Lord, let your light shine on our plans

One of my favorite psalms is Psalm 90, verses 16 to 17, it says like this: "May your work appear in your servants and your glory on their children and be the light of the Lord our God upon us and the work of our hands confirm upon us. Yes, the work of our hands confirms..."

This psalm is very particular for me, my brothers, because on the one hand what it presents is the prayer of a person who is asking God that God bring his favor on those plans that he has forged from now on. Those plans that that person has drawn up for his life. In this prayer what you are asking is that God bring his blessing on each one of them. You see, we are always used to praying in a way that sounds more like this, Lord, bring me your plans, let what you want in my life be done.

And that's fine, praying like this is fine, but there are also moments, my brothers, where one can bring the plans that one has, the expectations that one has, the desires that one has and how to present it to the Lord as an offering and say , “Look, Lord, here I am bringing you these plans, these desires that I have. I don't know if these wishes are totally okay in front of you but I hope so. In my understanding, in the finite mind that I have, I believe that I am in line with your will, so I am bringing this to you and I want you to bless it, I want you to bring favor on this, that your light be on these plans, that you grace, your favor falls on this that I am plotting, this that I am wanting to do for the next 3, 6, 9 months or the next year. I want your light to shine on this."

I believe that this is a very pertinent prayer for this season in which we find ourselves. Yet yes, a new year has already begun and there we are marching. How many have faith and expectation that something good is going to happen? I believe so. And how many have the faith and the expectation that their not very good things will come too? I have to be real, if it comes, it will come. I don't want him to come for him to come, he will come.

How many now are thinking and praying that Lord, if some trauma comes, if some situation comes, if some tripping comes from the devil or from another person, give me the strength, then to be able to carry it out? How many then can think that way? We are all in the same boat.

I wanted to meditate on the following, my brothers, this is a time in which we are asking God's blessing on our lives, on our family, our jobs, our friendships, everything we do. We ask that God continue to cover all things, or at least I hope, as one of your pastors, that you are praying like this.

And by the way, I make a parenthesis, today I want to speak to you, yes as your pastor, but I also speak to you as a brother in Christ, I speak to you as a friend, as a colleague on the day with you. So I'm going to open my heart a little bit. We want God to bless these new days of our life, these new stages that we are going to be facing, as well as everything that this may bring, with everything that may come into our lives. Regardless of the marks with which we can leave this journey, we want God's blessing to be upon us.

For many, my brothers, I have to admit this, I was on vacation, I arrived right now, as they say, to the airport, I went home, I looked for the dog, I did some shopping, I ate with the boys, I came, I got here, I came in my heart, Lord, wow, there are so many things that one would like to share... and in my heart I was also meditating because during those vacation days I was always aware of my email and receiving different notes from different people, some wrote me with good news , others wrote me with news that was not very good, and one like… wow. And I had to admit, Lord, this year for many people is starting on the right foot, it is starting well, but there are other people that this year is starting a little hard, difficult, and I don't know where you are at this point. . It may be that you are split in two, that on the one hand your year started super well and on the other hand the year is still in neutral, skating on the ice and you don't know when it will melt so that you can get out of it. some way or another.

But the point is, my brothers, that at this moment, here at this point, so crucial, this is the point where we can let God affirm us, let God be the one directing each one of our steps in everything that we are doing or are going to do. For some reason this morning, look what happened to me, I came across the story of Moses, when he met God and that God began to call him, to go and free his people, Israel, from Egypt.

I know that all of us know this story and what Moses said when God told him, "I want you to go." Moses tells him, "Oh, Lord, I have never been a man of easy words, neither before nor since you spoke to your servant." That phrase caught me, it grabbed me, let me say it well, that phrase gave me a twist, because Moses is not only justifying himself that he did not know how to speak before having heard from God, even at the moment that he still heard from God at that moment he was saying, “ah, not yet, the burning bush hasn't changed my language, I can't speak yet.”

That was what he was saying. In other words, “Sorry, but… I'm not the guy. I'm not the person you have to use. you were wrong. Call another, call another." More nevertheless in the midst of that God affirmed this man. God affirmed this man and told him, “Come here, who was it that gave the man his mouth? Who can make a man dumb or able to speak? Who can make a man blind or able to see? Who can make a man deaf or able to hear? And it is clear that this passage is not saying that God intentionally makes someone dumb, but that God can intervene in either situation. He can make the mute speak and the one who speaks can make him speak better or he can also make him mute when he does not speak what he has to speak, or when he speaks more than necessary.

So you know, don't talk about the account anymore. A resolution for this new year: do not talk more than necessary. Speak, say what you have to say, bread bread and wine wine. But when you say it, say it carefully, don't say things that hurt hearts, please. The point is that here is God affirming this man.

And I began to think, the different things that must have gone through Moses' head. How am I going to return to face Pharaoh, who is like who my brother says, because I grew up with him in the palace? How am I going to go back to a place where they are looking for me because I killed someone? How do you want me to do the same thing? However, there is God's affirmation about him, “Hey, don't rush, I'm the one with you. I'm the one who's going to help you talk. I'm the one who's going to teach you what to say. It's not you, it's me who's going to do it through you."

These words do not sound familiar to you when Jesus himself told his disciples, "Hey, when they take you in front of the synagogue, in front of the authorities, don't worry about preparing your dissertation ahead of time, because right then and there the Spirit will going to let you know what they have to say.”

I began to think about this, my brothers, in light of this new vision that God has inspired our pastor, for this year in this church, a year of evangelism, my brothers. I tell them, evangelism and I know that it is crucial for the life of any church, but when they talk to me about evangelism, don't be surprised, it gives me shin guards, my knees tremble, because evangelism is not the gift stronger than I have. Have me teach a class, have me preach here, but if you put me out there on a street to do something, you are going to see a Pastor Omar that you have not seen before. But for the record, it's not that bad, I can defend myself, let me fix things, I can defend myself but it's hard for me. I'm not like other people who in five minutes have someone on their knees on the street corner praying, accepting Christ.

But the point is, my brothers, that the challenge is there. Each one of us, each one of us, look, I'm saying it very clearly, all of us, we have this challenge of being able to become people who can evangelize, people who can communicate the love of God in a new, refreshing, relevant way, to the time in which we are living.

And for a time like this I believe that God is telling us the same things that he said to Moses, "I am the one who puts words in your mouth, it is not you, you maybe, you can spend an hour before talking to a person." person, thinking about what you are going to say, but when you get there you are going to forget everything because then I am the one who is going to inspire you to be able to talk to that person. Maybe I'll use some of the ones you cooked up in your head, but I'm the one who's going to give you the words to truly reach your heart."

You know what? My brothers, I want it to be like this. I don't want to throw myself out there to evangelize with words that I cook up in my head, because if I do it that way I'm not going anywhere. Today, if we want to see lives truly transformed by the power of God's word, we need God himself to reach those hearts. God himself is the one who has to penetrate those minds that have already been manipulated by the mentality, the ideologies, the philosophies of this world, that only God with his power can truly go directly to where the need is.

It's more that there are times that we without having to say something that already comes, "Look, I need you to do this for me, or that you pray for this." That co-worker that you have been praying for for a long time, suddenly out of nowhere, will say, "Look, Antonio, pray for me, I know that you are a man of God," and that's it. to leave Antonio stunned. I never thought that this man was going to say that to me, but there it is, it happens. Because it is God who is working.

That is the type of evangelism that we need to see today, my brothers, an evangelism that is led directly by God. Yes, we are instruments like Moses. Moses was an instrument, Moses had his fears. You have your fears, I have my fears, but we are clay vessels in the hands of the potter. The potter will use you as he wants to use you. Our responsibility is to be able to discern how God wants to use us. What is God going to do through you, through me? As? When? Where? With who? So that his grace and love can be noticed in the hearts of those who need it.

With these words I want to encourage you, my brothers, because what I am saying does have to do with how God's blessing through you can reach others. But nevertheless I cannot ignore the fact that that same blessing is going to come to you too and that God wants to affirm you too.

How many of us don't wrestle with who knows many other things that Moses was wrestling with, that we look down on ourselves, think of ourselves and it's like you wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and say, “ Oh, blessed, I am… have mercy on me, please.” I don't know how many of you are like Snow White who look in the mirror and say, “Mirror, mirror, tell me mirror…” I was at Disney, that's why I thought of Snow White.

But the thing is, my brothers, is that every time you look in that mirror, and a half-low thought of you enters, on the other side is God looking at you saying, "Ah, ah, you are not that, You are a person who is worth a lot, you are a person that perhaps others are putting aside, but I am putting you on my side. That side where people are pushing you, that side, is where I am, and that is where you are going to find me.”

Only God is capable of doing something like this and beginning to speak to your heart and affirm you. Where others may have failed to affirm you, God comes and affirms you. God is in charge of looking for the way that pleases him to let you know how much you are worth to him. Even if your eyes are blinded by the life experiences that you have had, are having or are going to have, in the midst of all these things God is present letting you know how important you are to him.

Now, don't think that because God says that you are important to him, that you are going to end up standing on a platform preaching to thousands of people. Don't go thinking that. Don't get confused because later you're going to get frustrated. Because who knows that the only thing that God wants you to do, is more, I am going to share this story. I don't know how many of you know brother Miguel Pérez, our pastor's son-in-law, who plays the guitar, Abigail's husband, Caleb's father, what else can I say, my friend, my soul brother.

He called me a few weeks ago and told me about an experience that happened to him, when he was in a restaurant, in a diner, he was having breakfast with his son and suddenly when he went to pay, the waitress who served him said, "Don't worry, because someone already paid for you." And he was like… who paid for me? The gentleman who was sitting behind you. And when he realized that that person had left, he left, found him in the parking lot and went to thank him, and the man told him, "Don't worry, do it for someone else." The day after, she went to buy herself a coffee and when she went to buy the coffee, which she is going to order, the person at the register tells her, "Don't worry, the person who was before you already paid for you." And he was like… what is this? Already twice, one day after the other.

He told me that with such great emotion and I kept thinking, I said to myself, wow, what a beautiful way to truly reach someone's heart. Can you imagine or at least I have imagined doing this, I am going to give you this scenario, because this is something that I might not do, but I think it would be a challenge. There's a Starbucks here on Tremont heading towards the South End, I don't know how many of you have seen it? Near your house, Annie's. You know what it is, right? I imagine so, and your feet arrive there directly.

In that Starbucks obviously many of us know that that Starbucks, that sector there is the community of our homosexual brothers and all that. I usually go there a lot with brother Elías and we have coffee for breakfast, we talk, we don't update ourselves, whenever we go we see all this population that enters and one feels strange, they look at one, strange too, because two men with their rings on and they kind of look at us sometimes “Oh, how pretty they look.” Father, God rebuke, please.

But the point is that while I was speaking… I see the faces of some of you, I can imagine you also imagining what I am imagining. But the point is that the story that my brother Miguel shared made me think, Omar, what if one day you go to that Starbucks and pay two people who are there. The first thing I thought when I said that to myself, “I'm going to get in trouble, because then they're going to believe that I'm throwing something at them, and I don't want to ask for those problems. Then I start lifting things that I don't have to lift.”

But the issue was how to evangelize in a community that we as a church know is a community that is against us. That we can get into that community and start doing acts of kindness with them and that they know that we are not their enemies, but that we are here to serve them too.

I know that we already do things like this, on Saturday mornings when the men here go to Albany Street, they are distributing food to the homeless, on the street. I know we're already reaching out to people we usually wouldn't, but because God's love moves us, we move and do that. But that is a very particular population, as well as this other example of which I am speaking, it is a very particular population, which needs a different type of approach to be able to reach their hearts.

You can also think about the different contexts in which you move, how God can use you to reach the heart of each of those people around you. What can be the act of kindness that you can do, that God can use to reach someone's heart? Only God knows.

And my prayer is that God will reveal to you how you can reach that heart. Later I will talk about how we can do it. But for now, my brothers, I want to leave you with this: God wants to affirm your life, God wants to affirm your heart, God wants to let you know that he is counting on you. God wants to let you know that the plans that you have ahead of you, however far those plans may go, or however close they may be, God wants to let you know that he is with you, that he is going to take care of opening doors in your favor, but just as it opens some, there will be others that will close them for you. You just have to be aware of those signs that the Lord gives you to know where to go, know how to listen, pay attention.

We don't know everything, we need him to direct us too. So I leave you with these words, my brothers, for now. We will continue to reflect. God wants to affirm you. God wants to affirm your heart. God wants to affirm your walk. So don't think of yourself as little, that you don't know how to talk, that you don't know how to think at all, God knows how he's going to equip you.

So we are going to stand up, my brothers, and we are going to close this time. Dear God, we thank you. Thank you Lord because you are the God who looks at us with eyes so different from what people can look at us. When your eyes focus on us, they give us a reason for being, they give us meaning, they give us a purpose, they give us an incomparable value. Your eyes when they look at us put conviction in the heart too, Lord. And they help us align and get in frequency with you, Lord.

Father, I ask you that these words on which we are reflecting today and those that we can reflect on in the days to come, I ask you, Lord, that in each one of them your Holy Spirit makes us know the things that you have in your heart, to us, as individual beings and also as members of this family of faith.

Teach us, Lord, to be able to listen to you, to be able to pay attention, to those things that you want us to pay attention to, to have hearts open to you, sensitive to you, teachable by you, Lord. Give us a teachable heart. I ask you that in this new year 2013 our hearts can become even more teachable, Jesus. You are that faithful friend who seeks us, who affirms us, who comforts us, who reproves us, and who inspires us to move on.

So I ask you for each one of my brothers and sisters, those who are here, those who see us on the internet, those who will see us, Lord, in the days to come, I ask you, Lord, that you as the God who affirms us, continue to guide us in this new journey that 2013 can bring to our lives. As Psalm 90 rightly says, Lord, may your light shine on our plans, Lord, and may you affirm and confirm each of those, Lord, that we have forged in light of your will, Lord.

I ask for your blessing on each one of my brothers and sisters, from the youngest to the oldest, Lord, in any place in the journey of faith where they can be found, I ask, Lord, that it be you bringing a word of good, a word of affirmation, a word of encouragement to each of your hearts. On each man, on each woman, on each young person, on each family represented here, Lord, we declare your blessing on each one of them, and on this family of faith, Lion of Judah, where you have placed us, Lord, that now more than ever, Lord, be you affirming our head, our forehead, Lord, to be able to reach these communities that we have around with all its constituents, Lord, whoever the person or place where they live or social, academic status , whoever it is, Lord, that you help us to be able to reach those hearts for your honor and your glory, Lord.

We give you thanks for tonight, my God, and receive all the exaltation, my God, we owe it all to you. Take us safely to our homes, Lord, keep us warm along the way and that tonight you give us a deep, restful sleep, that you can renew our energies, Lord, so that tomorrow, if you allow it, , we can get our hands on everything that the day can bring.

We thank you for your Son Jesus we pray, amen and amen. Brothers and sisters blessings, greet one another in the love of the Lord. We will be seeing each other on Sunday. Blessings.