god chose you

Let's go to the word of the Lord. It is a privilege to be here sharing with our brothers on this triumphant day and thinking about the fact that in 8 days we will be celebrating Christmas. And I was meditating on this word. It is a very Christmas text but as I examine it more and more, my brothers, I believe that it has more to do with your journey of discipleship, our journey as disciples of Jesus Christ, than like Christmas. Moreover, Christmas is embodied, my brothers, in our journey as disciples.

Let's go to the word of the Lord, Luke, chapter 1, verse 34. And meanwhile allow me to go before the presence of the Lord, bless you, bless this moment that we have experienced and look once and for all what God has in front of us, What does God have prepared for us? Not just tonight but what he has as long as we live. Father, we thank you, thank you Lord for each brother who has chosen to follow you, and thank you Lord for the beauty of tonight, and thank you, Father, for the beauty of this word that we are going to share. Cover us with your cloud, Spirit of God, give life to this word. And Lord, my request is that each one of us, each brother who hears this word when leaving here, Lord, to our lives, to the journey, to the adventure that you have chosen for us, may it be, Lord, with a even stronger commitment to live in holiness and embrace, Lord, the purposes for which you have called us in the name of Jesus.

“Then Mary told the angel that she had just announced that she was going to give birth to the Messiah as a virgin, and she asks him how this will be since I do not know a man.”

My brothers, the Lord has made you a promise perhaps, in your journey as Christians or in your journey as disciples, there will be someone here who says I feel that God has promised something for me and I feel that God has something special that is going to help me. give away, what you have in mind for me, but never, pastor, can I understand how this will be, how God is going to use my life, how it will be that the Lord will visit me and here we have the answer, my brothers.

“Answered the angel, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will cover you with his shadow by which also the holy being who will be born called the Son of God. Behold your relative Elizabeth, she also has conceived a son in her old age and this is the sixth month for her, the one who called barren."

Because, my brothers, nothing is impossible for God. Nothing. But the key is in this.

“Then Mary said, behold the servant of the Lord, let it be done with me according to your word. And the angel departed from her."

My brothers, first, what is the miracle of Christmas? Do you know what the miracle of Christmas is? The key, I think. The reason why we make so much of Christmas, why the incarnation is so indelible for our experience. I think the reason why you are here all along.

That night in Bethlehem was the beginning of your journey, my brother, it was not the day you registered for the discipleship class, it was not the day someone handed you a tract, it was not the day you heard a message in The radio that moved you was not the day you read something on the internet that touched your heart. Two thousand years ago in a manger in Bethlehem the Lord began his relationship with you, this journey began that night. The Christmas miracle begins with this. It has to do with this and that's why I love Christmas, and that's why there's no better way to celebrate Christmas than a discipleship graduation. I am convinced.

Because we are already seeing this. God chooses ordinary vessels, God chooses fragile people, perhaps not very promising, ordinary, easy to overlook. María and José were people… she was an anonymous teenage girl in a very small town, in a very small nation, Nazareth.

Oh, the Lord looks at this fragile vessel to fulfill extraordinary purposes through vessels that we would overlook. And my brother, if you're a disciple tonight, that's you. A glass, we all are, imperfect glasses, incomplete glasses, glasses that if we don't have dinga, we have mandinga, we have one or the other. We all have something, but God chooses us to work miracles through us.

The disciple is a disciple because the divine Master chose you. You are a disciple by invitation. We are disciples because a Master fixed his eyes on us, invited us one day and told us, follow me. And that's why you're here.

Now, my brothers, a little about Christmas. I love Christmas, I have said that over and over again. I love this time of year. I love what it represents and I'll tell you why, and it has to do with what we're celebrating tonight. Christmas has nothing to do, my brothers, with the way you feel this year or what has happened in the course of this year. To be honest, we have had all kinds of years, right? Some of us have reached this point in the year after seeing prosperous years, blessed years, great accomplishments, the Lord moving in extraordinary ways.

Others of us are not having such an easy Christmas, are we? perhaps your Christmas, you would say, pastor, this is going to be a difficult Christmas for us. What do you mean by that, my brother? Perhaps it is because your home has been touched by loss or illness or a financial squeeze. And you have allowed your circumstances over the course of the year to define what kind of Christmas you have or don't have.

And you know, that's a mistake. And the reason why I celebrate Christmas, my brothers, is precisely because it has nothing to do with what has happened in your home this year. Do you know what it has to do with? The majestic thing about Christmas is in this, from heaven, among the crowd of planet earth, God fixed his eyes on you. He extended his finger and chose you. So that? That he will know. He knows why he chose you, for what purpose, what mission, what he has for you, what he created you for.

But in the same way that the Lord took notice of Mary and in the same way that the Lord took notice of Elizabeth, in the same way that the Lord took notice of Zacharias, in the same way that the Lord took notice of on Joseph, in the same way that the Lord found that handful of anonymous shepherds, to whom he showed his glory, the Lord fixed on you. He chose you saying, you, I have business with you. I have something special for you. I have chosen you to bless you and to fulfill purposes through you. Give me your belly, he tells you. Give me your life as sterile as you find it.

Many of us, pastor, nothing positive has happened in a whole generation of the guys that we are in the family. What we have known has been sterility, from generation to generation and the Lord says, precisely for this reason I have chosen you, because I am a specialist in creating life where there is sterility and blessing where there has been no blessing, to break chains of curses and to may the name of the Son of man be blessed and spread over you, sprout a new generation, a new future, sprout life where there has been sterility. Give me your life, he says, give me your womb, give me the sterile and I will fill you, I will bless you, I will do with you precisely what I have chosen to do with you.

And how is this? The pattern of the Christmas miracle and I would say the pattern of the discipleship miracle is always the same. And this pattern is locked in verse 35, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.”

The pattern is the same. God has a purpose beforehand and chooses a channel, a conduit. He knows what he's going to do. He already knows in advance the impact that he wants to make on this planet, on the world to advance the purposes of the kingdom. God's mind has already conceived what he is going to do. At that time the gates of hell cannot prevail against him. He will fulfill this purpose. The only thing he seeks is a channel, the only thing he seeks is a conduct through which to channel the power of the Most High and fulfill his purposes through this vessel.

And find an imperfect and incomplete human being and the spirit comes upon you, we are temples of the Holy Spirit, workmanship of his glory, for this purpose is your body, it is for the Holy Spirit to cover you and to cover what you have available with the shadow of his power. You are a blessing machine. The Lord, by creating you, has created a whole machinery of blessing. Everything that the Lord has done in you and not only what he has done in you, what he has allowed in you, is everything that together may be glory shown upon you, so that it may be a blessing.

Your mind, your body, your preparation, my brothers, but not only that, your losses, your bad moments, the things that you prefer not to even mention, perhaps some chapters of your life that you prefer not to even revisit. All of this is fertile ground, just waiting for one thing, that the power of the Most High covers you with its shadow, that it covers that mind, that it covers that preparation, that it covers that capacity, that it covers those experiences, that it covers your memories, that it covers what you have done, what you plan to do and everything that comes ahead, may the power of the spirit of God cover an available vessel.

And through that, the Lord will do a work that is specifically and exclusively his. I don't know how many of you have already had this experience. Something comes over you, a thought the moment you begin to follow the Lord, a thought comes to your mind that you have never thought that before, an idea is born in your mind, in your heart, a groan, a desire. The Lord is already fertilizing you, my brothers, with life, and with ideas and things, and seeds of hope and glory that he has sown in you. And you recognize, well, pastor, but that's not me, I'm not in the habit of thinking this way or speaking this way.

you know what? Because already the Holy Spirit is beginning a work through you. A mighty God using fragile vessels produces something glorious. And throughout, the glory is his. Throughout, what is born of you, what is born of your journey as a disciple is a holy being that God has created in you. That is what God is doing in you. That is why we are disciples. And you know, the moment the Lord decides to do this, through you, and finds a glass available, there is nothing to stop it, nothing is impossible, the Lord has a purpose, he will fulfill it. Nothing is impossible.

If God with us, who against us? With one exception, the only thing that can limit the flow of God's power, or God's purpose in your life is this, and that is disposition. And that's why we're here tonight. Mary answers the angel, oh yes that is God's purpose? Amen. "Here is the servant of the Lord, let it be done with me according to your word."

My brothers, my habit as a teacher on the first day of discipleship was this, to explain to my class that this is not a Bible class per se. A Sunday study is great, it's nice, we should have it more often, but that's not the purpose of discipleship. The purpose of discipleship is training in a life out of the ordinary, in which we are trained how to think, speak and conduct our business as disciples of Jesus Christ. That requires training.

And this requires, my brothers, you know what? May we surrender our ability to command ourselves as we wish. That's what Maria is doing. You know, I am your servant, I am your servant. Lord, be done with me according to your word. And that is written, my brothers, in the values and mission of our church. What we want to create, what we want to produce in environments like this, are disciples, not just any disciples, but disciples radically devoted to the principles of the Kingdom.

What does that mean? Radically delivered to the purposes of the Kingdom. What makes María a María is her radical dedication. The Lord waited for this moment in history to see a Mary born and walk and be ready. He already knew his heart and seeing this being said, "whatever you want, Lord, with me, but whatever you want." In other words, as she says, at your word, for this, and this is what is difficult, my brothers.

Discipleship doesn't end at level 4, by the way. The true test of discipleship is your Monday morning job, it's how you deal with that husband or wife who doesn't believe in the Lord, it's how you deal with your next conflict with the cashier at Western Union, it's how you drive in 93rd under a snowfall. The true test of discipleship is in 1200 decisions that we make, in which we tune our lives according to the principles of the Lord.

Do you know why, my brothers? This is not about emotions, what discipleship is giving you, my brothers, is principle, after principle, after principle. This is what it is to live in holiness. This is what it is to forgive even when we least want to forgive. This is what it is to neutralize a conflict before your house burns down. This is what it is. Using your gifts in a way that adds blessing to the body of Christ, because we are not lone rangers, principles. And my brothers, if these principles are already there, and if the discipleship class hasn't already stepped on your calluses, soon it will. And that is the idea, that we grow.

What are you going to do then? The Lord looks, brothers... let's stand up. I invite my brother Omar and the worshipers to join us. There is a prayer that I would like to rehearse with you as a disciple. Again, I hope this reflection not only changes your way of thinking about Christmas, but your way of thinking about what it is to be a follower of Christ and what we are going to do from here on out.

Bow your face for a moment, God has chosen you, brother, God is with you. Now if you believe this pray this with me. Lord, I am your servant. I ask that your spirit come upon me, I ask that the power of the Most High cover me with its shadow, I ask that my life be fertile for whatever purpose you have for me. I am your servant, be done with me according to your word, I beg you in the name of Jesus.