Take heart people all of the earth - And work

In chapter 2 of Haggai beginning with verse 1 it says: "In the seventh month on the 21st day of the month the Word of Jehovah came through the prophet Haggai" look at the figures that are involved in this passage "the prophet Haggai saying: Speak now to Sorobabel son of Zalatiel governor of Judah" a second figure Sorobabel governor, third person "and to Joshua son of Josadac, high priest" fourth entity "and to the rest of the people saying" and this is the message of the Lord "Who is left among you who have seen this house in its first glory and how do you see it now? Is it not like nothing before your eyes?

"Well, now Sorobabel governor, be strong, says the Lord. Be strong too, Joshua son of Jozadac, high priest, and take courage, all people of the earth" Congregation Lion of Judah, take heart, says the Lord, take heart; gain strength, gain enthusiasm, recover vision.

"The Lord says: And work" work I would include: and contribute, keep giving, keep believing, keep striving, keep giving sacrificially; get involved, don't lose your vision, don't lose your passion, don't lose your sense of commitment, don't let your hands down, don't let your guard down, don't let your arms drop. Work why? because we are strong, with a marathon drive? Why don't we give up, don't we crack as the Mexicans say? Because? He says: "Because I am with you, says the Lord of Hosts. Say with me: God is with us, but God is with us, God is with us.

That's why we have to make an effort and work. According to the pact that I made with you when you came out of Egypt so my Spirit will be in your midst do not fear; because God is saying: I am the same yesterday, today and forever. The God who has given us two buildings to build and has allowed us to finish them and be a very real presence in the city of Boston and do extraordinary things that we never imagined when we left our humble place back in Cambridge and has put us in the place of prominence, positive and respectable influence in the eyes of authorities and the community.

He is the God who is still with us and the God who is absolutely committed to His people and to the vision He has given us. Many people sometimes think: oh God was there for that but he won't be there for the other but he says look: the same one who was with you in Egypt and brought you out with His outstretched arm is here with you today too. The same God who was with Moses, who was with Gideon, who was with Elijah and Elisha, the same God who was with Paul and with the disciples, even though he was a handful of people scared when the Lord ascended, is the same God who is with us today.

The God who allows us to do feats for His glory and His honor, the God who strengthens our arms if we allow it. I am with you do not fear because so says Jehovah of Hosts, very important says: "In a little while I will shake the heavens and the earth; the sea and the dry land and I will shake all nations" says the Lord. I will make all nations tremble and then the Desire of all nations will come.

I don't know if in your Bible the Desired is capitalized but in mine it is with a capital D because it's not just any desired, it's The Desired, and what is the Desired of all nations? Jesus Christ; It is the fact that nations are often unknowingly waiting for him to change their societies. Turn crime into peace, turn ignorance into wisdom, turn the lack of the Spirit of God into the filling of the Holy Spirit; turn cities devastated by crime, by poverty into places of prosperity, blessing, and growth.

The Desired is the only one who can establish justice among men, who can free cultures from drugs, AIDS, premature pregnancy, the waste of lives when God wants to turn them into instruments for His Glory. "The Desired of all nations will come. And the Lord says: And I will fill this house with glory. I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of Hosts." Listen to this a promise: "Mine is the silver and mine is the gold, says the Lord of Hosts."

Do you know why we've gotten into trouble like this and we'll keep getting into it and we'll keep doing great things for the Lord and we'll dare to do things that scare us when we're in the middle of it? because I believe what it says there: Mine is the silver and mine is the gold says the Lord.

The Lord Jesus Christ says in Matthew chapter 28: "All authority is given to me both in heaven and on earth, therefore go your ways." The guarantee for us when we lose big things is that the Lord has in His Hand all the resources, all the power and He wants to make it run through men and women full of faith; vessels that are emptied so that His Glory can be contained by them and His oil can do the things that God wants to do.

I was thinking this morning and I'm going to jump right into my sermon now for a minute. I was thinking of someone I know who is going through some serious tribulations right now and I'm not going to say their nature lest they jump ahead of me thinking I'm referring to them. But this person is going through some tests and everything would indicate that what this person has to do is back down, conserve energy, stop doing and what the Lord told me, I had to pray for the Lord to confirm the Word Before giving it to him, it is that what God is saying to that person is: instead of stopping doing, do more and it is something that threatens the very situation that this person is experiencing.

It is a counterintuitive Word because what would indicate the reason is that that person stops doing and keeps but what I believe that God is saying to him and since it is something of great responsibility, I tell that person that is why I am meditating on it; but God is saying: what you have to do to get out of your dilemma is to do more, not less. And I believe that there are moments in the lives of the children of God in which for God to do something greater in us we have to strip ourselves and empty ourselves and the things we love most we have to place at the foot of the Lord, put ourselves in deficit. Whatever it is, be it to give, be it to serve so that only if God does the work could we get out of the predicament we have gotten ourselves into.

I believe that the Bible is full of those things, of those moments. I believe that God is saying to this Congregation: I want to do something great among you as it says here, I am going to fill this place with glory and My purpose has to be fulfilled. In verse 7 of chapter 1 the Lord says to that same people of Haggai: "Thus says the Lord of Hosts: Meditate on your ways, rebuild the house and I will put My Will in it and I will be glorified says the Lord."

God wants to put His Will in this house and God wants to do something through us and God wants to use us in an extraordinary way but there is a price to pay. We cannot get out unscathed; we have to go out smelling smoke so that then God can glorify Himself as He wants. Listen well: you have to empty yourself to be filled.

When Elisha speaks to the widow in that well-known passage and the widow has a great predicament and does not know what to do because they are coming to take her children from her to pay the great debt, Elisha tells her: look for empty vessels, not a few vessels; if the vessels had been full they could not have been filled with oil. Sometimes we have to empty ourselves brothers and we are a very strong people and God is not going to give us things unless we do not work on them.

And I tell you: you and I have not suffered through the construction of these sanctuaries and these buildings that God has given us through these years, sincerely. I see my brother Pastors sincerely willing to do anything squeezing and making an eight to be able to build and appealing every Sunday and filling the house with urgent appeals and crises, you and we have made an effort, we have given generously that is true but actually let me tell you that you and we have not given as much as other Churches give for the construction of their buildings.

God has allowed a certain degree of wisdom and an incredible economy to exist here and has allowed us to build this sanctuary that would be worth 10, 12 million dollars for less than 5 million dollars. Why? because God has given science, wisdom and knowledge. But there is still a measure; I thought that we could escape and this sanctuary without a certain measure of urgency, but in the end God wanted us to go through the same purposes, the same processes that we have gone through in other endeavors.

It's interesting, this morning I was looking for sermons where I've talked about previous financial campaigns and buildings; I came across one, what a pity I didn't bring it here, that had to do with the first building, 68 North Hampton Street, I preached it in '96. And I said, I had some notes there where it said: brothers we are 20 thousand short and a bit of dollars, we are getting to the end, he said, and the things we need to do require additional money, and right now we are short of 20 thousand and a bit to pay for our elevator, and we need a special offering from you. I said wow deja vu, again.

And it's interesting that this is the third project and always towards the end. Now, what happens when a mother is going to give birth, a woman? Here come the labor pains, right? the womb stiffens and there are tremors and nausea, there are all kinds of pains and there is almost regret for having gotten into trouble. And since we are in that process right now, we are already prepared; there is very little left and one of the reasons as I told you that I wanted you to come here is because some brothers believe like they don't, this as it says here in another passage, this town says: "The time has not yet come for the house of God be built." verse 2.

Some are skeptical, they are like Tomás and they listen to the Pastor saying: we are already close and this and that and they hold on there because they want to see and they think that there is a long way to go, well here it is you can see. I was waiting for the right moment. Some wonder why I haven't talked about this in recent weeks; because I wanted to have a graphic image to make one last appeal. We are here because God is saying: work hard and because there is an urgent situation.

I don't like to make urgent appeals and I never have. Some brothers told me: I think the problem is that every time you stop to encourage the Congregation and give a harangue, you present it as if everything is fine and there is nothing to worry about, that we are fine, let's go. Well, and I think that many people think that since we are doing well, they don't have to give or they don't have to give as they really have to give. I ask the Lord to make it clear to you this time and if I am not one of the deacons or whoever will stand up and correct me; I will guide myself but we are in a time, we are almost ready to finish but we need an effort.

I have made two last appeals to my brothers and we have not reached the goal by much. Not long ago I challenged the brothers, three hundred of you to give 500 dollars to finish now and by the way I tell you, we are so grateful for what you have given, this Congregation has given generously but the work is great; and no more than a third of what was supposed to be collected in that appeal was collected. Many brothers gave in but no, and one hundred thousand dollars of that was missing, they are small amounts when you look here but now we need that money.

In addition to the offerings and the tithes and what you present every Sunday, remember this: several weeks ago the bank gave all the loan that they were going to give and it is not an immense amount that the bank has given; I have never wanted to put the Congregation into excessive debt. God has given us three wonderful buildings and an enviable physical plant in the center of the city and our mortgage is incredible, it is half of what many churches commit to a single building, we have three.

And simply what we have to do is give a little more so that this place is finished because always at the end and I believe that God is saying: this town is a strong town, it is a town through which I can do something great and I want them to feel what the impact is, what the weight of what it is to build is. And myself the Lord did not want to leave me unharmed. I believe that the Congregations must feel and pay a sacrifice that glorifies the Lord. The meat has to die.

I'm talking to you, don't put someone else's name on it, I'm talking to you. God has given us many new people, our Church has grown and I am afraid that these new people and even others who have been here for a while have not yet grasped what the Christian life is in terms of giving to the Lord sacrificially. I have learned in my life that there is nothing like giving to the Lord and seeing His Glory manifest, that the way to unleash the glory of God, the divine provision, the manifestation of God's gifts in our lives is opening gaps so that the God's oil can run through them.

You have to open a hole to use such an inelegant good word to your bank account, to what you love so much so that the Glory of the Lord can fill that space. I have learned that God always seeps into what we love the most so that when we are crucified as Christ was crucified, His Power can then be perfected in us.

And right now we are in need; Last Wednesday our treasurer phoned me and told me: Roberto, we now have a serious deficit in our bank account and if some urgent emergency funds don't come in, checks are going to start jumping, because in recent weeks all the weight of the construction has rested exclusively on us. There is no bank to help us with what remains of the construction and it is not that much.

But right now this Church is responsible; Not only is it all your regular expenses including the mortgage we have on the other buildings, but the mortgage on this sanctuary is already due in full. And now what remains of the construction comes from us and it is not time for the income from tithes and offerings to drop as they have dropped a little lately. Certainly the special donations for the construction of the sanctuary will disappear.

I am talking to him and I am forcing myself to get every word out because unfortunately I am the most timid person in the world to ask and that is my great crucifixion; I am here crucifying myself right now asking. I assure you that giving to the Lord does not cost me anything but asking, that is death for me.

But I want to encourage each one of you to understand, I am not talking like that and passing warm cloths, if you do not give now this is going to end and we are going to close the work and it would be a shame, and it would be a loss for the Kingdom of God . And I know that this Congregation is a Congregation that can give the last measure; I have no doubt, the resources are there in you. So I encourage you in the Name of the Lord to get your act together and release the blessing, and that we leave here with a clear commitment.

I want to invite the musicians, come here please. Omar come quickly, come run and come over here quickly I need you up here. Get ready brothers and what I want, look I'm not going to make any appeal. Let me just say a couple more things. What I see in this passage is that the Lord is referring to all these people. First there is Haggai the prophet of God who channels a Word of God to the people.

This sanctuary is being built because there is a prophetic Word that has come to my heart years ago, years ago when the first sanctuary was a rubble, I sat down, I told you before in a place there and I looked towards what was before a small parking lot and the Lord gave me the image of this place that I now see with my eyes, before we finished the first sanctuary. I felt in my heart: when this place is full twice on a Sunday and cannot cope, it will be necessary to have a place there in that four-level space, a small parking lot below, an auditorium with a balcony around it, and an additional floor.

And so today that vision begins to be fulfilled and look at how this place is now, and this morning it was the same. It is possible that if everyone was here this morning and now we would not fit in this place. Already. God wants to use this place to fill it I don't know if two, three, four times whatever and there is a North American Congregation in English, Caribbean and English-speaking that will already be occupying the other place there as well while we are here.

We will be able to process thousands of people in a single day and this will fill up. I already see how people are arriving without even calling them, they are coming. Listen to me, I don't know how anyone can stay halfway and stop being part of something so glorious and so significant, I don't understand. I encourage you who have just arrived at the Church, to you who are new to the faith, to you who have been there for many years: get pregnant with the vision of God.

God says: I want to fill this place with My Glory and I call the Sorobabeles who have resources, I call the Pastors who have vision to encourage; I call the Haggai-type prophetic spirit to convey my call, because I want to do something great. If you look at what verse 6 says about that sanctuary that God wanted to be built thousands of years ago, to be rebuilt because God speaks to a people in defeat who has just returned from exile and is in decay with a sanctuary that is made rubble from when the Babylonian exile and now God wants it to be rebuilt again because God likes to have places where His Glory dwells. He is not contained by any place but He likes places filled with His Spirit where His Word can run, where His Ministry can be exercised.

And that is why he tells the people: rebuild My sanctuary, do not wait any longer. Yes, there have been setbacks, says the Lord, but do not tell me that it is no longer time, build me my house and work, because I want to make My Glory flow over this house, so take heart, work. And look at what verse 6 says, remember this: "This is a prophetic place like that sanctuary was."

When God is saying to the people of Israel: rebuild my house, He is not only thinking of that moment, but His gaze is telescopically extending thousands of years later when the Desired of all nations would come and there would be another sanctuary that I believe would ultimately instance will be the sanctuary that will be built in Jerusalem that will mark the Coming of Christ to the world again and we are close to that time.

I encourage you to see this sanctuary as a sanctuary not simply for the Lion of Judah, this is a prophetic sanctuary that exemplifies in this city so reluctant to the Word of God; surrounded as we are by a secular humanist culture that rejects the values of the Kingdom of God and not only rejects them but also enjoys practicing what is totally contrary to the Will of God. And God says: this sanctuary is a place that I want to prophesy to this city of my purposes that are going to be fulfilled.

In the Name of Jesus I tell you prophetically: we are in a special time in which the Glory of God is going to manifest as never before in history. Listen carefully and cataclysmic times are coming for the nations; times of great haste and great urgency. Times when the very structures of society and culture and government and finance will be shaken and the way nations do business and transact will be completely upended and we are in the midst of that time.

Times are coming when the Gospel, the Word of the Lord, churches anointed and filled with the Holy Spirit, prophetic ministries will be absolutely precious and necessary to explain to the nations what is happening. When the Lord allowed me, I believe, to stand there at that ecumenical service where President Obama was and that was televised nationally, internationally I felt the Lord again, that is a glimpse of what God wants to do, that when the nations are tormented and dismayed by events that they will not know how to explain and that will fill them with fear, anguish and confusion. I am going to require an anointed people to interpret to them why I am moving in the way that I am moving and to encourage them to believe that it is I and not hell that is in control of history and that I allow it.

That was what I explained was key when I was preaching. In my reflection, I told the nation and all those who were listening: evil moves in the world and believes that it is winning the victory, but the dilemma of evil is that every time it does something to kill, steal and destroy God uses it to bless and what has happened is simply something. Every time terrible and destructive things happen in nations like, so arrogant in a city like Boston, why do things like those that happen in a city like Boston so decent, rational, academic, intellectual? Why did the planes that destroyed the Towers leave here? Why did the same-sex marriage that is polluting our nation leave here? Why are terrorists coming back here to attack right here in Boston? Because there is a sign. This city is a city marked by God.

Here the Gospel was born throughout the United States and still the God who is totally consistent in His ways says: My purposes have not ended here yet and I am going to remove the foundations. If you have time later look at Hebrews chapter 12 where the writer of Hebrews takes this same passage from Haggai and applies it to the last times; it was not only for that time but also for the future.

We build not only for now but for what God has in hand. God wants an anointed and gifted people. What I was saying to that town is: understand well, God allows pain to come; I was not going to say to those people at that moment: oh because there is sin in the nation, this and that but to the good understanding few words are enough. I am saying: God allows and the most quoted expression of the entire reflection was this: God has not abandoned Boston, God has not abandoned this nation; He just weaves a beautiful, shiny tapestry that contains some dark threads.

And those dark threads of terror, of death, of wounds are things that God allows to prepare the haughty, to prepare those who reject in the name of God, to prepare the nations that resist the Word of the Lord, to soften them so that then comes the people of God and reap the harvest. And the move of God will be like the Word of Christ as when he said to Peter: Peter cast your nets to fish and that word: cast your nets to fish and Peter's affirmation: Lord we have fished all night but in Your Name I I'm going to cast the net; and I know that when Peter said that reacting to the call of Christ the fish were summoned from everywhere to flow into Peter's net and that is why he fished as he fished.

And God is going to be doing the work; God is going to be preparing the people. We will not have to go to the people with tricks and impoverishing the Word of the Gospel for them to come, they will beg for us to let them in to receive refuge that the people of God will be prepared to give them. And so we need to build structures where God's people can come so that people can be saved. But God is not going to do it through pusillanimous and mediocre people, I'm very sorry.

Warriors, people who have died for Christ, this is not the time to live normal lives, it is not the time to be accumulating large amounts of money that you don't even know if you are going to use it, listen to me. I don't want to be there piling up grains of corn like a chicken hiding there for an old age that may not come because I want to die serving the Lord and giving him everything. I don't want to be accumulating if there is so much to do, so much to give, so much to serve the Lord.

Why do I want to be accumulating an academic career or other things that all the books in this world are going to be burned and consumed by fire? There will be no remaining library, there will be no remaining museum, there will be no work of art that can resist God's consuming fire, that can enter the perfect place where we are going to live; all that is going to stay here on Earth. The only thing that will enter there will be our works in favor of the Kingdom of God.

The love that survives this fire that is to come. Brother, surrender to the Lord, do not stop giving to the Lord what God asks of you. I can tell you from up here: my wife and I, my family have given, we will continue to give and each day we will give with more anger and joy. It's that God doesn't stay, listen to me. I would not exchange the blessing that has come through the holes that we have opened to the Lord for anything in this world, I speak to you from a position from which I know, believe and have tasted of the God who blesses.

When I stretch out on the cross and let them dig my hands into my chest and pierce my chest so that life comes out and then God says: I'm going to close all that off and I'm going to bless you, I'm going to lift you up, don't miss that experience. At this time to build this place that God has to use greatly for His Glory and with which God has a great prophetic move, do not stay without giving it to the Lord.

Let's lower our heads for a moment. I told my brothers this morning: I am not good enough to go around with tricks, auction, who gives more, who gives this, who gives that, who gives five hundred who gives a thousand? For me the sanctuary of God is a sacred place, I want to appeal to mature and knowledgeable people; I don't want to be before a people that I have to manipulate to get their money.

I encourage you right now to conceive an amount that you yourself are going to give to the Lord. I am not going to ask you for anything but in your spirit sign an amount. Now my eyes are planted on a young man, let not even a young man remain without giving, no one even children, come to the Lord. Parents, ask your children to give something and sign there, I do not want a paper signature here, sign in your spirit an amount of money that you are going to give to the Lord and do not repent or let the devil take you away that when you leave here, what happens is that we conceive certain plans while they are manipulating us and giving the handle to spur us emotionally and when we leave the devil steals our vision and we return to business as usual.

Lord rebuke that spirit. God works through upright, serious and committed people who, when they say: I am going to put my hand on the plow, no one takes it away from them until they fulfill what they have promised.

Let's give to the Lord generously. The ushers please come here and put the baskets here and at the end of the service, or you can also put them in the chest, but just in case, it's better that they are left over than there are not enough places. Before you leave here, it doesn't have to be right now if you brought your check book drop it here now and if you don't get a vision and come next Wednesday or next Sunday and bring it to the Lord we need it now. The only reason we're not bouncing checks right now is because a Church family very privately lent the Congregation quite a sizeable sum of money for us to repay when we could. It is not money that that family had left over but they gave it, but that money has to come out, I know it will come from us.

So far we have never failed the Lord but this is serious and I don't know; brother Pastors and deacons I have said it very clearly, ok? We are not playing. If you don't go out to need, nobody will go out. This 12 o'clock service is a service for people who like to worship the Lord but I also need it to be people who give; sometimes the service at 9 o'clock is a little quieter but they are people who give incredibly, don't miss out on that opportunity here too. It's not all just praising and shouting but also giving to the Lord. Conceive a strong vision before God.

Young adults: you have many professional jobs and many things, give to the Lord, learn what it is to give generously to the Lord. And also to people who don't have much: give it to God to unleash the blessing, God wants to bless us.

Father in the Name of Jesus, lower your head. Conceive there something great for the Lord, we adore you, we bless you, we thank you because it is good to battle in Your Name, it is good to take the sword and feel that the blood runs until the sword sticks to the hand of so much blood that runs; It is good to battle in Your Name and to fight for You Father, it is good to agonize for You. It is good to sweat blood for You, it is good to feel the terror creeping into our hearts while we give and serve You because I know that Your Son suffered much more.

I ask you not to let us enter the glory of this place unscathed. Keep squeezing us and keep glorifying You and be Your Name established in this place. Move Your people, move Your people and let us conceive a vision for victory, that there be no more appeals of this kind but that we may step into what You have called us to do. Pregnant us now with Your purpose and thank you, thank you for Your anointing, thank you for Your blessing in Jesus Name, amen and amen. Glory to the Name of the Lord give a big round of applause to the Lord, people of God, cheer up.