Consolidation year

I want to share with you a Word tonight and I want to share with you a few words that I hope will be kind of a frame of reference for us in terms of what God has for us this year, how I see this coming year as a Congregation , as a family of God and I want to go to the Book of Genesis chapter 13 and we are going to read verses 1 to 4.

And it's about a time in the life of Abraham and the journey that God had taken him through. Verse 1 says: "So Abraham went up from Egypt to the Negev, he and his wife with all that he had and Lot with him, and Abraham was very rich in cattle, silver and gold. And he returned from his journeys from the Negev to Bethel to the place where his tent had been before between Bethel and Ai to the place of the altar that he had made there before and there Abraham called on the Name of Jehovah."

The Lord put this Word in my spirit as I searched for something to share with you as we look forward to the coming year and as I thought about the direction God was taking us in the next twelve months and looking back through the journey in which which God has brought us in these last three and a half years, almost four years since we began to break ground here in this very place where we are now.

The word consolidation came to my mind and that word consolidation is used in the evangelical environment especially in Latin America with respect to when a crop of people come to the Church, a person enters the Gospel and then they proceed to solidify that person and root them in your faith.

But also the word consolidation can refer to tightening things that are a little loose after they have been put together. Think of a person who is selling sugar or flour or rice in ancient times where a pot was used and then the person proceeded to shake that grain and squeeze it well so that it gave the correct measure of that pot. I very much believe that when we start something we must also stop to solidify it and how to consolidate the ground that one has just occupied.

We should never pretend to cover a lot of territory and then continue to cover more territory without first making sure that what we have achieved is solid and safe to use as a starting point towards the next conquest. Many times before going forward you have to go backwards and many times in these proclamations that one makes at the beginning of the year the temptation is only to speak in dynamic and aggressive and militant terms of going forward, right? people expect such optimistic and positive proclamations about the future, something to which we can freely say: glory to God, hallelujah!

But you already know me and you know that I also like to speak in a sober way and that adjusts to the reality that one is living instead of just giving people superficial proclamations that ultimately do not have much effect on reality. . And that is why this passage from Abraham touched me and I wanted to use it as an illustration of what we are talking about tonight, because notice that Abraham, before reaching this moment in which he offers an altar to the Lord, Abraham has just passed through a long journey of we don't know how many years or how many kilometers he had covered in that journey.

In the previous chapter Abraham appears for the first time in Scripture and it is said that God called him to leave the familiar to undertake a journey that He was going to give him these things while he was walking on that journey but Abraham did not really know where he was going or what awaited him on that road. God makes him certain promises but does not tell him everything that he is going to live within that greater promise, and think about the journey that we have lived, that I, the Pastors have lived in recent years, God called us to build a building and blessing and support in what we were going to do but I knew that it was a day full of indefinite things and adventures that I did not know what was waiting for us on the road ahead.

We have had an idea that God has called us to bless us, to enlarge our territory and to give us a great family as he promised Abraham the first time he appeared to him, but we have also always known that when God sends us on a journey to He is not only interested in the point of arrival and destination but also the process itself that involves the journey to where He has to direct us. Furthermore, I would say that what interests God most is the experience, the process, what happens in us when we set out to pursue a vision that He gives us.

What interests God the most is the character of man, woman, to look more like Him and His Son Jesus Christ, that is what God truly wants to do because He already knows the result and He guarantees it, but the process is what that brings glory and honor to Him.

You have heard me talk many times about how God is a God of journeys, God is a God of journeys and I always see the Lord sending His servants on journeys that are physical but are also internal, they belong to the person himself. And there is no clearer example in the Bible of a journey that has physical aspects but also spiritual and personal aspects than Abraham's journey.

So we see that God is there, I believe, he has wanted to do the same with this Congregation and in the lives of its Pastors and I believe that I speak personally, in my life I have seen that these years have also been a process of the Lord to guide me through of a treatment process with me too and of teaching me many things. I believe that the Lord wanted to instill in this Congregation, first of all, vision and the capacity to see the future in a big way and not to be intimidated by the greatness of the vision, not to limit ourselves only to what we see at the moment but to try to see what things can come to be in the Power of God.

If one only lives brothers in what one has at the moment and what one is at the moment one will never become what God wants one to be, what distinguishes the man, the woman of God, an anointed Congregation is his ability to always be thinking about what is beyond the horizon, beyond what is immediately visible. God will always work in our lives according to the concerns and desires that we have in our hearts.

Very rarely does God go to visit a person who is happy and satisfied with what they have and doesn't aspire beyond and again, I'm not talking about one being always dissatisfied, that's not the word in the sense that, oh I have something and I want what is over there so much that I am not interested in what is here, it does not mean that, but rather that I am talking about, yes, we can be satisfied and grateful for what God has given us but also in a contradictory sense to be yearning for the next stage and precisely because we know that God who has blessed us here we know that we can ask for and desire something more than what He has given us.

You will remember that the Lord put in me this concern to build a sanctuary in this space when we had not even begun to build the first sanctuary. I have been very grateful for what God had done there but in my heart I felt that God was going to lead us to something greater and I always said: when our Church is filling the old sanctuary twice a Sunday it will be time for us to have something larger than a larger Congregation can contain and we will already have the resources to be able to undertake this task.

And we began to plan and to investigate and to investigate, to run errands, I would say about eight or nine years ago, or perhaps more. The first time I contacted Glenn Noss, our architect, at least nine years ago, Samuel, were you there that day we went to the Roxbury Presbyterian Church? I don't know how many years ago but at least nine years ago, something like that; I think that Gonzalo was also there that night that we went there a long time ago and that, I had already thought a lot about it before. Twelve or thirteen years old, but I don't want to exaggerate.

But I'm just telling you this so that you understand that and I knew why because it was going to be a very complex and difficult and dangerous job, that's why we had to start it a long time before, because there were many things to resolve and overcome in order to get to this point. moment. And in that sense I was not mistaken by the way, many giants have had to be overcome and I don't have time to explain to you all the giants that have had to be overcome to get to this moment. I don't know if you've seen the Alien movie about this monster, every time you think you've killed it, it comes back again, revives itself and continues, this process has been like this for many years.

And so it is important, brothers, we have to be a visionary Church, a Church that sees beyond reality and the moment and that we dare to go towards the visions that God places in our hearts. And God has wanted to teach us something else too, patience. How many times would we have thought that we were already going to be in this place.

I remember that the year before, near the end of the year, I had said: brothers, how nice it would be to be in our sanctuary to celebrate the New Year, last year and now confess brothers: how many of you have had doubts about what has been happening and the time it takes and all these things and that time stretches out? If you are honest I think many of you could confess but I am not going to ask you to raise your hand right now, don't worry.

And God has wanted to teach us to be patient because God's processes and great visions as I have preached last Sundays take time to come true and you have to patiently pursue the vision until God makes it a reality. Another thing that the Lord has wanted to teach us through this process is persistence, which is not the same as patience in passing, because when I think of persistence I think of determination, I think of resisting even though one is tired and exhausted and discouraged. , continue walking by simple discipline and simple decision not to let yourself be defeated.

I do not believe that God can create a man, a woman who is a true warrior who does not have that ability to persist despite exhaustion, discouragement and simply continue putting one foot in front of the other and fighting against all things that come against one. . And how does God form a man, a woman, a Congregation that has that quality that is so necessary so that God can truly use it in the great things that He wants them to do?

The only way is by putting ourselves through exercises that generate in us that spiritual musculature, that resistance that can continue despite what the flesh says and simply say: God called me to this and I will continue until I see His vision come true. in my life.

And another of those qualities that a man, a woman of God and a Congregation also need and that can only be given through a process through which God introduces us is the generosity of God and you have had to exercise that generosity in these past three and a half years or more. How many times since we began this financial campaign have we had to come before you and again and again invite you to be generous with your money specifically so that this vision could be carried out and fulfilled? How many times have I had to exercise persistence and self-discipline to be able to come before you and simply ask you to give a little more for this campaign? because it is something that I absolutely detest and abhor but I have had to do it because I am asking for the Work of God and not for myself.

And I have been encouraged by many of you who gave once and not only gave once but gave two or three times and came with your very generous offerings that I know you did not have left over to make possible this work that we are enjoying this evening. Brothers: let me tell you that God is not going to use a Congregation in this city or in any part of the world that is not generous towards the Work of the Kingdom of God. By the way, I tell you my brothers that you cannot be truly blessed in the Kingdom of God if you have not learned to be generous and liberal with your money and your time for the service of the Kingdom of God, there is no real blessing, brothers, for a person who is conservative and shy to give to the Lord.

The things to which God has called this Congregation in the future cannot be achieved if they are not founded by a Church made up of men and women who have no limit to what they are willing to give to the Lord and I want to encourage you tonight , my brother, my sister in this coming year, make a promise in your heart, in your spirit that you are going to expand your capacity to give to the Lord and believe the Lord. Dare to open furrows and channels through which the glory of God can flow in your life by opening your capacity and giving generously to the Lord so that through that generous delivery God can then send His Spirit and bless and prosper you.

Many of us have learned, brothers, that there is nothing like living that faith that if we are generous towards God, the Lord will take care of our needs and give us more than we expect. Can you say amen to that? And then all these things and many more are the lessons that God has wanted to give us through this long journey like that of Abraham that we have lived. Many times throughout these times I have said: Lord, I think I have learned enough, can you give me a little rest? but the Lord continues teaching me other things and forcing me to see other aspects and to depend absolutely on Him and even humiliating me many times to break my pride and break my sense of self-dignity to teach me that I am not what I believe myself to be many times.

I always remember and you have heard me read the passage from Deuteronomy chapter 8 where God speaks to the Hebrew people about what He has been doing in them during the forty years in the desert before entering the Promised Land. The Lord says to Israel: "And you will remember all the way" there is the journey "through which the Lord your God has brought you these forty years in the desert to afflict you, to test you, to know what was in your heart, whether or not you were to keep His commandments."

You see here that the Lord was using Israel's physical journey in the desert to do work on their collective spiritual personality because that is what I tell you, God is always interested in the formation of a man or a Congregation, that is what that He is most interested in throughout the days. In verse 3 he says: "And he afflicted you and made you hungry, he fed you with manna, food that you did not know, neither you nor your parents had known it to let you know that man will not live on bread alone but on everything that comes out of the mouth of the LORD shall man live."

It is like God wants to train us as an animal is trained to be grateful and to depend on its owner, putting it in need and then supplying the need so that through this process a bonding is formed, a compenetration of the master with his creature; that is to say, God puts us through these exercises to create in us a dependency, a sense of intimacy and rapport with Him as has happened in this process.

Many times the tests through which God puts you, the long waits, the desert times are God preparing your soul, preparing your character so that when you wait for him and then He comes and takes you out of the affliction and the test you learn to depend more and more on Him and to be more grateful and more loving to the God who has taken you out. That is the person that God can use.

In verse 4 it says, "Your dress has never grown old on you, nor has your foot swollen in these forty years." It says here then that God sustained them with manna which was a very simple meal, very simple and also their clothes that they had, he did not give them luxurious clothes that fell from the sky but he gave them enough; the clothes that those dresses had never aged but were kept exactly like the day they left Egypt through a miraculous preservation process.

And certainly through this process I tell him frankly, I have not received any, I can say it with all my gratitude to the Lord, God has not given us, let's say, a magical solution that at the moment someone would say: do you know what Pastor? I want to donate a million dollars for the construction project of the Church, there has not been that type of provision but it has been enough and at the necessary moment.

And when you think, brothers, what God has allowed us to do in this place, this space, I know that the vast majority of you do not know what a miracle it is for us to be able to build a building like this for the amount of money we have been able to build it. what has been saved in the construction of this building is as if God had given us an extra five million dollars for the construction of the building. We started with an agreement with the bank that we were only going to be able to build this space inside here, the fourth floor was not going to be touched until a future time when we had more money to be able to finish that fourth floor.

And the money that the bank would provide and the budget that was submitted to the bank was only for this space in here, the two floors that we are currently occupying, and yet the Lord from a very early time clearly gave me the instructions and the faith to also work, to finish the fourth floor, which we were also able to finish with the same money we had at the beginning.

I never told the bank that we were doing that incidentally because they had a stroke, I didn't tell them that because they would have become very suspicious, I told them towards the end of the process we were doing but I knew that the Lord was capable of giving us even to finish that fourth floor and to the glory of the Lord it has been so, we have finished it too.

So as I say: there has not been a magical and absolutely spectacular provision, but God's provision has been more humble through human resources, through opportunities that have been offered in very simple and almost daily ways but in a very real way. also supernatural and miraculous.

I believe that in verse 5 there is also something that we cannot forget, I see it now and I have to admit that it says: "Acknowledge in your heart that as a man punishes his son, so Jehovah your God punishes you." And I wonder if in this process there have not been mistakes that we have made, I do not remember something like that in particular, I have sometimes had my doubts if in any way we have offended the Lord in something that we have done, we have not done but I I think we always have to understand that in the processes that God leads us we have a God who is a tremendously holy God and we have to be very careful about how we walk with Him and how we execute His Will.

God was obviously speaking to an Israel that had offended him several times in the desert and God had had to punish him in spectacular and terrible ways, and I believe that we too both as a Congregation and as the main leader of this project and of this Congregation we have to come before the Lord, I believe that we have not been perfect in this process and we also have to humble ourselves before God, and in this process, after finishing this process, we also have to say: Father, in whatever way we have offended you , in any way that we have not done everything that You wanted us to do in the way that You wanted us to do it, forgive us.

It is important that we humble ourselves and I will be doing that shortly by coming before the Lord and recounting in my spirit all the things that have happened in these last three and a half years because it is important that we do this type of internal examination. spiritual.

And let me tell you something, I know that time is already betraying us, God has given me more material than I thought but while we were there adoring the Lord I looked back, I felt that God wants this Church to be an exemplary Church brothers. God wants our Congregation, brothers, to be as difficult an example as it is, I tell you from my own experience, to walk in holiness and honor a holy God.

God wants that at a time when this nation and the Christian Church in this nation is throwing away a number of important values of Scripture in a very fast way, that there be peoples who cling to and cling to the truths of the Gospel. God wants a Church that distinguishes itself in a very humble and simple way by maintaining the values of Scripture, which includes walking with fear and trembling before a terribly holy God who punishes us when we violate His Law and who in the way of us dress, the way we have fun, the way we treat each other, the way we proceed in our family, in our marriages, with our children, that there be a difference and that we reflect the values of the Word of God.

So I'm going to end there because time is running out, there are many more things and maybe next Sunday I will continue these thoughts, but what motivated me to get into this subject of Abraham is that God took Abraham through a process where Abraham makes serious mistakes, read chapter 12 and chapter 13. Abraham is shaped by God through that journey that He takes him on and Abraham offends God, but even in all of those things God brings him back from his journeys enriched and widened in his possessions and his status as a man.

And in the same way, God has brought us in this time, he has taken us out, literally enlarged and magnified, and we are not the same Congregation that began this journey. And what this text that we just read tells us is that Abraham after traveling through Canaan, traveling through Egypt and having his experiences, he returns to the same place where he originally came from and builds an altar there.

Chapter 13 verse 3 says that: "He returned on his journeys from the Negev to Bethel to the place where his tent had been before between Bethel and Ai." It says that: "To the place of the altar which he had made there before and there Abraham called upon the Name of Jehovah." And so that is why I talk about this consolidation and I am going to develop that concept a little more because I believe that what God wants is not so much that in this coming year as that we say: "ok now we are going to conquer, we are going to do this, we are going to do that" but this should be a year of reflecting on the path where God has brought us and revisiting some places, strengthening ourselves to then continue with the next stage that God has for us. we.

There are many things that we started last year that we did not fully develop as we had to develop them. The journey has exhausted us, it has exhausted me emotionally and spiritually, and the journey has exhausted you in other ways, it has been tiring, it has been exhausting. So God wants us to return to the old altar, stop for a while, consolidate many things and then prepare ourselves to go forward to what God has because what God has is great and His promises have to be fulfilled and they are extraordinary promises for we.

So I invite you next Sunday to come and listen to the other part of what God wants, specifically how God wants us to spend our time and what are some of the big issues that we have to deal with in these next few months ahead of us. in front of. The adoring brothers: come quickly, I already called you before, please come this way. Forgive me if I'm a little aggressive at times, but I think you've gotten used to that by now, amen, amen. We have to be a brave people, brothers, that adrenaline has to be flowing continuously, that is part of being a warrior people of the Lord.

We have another member of the worship team here if Raquel and others are around, come up too. And we are going to stand up and there are barely three minutes left and we are going to hold hands and we are going to ask the Lord, we are going to ask the Holy Spirit to visit us as a Congregation, to visit us this year in great ways. Take a moment there to pray and bless, think of your families, think of your loved ones.

We are going to ask the Lord to bless our families, bless our countries wherever we come from, bless this city of Boston and that this Church He fills it with His Glory. So Father: we bless you, we adore you Lord, we remember our loved ones wherever they are tonight; our husbands, wives, children, fathers, mothers, brothers wherever they are Lord. If You do not go with us, Lord, do not take us out of anonymity, do not take us out of being a medium Congregation, we need You Father, if You do not take us out, we will not leave. We want it to be Your Glory, Lord, that is manifested in this city, be Your glorified Name, Lord, be Your glorified Name. Thank you Lord, thank you Lord Jesus, we adore you.