A life that reflects Christ - In the hands of the potter

I hope that this word is a blessing for each of us and I have titled this message "A life that reflects Christ in the hands of the potter." I want to exhort the congregation that we try to present lives that reflect Christ inside and outside the church and that we are willing to put ourselves in the hands of the potter so that the Lord breaks us and molds us again to be able to be vessels of honor in his hands.

The first passage that I want to share with you is in Ephesians 4, from 22 to 32 and the Bible says:

“…When to the past way of living, get rid of the old man that is corrupted according to the deceitful desires and renew yourselves in the spirit of our mind. And put on the new man created according to God in justice and holiness of truth. Therefore, discarding the lie, speak truth each one with his neighbor because we are members one of the others. Get angry but do not sin, do not set the sun on your anger or give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no more, but rather work, doing with his hands what is good so that he may have something to share with those in need. No corrupted word comes out of your mouth but the one that is good for the necessary edification in order to give grace to the listeners, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with which you were sealed for the day of redemption. Take away from you all bitterness, anger, wrath, shouting and gossip and all malice. Before be kind to one another, merciful, forgiving one another as God also forgave you in Christ..."

This word has been in my heart because as we talk about building the new temple and we are going to inhabit the new temple, and the temple is beautiful and we want everything to be in its place. God has placed a burden on my heart that we also prepare and sanctify ourselves. A week ago the pastor has been preaching about sanctification, what it is to live holy lives, lives that reflect Christ and I want to echo that a little bit. And I chose the words of brother Paul, the Apostle Paul in the Old Testament when he addressed the people of the church in Ephesus.

Ephesus was a very modern city in Asia, considered the first metropolis in Asia. There were many influential people, it was a very commercial city that was on the way to Rome and there were wealthy people, people who were not wealthy, it was a very diverse city. And there was a group of believers who were both Jews and Gentiles that Paul addressed towards the end of his life when he was imprisoned in Rome and he sent them a letter asking them to take care of their way of living as Christians. And he touched on various topics, he spoke about unity in Christ, how important it is to be one in Christ, to be people of the same mind, how important it is to be people who seek to grow in the Lord every day, that we do not believe that we already we reach a level of spirituality or holiness where we don't have to read anymore, and that is reflected through your letter.

When he begins the letter of Ephesians he introduces himself as Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, letting them know that he was an Apostle and he had authority to speak to them, but then throughout the letter, you see that he always refers to himself and says, as a servant of Jesus Christ, a prisoner in chains, and language that denotes that his heart was to serve the Christian community of that time.

So in his letter he is talking about Christian fellowship, unity, submission to one another, and encouraging the church to want to grow. And it was somewhat paradoxical because a man who used to persecute the church and wanted to exterminate all Christians, is now speaking, no, let's unite, let's be faithful, let's be together, etc.

And reading in this passage, I was able to identify three steps to reflect Christ, three things that Paul is asking the church in Ephesus to do to reflect Christ. The first step is that we have to put off the old man. And in verse 22 Paul begins by saying:

"... as for the past way of living, stripped..."

The new international version says “…take off the clothes of the old man −which is the old nature− which is corrupted according to deceitful desires…”

Paul is telling the brothers in Ephesus, you have already met Christ, you say you profess to be Christians and want to live like Christ, put aside all those things that are of your sinful nature.

The things that you did before Christ have to be put aside and out of the way. Because those things that are linked to deceitful desires and there contrasts the deceitful word when it says, according to deceitful desires against what is true and pure of God. So, he says, all those carnal desires that we had before Christ are fleeting things, that are going to perish and that therefore we have to put aside.

And that's the first thing he says, put off the old man. Let's put our carnal and sinful nature that does not honor God aside. Number two, he says, be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And that's in verse 25.

I began to look for what that means by renewing yourselves, what Paul was referring to when he spoke of renewing himself. And I found in the Royal Academy of the Spanish language, that dictionary that everyone goes to when they don't know how to speak Spanish, they say, renewing is doing something like new or returning it to its original state.

And when I read this definition, I said, wow, how interesting that Paul uses that word, because perhaps he is alluding to the fact that because of sin we have been so corrupt, so stained that he wants us to renew ourselves so that let's go back to our first state before sin, to that state when Adam and Eve had a relationship with God where they spoke to each other face to face, where they were not ashamed of their sins and perhaps Paul is saying, when he says renew yourselves, let's mold ourselves again, let's go to purify ourselves, to return again to the state in which we were, that we had access to God without any shame.

Another definition said that it is to restore or resume a relationship that had been interrupted. Basically to be made again, to be made new, to improve the condition in which one is.

So, when Paul says to renew the spirit of your mind, he means that our interior must be renewed day by day, that the things that we detect that are not going well before God, that are not good, we have to renew it. It's like when you see a chair in your house that is peeling, scratched on one side and you want to polish it, you want to paint it again, when the walls get damaged, all that renovation has to do with is fixing things that exist but are damaged and that if left untreated can continue to deteriorate. And that is what Paul refers to here when he speaks to the church of Ephesus saying, be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

Examine your mind, the things that don't look good, the things that are not according to God's will, we have to polish them, we have to fix them, we have to pay attention to that. That was the second step in living a life that reflects Christ.

Number 3, Paul tells him in verse 24, and clothed in the new man created according to God, that is, created in the image of God, in true justice and holiness.

Paul makes three things very clear to us here. He says, the first thing we have to do is get rid of the old man, put it aside, renew the spirit of your mind, and in that renewal we have to put on the new man and put on a new garment, which is what God wants to give us. through his word.

And I started thinking about this, clothing, and it caught my attention. Why does Paul use the word clothing? Why does Paul allude to this that we have to put on the new man? And I started to think, when you get dressed it's for people to see you, that you're well dressed, right? Today I have to wear clothes that represent one, right? that speaks well of one.

And usually, when we are choosing what to wear, we are thinking about how we are going to see ourselves before others. What message are we going to convey to others? if the clothes are clean, if the clothes are dirty, etc. The fact is that this clothing, the general rule of this, is that one dresses according to the occasion.

When one goes to a wedding, one wears a certain type of clothing. When you go to a funeral, you wear a certain type of clothing. Depending on the job one has, if one is a carpenter, if one is a lawyer, if one is a policeman, a soldier, there are different types of clothing for those things. When one goes to play sports, different types of clothing, when one works with the children, in Sunday school, I always wear my Sunday school shirt, when I come to preach I wear the pastor's uniform, that does not mean that one be better than another, what it means is that there are different things for different states and the clothes say something about one.

What one wears speaks of one's personality, one's identity, etc. It's very interesting that Pablo uses this clothing language and I said, well, what he's saying is that when you get dressed again, you kind of change roles. For example, if now after preaching I have to go to work with the children on the third floor, I am going to take this off and make myself more comfortable, I am going to put on some jeans, tennis shoes, a T-shirt and I'm going to do another function. It's like the soldier who is fighting, who is working, on weekends if he doesn't have to do anything, he puts on civilian clothes to be with his family.

So Paul is talking about this and he is saying, the clothes that you have old from the previous nature, now you have to change it because you are going to do different things, and you are not going to do what you were doing when you were without Christ . So, now I need you to put on a new outfit.

And it's those three things that he talks about, putting off the old man, renewing our mind and putting on the new man. This thing about clothing was interesting because I don't think that here Paul is referring to how one necessarily dresses on Sundays, he is talking about the attitudes of the interior, but I began to think, hey, what will be the rule for one to dress on sundays in church?

I grew up in a church where one always walked like this, always like this all the time, ironed, the best thing one had one wore when going to church. I saw the heavens open in this country because I said, oh, here people wear jeans to go to church. So hallelujah! Glory to God, I'm going to put on a pair of jeans, my tennis shoes. Because it's not really a rule that says one has to dress in fine clothes, formal clothes or anything.

However, reading a book that I am reading these days, the author of that book says that one dresses formally to go to church, not because it is obligatory, but because one wants to show respect for the things of God. It is not obligatory, it is if one wants to show respect, one shows respect. God wants one to be comfortable, for one to come home and feel comfortable to listen to his word, but how nice it feels that one in one's comfort, one shows respect to God or wants to show respect to God.

And I got to thinking, wow, you do things because you want to show respect. When one goes to a theater or something to see a fine play, Shakespeare, or whatever, one wears comfortable clothes because one wants to respect the place where one is, how nice it would be if we also decided to respect the place where we are. we find when we are in the presence of God.

It's like we're going out with God. When you go on a date you want to put on really nice clothes and perfume yourself and everything. We could adopt the same attitude when it comes to coming to church, to spend time with God. I began to think about this and I began to think that sometimes, for example, I don't like to walk like that on the street on Sundays because I say wow, people will already know that you are going to church, from the people who say to me in the street, that one is evangelical, that one is Christian. And I'm ashamed, I mean, no, I want to be like everyone else, I want to wear jeans, I want to go unnoticed.

I said, wow, how sad it is that one in his new way of living wants to be like the world, he wants to be accepted by the world and dress like the people of the world, just so that people don't say, he is a Christian, she is a Christian . I said, Lord, forgive me, forgive me.

And today when I was walking around, I said, no, I'm going to church, I'm going to church. But they are things that one has to think about, and they are things that one has to change. That attitude of mind that the next time I go to church, I'm not ashamed that my neighbors find out that I'm going to church. I don't want my neighbor to love me because I am a Christian, I just want him to respect me. And this was something that I heard in those political talks these days, there was a person speaking saying that his mother told him that there was a difference between love and respect and that she did not want her children to love her, because many people love you. they love or say they love you, and they don't respect you and she said that I prefer that my children respect me because as a result of that respect they will begin to love me.

And I said, how nice it would be if we were not ashamed to walk as Christians in the street, regardless of the fact that the people of the world do not love us, but earning the respect of the people of the world. When they see us, they respect you because you walk like a Christian and I said, well, Lord, for you, for the love and respect I have for you, I plan to change my clothes.

Of course, Paul is not talking about physical clothing, Paul is talking about inner attitudes, heart and mind, as we see in the passage. But it is important to know that when one begins to change inside, it shows on the outside. And people have to see that.

Paul has told us about three things here and it is the same thing that he was saying to the church in Rome. In Romans 12, he told them, a verse that we all know, he says:

"...Do not conform to this century but transform yourselves through the renewal of your understanding so that you may verify what is the good will of God, pleasing and perfect..."

It was something that in every letter that Paul wrote to the different churches, he had the same theme. We are Christians, we are going to walk differently, we are going to speak differently, we are going to constantly transform our minds. And it was an exhortation towards a different life.

Now, that exhortation to a different life—the three steps that Paul was sharing here with the church of Jesus—had implications. And I found five very practical and super straight forward implications, direct, that clearly does not crow a rooster, as they say. The first thing he told him, let's not speak a lie, let's speak the truth, therefore, rejecting the lie, speak the truth each one with his neighbor because we are members of one another.

Already here Paul is moving from the general to the specific. What does it mean to constantly renew ourselves? What does it mean to renew? What does it mean to take off and put on? One of the things it means is to stop speaking lies, it doesn't matter if it's a simple lie, whatever it is, a lie is a lie. So, stop lying and speak the truth.

Now, when he says to speak the truth, it's not for us to get into it, no, because I'm not afraid of anyone, I tell the truth to whoever it is that needs to be told. Do you know people like that? I know people like that, who say I don't care, I tell them to their face. Who is there to tell? Tell me. Come on. Let's go tell him.

No, no, Paul, in verse 15 of chapter 4, he tells him, but following the truth in love, let us grow in everyone who is the head, this is Christ.

He says, speak the truth in love. It's like when you go to talk to your child, your child has done something bad, and you have to scold him. You will scold him using the truth, saying look, this is so, this is so, but you scold him, you correct him in such a way that the child does not become demoralized, but instead feels encouraged. TRUE? it is with love that one has to correct people, it is not with the desire to crush them, to let them know that they did wrong. Because you already know you did it wrong. It is a truth that gives you hope and gives you peace that all is not lost, I am still accepted, I am still wanted, I am still loved.

So when Paul says, stop speaking lies, he says, speak the truth in love. There are times when one does not agree with certain attitudes of people next to us, I don't know what, and we kind of go along with them because we fear that if we correct them, the person will feel bad. But Paul says here, hey, don't lie.

Lying is not just speaking a lie. The lie is the absence of the truth. When one simply does not tell the truth and remains silent, that can result in a lie. One can sell an illusion that is not true to a person. So, Paul says, do not leave the lie, do not speak a lie, do not give false illusions, speak the truth, but speak the truth in love for your brother, seeking to restore him, renew him.

Then he says that when one has to stop lying, it is because one has to make oneself known at work, at home, at school, wherever one is, people should know us because so-and-so always tells the truth. He is a person who does not go around telling lies, he is a person whose yes is yes and his no is no. that in your work people feel confident to sit down to listen to you, to listen to what you say because they know that you are a person of integrity, that you are upright, that you tell the truth at all times.

And he says it in love. How many of us make ourselves known for that in our jobs, in our schools, in our communities? There are so many of us that our neighbors wouldn't dare talk to us. They would not dare to believe things that we say, because we have not reflected Christ with this attitude that Paul mentions here, of speaking the truth. Because in the midst of the absence of truth, we project an image that is not that of Christ. So we have to pay attention to this.

Number 2, Paul says in verse 26, be angry but do not sin, do not let the sun go down on your anger. The new international version says, don't let the sun go down while you're still angry. Eye here. This is not permission for one to get angry. There are people who say, hey, the Bible says be angry, but do not sin. I can get angry, I can keel myself as they say in the Dominican Republic, but I'm just not going to [inaudible] but I'll let them know that I'm angry, that I didn't like it, I'm keeled, I'm turned on.

The Bible says here, be angry but do not sin. There is a translation that says, in case you get angry, do not sin. And the second part of the verse is the most important, it says, do not let the sun go down on your anger. He says, don't let that anger last long, that anger. Because when you are in anger, when you are in anger you are not reflecting the fruit of God's spirit and you are wrong.

There is no justification here in the Bible for one to get angry. When one sees things that cause one to be indignant, one breathes, Lord, bless that brother, help that brother. One feels bad, but it is one thing to feel bad and another thing to get angry and angry. And when one gets angry, when one gets angry, good things do not come out of one's mouth, one does not act in the best way. So, Paul is saying, be angry but do not sin.

This applies to all kinds of relationships, relationships with partners, relationships with friends, work relationships, relationships at home. Many times you get angry with your children and because they are children you yell at them. That boy... look... he is not being a blessing to your son's life. You are not reflecting Christ for the life of your child. At work when you get angry, many times you don't yell, but we apply the ice rule to the person. I'm not going to speak, hello… hello… We are not reflecting Christ when we do that.

And when we do that we give an opportunity to the person who says, and that is a Christian. After the person says so, that is what you are showing him. Because there are people who get angry and explode, but there are people who get angry but internally, but they show it. So, that's why the Bible says, don't let the sun go down on your anger. When you get angry, try to make it go away soon, because those are things that don't build, they don't help you, they don't help anyone. Anger is not from God.

So when you get angry with your partner, that you go to the furniture... no, I always say, when I get married, in my house I don't go to the furniture, if she wants me to go to the furniture but I I'm not going for the furniture. So, when you get angry, try to let it go quickly because you are not going to get anywhere with this anger thing.

That goes for all kinds of relationships. Then, see if this anger thing is so important that Paul talks about it a lot. Look at what it says in James 1 from 19 to 20. It says:

“….For this reason my beloved brothers, every man should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to get angry because the anger of man does not work the justice of God…”

When you get angry you are not acting [inaudible] from God. Look what Matthew 5:22 says:

“…But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother, anyone who is angry with his brother, internally or externally, will be guilty of judgment…”

Then in Galatians 5:20 when he's talking about works that go against the fruit of the spirit, which are after the flesh, he has a list and he says:

“…Idolatry, sorcery, enmity, lawsuits, jealousy, anger – there is anger…”

It is something that is completely contrary to the fruit of the spirit that we must exhibit in a new life in Christ.

In Colossians 3 from 12 to 14, look at what it says here:

“…But now you also put off all these things, wrath – it begins with wrath – anger, malice, blasphemy, dishonest words out of your mouth, and do not lie to one another, having put off the old man – look at the language, and this it is a letter that he wrote to the church in Colossus, to the Colossians – and put on the new one, which according to the image of the one who created it is renewed until the full knowledge where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbaric neither written, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all..."

Look at the language here again of clothing. “…Put on therefore, as holy and beloved chosen of God, tender mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, and if any have a complaint against the other in the way that Christ forgave you so do you too and above all these things clothe yourself with love which is the perfect bond..."

Here we see the same theme, the same theme. He wrote it to the church in Ephesus, he wrote it to the church in Corinth, and I think he wrote it to us as well. Because God knows we all struggle with these things.

This dress language made me think of baptisms. Recently we celebrated some baptisms in the lake, but there are people who were baptized and those people when they were baptized said, today I am going to descend into the waters to leave my old self and I am going to come out of the waters to start living a new life. in Christ. I'm not going to do what I did before, I'm going to try to improve everything that is wrong inside of me.

So, those of us who were not necessarily baptized, but who witnessed what these people were doing, we must ask ourselves, am I walking according to what God wants me to walk? Am I living as God wants me to live? Here is Paul's letter that tells us what we have to leave behind.

Look what Ecclesiastes 7:9 says, Proverbs 22:4 says;

“…Do not meddle with the wrathful nor accompany yourself with the angry man. Do not rush in your spirit to get angry because anger rests in the bosom of fools..."

You are saying a very practical exhortation. In case you get angry, try not to sin and that it passes quickly.

The number 3 that tells us is it is not necessary to steal, we can work. The one who stole does not steal anymore but rather works, doing with his hands what is good so that he has to share with the one who is in need.

When Paul is making a reference to not stealing, he is perhaps citing the law of Moses, the eighth commandment is you shall not steal. And when he alludes to this he is letting his audience know that in one way or another what he is saying, he is not inventing it, it is not something new, it is something that comes from the Old Testament and that God Himself had indicated for his people. And he tells him, you will not steal.

When I saw this, I was reading but, that's easy, I don't have to do anything. I was already there, Lord, forgive me because sometimes I get angry, I get angry with people at work and my blood rises. When I saw this about stealing, ah, but I don't steal and I kept reading. Then I heard a little voice that said, Jonathan, and when you are on Facebook during working hours, explain to me, aren't you stealing time? When you are watching videos on You Tube during work hours, explain to me, aren't you stealing time?

Many times we steal time from our companies where we work. Imagine me in church, I'm stealing from God. But in the workplace, when you waste time, when you don't do things the way you should, when you do them mediocrely, when you spend all your time watching videos, chatting with friends on Facebook, all those things, you you are stealing your employers time.

When I worked at the university at Gordon Conwell Seminary, students were charged 10 cents for photocopying and all staff were supposed to be charged 10 cents. Whenever you needed a copy you had to get 10 cents. Since I worked there, he said, no, I'm going to throw away my copies and when I had to deliver some paper to a teacher, I would print my paper, make a copy and distribute it and everything. And I said, my God, but I stole so many copies from the seminary.

Because the copies of the papers that they made were not administrative copies, they were not office copies, they were my things. Sometimes I would see an article on the internet that I liked and print it out. It's the company's ink. I am stealing because I have not been authorized to spend my company's resources like this. The pencils always disappear, the erasers... we have to be careful with the things we do. You will not steal is you will not steal, period, wherever you are. You don't have to rob a bank to be a robber.

And they are things that we have to teach our children. Now, by the same token, this also applies to employers. When you don't pay a person who works with you enough, you are stealing money from that person. And be careful if you have the money to pay him but simply for saving reasons you do not want to pay him as that person deserves. You are stealing money from that person.

When you double a person's workload, this always happens with immigrant people who do not have documents, they are the people who work the most, because people take advantage of them and abuse them because of their condition. You are stealing from those people. This is something for the people who have, at that time for the church of Ephesus, it was for the people who had slaves, telling them, hey, your slaves don't steal their time, don't steal their family's time. Thou shalt not steal

And he is telling him so that you renew yourself, if you have that thing to steal, okay, stop stealing and get to work and see what he says here:

"... doing with your hands what is good so that you have to share with those in need..."

Here the word of God is saying that if you are a thief, stop stealing, get to work and you will see how you will be able to share with people who are in need. And in that God glorifies himself. An example was the example of Mateo, the tax collector. He stole from him, he always cut people off who… no, you have to pay me so much for this, for this, he turned it [inaudible] and stole from him.

When Mateo was converted, he understood what it meant to renew his understanding, he said, okay, I am going to return the money to all the people that I stole their taxes this year. How many of us trick the government with taxes. I am going to say that I have three children, that they are my dependents, that this, I am going to say that I am divorced, that this, that the other. We are stealing.

The systems when they give people food, I need… God says, stop stealing and get to work so that you can be a blessing. The example of Matthew, the tax collector, that's what he did. Before Christ he stole from people, after Christ he began to help people. A practical example that I found in a book that I was reading is a person who sells cars. What is the difference between a person selling cars and helping people buy cars? The car salesman doesn't care if you get into debt buying a car that is out of your budget. He's going to make it beautiful for you, in ten thousand ways, and he's going to sell it to you because the only thing that matters to him is selling the car.

The person who helps you buy a car, assesses your situation and tells you, look, don't get in that car because you won't be able to pay for it. In this book that I was reading, the author said that a member of his church was a car salesman and when he converted, he changed his mentality, renewed his mind and said, I am going to stop deceiving people by selling them cars. and I'm going to start helping people buy cars. That was a renewal of that person's understanding.

What are the things that we have to renew in our work regarding the way in which we steal time, resources from God and from others? These are things that we have to ask ourselves. Get to work.

Then the fourth implication that it says here, is in verse 29, "... no corrupted word comes out of your mouth but the one that is for the necessary edification in order to give grace to the listeners..."

Be careful what you say, make it uplifting. And this was the verse that came to my mind when they told me, look, it's your turn to preach on Sunday. And what am I going to talk about? And this verse came to mind. I remember that when I was a child, my mother always let no corrupted word come out of your mouth... no corrupted word came out of our mouth... and I grew up with a fear of saying bad words, that nothing else God and I knew. And I tried not to say bad words, but studying this verse the second part says:

"... but the one that is good for the necessary edification in order to give grace to the listeners..."

That is, a corrupted word is not simply a bad word. Any conversation that does not build is a corrupted conversation. And here Paul is talking about 3 things. We already see that he spoke of anger and anger, the attitude of the mind; He talked about our actions when one steals, what one does build his actions. Now he's talking about what you do with your lips. He's talking about the mouth.

The faculty of speech declares that we are created in the image of God because God is a speaking God. Of all creation, the only being that can speak like God is us. Animals don't talk, plants don't talk. Some animals can imitate man's vocabulary but do not speak. We have the power to speak.

God created the world with his word and if we are created in the image of God, our word has power, it has power to build a life and it has power to destroy a life.

You have to pay attention to what you say. Being able to speak is a gift. When Paul talks about corrupted words, he is talking about two types of words, there are words that are blessed and there are words that are corrupted. I began to study that of corrupted and in Greek the word is sapros which means rotten, corrupted and decomposed. When the Bible says that no corrupted word comes out of your mouth, it means that no rotten, corrupted word that is not true and decomposed comes out of your mouth.

In other passages this word is used to refer to the fruit of a tree, rotten fruit. In Matthew 17, he says:

“…Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inside they are ravenous wolves, you will know them by their fruits. Do they gather grapes from ears of corn or figs from thistles? So every good tree bears good fruit but the corrupted tree – this is the word used in this edition – the corrupted tree bears bad fruit. The good tree cannot bear corrupted fruit nor the corrupted tree bear good fruit..."

I changed the language and where it said bad I put corrupted because that is the word in Greek. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire so that you will know them by their fruits.

Here the Bible is comparing men to trees that bear fruit. And he talks about the prophets. What does a prophet do? Declare by his mouth. He says, beware of the prophets who are ravenous wolves. In another verse he says, the whited sepulcher, and we are going to talk about it later, and he says that a tree that is corrupted on the inside cannot bear good fruit and a good tree cannot bear corrupted fruit. The trees bear oranges, apples, pears, what fruit do we bear? An apple, an orange? No. The fruit of us is what comes out of our mouth. And what comes out of our mouth is what is inside us.

And if we are internally corrupted, that is what we are going to say. So you have to be careful with that. In English the word that is used, one word is evil, which is bad, and the other word is unwholesome, which is unhealthy. And it caught my attention to see that, unhealthy. And why did Paul say let no unhealthy word come out of your mouth, be corrupted. And it is something very interesting because the opposite of something that is corrupted, that is rotten, is something that has not been preserved and salt is used to preserve things. So, when our life does not have enough salt, our interior rots and rots because it is not preserved.

So, look at what the Bible says in Colossians 4:6 says:

"...Let your word always be graceful, seasoned with salt so that you know how you should respond to each one..."

He is saying that our words have to be seasoned with salt. Immediately I thought, hey, the Bible says that we are the salt of the earth and when it tells us that our word has to be seasoned with salt it is for us to give flavor to a world that is tasteless, for us to preserve the values of God in a world that rots away without those values.

Another interesting thing about salt is that salt increases salinity in the body causing thirst. That's why when you eat crackers, things with salt, you get thirsty and you have to drink water. I started thinking about this and said, what is the implication of that for us as a church? For us as a church, if our words are seasoned with salt, our words must cause the people who listen to us to thirst to hear. If the people who listen to us do not thirst for God after they hear us speak, our words are not seasoned enough and are corrupted words.

So, we have to ensure that everything we say is not corrupted words, is not unhealthy words, obscene words, abusive words, gossip. Many times it is not with bad words that one damages the image of God, it is with jokes. Sometimes there are jokes that do not build.

The second part of our verse says that we have to speak things that are uplifting. There are some jokes that do not build. Yesterday I was eating pizza with some friends, and a friend of ours has scratchy, scratchy hair and I told one, look, he looks like a wrestler from Mexico. Everyone laughed except him. Right there I said to myself, hey, a corrupted word. That was not uplifting.

Everybody liked him. What happened to him inside when I said that? They are often jokes. Sometimes a corrupted word can be true, I told you. When a person fails and you say I told you so, that is not building that person up. Why is it necessary for you to tell him I told you so? He already knows that you told him. Uplifting words are words of encouragement, hope, and restoration. So our vocabulary, our words have to be seasoned with those kinds of words.

That is why it says, if not the one that is good for the necessary edification. There are many things that we talk about that are not necessary, it is not necessary for you to talk about it. This is how riots start in the church and the things one gains by saying that. As believers we must use our hands, our words, our mouths, all to share the life of Christ in the midst of people. We must not tarnish the testimony of Christ by our comments.

And you have to be careful because sometimes with our trusted friends, the more trust you have with a person, the quicker you are to gossip, the quicker you are to talk about things that are not edifying. Because? Because you know that my trusted friend is not going to judge me and agrees with me. We must be careful with the type of conversation we speak. If they are not uplifting they are not worth it.

When a person hurts us, our first impulse is to go to another person to tell him our sorrows and to finish off that brother. No, no, you have to keep that inside. The Bible says in Proverbs 25:29:

"... Treat your cause with your partner and do not discover the secret to another, lest whoever hears it dishonor you and your infamy cannot be repaired..."

When you have a problem with a brother in the congregation, do not disclose it to a third person. Because your problem is not going to be edifying for the person who hears it and it is not going to be edifying for you. You can be as angry as possible but the Bible tells you here, take up your case with your partner, talk to that person and it has to stay between you and him.

Once you get out of there you are rotting, you are corrupting the body of Christ, you are corrupting the image of your brother and you are corrupting the image of God in you. Let me say that again, we are corrupting the image of God in us.

Many times we go now for so-and-so because so-and-so is doing this, this, and this, and that is not done like that… be careful, be careful with the people you trust the most. Those are the people we should take care of the most and we have to take care of it by stopping our mouth.

I found one thing, the three Socrates filters on the internet. That was something that a friend shared with me years ago in the Dominican Republic and she said that Socrates' three filters are truth, goodness and usefulness. And he was talking about how a young man approached Socrates to tell him, look, this and that is happening with so-and-so and Socrates told him, wait. Are you absolutely sure that what you are going to tell me is true? and he said, no. First filter failed. Many times we share things that we were told. No, so-and-so said such a thing. Are you absolutely sure what you are saying is true? Regardless of whether they have told you or not, you are the one who has to make sure that what you are going to say is true.

The second question that Socrates asked the young man was, is what you are going to tell me about so-and-so something good? Not necessarily. OK. Let's see the third to see if it happens. Will what you are going to tell me about my friend be useful to me? No. and then Socrates asked him, if what you want to tell me is not true, nor good, nor useful, why are you going to tell me? That struck me because many times we spend our lives talking about things that we are not sure if they are true, and even when we are sure that they are true, they are not good or they are not useful.

Why talk things like that? We have to pay attention to what happens there. If we want to reflect a life that reflects Christ, we have to place ourselves in the hands of the potter and allow God to break us and remove all those things that do not help us, do not build us up.

Many times we criticize church leaders, many times we criticize church ministries, and I am going to give you an example. Youth ministry is on everyone's lips. They are things that do not build and therefore are corrupted things. All comments that are made about the youth ministry are things that do not edify and it has to stop, it has to stop. That you are not the one to say that. And do you know why?

In the book of Numbers, God talks about Moses and Miriam when Aaron and Miriam criticized Moses, they criticized Moses because Moses messed with a Cushite woman. Moses was in sin, right? and they criticized him. And what did God do? Leprosy for Maria. And what they said was true? yes, it was true. But God told them, you do not have to be saying it, because they are things that do not build, they are things that do not help.

So, be careful when we talk about a church leader, whether through jokes, comments, or when we tell the truth. Be careful, brothers. Let's not criticize the leaders. Parents, be careful what you say in front of your children. His children repeat everything on the third floor, they have no filter. And I hear children saying things about other leaders, oh, what a so-and-so, what a so-and-so, it breaks my heart. Be careful with what you say, with what you share with your wife, with your children, with your relatives. You can share things that are not uplifting with any of them.

I have here some things that I brought to illustrate the danger of words. I have a spray deodorant here, I have a hand cream and I have a toothpaste. These things have something in common and that is that after you take them out you can't put them back in here. After you squeeze out this cream or toothpaste, it's hard to get it in there. That happens with your words.

Every time you go to church you are not leaving a good aroma if you walk in corrupted words. So, be careful because many times we talk and ask for forgiveness, but now... and then the image of God is not in us.

The Bible talks a lot about the tongue, it talks about the tongue here in James says:

"... My brothers, many of you do not become teachers knowing that we will receive greater condemnation because we all offend many times - leaders, do not become teachers because the leaders will have greater condemnation - we all offend many times and some do not offend in words, this is a man perfect, also capable of scrubbing the whole body. Behold, all of us put a brake on the mouths of horses so that they obey us and thus we direct a whole body. Take a good look at the ships... the tongue is a small member but it boasts of great things. Behold how great a voice that kindles a small fire…”

And the tongue is a fire, a world of evil. The tongue is placed between our members and it contaminates the whole body and inflames the wheel of creation and it itself is inflamed by hell because all nature of beasts and no man can tame the tongue which is an evil that cannot be restrained….

The Bible speaks a lot about the danger of misusing the tongue. God is saddened when we misuse our tongue. The last practical implication that Paul tells us is, get away from yourselves, leave and he says:

“…take away from you all bitterness, all anger, all anger, all shouting, all slander, which is really blasphemy, and all malice…”

Bitterness has to do with resentments from the past that affect our present. I once heard a pastor say that bitterness or lack of forgiveness, resentment is when one takes poison hoping that the other is the one to die. And that's serious. And it's true, bitterness is like that, because the one who is bitter is me, the one who is hurting is me. But no, I'm going to take the poison hoping that he dies.

Paul says here, get rid of, give up all bitterness. When it says gossip, the word gossip in Greek is blasphemy. And what is blasphemy? Abusing or tarnishing the image of another person with the tongue. When we do this, we tarnish the image of God because that person was created in the image of God as well. And we stain the image of God with us.

What we are not willing to say to one person, we do not have to say to other people. And even when we are willing to tell the person in front, we have to tell the person and it stayed there. Because if it comes out of there it doesn't build. Because the person... no, because I tell him to his face, I don't have a problem... tell him but don't tell me.

We have to learn that when people come around us with jokes, comments, things that don't build, hey, that doesn't build. Besy, I don't know where Besy is, at the Sky camp I shared a little bit of this with the boys because sometimes you start talking about things that don't build when the group dynamics don't go well, when things start to work badly . And in one we were talking and I made a joke, other jokes, I always get in trouble because of the language, everyone laughed except one person and Besy told me, that was a comment that doesn't build and I stayed So. I was shocked, and I say wow, and I said, thank you, Besy, because you told me the truth. and you told me in a way that was good, that I understood, that was clear.

Then, the gossip, all these things says, be kind to one another, merciful, forgiving one another as God also forgave you. We have to forgive ourselves. In the past they slandered you, they discredited you, you messed up, okay, you have God's forgiveness, let's forgive our neighbor.

Forgiveness is not that you are going to forget what happened. You will remember what happened. I like to see forgiveness as a scar. I have a scar here on this elbow that I perfectly remember how I got that scar. I was running, I jumped, I landed and I scraped myself and it hurt and it hurt but today it doesn't hurt anymore, and I have it there. For me forgiveness works that way. One remembers the scars one has, the scars caused by other people, the scars caused by oneself, but it no longer hurts, and you can sit with that person and eat in peace, because it no longer hurts.

So, we have to forgive each other, brothers. In conclusion, for us to leave, the 5 practical implications for living a life that reflects Christ in the potter's hand: let's not speak lies, let's speak the truth, let's get angry but don't sin, we don't need to steal, we can work and share with others, be careful what we say that is edifying, do not say that brick, rod, cement, sand, that is edifying but another type of edifying. And get away from us, let us abandon all anger, all anger, all shouting, all slander, blasphemy and all malice, all things that are not of God.

I think that God is calling us to this, brothers. And I hope that this word can be received with us and fall on good ground so that we live lives that reflect Christ wherever we are. Now we are going to sing a song, I want you to stand up and sing with us this song that says, we do today before your altar.