Don't miss grace

In the Name of Jesus the Word declares: "One of the crowd said to him: Master, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me, but He, Jesus said to him: man, who has made me judge or divider over you? And he said to them: watch out and beware of all greed because the life of man does not consist in the abundance of the goods that he possesses."

"He also told him a parable saying: the inheritance of a rich man had produced a lot and he thought within himself saying: what shall I do? because I have nowhere to store my fruits." What a good problem right? many of us would love to have that same conflict. What will I do because I have nowhere to store my fruits? "And he said: this I will do. I will tear down my barns and build them greater, and there I will store all my fruits and my goods and I will say to my soul: soul, many goods you have stored for many years, rest, eat, drink, rejoice. But God He said to him "what did God say to him? oops, but God told him: "fool, tonight they come to ask you for your soul and what you have provided, whose will it be?."

"So is he who lays up treasures for himself and is not rich toward God." A man interrupts a message from the Lord and one would say bad move but the Lord every so often you see that His message is interrupted from time to time, that in itself does not bother the Lord as much as for what. This man interrupts the Lord's message with a request and asks that the Lord serve as an arbitrator in a dispute he is having with his brother about the inheritance he wants his brother to share with him.

Now the Bible does not indicate your rights. It may be that the Bible does not indicate his rights, it may be that the man had a good case, a right, who knows his position on this. And the Lord, the Lord stops him dead because this man with this in himself makes two mistakes. Firstly, the Law of Moses indicates that in these cases a rabbi can serve as a judge or as an arbitrator in the town and that was the first mistake this man made. Jesus was more, he is more than a simple rabbi.

And this is the beginning of the problem that we see with this man. This man has not been born who this is that stands before him. By the way, brothers, many of us arrived like this. We arrived precisely because we have problems, we arrived precisely because we have our troubles and we come to see if the Lord or if the Church or if someone can advise us with this problem, with this financial problem that we have, with this marital problem that we have, with this mess that we have, perhaps a case that we have in Court and we want someone to accompany us, all these things and if the Lord fixes the mess for us, perhaps we will continue and perhaps we will continue in this matter of religion. And that is the second mistake this man makes, in focusing on this lawsuit with his brother over something that will eventually perish.

Brothers, it is incredible the things for which we are willing to stop talking to our brother. Whether it's money, whether it's a lawsuit that arises, an argument over a property, an inheritance like this, whether it's something that someone said that challenges our reputation and our prestige and we stopped talking to them for years, this is something tragic. But this man is so focused on this that he is about to, and this is the danger, he is about to miss out on the opportunity to obtain the true most precious treasure in the entire universe. It is in front of him.

The fountain of resurrection and life is in front of him and he doesn't realize it, he doesn't see it. He doesn't even realize it and he's about to lose the opportunity of a lifetime by focusing on this nonsense. And the Lord in His mercy so that this man realizes his error, the Lord shares this parable, the parable of the rich fool or the rich fool.

Now my brothers I confess to you, I have always felt a little sorry for this man until the Lord gave me this message. I have always read this passage, this parable with truth, I have to confess that many times I have read this passage and I said poor guy, poor man. He is not what we would call a bad man. In the United States or in the western world we would admire someone like that. He seems to be a good administrator of his company and its assets, he made a profit, this is America, right? Isn't that the idea?

He made a profit on his investments and he plans to invest it in expanding his farm, expanding his business and maybe saving some for a retirement that is well deserved. So far this man is looking a lot like many of us, Pastor, what's wrong with that? And that is the point. We would admire such a man. Frankly, we would like to be a man like that, a Steve Jobs from Apple, a Bill Gates from Microsoft. Isn't that why we came to this country, the land of opportunity? Is that why you rode whatever it took to get here? TRUE? (laughs).

Pastor, what's wrong with that? work hard, we work here, work hard, save and one day maybe be able to enjoy the fruit of our labor. A little farm in Puerto Plata with a view of the sea perhaps or next to the lake there in Antigua, or on a hill there in San Sebastián and have something, right? and return to your village where they once knew you but this time you are driving a jeep and this time they treat you as you what's wrong with that? what's wrong with that? And my brothers that's the idea, it's not bad or at least we wouldn't think we were bad, it's more we celebrate people like that.

He's not a man we'd call a bad man and maybe that's the point. Pastor, I am not a bad man. I know that an evangelistic message is coming from there, you announced it, thank you, but look at me, here I am, I arrive at the Church. I go from church to home, from home to work, from work to church, I don't yell at my wife, I pay my taxes, I pick up the snow and my neighbor's from time to time, I even throw a little snow on it. Salt others so you know the good man I am. I offer, maybe I don't tithe but I offer and here I am, I'm not bad!

And my brother this is the point, God does not distinguish between the good and the bad per se. Hello Pastor, we are talking about a good God, are you sure? Look at this. When we have to appear before God as this man did, He will not be judging between the good and the bad, and thank God, you know? because if He were judging between the good and the bad none of us would have hope at that moment. Psalm 14 declares "There is no one who does good." Have you heard that verse?

Paul also quotes that verse in the Book of Romans: "There is no one who does good" then he says, "Everyone has strayed and is still corrupted, there is no one who does good, there is not even one." God does not distinguish for more good or at least not so bad that this man is, He is not distinguishing between the good and the bad in himself because there is no good one before God, not one beginning with the one who is preaching to him by himself perhaps there is no good one.

But God will judge souls before Him and the measure that He will use is this: He will judge between the fool and the wise or between the fool and the just, and this is watered my brothers throughout all of Scripture. The word that Jesus uses here is arfon, even in Greek it sounds strong and ugly, arfon which is the Greek translation of the same word used in the Book of Psalms, the Book of Proverbs and the Book of Ecclesiastes appears more than sixty times only between the Book of Psalms and Proverbs. I start each year reading the Book of Proverbs and my brothers frankly shock me every time I stumble upon the word fool, isn't it the same?

The Lord says: the wise is like this but the fool forgets, the wise is like this but the fool receives strong, the wise is like this but the fool never learns, the wise is like this but the fool forgets, it is a disaster. And it is the same word euil in Hebrew translated arfon in Greek, the same word that the Lord uses. And this word is the one that appears in Psalm 14, the Psalm I just quoted.

Interesting. Psalm 14 verse 1 begins with this: "The fool says in his heart: There is no God." Says the fool in his heart "there is no God". My brothers, it is not that I am an atheist because in these days even the pagans were not, there were very few atheists themselves, what the Word refers to is that these people live as if there was no God to whom they would be accountable. Maybe they do admit that oh yes there is a God, there will be a little god in heaven on the Throne but that has nothing to do with me, and it has nothing to do with my life, and it has nothing to do with my decisions and It has nothing to do with my property, there God and there me.

Says the fool in his heart "there is no God" and this word arfon is defined, this word indicates one who rejects the knowledge of God and His precepts as the basis of life, "and as a result have become corrupted and do abominable works. " Now do you see why this is so important? Now I want to clarify.

After you know Christ, after you belong to Christ, after you are an instrument of Christ, all the good that you do counts, of course it does, but the point is this: without God you still do works, you still try to be good and try to be fair, you are detached from the machine of justice, from the one who defines, the good springs from God, is born from Him. And the one who detaches from that source is impossible to do, even his good works are abominable in front of of the Lord, and the Lord continues saying "there is no one who does good" for that very reason, because you are disconnected from this God.

In other words, my brothers, who is the fool? I would say this when reading this Word, a fool is someone, anyone who having the opportunity of grace, having the opportunity to live eternally, and truly and abundantly rejects it. Someone who is offered the chance to live a life of victory and makes the decision to turn it down. Now maybe that's why we feel unsatisfied and a little insecure from time to time because like this man in the parable we spend our lives tilling the land and building farms.

Perhaps we think that there is an indefinite level that if we achieved it we would be truly happy. Incredible. Many of us came to this country precisely because in the birth certificate of this country the Constitution declares that one of the purposes for which it was created is the search for happiness. And here we are looking for happiness and if we only had a little more, right? if a bigger salary, a bigger house, a more modern car, a more important position, maybe our own business, a supermarket and so on.

Brothers, I can tell you with authority that this is a vicious circle. The danger is not that you don't achieve that level of success, it's that by achieving it you will get to this place, that's like getting to Disney World and everyone tells you how nice Disney World is and how beautiful it is and it is How beautiful it would be to arrive and have a vacation there and you arrive and have your vacation and you come back and you say: huh? Wow yes I went and shared but it wasn't you know? it wasn't a big deal. Now maybe if I'm here for a week, a month, whatever, but you see, every time you reach a certain level you're not going to be satisfied with that and you're going to ask for more and we can't find it, because of the title you have or what that we have saved, whatever and my brothers please do not misunderstand me. I lead a ministry that precisely encourages people to dream, to equip themselves, to study, to educate themselves, to learn English, to use a computer, to go to university, to achieve what God intended for you to achieve when he created you. Being the person that God wanted you to be when you were born and brought you to this earth but brothers that is my point, that is my point.

My brothers, the one who loses the opportunity, the one who, like this man, rejects the opportunity to live life like Jesus indicates that the living person does not even know how to live, he has not learned to live. You don't really learn to live, and to really live, and do you know why? Jesus is the life coach, the trainer, the mentor pr excellence. Life begins with Him, He is the author of life, He is the one who programmed this machine my brothers. He programmed this machine of life, He knows how to get the most out of it. If you want to get the most out of life you need Jesus.

If you want to know what it is to truly love, what it is to love and be loved, you need Jesus. Living as if your life were worth living you need Jesus and only through Him can it be achieved. You know why? there is a secret behind this. Life is governed by inviolable eternal ancient principles and your life is under, under those principles and only under those principles can you make your life count, and those principles begin with Jesus. Those principles require that Jesus guide us, that Jesus take us by the hand, that Jesus erase our mistakes, that Jesus lead us, that Jesus instruct us.

And Jesus invites us. He says: you know? you have tried to live the way you know how to live but you are wrong, trust me not what you are used to doing, not the way you are used to living but let me guide you, let me erase your mistakes, let me anoint you, let me protect you and enlighten you and He invites you: follow me, follow me. And do you know what awaits you if you take that invitation? brothers, a heroic life awaits you.

Brother, after every life that is here, there is an adventure waiting for you. You were made for greatness. I think of these brothers with ties of love, perhaps the biography of these brothers with ties of love. Many of them I am sure, who would say that to them, if they were asked that they were going to go to the border of Haiti in a missionary work and achieve what they are achieving, who would believe it, who would believe it? ?. And I am sure that there are many testimonies here achieving things, seeing things not only the desire of your heart but things that do not even fit within your dreams and your imagination, and the Lord achieving it through you.

You and the Holy Spirit would be unstoppable. There is a heroic life waiting for you and you will miss it if you are missing this opportunity. Know? Pastor Roberto last week used the illustration of the bronze serpent, this instrument that Moses used, which he raised in the desert when some snakes were biting the people of Israel and at the moment they were bitten by these snakes the Lord created an instrument to heal them, this bronze serpent. He ordered Moses to lift up the bronze serpent on a rod and everyone who looked at the serpent would be healed.

And the Pastor used this illustration, you would think that everyone in a situation like this would notice that snake, but do you believe that it is not? that perhaps there were some who said: well I prefer to see a sunset and die in peace. It seems crazy but it is so, that people receiving the opportunity to live a full life, to live a heroic life, to live an eternal life reject it and the Lord has a name for the people who are offered the opportunity of life and rejects it, and that name is: you fool. Are you crazy? foolish.

Now, Pastor, if this is the case, when do we know that this opportunity is offered to us? Good question. I'm glad you asked it. Sometimes God does us the favor of giving us a little taste of how brief and how fragile this life is and how little control we have over this life. Last night I was at my sister Mildre's and my brother Mario's baby shower and they are very special to me, Mario in particular and I asked him for permission to share this because the best way to explain this is to explain his testimony a bit. I have used Mario's testimony on other occasions but never publicly and I thank him for his humility in allowing me to share it with you.

It was a precious moment, they are expecting their first baby, a boy, Mario bless you, they are going to celebrate four years of marriage, I had the privilege of marrying them. But four years ago he committed a juvenile indiscretion serious enough that we found ourselves in court and almost in jail but nothing was serious, it was just such a young thing. But enough so that at that moment something happened in Mario's heart and he said: you know? this is an alarm. Know? God You win, you win, I know when you defeated me, now Lord guide me, teach me to live. Take me by the hand, my life is Yours. You are the one in control of this, not me.

In a moment all my farms and my fruit all that can be spoiled. Do you know what God did? Mario for the glory of the Lord has a phenomenal life, a fixed, beautiful marriage, his own house, one of his bosses was one of the gentlemen at his wedding, it's amazing, amazing. And between him and I we remember that moment eleven years ago, and when the Lord does us these favors, the Lord also did me a favor some twenty-odd years ago. And there are many here who can go through in their minds a moment like this when the Lord did them a similar favor, and for those of us who have lived through it, our lives begin there.

We had a divine intervention in which the Lord appeared in a dramatic way and invited us: "surrender". This is the offer, the bus has arrived, get on or stay here. What are you going to do Samuel? I'm no fool, I won't be good but I'm not a fool, no way. When the opportunity for grace arrives I grabbed it with both hands and put my teeth and nails in today's sun. But my brothers the point is this, not everyone reacts to those moments as Mario did, even many of the young people with whom I have dealt.

One could easily say "what a God or God" even in that situation, what happened was that I had a good lawyer and a good situation and everything, what a God or God. No, that cancer was not that serious, what God or God. Not this one, I got out of that mess because of this, like Chapulín Colorado, they didn't count on my cunning, what God or God. And even in that opportunity you can reject grace, not get out of that predicament, that is not the point, the life that awaits you from that moment.

Sometimes they are dramatic opportunities, you have cancer or you are going to go bankrupt, or you are going to lose your job or your house, or you are going to lose your marriage or you are going to go to jail. Sometimes they are dramatic things and these are divine favors that God uses to persuade us, to use our free will to surrender to Him and truly live. And yes, you have the right but God can't, look, God is not going to force you to live a full life, you have to recognize it and ask for it.

Sometimes they are dramatic opportunities but sometimes not so much, mind you. Sometimes these opportunities can come in a much more humble way. Today we are celebrating Palm Sunday and I believe that what the Word records as the triumphant entry of Jesus, the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. My brothers, I have often thought that what the Word records as the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem did not last even fifteen minutes. Maybe it didn't even appear in the newspaper, not in the week, not in the world or in the spokesperson, nobody noticed.

They heard a noise at the gates of the city, a rabbi riding on a donkey's donkey, the donkey's donkey borrowed, the people in the street making a noise: hosanna, hosanna. If you saw in the market at that time. I imagine a scene: two people in the market making preparations for Easter and this revolution, what is that? What is that I am hearing? He is one of those crazy rabbis that you know, Jerusalem fills up with crazy people at Easter, on to the next thing.

The King of Glory entering through the gates of Jerusalem to be raised in glory and they don't even realize it, do you know why, brother? because it may be that your moment of glory will not come in such a dramatic way if that is what you are waiting for, sometimes your moment of glory comes in a very, very humble, very humble outfit. Your heart tells you this is the moment but it doesn't appear like that. As? for example this sermon preached by someone who is not the Pastor, very humble. What if this is your moment of glory, brother? What if this is your opportunity?

The King of Glory entering your life, the King of Glory asking to enter through the doors of your life. The King of Glory asking permission to sit on the throne of your life. Straighten what needs to be straightened, heal what needs to be healed, bless you in ways you can't even imagine and live a life, the life He wanted you to have, the life you were looking for when you came here. .

I conclude with this, I invite Omar and the musicians to join us at this time. I grew up in an environment in which I heard many sermons that ended with this challenge and I can confess to you, at that moment, even being the son of the Pastor, I sometimes even reacted negatively to this, but maybe now, maybe later As an old man I realize how biblical this indication was and it was something like that. The preacher and sometimes daddy said: my brother, no one can guarantee that you wake up tomorrow. But why manipulate, scare people, tell them something like that?

But you know, I was meditating on this, after a little mileage I can tell you this, in this place, in places like these, as a Pastor I have had the privilege of participating in various funerals and they have run since ninety-year-old women and there His grandchildren and his great-grandchildren are accompanying him into eternity just as I have attended the bed of a two-year-old baby with his whole life ahead of him, and his time has come. We have fired the elderly, we have fired parents, in their forties with their whole lives ahead of them, with wives and children. We have fired twenty-two-year-olds who, due to some foolishness, one day when they did not expect to die, had to die.

The truth is that the fool is the one who believes that someone has promised him life, that someone has promised him tomorrow, the day after, the frank truth that it is not so but I can guarantee this, now the good news. If that were to happen, if that were so, I don't know your achievements, I don't know your challenges, I don't know the things you feel proud of, I don't know the things you feel ashamed of. If you take advantage of the opportunity and brothers, I am talking to people who perhaps arrive here Sunday after Sunday, when my opportunity came to me and the opportunity of many others I was a good kid, I went to Church, I tithed but I recognized the moment of grace when it arrived and if that moment is today, and if I cannot guarantee that you will see the sun tomorrow, tomorrow when you present yourself before the Lord, I will tell you this: your life will be a success.

Everything made sense, your whole life will be marked by that moment when you say: I invite Your Grace into my life. Lord, whether it is twenty years or twenty minutes, I want to live life as You want me to live it, Lord, I receive Your Grace in the Name of Jesus. It may be that the Lord and I would say that most of my brothers the Lord will give us tomorrow, and he will give us next week, next month and in the Name of Jesus hopefully many years if the Lord does not interrupt us with His Coming.

Maybe the Lord will give you years of life after today, you win. What's more, you win the lottery because that will be what awaits you is an unrecognizably glorious life. You won't even believe what God has in mind for you and your future and that too begins with embracing grace today. We go before the Presence of the Lord.