Jesus - The giver and keeper of promises

Jesus is the one who gives you and fulfills promises in your life. I would like you to go to the second letter of the apostle Peter in chapter 3. Last Sunday we heard that Jesus is the door and everyone who enters through Him will find salvation, they will go in and out, and pastures to be able to nourish their lives, and today we are going to be reflecting on that Jesus who is the giver and keeper of promises in the midst of our lives. Last Sunday we spoke, He is the door, through Him we enter, and when we enter we also receive promises, the promise of salvation, the promise of being able to go in and out, that He is with us in all the steps of our lives, and also to be able to find provision for our needs, that is a promise that the Lord Jesus gives us who have decided to live in the light of Him, in the light of His principles, in the light of His love.

Second Peter chapter 3, and it says: "Knowing this that mockers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his advent? For from the day our fathers slept, everything remained so As on the day of creation, these are voluntarily unaware that the ancient time was made by the Word of God, the heavens and also the earth, which comes from water and by water subsists, for which reason the world of then perished drowned in water, but the heavens and the earth that exist now are reserved by the same Word, kept for the fire on the day of judgment, and of the perdition of impious men, but, beloved, do not ignore this, that for the Lord a One day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day. The Lord does not delay his promise." Let me tell you this, the Lord does not delay his promise, "according to some, it is delayed, but he is patient with us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should proceed to repentance."

What a strong Word that is, ah? A charged Word, a Word full of hope, but at the same time a Word that is filled with a sense of conflict. I began to reflect on this text my brothers because this week, two events have occurred that have made me think and reflect on different things, for one, as Pastor Samuel was saying, the death of our sister Bertalía Valverde was something that has made me reflect deeply on the promises of the Lord. I believe that it has been one of the few funeral services that I have participated in where a sense of peace is truly felt, because we know that it was a person who lived according to the promises of the Lord, and who is now enjoying those promises live and through all color, and because she is enjoying those promises we have peace too.

In contrast to what I am telling you, there is also the event that happened in Colorado, a boy about to graduate from his doctorate, who seems to have gone a little crazy from studying too much, loosened a couple of nuts and bolts in his head. , and the boy wanted to bring his own fireworks to a cinema at the premiere of Batman, and he took the lives of twelve people leaving 70 people injured, and yet the families also hurt what has happened, and not only the families if not the entire nation has been shaken by it as well.

All this leads me to think wow Lord, in the times in which we are living. One sometimes says how far is the madness of the world in which we are living going to go? And when one begins to analyze these things that happen and one also begins to compare the things that happen in one's own life, in the different things, different events, one begins to think, Lord, how far are you going to go? get all this? And I imagine that in the minds of some of us also at one time or another one begins to question Lord, what has happened to the promises that You have given me? I thought that at this point in the game I was going to be living in the abundant life that You have promised me, living in a sense of peace that I am not experiencing yet, that I was going to see promises fulfilled in my children, that I was going to to see in my wife, in my neighborhood, in my Church, certain things that You have promised, I thought I would see them already happening and they still haven't happened.

I don't know if I'm the only one who thinks like this, but I'm sure that some of us have thought like this too. Hence I came to this passage. Knowing first this that in the last days scoffers will come, and I am not saying that we are scoffers, walking according to their own philosophies, saying where is the promise of his advent, where is the promise of the coming of the Lord? You keep preaching that the Lord Jesus is going to come again, that is the greatest promise that our Christian faith has, that the Lord is going to come once more and he is going to take his Church, he is going to take his bride, and will lead us to reign with Him in a heavenly abode, is the greatest promise that we have my brothers. If it weren't for that promise I'm sure none of us would be here, but only because Jesus gave that promise you and I are where we are now.

But in the world in which we live there are people who have lost their faith and hope in that promise, it can be said that in the words of Jesus, also when He talks about the last days, when all the tribulations that can come in In the last days, many will depart from the faith, because they will not be able to resist the things that are happening around them, their minds will not be able to understand them, and it is very hard, my brothers, when we have to face this reality. If you and I are here, it is because in some way or another there, deep within our being, deep in our hearts there is a grain, there is a flame of hope that keeps us burning there, living, working, there is a grain, even if it is the size of a grain of sand, of hope that every time you open your eyes in the morning you say one more day that I can see the light of the sun, and that keeps you getting up, gaining new courage, throwing you hand to things, and that without a doubt my brothers is something that comes from God.

But just as I say this, I am also aware that there are times when one gets up and says I want it to end once and for all, I can't take so much pressure, I can't take so much injustice, and we begin to question, we begin to doubt, we begin to questioning people around us, we begin to question and doubt systems, sometimes we even doubt God, we say, where is that promise that He had said was going to move in my life, was going to move his hand, and I was going to see my family restored, where is that promise? From the time I get up in the morning until I go to bed at night it's all screaming, screaming and screaming, and even sleeping people scream at night too, they fight alone at night in bed.

Very interesting my brothers because this passage, this concept of scoffers, I began to analyze this, it is not necessarily talking about false prophets but rather it is talking about people who lose their faith in that hope. Look when a person loses their hope, it is because they have lost their trust in something or in someone, look at this chain to which it can lead them, when someone loses their hope it is because they lost their trust in something or in someone, that in some way or another defined their life, gave it meaning, gave direction to their life, they begin to forge other ideas that can give a new direction and a new meaning to their life, and then they marry that, and that becomes their new Hope.

But the thing is that in the world that we live in, when people have a hope that is not based on a solid foundation like what are the words and the promises of God, that ideology and that philosophy, at some point when something happens, that ideology and that philosophy are going to crumble and fall. Do you know why? The human being, we all know, is a failed being. In us there is both the capacity to be able or not to be able to keep promises, it is in us, we can do it. I really like this passage from Numbers 23 there in the Old Testament, verse 19, it says: "God is not a man to lie, nor a son of man to repent, He said and will not do, He spoke and will not execute ." That Word for me is key in this message that I am communicating to you, God is God, we are us.

At some point we have failed a promise we have made, and if you have not failed, look, I applaud you, you become an example for me. But if you have failed in a promise, however you want, you become an example for me, because you are here and you have not given up and you are working to continue making things possible.

What promise will we have broken at some point? How many of us as parents have not told our children, if you do this I will give you this? And when the son or daughter and we tell them tomorrow I'll give it to you, tomorrow comes wow with their hopes because dad, mom promised me something, tomorrow comes, where is what you promised me?, in the afternoon I give it to you. As husbands, wives, how many marriages do my brothers make a vow at the altar? And at the crossroads in their lives those promises are damaged by either side. You have a friend, a brother who promised you, look, if you need help, don't worry, I promise I'll be there. And when that friend, that friend comes looking for you because you promised him, and that person comes in his moment of greatest need, he comes to ask you for a favor and you say oh I can't, now I can't, and that friend, that friend he leaves with a broken heart, because in his moment of greatest need a promise that was given to him could not be fulfilled.

How many of us have made promises to ourselves? We have made pacts with ourselves, I will not say a bad word in my house again, three days go by and I got four in less than ten seconds. We live according to a certain philosophy, we have certain values, and because of those values for a period of our lives we say no, I am going to live according to these convictions and nothing and no one is going to get me out of there, that is my foundation, That is my excuse, there I am caught, and suddenly something happens in your life that is going to question those convictions and there comes a moment where you are forced in some way or another to break that promise that you made because circumstances are forcing you to live against those convictions that you had, if you yourself break a promise that you had made with yourself, with yourself.

And hey, there's nothing wrong, and look, it's not that I'm wanting to paint too ugly a scenario, but I just want to point to different situations in life that we have to face. There is nothing worse than having to deal with someone who has broken promises, I have broken promises, you have broken promises, but that doesn't mean it ends there. Look how beautiful God is, that God is not a man to lie nor a son of man to repent. Look how nice God is that he can use anything so that his promises can be fulfilled in your life, God's promises are not broken, He continues to fulfill his promises to you, to your loved ones, and maybe you don't You see, for God one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years, ah but that's not fair because I want to see those promises in my time, I want to see those promises in my time.

Come here, Abraham, did he see his promises in his time? Well, he only saw one, his son saw that God promised him, but he did not see, he would have had to live, how many years? to be like the stars of the sky and the sand of the sea.

Jesus promised his disciples the Holy Spirit, and it wasn't until 120-something days after Jesus ascended that the disciples were praying there in the upper room that they received the impartation of the Spirit.

Thus, my brothers, the Bible is full of stories of people who lived by promises, and likewise today we are living by promises, and it is true that this passage that I am reading speaks about the promise of the return of the Lord, how many are waiting for that day?. I wait for that day, I wait for that day and especially after these last two days that we had with the family of our sister Bertalía, such a precious verse in Thessalonians chapter 4 when it says the dead in Christ will rise first and we who have been left behind we will be what?, we will be transformed and we will be found with them in the air. Can you imagine that, isn't that enough weight for you to hope that the moment will come when this body, this mind, this so failed soul, is going to be transformed and is going to take on a new image, a new identity? I wait for that day.

But in the meantime, it's not that we're going to become suicidal Christians, oh Lord, let it come, let it come, no, it's not that, look how verse 9 says: "The Lord does not delay his promise, as some consider it delay, but that he is patient with us, not wanting any to perish, but rather that we all proceed to repentance." Hey one thing, this idea of repentance does not necessarily have to do with repenting once of all your sins and receiving the Lord Jesus, that is a very important vital part, but in our daily life repentance is like a habit, a habit that one has to develop, because in some way or another my brothers, every day we have to take that turn that we go in one direction and we have to go in another, that is repentance, we have preached it here many times. I know that there are preachers who say ah, you have to repent, repentance is like taking a 360 degree turn, no, just 180, 360 is that you fall back in the same direction, 180 is that you go in the other direction. Just in case I didn't know that math.

But the idea of repentance my brothers, is that you were experiencing a series of things in your life, and those things were not bringing satisfaction, what you saw was frustration after frustration, or vanity after vanity, and those vanities did not continue to fill you , and you had to reach a point in your life where you said wait, this is not making sense to me, I have to change, go in another direction where I can find something that truly fills my whole being, that is repentance, I am going in one direction, that direction doesn't work, I meet someone who can give meaning to my life, so I change and go in that direction.

We go through this process in different ways in our lives, some do it with their work, they have a job, they didn't like it, they regretted it, use the term, they regretted it and they look for another job. For some the change was good for them, but for others they are jumping from job to job and have not yet defined themselves and do not know where they are going.

For others it is a person, a man, a woman, you are with a man, a woman, no, this woman does not fulfill me, you change direction, you are with another woman, you regretted it again, oh let me change direction. The same thing that I say for women I also say for men, women who are looking for men are also the same.

But we do not realize my brothers, as the Pastor said last Sunday, that our source of life is found in the person of Jesus, and we have to remember that if we are going to find that meaning of life we have to find it in Him, It is in Him, in His love and His promises to us, because He is vast, He is full to capacity, He is an eternal God, I don't know if that fits our minds, but the Lord is here with us now, the Lord is still yesterday and the Lord is tomorrow, the Lord is still filling all of that.

If I find a sense of being, a value, a reason to live, in Him my repentance has to be towards Him and not towards anything, or person, or article, or object, it cannot be, all that happens but He does not. I imagine that all of us here at the various stages of our faith lives that we find ourselves struggle with these ideas. I live by a promise, how many of you live by a promise? And how many of you, like me, dare to say that the circumstances in which we live are totally contradictory to the light and reality of that promise? In other words, it's like the life circumstances in which one is faced are sometimes like, wait, what I have visualized is this promise, and what I have down here, like 2 plus 2 does not give me four, yes What this promise is telling me is that I am going to have a solid, stable family, a stable job, peaceful children who honor me, who respect me as their father, why then what I am living is that they even kick me and They talk to me badly, and they don't listen to me, why am I living that?

Why am I living in this little job cleaning the toilet every day when what I want is a job in an office there with my desk with a view of the city from my window, with a secretary, and with a staff of people who work with me? Why am I here having to clean? I can continue giving examples, my brothers, but remember that God can still use you cleaning a toilet so that He can then take you in the direction that He wants to take you.

That son, that daughter who is still giving you a headache, God can use that to then lead you to experience that family full of peace and love that you want to see. What you have to do is, keep your gaze fixed on Him, I know it seems very easy and simple, easier said than done, easier said than done, I understand that, but that's how God is, that's how the mysteries of Him. Omar, many people have betrayed me, they have broken their promises to me and that has even taken away my desire to move on, hey, people can fail you but God will not fail you.

And look, even if it occurs to you to think that God failed you, a lie from the devil, don't believe that lie. What can separate you from the love of God, how many believe in that promise too? Look, let me read it, this was something that struck me as a bonus. Romans chapter 8 verse 38, look what it says: "For which I am sure neither death", look where the list begins, it begins with death, she could not have said for which I am sure neither my husband , neither my husband, nor my children, nor my mother-in-law, she could not have said that, she painted the worst scenario for you, she painted it for you first, neither death nor life can separate you from the love of God, on the contrary, look at this. Again, I believe that funeral services serve to affirm these promises in one, because death becomes the door to a totally new reality, but not for anyone but only for those who have died in the Lord Jesus.

And this was something that exploded in my head on Friday night, as I listened to our Pastor Roberto speaking in the context of people who were here on Friday night, and he explained the trauma that we pastors went through. Sometimes, when we have to hold funerals for families that have not known the Lord, look, we suffer as pastors, we suffer because if it is a character who died not knowing the Lord, look, we cannot play so much with words to bring a sense of hope To that family, the most we can say is we hope that the Lord in his last breath, well, he had grace and mercy on him or he has him somewhere over there, in some little corner, he has him over there.

But when a person dies in the Lord, my brothers, the dynamic is totally different, because we can even sing here Your people say thank you, for the life of a person who lived in light of what You wanted for her, and likewise she imparted to the rest of her family, and when she dies we can now smile because now she is enjoying up there with you.

This may sound strange to you, but last night, well, last night when we left the cemetery, I was chatting with two people who were with me in the car, and last night when I went to bed I was meditating like this, I said to myself Lord, I am going to direct my prayer to a different person, and I said Berta, if you are listening to me, if God gives you permission at some point let me know what heaven is like, and some will say what a heresy, how are you going to pray to Berta, it is not that I was praying to Berta, I was talking to her too, and I know it sounds strange, my brothers, but that is what I see of the mystery of the life we have here with Jesus. That there are already some who have gone before us and we are still here waiting.

How many people have I known that their relatives have died, and weeks, months later they have a dream where that relative appears to them in the dream and it is as if they have a revelation of what heaven is like? Why not, why not? no?. If that is the way that God uses to comfort someone and keep a promise on fire, so be it, God is worth anything, but there we are, we are living by promise, day after day we live by promise. And it is not a promise, my brothers, that makes us feel inferior, if not on the contrary, it is a promise that gives us a sense of fullness, gives us a sense of confidence, courage, firmness, so that we can move forward and face whatever comes, that's where the Lord has us.

Look if I continue reading, second Peter chapter 3, verse 13 says: "But according to his promise we await new heavens, a new earth in which justice dwells", the justice of God. When we fail in something, the syndrome that affects us is like oh, I am not worthy of so much grace, so much mercy, but nevertheless the Lord continues saying hey, even when you were in your sins Christ died for you, there is a justice that was demonstrated to you, and it is that justice that God wants to make operate in the midst of your life, and through that justice that you become an instrument for others, and that is something that only the Lord makes possible.

"Waiting for these things", ask yourself, what are you waiting for? Ask yourself a genuine, honest question to yourself, to yourself, what are you waiting for, what have you put your trust in? What is that promise that keeps you with a north, with a direction, that even if you sing differently, you can go back and look in that direction and say, ok, here I go? "While looking forward to these things, seek diligently to be found by Him blameless, blameless, and at peace." My brothers, God wants a people that can be at peace, our peace does not come from the systems of this world, our peace does not come from the person you have by your side, even if it is the person you love the most, your peace that you can experiencing does not come from the good job you may have, your peace is found in the Lord.

The peace in your heart, that peace that we cannot explain with mere words because it is something that must be experienced, experienced in order to say wow, yes Lord, I am at peace. That is something that only He can do, if you want me to give you advice this morning, look, let's make the effort, I am going to speak in the plural because this is a medicine that I also swallow a good part of the time, Let's make an effort, my brothers, to take our eyes off the circumstances that we face, because of the insufficiency that this can cause in us, the incapacity that this can cause, look, these are tools that the enemy uses to keep us from seeing God who is the only one, that when we raise our gaze to Him, our help comes from Him, our hope comes from Him, our strength comes from Him so that we can continue moving forward at all times.

Recognize that we have failed, hey, lawyer we have before us the Father who can forgive us, can set us free, that if we have failed in a promise to a loved one who is very close to our hearts, look in the Lord that relationship can be restore, you can work. I still dare to say that as a Pastor if I have failed in my role with a promise, I also believe that the Lord can restore my life so that I can continue living in light of a call that He has for me. If I can say that, my brothers, I know that you can say it too, the promises of the Lord do not go away like sand in our fingers, they are not like water between our fingers, the promises of the Lord are substantial, they are permanent, they are like a rock under our feet that we can stand on my brothers and we can stand firm, and if you fall make sure you fall on that rock so you can get up again.

"Let us seek diligently to be found by Him spotless, blameless, and at peace." God wants you to be at peace, so that you can experience that peace you have to live in light of his promises to your life. I want to spend some time here to pray, I know we have been praying for a while but I feel in my heart that I can pray for some of you. I am looking here as I cross this sanctuary, I am seeing different people, some of you I know very well, others I do not know very well, but whatever the life situation in which you find yourself, stay affirmed in the promises of the Lord.

It may seem that the world around you is falling apart, it may seem that hope is gone, but in the Lord your hope is lasting. Those things that you are waiting for, the time will come when they will become a reality. And I still dare to say this, that even if you had to die, God is going to take care that that promise that He gave you is fulfilled in the lives of those for whom He gave it to you, at that level I will carry what I'm saying. Remember that we see the here and now, God is seeing yesterday and tomorrow, and He knows how he promises, God promises well my brothers, God promises well, God has large parts of the plan in his hand, not us, God knows promise, He gave it to you, He will fulfill it. You keep your trust in Him, keep your trust in Him.

Even if you are being threatened by different things around you, keep your gaze on Him. This is only possible when the Lord is there in your heart, and I would like to take this moment to pray, if there is someone this morning who has not yet He has made that decision in his heart, I dare to say so, these words will not be effective if you do not have the Lord Jesus in your heart. If you have not made a confession to Him these words will go out one ear and out the other, they will have no impact on you. You need the Lord Jesus in your life, only He is the one who makes it possible, it is not you, it is not your wisdom, it is not your intelligence, it is not the years of experience that you have, it is the Lord Jesus living in your heart that makes these promises possible.

I want to pray for you, there where you are, if you want to accept the Lord Jesus in your heart because you are already tired of the things that you have around you, and maybe you are going to tell me Pastor, I already tried it but it did not work, hey, try again, with the Lord you will not go wrong, He is there for you. This is your day of salvation, and likewise I also speak to all of us who have lived for many years in the light of those promises, of that hope, you know very well how you find yourself today, you know how the different experiences of life have shaken you to such a level that it has become difficult for you to move on, or have you thought about putting your promises aside, but this morning the Lord is here to let you know, my promises are yes, my promises that I do they are yes, and no when they have to be no.

You can confidently approach before the throne of grace, why, because he who promises is faithful, he who promises is faithful, I believe so my brothers, if I did not believe it, I would not have preached this message, God himself knows the struggles that I have to preach this myself but I declare it as an exercise in faith because I know that I am going to see the hand of God my brothers, and I know that you can also see the hand of God only when we manage to blindly surrender ourselves to the Lord, that is, look Father, I am giving everything into your hands, I have lost control of things and I am going to give it to you once again, I want to strengthen myself in your promise, that hope that gives a totally new life to me being, to my surroundings, if you want to receive that prayer look, I invite you, join me, and together let us pray to the Lord so that this sense of hope is strengthened in us.

And I know that this call is perhaps not for everyone but for those who truly understand the weight of what this message is communicating. Jesus is the giver and promise keeper, let's never forget this. If you identify with these words where you are, stand up. Beloved Lord Jesus, how beautiful it is to be able to breathe an air that is charged with hope, a hope that does not disappoint, a hope that does not embarrass, rather it is a hope that leads us to a future full of justice, full of peace, it is a hope that nourishes today with strength and energy that only come from you, and Jesus, I present myself right now together with each one of my brothers, my sisters, Lord, in the dilemmas of our lives, in the struggles of our life, in the joys of our life, in the victories of our life, we want to remain firm in Your promises Lord, even when many times things around us may seem a bit confusing, we don't know where the provisions will come from for tomorrow, we do not know where the answer to a dilemma will come from, Lord we turn our gaze to you, to you who are the giver and the keeper of promises.

To you who are not a man to lie, nor a son of men to repent, You have said and you will do it, You have spoken Lord, I firmly believe that Your Word does not return empty, You keep Your promises, be it in our time or in the time of those who come after us but You keep Your promises. Lord, we affirm our gaze on you, we affirm our hearts on you, Lord, and we ask you, O Father, that when we return to our homes, when we meet our loved ones again, when we meet again with our work colleagues, with our neighbors Lord, or even when we find ourselves again in the solitude of our home, Lord, may Your promises blow fresh air over our lives, and affirm us, Lord, and let us know that You are there, that neither death nor life , neither angels nor demons, nor principalities nor powers, nothing Lord will separate us from that love that You have shown us.

Father, I declare to your sons and daughters Lord, strengthened in you this morning, that this morning serve as an energy serum to be able to continue facing everything that comes before us. Thank you, thank you, thank you Lord for being patient with us, with our inconsistencies, and meanwhile help us to live trusting in you and in your promises. To you we give all the glory and all the honor, only to you Lord, through Your Son Jesus we pray, amen Lord, amen, amen and amen, thank you God.