, well, why doesn't the church in León de Judá speak as insistently about holiness as the church where I went? From time to time, little sisters take me aside, sometimes the little brothers too, but they are like the little sisters, especially when they come from the Pentecostal church and call me to chapter because we don't do certain things, because I don't call the sisters to leave the screens and dress a little more loosely, do this, do that.

The truth is that the vocabulary we use for holiness is more complex than that. It doesn't mean we don't believe in holiness, but we try to see the totality of holiness. And I hope that over time our church will even reflect in dress, in external things, the holiness that befits the people of God, but also internal things.

There is a passage that always haunts me, for example, the Apostle Paul who says to the sisters, says that your appearance should not be that of ostentatious hairstyles and much gold, and expensive dresses, but the ornament of a holy life, of an ordered life, a blessed life.

There are women and men to the extent that it applies to them too, because today also to men, we believe that manhood is to walk with the 6 buttons of the shirt open and a gold chain in the middle to attract attention, the pectorals well-developed, tight pants that reveal the anatomy that God has allowed us to develop or whatever. And the Apostle Paul tells us, look my brothers, my sisters, that your beauty does not depend on those things, but that it depends...

I believe that what attracts a woman to a man is not so much the pectorals, the developed biceps, it is his character. I think that most women are generally quite reasonable, and what they want is a man who has 10 fingers on his hands and who is essentially healthy, who is clean, who bathes every day, who is hardworking. They are not looking for things from another world, they are looking for an ugly, formal and strong man, that is what the Mexicans say.

And I tell you the truth, I have not found more beautiful in a woman than an affable, spiritual, intelligent, healthy character, an emotional health in her. Those are the things that adorn a man, a woman, and that make him attractive. Because physical beauty leaves at any moment. But the adornment of a life well lived, that never clears up.

A man, a woman, the more he grows, the more he can become very attractive. Because the word says that while the outer being decays, the interior is renewed day by day, and the inner beauty shines through the outer beauty and transforms it.

Those are the values and that is why we insist on those things, because that is the most important thing. I hope that we understand that, that women do not feel that they have to advertise all the merchandise in one go, because otherwise they are at a disadvantage. Sister, the important thing is that you reflect the grace of the Lord in your life, that is the most attractive of all.

And that is why I say that I hope that with the passage of time our church will also improve in these dimensions. By the way, let's not deceive either. Because there are sisters who say, I'm not going to wear narrow pants, but they wear a skirt that is narrower than the pants. Better put on your blessed pants, that is Pentecostal hypocrisy. They don't wear pants, but they do wear a skirt that sometimes gives the poor women gangrene. No, no, it has to be something truly honest.

We have to fight legitimately. But I hope that over time our church will be a church that reflects that purity, those values. That comes from within. That cannot be imposed by the pastor, that cannot be imposed by an external law, that when Christ deals with you and improves you and treats you, you will feel what I am talking about. That is something that comes from within.

And for our church those holiness values are going to determine how we choose our top leaders. If you ask yourself, why is there such a… what is the selectivity that governs who teaches in our church? Again, we're not perfect at determining that either, because there are bugs and things that happen. But in every possible way we are going to choose leaders, especially at the main level, who reflect, and we are going to put pressure on them and if they do not conform to that, in the long run they are going to have a difficult time in this church, who reflect those balanced values. . That will be the framework in which we use the gifts, love, mercy.

That is why we say, if your use of the gifts in the midst of the congregation scandalizes, creates discomfort, creates confusion, then you are not using the gifts according to the framework of God's love, you are not using them according to God's holiness.

The use of gifts has to be governed by mercy, consideration for others, love for others. That understanding of holiness will determine how we measure the spiritual maturity of the people in our church, whether we are growing, whether we are improving.

I always wonder, it's not how many long skirts came to church on Sunday, but how was the love meter in the church? Where was the level of love today? Where was the kindness? Where was the grace? Where was the mercy? Where was the friendship between us? How did the air feel? Did you feel lightheaded or heavy? Those are the values, what we teach and preach, how we disciple our people, the values of discipleship, how we measure the success of our church, whether or not we are making progress, how we invest our energies in building the character of our membership.

I wish I had more time to close these things. But I hope that at least the essential tone of my message has become clear to you. We want to be a balanced people, a holy people, 360 degrees. We want to reflect the holiness of God, but we also want to reflect his mercy, his love, his grace, all together.

God willing that those are the values of our church. Let's lower our heads for a moment. Let's imitate God's treatment in our lives. If you feel that something I am saying touches your life and speaks to you, I ask that the Lord Jesus now allow medicine to enter your heart.

I want this grace of God to enter your marriage, that your house be a house of order, harmony and peace, because the values of the Kingdom of God are in you, in your wife, in your children, that there is love of the parents with the children, from the children with the parents, that our neighborhoods are places where every day they get better because there are three or four prophetic families in the 4 corners of a street that mysteriously exert a positive influence in that neighborhood , because the love of that family is manifested.

And that our jobs, we be peacemakers. How good it is when there is a peace agent in a job. Those people are like yeast that keep changing the atmosphere around them. I ask the Lord that in the school, where we are, the neighborhoods where we are, the jobs where we are, our people stand out as a transforming people, a contagious people.

I ask the Lord, Lord, make me an agent of your peace and your mercy. I know that I am far from being all that God wants me to be, in that sense, but I say, Father, make me a pure man, a clean man, a healthy man and also a man of mercy, love and grace. , a man with a good smile. And you also want the same for yourself, for your family, for your life, we want to reflect the character of Jesus.

I want to be like Christ. Wouldn't you also like to be like Christ? Let us ask the Lord to make us like Jesus, pure, holy, clean, merciful, gentle, generous, forgiving, affirming the weak, truthful in everything he says, that's how we want this church to be, Father. We offer it to you, we offer you our lives. Thank you for your word, thank you for all the good things we have received on this day. We give you honor and glory in the name of Jesus. And the people of God say, amen, amen. Glory to in the name of the Lord. Amen.