Living joyfully - living with Jesus

Philippians 3 verse 1: Those words were written by the apostle Paul in what he thought were perhaps the last days of his life. We know from experience in our lives, that when someone is preparing to leave, you want to say the most important things, you want to talk to the people you love the most, the most urgent messages that you have for them, and that is what the Apostle Paul did. . He loved the Philippians, this church was a church dear to him, and he wanted them to know how they could grow in Christ and stand firm in the midst of the temptations they faced, so I want us to read those words, knowing that he I was talking heart to heart.

You know those moments that you are talking heart to heart with a loved one, this is what we read here. Philippians chapter 3 says: "Besides, rejoice in the Lord, for me it is not annoying to write the same to you, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of mutilators of the body, because we are the circumcision, those who in spirit we serve God, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, having no confidence in the flesh, though I have wherewith to trust in the flesh, circumcised on the eighth day, of the seed of Israel, of the tribe of Israel, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as for the law, a Pharisee, as for the zeal persecuting the Church, as for the justice that is in the law, blameless, but how many things were gain to me, I have estimated them as loss for Christ's sake, and certainly I still estimate all things as loss due to the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost everything and count it as rubbish to win Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, if not the which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that e is of God, in order to know him and the power of his resurrection, and the participation of his sufferings, becoming like Him in his death, if in any way he came to the resurrection from the dead, not that he has. I have not reached it, nor that it is already perfect, but I continue to see if I can grasp that for which I was also grasped by Christ Jesus."

"Brothers, I myself do not claim to have already reached it, but one thing I do, certainly forgetting what is behind, reaching out to what is ahead, I press on toward the goal, for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. So all Let us feel that we are perfect, and if you feel something else, God will reveal it to you, but in what we have reached, let us feel the same thing, brothers, be imitators of me, and look at those who conduct themselves like this, according to the example that you have in us, because there are many out there, and even now I say it crying that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, the end of which will be perdition, whose god is the belly and whose glory is their shame that they only think about what is earthly, but our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also await the Savior the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humiliation so that it may be similar to the body of his glory."

"By the power with which he can also subdue all things to himself, so my beloved and desired brothers, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord, beloved."

Father, we open our hearts to hear these words. Your apostle Paul could not have emphasized them more than he did, Lord, we do not want to be slow to hear, we want to hear what You want to tell us today, Holy Spirit, only You can reveal Christ to the heart of the human being, and that It is what we ask you to do, that we see more of you, fall in love, we ask you in the name of Jesus, amen and amen.

Rejoice in the name of the Lord, rejoice in the name of the Lord. I don't know if you've ever had a person tell you when you're going through problems, don't worry, be happy, don't worry, just be happy, it's not that easy, is it? Because sometimes the problems are strong. But the truth is that God is saying that the strongest security of the human being, of the Christian, is in joy. The Bible says the joy of Jehovah is my strength, what things, how can it be that in the midst of problems, of difficulty, we can enjoy? It is not easy.

If our happiness is based on our circumstances it is not possible, but for the Christian there is another source, there is another basis for joy that is available to us, and the apostle Paul is talking about this, the joy of the Lord assures us against the temptations, it assures us of the attacks of Satan, it gives us a breastplate. Because how can we, if we are rejoicing in Christ, at the same time sin against Christ? Joy. It's not so much sometimes, we emphasize effort, you gotta try harder, you have to try harder, and it's good to be committed, but you know what, joy makes you stronger than anything else, and he's going to start now to talk about it, but the first thing is what he is inviting us to do, be authentic Christians, be Christians who are truly genuine in God, and for that the first thing we have to do, if we are going to love, to treasure what To be genuine, to be a true Christian is to beware of the deceptions that come, and he starts with that.

Look, but the apostle Paul gets very angry here, right? Did you notice? Let's look at the text again, beware of dogs, dogs? What neighborhood does he live in? Beware of bad workers, beware of body mutilators. It is that he is talking about some people who at that time changed the Gospel, the apostle Paul put up with a lot, to annoy him, he even made jokes about his enemies who preached the Gospel with false motives, to put him in more trouble in jail, Paul is in jail when you write this. And he makes jokes, they think they are bothering me and the truth is that they are preaching the Gospel, I enjoy it. So he made jokes.

He was not easily annoyed when something personal to him was touched. Many of us are the opposite, we get annoyed at any little thing, they easily step on our corns, very easily, he was not that easy, but it did bother when someone preached a false gospel. What those people called the Judaisants did, they were radical Jews, who followed the apostles, and after people came to know Christ they said well, it's good that you believe but it's not enough, you have to do more to improve yourself, you have to get circumcised, you have to follow the Old Testament laws, you have to become a good Jew to earn salvation.

The apostle Paul says that Christian salvation is not by works, it is by faith, we believe in Christ, we accept Christ into our hearts. I'm not trying to win salvation, I'm not trying to win heaven, because no one can win heaven, you have to trust Christ, He is my salvation, the apostle Paul says that this is rubbish, and that's why he calls them dogs, it's not Just because it's bad, it's that the radical Jews called the gentiles dogs, he says that they call the other dogs, they are the dogs, he said I don't know what, because it was about something important.

Do you listen to me or should I?, ok, so here we are, he is upset with people who are changing the Gospel, they are changing the Gospel that focuses on Christ to make it a list of religious rules. You know that I worry a lot, in our discipleship, that we teach that people grow as Christians, not with self-help, not with looking at my navel, I don't know if this is said either, but it's not about me, it's about Christ. It's not about me improving myself, it's about getting to know Christ and getting what's about Him rub off on me.

The apostle Paul says I don't want to fabricate justice for myself, I don't want to be a good person because of my efforts because it's false, this is worthless. I want to fall in love with Jesus and cling to Him so that a little of Him clings to me.

I talk a lot about that, I don't know if you've noticed, that people after many years together begin to resemble each other, right? Sometimes this happens. My parents, I said in the morning, they have been married for almost 50 years, thank God, and they could both be twins, both short, same color, same everything, just the same. She is Italian, he is German, but they already look alike, because a lot of time together, I don't know if it will happen to me, my wife of Japanese descent, I don't know, I hope so, it would be to improve (laughs). But the truth is that you come to resemble the most important people in your life, when you are with people you capture their ways of acting, Christian justice, Christian transformation does not come through your own effort, if it does not come through Jesus.

Look at what the apostle Paul says, look at what he says in verse 7, he says: "But how many things were gain to me, I have counted them as loss for Christ's sake, and certainly I still count all things as loss for excellence." of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for the love of whom I have lost everything and consider it rubbish to win Christ" what a strong Word, right? Greek about that, I'm going to teach you a little bit of Greek because I like it, the Greek for garbage is "scubula, scubula", I just love it, scubula, I don't want it, everything good about me is like a dirty rag to me, not having my own goodness, but the goodness of Christ comes to me and becomes part of me." I want to be and I want us to be a Church in love with Jesus, focused on Jesus, who lives Jesus, breathes Jesus, we eat Jesus, we think like Jesus, I said in the morning to scratch myself and Jesus come out.

I want Jesus to be so in me, so attached to me, I so attached to Him, that his person, his character, his personality, his way of speaking and behaving, come out of me, so that I don't even have to put up a sign that say I am a Christian, there is something different about this person. And let me say, this does not mean that you change your personality so that you are all like a church, no, you are still you, there are more reserved people, others more extroverted, your own personality, your own culture, you can see in your eyes that there is something in you, people can see something different, where does that justice come from?, it does not come from your efforts, but the change comes from an organic, living connection with Jesus Christ, a love for Him, that everything else is garbage compared to the excellence of knowing Christ.

Do we really believe this, that knowing Christ is excellent? I know that yes, that we know this, we believe this, but sometimes one feels that they are words, as if we were talking about colors to a person who does not see well, right?, or about a flavor to someone who has never tasted it, You know what today in the morning, let's see if this works in Spanish, I don't know, they're going to have to be patient with me, but a comparison. I saw a talk on the computer by an author named Michael Dagwell, he's not a Christian author but he was giving a talk about spaghetti sauce, don't worry, this is going to connect somehow, ok? He said spaghetti sauce companies only sold one kind of spaghetti or maybe two, plain and spicy. And there was a company that was losing money, they had good ingredients, they invited someone to do research, until that date they found out what people wanted by asking them, what do you want in your spaghetti sauce?, and people said spicy or simple , that nothing more, and they made their sauce.

This researcher, this adviser that they sought decided to do the research in another way, he says we are going to summon large groups to the auditoriums and we are going to give them fifteen varieties of spaghetti sauce, something spicy, something simple, something thick, something thin, something with pieces of vegetables, what do I know, many, many shapes, and they saw that there was a wide variety of interests, and that there was at least a third of the world, who liked their spaghetti sauce with pieces, chunkies of meat. And the company says but how is it going to be?, all these years nobody sells the spaghetti sauce that is chunky, poor thing people do not have the spaghetti sauce they need, but we ask them a lot, and nobody ever told us that they wanted their Spaghetti sauce as well, why didn't they tell us?. Because they didn't know that deep in their hearts they wanted their chunky spaghetti sauce, they didn't know.

It's like that, now it's connected, they forgive me, it's like that with the Lord. You know that what you want or desire, I can tell you with the authority of the Word of God, maybe you don't know, but what you want more than anything in the world is not food, it is not success, it is not money, it is not family love, what you want is a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus. You may not even know it, but God has made you for that. There is a void there in the human heart the size of God, only Jesus can fill that, you are dying to know Jesus, without it you are hungry as if you are dying of thirst and hunger, you want that more than anything else in the world. world but maybe you don't know it, and we look for happiness in other things, and we look for love in all other places, right?

You know, joy joy joy, it's what I wanted but I was looking for it where there wasn't any, it's because there is joy in Christ but we don't know it. And you know what? Many Christians don't know either. I mean we don't know, excuse me, we love Christ, we believe in Christ, we are saved by faith, it is not that we are not sincere, but we are not enjoying this intimacy with Christ. We are not crazy like Paul who went crazy for Christ. It was like a bride obsessed with her first boyfriend, obsessed with Jesus. Many of us are not enjoying that. God wants us to be a Church crazy for Christ, that it be seen in everything we do, that Jesus is the passion of my heart, ah, that is, Christ is prettier than any song we can hear, more delicious than the best arepa , prettier than the most beautiful art that can be painted, the most beautiful landscape, more refreshing than miraculous water, Jesus is the deepest joy we can imagine, I want to live that, I want to fall in love, I want to see him, in his humiliation and in his glory, both.

Think that the same Jesus who is going to sit on a white throne, and is going to judge every human being in the whole world who has ever lived, is going to evaluate their lives and proclaim judgment against each one of us, that same judge, terrible, that judge who when he saw the Pharisees for throwing stones at a woman, He said whoever is free of sin should throw the first stone, where are those who condemn you? I do not condemn you either, go in peace. Jesus, the same just judge, a terrible judge, this same judge is the one who loved us so much that he gave himself up on the cross to die for us, to pay the price, and while they nailed him to the cross, what did he say? Father forgive them because they don't know what they are doing, Jesus. There is no one like Him, it is like a sea in which you can swim all your life and you will always find something new from Jesus.

His love is sweeter than anything else, it is the rose of Saharon, Jesus said I am the I am, which is the name of Jehovah, which was revealed to Moses, and He said I am the way, the truth and life, no one comes to the Father if not through me, He said I am the good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep, whoever enters through me will find life. To those who were in mourning He said I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me even if he is dead will live, I am the bread of life, you can eat other bread and it does not satisfy you, I am the bread of life that came down from heaven, Jesus. We can think about the rest of our lives and fall in love with Him, God invites us to do so, to obsess.

You know what, it's bad to be addicted to anything in this world, right? Those who have lived with addictions know how hard it is, you need this other drink, or smoke cigarettes, and they try to quit and it's so hard, an addiction. There are also other addictions, some of you are addicted to chocolate, or coffee, or gambling, or some relationship that this person has become your little god, it is the most important thing in the universe for you, it can be a spouse, it can be a son who takes the place of God in your heart. Knows God wants us to know that there is only one healthy addiction in the universe, we are going to be addicted to Jesus. We are going to love Jesus such that we cannot get enough of it, eagerness to know Christ. The apostle Paul said one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind I strive, reaching forward to the highest calling, the excellence of knowing Christ, and becoming like Him. Begin each day by saying I have to love you more today, I need more of you, I have to have more of you or I die, this urgency, that God put this in us, this passion for Christ.

There are examples in the Bible that I love, right? I love the story of a sinful woman from the street, who had lived not in adultery, but in prostitution for many years, she was on the street, maybe she herself was the person that Jesus had mercy on, we don't know. But she heard that Jesus was visiting a famous Pharisee's house, I have to see him, I have to thank him, she appears at the door, and I visualize some good bouncers at the door saying, well, are you going to show me identification to enter Look, girl, you can't go in here, a Pharisee's house, and she says no, I do have to go in to see Jesus, we have many here who would knock down the biggest giant to go in to see Jesus, it's not a matter of size, it is a matter of desire.

I need Jesus and nothing and no one is going to stop me. I have many struggles, many problems, but I am going to see Jesus and no one is going to stop me, no one, I am going, that heart is already in this Church, that it grows, that it defines us, that we be a Church that pushes to see and touch Jesus. She entered there, she was behind Jesus, and what did she do? I was imagining, maybe she had a whole speech prepared to say to Jesus, but at the moment, what came out? Only tears, tears, Jesus I don't deserve, you forgave me, she just cried and covered Jesus' feet, and then she realizes, I'm dirtying it, oh I'm going to use my hair, it was not appropriate, it was not prudent, or guarded, it was a crazy love, an inappropriate love, an extravagant love, she threw herself to love Jesus , and scandalized the Pharisees who were very appropriate with Jesus, Jesus does not want civil Christians, he wants Christians in love, and Jesus says he who is forgiven much loves much, your sins are forgiven, go in peace.

Knows? the story of a man that we call the demoniac of Gadarene, what bad guys aren't? We shouldn't call him that, for two thousand years he has been known as the demoniac of Gadarene. I believe that this is true, there are people who, well, they have friends who are not paying rent, they have demons that have to be given their role that no longer, you are not paying rent, get out of this house, it belongs to Jesus now. So this man came, and this man lived in the cemetery, cutting himself, scratching himself, removing his clothes, howling like a dog, living like an animal, Jesus says this man is not an animal, he is a creation of God and I love him. , enter the pigs where you demons must live, so the pigs enter the waters. The man is normal, he dresses, and what do the neighbors say? Angry about their pigs that they lost, Jesus says, get out of here, we don't want to, this is strange.

And the Gadarene, what does it say? Can I go with you?, but he was not so soft, he begged Jesus to go with Him, he begged to get on the boat, he said I don't want to be here anymore, I want to be with you in the boat, no matter where, Jesus told him you you are ready to preach the Gospel, go back home, go back to your city and preach what God has done in your life because you have lived it. We should not know him as the Gadarene demoniac, we should call him the Gadarene evangelist, how about that?, because that's how he was, the first evangelist sent by God. He did not want to preach, he wanted to be with Jesus, and by wanting to be with Jesus the message spread to others.

We are going to continue to grow in this Church, yes we are going to continue planning evangelistic events because God has given us, but do you know how we are going to grow? Falling in love with Jesus. When you're in love you can't take it, you have to let people know you're in love. There will be some grandmother or grandfather here who spend 5 minutes and you are already showing the photos of the new grandson, right? Let's be like that with Jesus. You know someone and it comes out of your pores to talk about him, this is what we want.

You know that another case that I like, speaking of the urgency that I ask God to be in me and be in us, the apostle Peter after denying Jesus, do you remember?, he denied Jesus how many times?, after Jesus dies, Peter goes back to fishing, now what?, I know how to fish, now I come back to this, so he is fishing with his friends, then a mysterious figure appears on the seashore, casts the nets on the other side and they They catch a large number of fish, the Word says that they caught 153 fish, and Jesus, you know I'm going to stay there, why this detail in the Bible? The Lord does not put details in the Bible without purpose, so I began to investigate, in the Bible the number 153, and this, the other, the other, then a little brother from the cult in English entered the number 153 on his phone, he entered on his phone, 153, Bible, I don't know what, it came out that the name of Jehovah, the name Javeh, is used in the Bible, in the Torahs 153 times.

I think God is saying, do you want to know who Jesus is? Jesus is Jehovah, Jesus is Javeh, Jesus is God, and with each fish, one, two, you say Jesus is God, He is not just any carpenter, He is the God who manifested himself in the burning bush, He is the God who He brought the people out of Egypt, He is the God who was with you in the cloud of glory who drew water from the rock and gave you bread in the desert, Jesus is God, He is not just any guy, He is not cool, He is God , He is wonderful, He is the Supreme God.

And I think that Pedro realized it, after seeing what he did. He has risen from the dead and is there on the shore cooking breakfast, he is Latino, you have to eat, and they begin to row and what does Pedro do? Peter couldn't take it, he couldn't wait, he saw Jesus, he knew He is God, I have to be with Him, he started swimming, I'm going to be the first to get there, thank God I want to be like him. I want to get into the water, I want to fall in love with Jesus and throw the house out for Him.

So he gets there and Jesus is cooking breakfast, and he says do you love me?, and Peter says yes three times, all this conversation, this passion for Christ. It is that in all these cases he forgets everything else and focuses on only one thing, I have to be with Jesus. Pablo says one thing I do, certainly forgetting what is behind and extending myself to what is ahead I continue to the goal. It is an image of an athlete who is running, right? He is running, everyone saw in the Olympics, that he is running. They tell me they saw this yesterday, they told me this, I didn't see, that one was running very, very fast, fast, and it ends with a photo of someone doing that, with all the desire, winning, and the one next to it, who is losing looking at the person next to him and he loses.

The Bible says one thing I do, forgetting what is left behind, I would say forgetting what is next, what is left behind, I focus on only one thing.

Brethren, some of us have to forget certain things. Don't get me wrong, we never forget things we've experienced, what we are, we don't forget, but get rid of that, say that today is a new day, today I'm going to meet Christ, today I'm going to love him more, I don't care what.

You know there is one more case, before going to the last part, I wasn't going to talk about this but imagine, I dreamed about this, I don't dream of many dreams, but from time to time. Joseph of Arimathea, a Pharisee, the Pharisees were very strict Jewish leaders, very religious, and most of them were bad, they were the dogs that Paul says, they were hypocrites, but there were two who loved Christ, I don't know, maybe more , Nicodemus, who started with fear but spoke with Jesus about the new birth, and we also know from the Bible that Joseph of Arimathea was another Pharisee who accepted Jesus, they were Christians, but they decided to be Christians in secret, secret Christians, secretly, they did not want anyone to know that they were Christians.

We have some like that who want to be secret, Christians, we have some who still don't know at work that you are a Christian. But do you know what Joseph of Arimathea did, when Jesus died he decided to go to Pilate, the Roman governor who had him executed and asked permission to receive the body of Jesus, and prepare it, along with Nicodemus, and bury him in his tomb, a tomb that he had bought into a big garden, stone and all. And I began to wonder in my dream, why did he do that? Something so public, go to the governor and ask for the body, he really came out of the closet, he came to be, he couldn't hide it anymore, he was already a public Christian, and in great danger, he had everything to lose and Jesus was dead, he didn't know that Jesus was going to rise from the dead, he had everything to lose and nothing to gain, but he did this, why? that did it?.

I think he couldn't take it anymore, his love for Christ reached the point that he went crazy, I want Christ even though he's dead, just his body, I have to touch him, I have to honor him, I love him so much that I don't care what, I get into it. We also have to throw everything away and say, you know what? I'm going to live for Jesus. I don't know if there are some people here who are going to be baptized or were baptized a few months ago or last year, when one is baptized one declares this, I don't care what happens or whatever happens to me, I'm going to be a Christian, I'm going to be a Jesus person, Jesus people. There is something in Christ reaching forward.

He knows that this text ends not in this life, go with me, he is continuing ahead and says that you have to be careful brothers, because there are some who live as enemies of the cross, that their god is their stomach, that their shame is in their glory , what does that mean?. Who have no delight in God, they live, their God is their appetite, thirst for food, or thirst for whatever, they live for this life, they live for the earth. Paul says I don't want you to be like that, I don't want you to be an earthly Christian. That's why Pablo cries, because he knows that they are losing what is genuine, being a Christian and living for money, or living for the house, or even living for the family, don't get me wrong, we have to be committed, but your wife is not God, your son is not God, your work is not God, your money is not God, there is nothing wrong with these things but there is only one God.

He says I want you to know that our citizenship is where?, in heaven, in heaven. When is the last time you thought about heaven? Some of you may have had a chance to think about it, some of you have not, but we must meditate on the heavens, dream of the heavens. How is this song?, I fly away, do you know what my son asked me in the car, daddy, I think I understand the meaning, gringuito also as Latino, Japanese, daddy I think he is saying that when we die our soul it flies to the sky, am I right?, well, yeah, that's what it says. After the camp he talked about God all week, he said daddy I think it would be interesting to die and see the heavens, I said not yet, a long time, but now, how is it going to be? He asks me, are there going to be games, is there going to be all that? He tells me already, better than what you can imagine, we are going to play with Jesus.

You know that our citizenship is there, that is our home, we are visiting here, we are a colony of the skies. What identifies you? Before being an American gringo, I am a citizen of heaven, the people of God are my people, that is my identity, I am dreaming of that land prepared for me, God says that there is going to be a new earth and new heavens, because the old world will have passed away, and a new Jerusalem will descend from heaven, dressed in glory like a bride dressed for her husband, and there will be no more crying or pain, and God will wipe away the tears of the faces because there will be no more death or crying, it will be beautiful. There will be a Voice from the Throne that will say, behold, I make all things new. We are going to have new bodies, the earth is going to be renewed in the twinkling of an eye, new earth, new bodies.

Those of us who are here are going to meet the Lord in the clouds, blow trumpets, transformed bodies, new bodies. Some of you listening to me, are you in pain now? There are some who live with pain, who come, who strive every day to serve, to serve God despite your pain, do you know what you are doing?, you are sharing the pains of Christ, you are close to Christ, although we ask God to heal, but there is intimacy with Christ in what you suffer, but later it will no longer be necessary, we will know everything as we are known, we will not know in part new glorified bodies, I think we are going to meet. It says that when Elijah and Moses appeared on the mount of transfiguration they were known who they were, I don't know.

There will be a banquet, there will be a new meal. Jesus said I am not going to take that fruit of life until I take it in the Kingdom of my Father, a great banquet, and people will come from the east, from the west, from the north and from the south, and he will take his place, his position in the banquet of the Son of God, the banquet of the Lamb. Brothers, it is not for nothing that so many books have come out in recent times that deal with the heavens, and you know that no Christian book is the Bible, every book has parts that you do not have to believe every little word, but you know that, I believe that God is speaking to us, that we think of heaven, that we be dreamers, that you take the time to dream a little.

I remember that I was going to visit someone in the hospital, someone who was about to pass, there are always chapels in hospitals, I went in and I felt as if I could feel a cool rain on my face, as if I was feeling it, it's going to there be waters of life in the heavens, as if you were in a delicate grass breathing new air, new rains, new flowers, new trees, new animals, behold I make all things new. The only thing we will not have is the sun, because God is going to shine so bright, the Shekinah is going to illuminate us, it is going to outshine the sun, nor will it be necessary.

Brothers, let's dream of that, let's dream of the heavens, the power of God is going to transform us one day. The apostle Paul ends by saying brothers and adored, loved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand firm in the Lord, beloved, if we are dreaming of God, if we are savoring that God is good, there is no time to sin, because why? sin? when we are enjoying the true, so the strongest power to break the bonds of Satan is not law or rules but passion for Christ, fullness of the Word of God that transforms us from the inside out, the joy of Jehovah will be our strength .