A life radically committed to the Kingdom of God

This year the theme of consolidation is our north and our point of reference, and what we are doing is like strengthening, consolidating, insisting on those fundamental values of our Church, values of which the Lord has spoken to us through the years and that are like the hallmark that we always want to maintain in everything we do and preach.

And one of those values is a life radically committed to the Kingdom of God, our desire is to be a Church that serves the Lord just because, that serves the Kingdom of God because there is nothing better than serving the Kingdom of God; it is more important than the interests of the Lion of Judah or the interests of the Shepherd, or whatever, simply being completely delivered, dedicated to the Lord.

And we have been talking these last two Sundays about the fact that when we come to the ways of God, to the Kingdom of God, to the Gospel, God calls us to give everything up for Him, to sacrifice everything, to put everything to His Feet. It calls us to die, it calls us to forget ourselves and look only at Jesus, to imitate Him in His death, in His crucifixion and in His Power as well, in His Holiness and in His perfect character.

And it is not that we come to the Gospel for God to give us things. We don't even come to the Gospel for God to make us happy, although that is a product of the Christian life. But as I was saying, I am afraid that in this last period of the life of the Church of Jesus Christ so much is preached: come to Christ so that He gives you a happy life, come to Christ so that He gives you the best life that you can live, come to Christ for Him to help you realize your potential. Come to Christ so that He blesses your marriage, your finances, your health, your mind.

And actually if we look at the tone of God's Word none of those things should be the primary reason why we should come to Christ. We come to Christ because only He can, that is, we exist for God, we exist for His Glory and only through Christ can we find the identity of man; to have a relationship with God, to serve Him, to resemble Him, to be treated by Him, to be useful to Him.

And then as a consequence of seeking Him for Himself and because we have been created for His glory, then we find happiness but it is not that we come to seek happiness, happiness is simply a secondary result of the life we give to Him. to the Lord and we have seen those passages, right? where the Lord says: If anyone does not hate fathers, mothers, brothers, sons, daughters, he does not deserve to be My disciple.

We come to the Gospel to be disciples of Jesus Christ. We come to the Gospel to die, we come to the Gospel to give and serve, not to be given to us, and He gave everything through Christ Jesus on the cross of Calvary. And we then have to clearly understand why we serve Jesus.

Do you remember that passage where the Lord turns to the crowd, where he says that many people followed him and then he tells them: Hey, if you are not willing to pay everything and sell everything, to sell everything for Me, you do not deserve to be My disciples. ? And what I wanted through these meditations is how to put the reasons why we serve the Lord in the right order and invite you and me to make a total surrender of our lives to the Lord, to have a Church radically committed to the Lord. God's Kingdom.

I can understand that a new person in the Gospel comes because they have needs, problems, because they are looking for something and need something and that is how most of the people that one sees in the Scriptures came to Christ, they came because they had a need. Plunder had a hole in his soul that was eating him alive, Bartimaeus needed to be healed of his sight, the woman with the issue of blood had a serious physical problem, the rich young ruler was depressed and his religion did not give him enough joy, and he was looking for the answer to his existential need.

Everyone had a need but the Lord many times before giving them what they were looking for first called them to something else, he called them to see Him, to know Him, to love Him, to have an encounter with Him and then they received what they were searching. Or the Lord in His Mercy ministered to them in their immediate need and then said to them: Now follow me and they left everything and followed Him.

But when one is immersed in the Gospel and one has a certain amount of time, then one has to understand why it truly is that one serves the Lord, and a Church that is made up of people who do not understand why they serve the Lord and why they follow him It will be a lame Church, a deficient Church. My wish is that all of us are at the same level, we run at the same pace. I want a Church of people who understand why we all follow the Lord and there are certain things that God wants to do in our lives.

God disciplines us. I want to talk about discipline, God's treatment, that instead of us coming to the Church and to the Gospel so that God gives us something or solves a problem, we have to come so that He first does something in our life. and treat us, and that treatment will sometimes be painful and unpleasant. That is why if you come to seek Christ for something, a desire, some pleasure, some relief, some rest, some liberation, some provision, you may be very disappointed and disappointed because in reality the priority of the Lord It is not giving you what you want, it is giving you what you need and then ministering to your need.

So if you come because you believe that here you will find the solution to all your problems, when trials and difficulties come, and when God's treatment comes in your life, you will step foot because you were not prepared for the arduous of the Christian life. It's like a person who enlists in the army and believes that: well the army is good because it gives me a salary, I can take my citizenship, I'm going to have a nice uniform that will fit me and I'm going to impress my girlfriend and my friends. the girls, and when they send him to the war field and the shots start flying over his head he says: oh wait, I didn't enlist for this.

When he gets to the training ground and he has a platoon sergeant who starts yelling right in his face and picking him up at 4 in the morning when it's all dark he complains and says wait, that wasn't what I asked for. The Gospel is like that, the Gospel is a militia. It has its moments of glory when you put on your brand-new uniform and there's a parade, and everyone; There are moments of glory in the Gospel but there are also moments of trial where God treats us and forms us because that is what He wants.

So this passage tells us about that, the Christian life as a life of effort, treatment of God. Look at what it says beginning verse 1: "Therefore we also" who are we? Lion of Judah, you and I "having such a great cloud of witnesses around us" what is that great cloud of witnesses? In chapter 11 the writer has just spoken of that cloud of men and women who throughout history have paid the price; they were martyred, they walked in the world suffering, some of them died without seeing what God had promised them. They suffered in many ways but they stood up and died with glory, and they have been a witness to us and have encouraged us in our own career, and these people have won distinction in the annals of the Christian life.

And he says: Since we have such distinguished people who have preceded us in the Christian journey, "let us also get rid of all weight and the sin that besieges us" that is to say that attacks us, surrounds us, pressures us "and let us run the race with patience What lies ahead How many of us see the Christian life as a race, like a marathon?

It's not a little walk around the corner in a nice park, it's a race; has demands, one gets tired. There are times when one wants to sit down and lie down somewhere cool and have a Coke and forget about what God has called us to. The Christian life is like that, it is a race, it is not a walk in the park.

Let's run with patience, patience is required. If you are a short-distance runner, you probably will not do well in the Gospel, a lot of patience is required when difficulties come, when trials come, when God pushes you, when something happens that you did not expect, when a brother offends you, when there is a disease in the house or in your own life, patience is required; When you fail God and feel like just running away, patience is required. We must ask the Lord to give us patience and God is forming us in patience, that is one of the things that God does through trials.

Someone has said: do not ask the Lord for patience because otherwise he will give you tests. People sometimes believe that: "Lord, give me patience" and they believe that the Lord is going to come with a scalpel and open the top of their brains, and He is going to insert a little thing called patience. He says: ok do you want patience? I am going to train you in patience, here come the tests.

"Let us run with patience the race ahead of us" look at this here "fixing our eyes on Jesus." When you feel tired, burdened, troubled think of Jesus, He had a much worse time than you but he came to the end; he was crowned and was awarded the top prize. This is one of the things that we have to understand in the Christian life.

Our gaze has to be on Christ. He is our model, He is our source of inspiration and strength. My model is not some great preacher or highly accomplished Pastor out there, my model is Jesus Christ, I have to imitate Him in His pastoral character and in His Heart, and in His walk. He is your model too, he is not such a deacon.

How does Christ react, how do we see him portrayed on the pages of Scripture, and what was he like? He was a servant who served His Father until death and we have to serve our God in the same way. "Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of faith."

Here is something very important, it says that: "Who for the joy set before Him" mark that in his understanding "for the joy set before Him suffered the cross, despising the opprobrium and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God ." Here I want to stop for a moment before continuing because in reality this is not the center of my sermon but all that we are saying here is important.

Because I have told you before that in the Christian life there is a kind of paradox and that is that by dying we come to live. Losing we win, giving we receive, being humiliated we are magnified, being humble we become powerful and strong, weakening ourselves we are strong; God weakens us and bleeds us to make us stronger and stronger in Him and more effective and being saddened by God's discipline and treatment we become happy and fulfilled.

So I tell them that we should not say: Lord, make me happy as if happiness were something that God gives you as a substance, you have to say: Lord, do as with Your Son, deal with me, remove everything that serves as an obstacle. in my life so that then I can be happy. Happiness comes after you are treated by God and that is why it says here that: "Christ for the joy set before Him suffered the cross."

What kept the Lord motivated in the midst of all His afflictions, His trials, God's treatment in His life, the loneliness, the betrayals, the suffering of Calvary was what was going to happen after all that treatment. The joy that He was going to feel when He saw a humanity redeemed by His sacrifice on the cross.

When the Lord enters His own Way of the Cross and His own desert here on Earth, He is thinking at all times: one day humanity will receive this great benefit from My death and through My death, My crucifixion, My Words that I will to leave established on Earth all humanity is going to be redeemed and I am going to see that family that will be made possible by My sacrifice, and I will be joyful, and I will rejoice with My redeemed brothers when they enter into Glory. And that great multitude of nations that through the centuries are going to be redeemed by My blood and My sacrifice, and I will rejoice seeing the result.

And that is why it says here that the Lord, seeing the joy set before Him, suffered the cross, and that is what we have to do in our lives. When God deals with us, when we suffer afflictions here on Earth, when the Lord is using His scalpel to cut areas of our life that are not convenient for Him; When God is bleeding us to get rid of that attachment to the world and to the flesh, we have to say: thank you Lord, because from here will come a more blessed man, a more useful woman, closer to You, more capable of knowing You and to know who You are and to identify with You. You are bleeding this bull so that it can be useful to You.

So we have to look at the result. Do not look right now at the afflictions that you are going through, the tests, the difficulties, the struggles because if you are in Christ all of that is being used by God, it is raw material for your improvement and your treatment, and your approach to the Lord. Everything you suffer in life if you pass it through the eyes of faith will result in strengthening and blessing for you. You will grow, you will be happier.

Those things that gave you temporary, treacherous and harmful pleasure, God is removing and disconnecting those little wires through the situations through which He is passing you so that you can make your loved ones happier, be happier yourself and be useful for the Kingdom of God. Then look at that joy that is set before you, look at the result of the things that you are going through in your life and believe that when you go through the test the Lord is going to take you to the other side like Christ rejoicing and celebrating your crucifixion that it will bless others and it will be a blessing to you and to your life.

So what I say is that if we submit to God's treatment then we will be happier, not first go and say: Lord make me happy and then I will serve you, no. Lord: submit me to Your treatment so that I may be happy and then I can celebrate authentic and legitimate happiness. Everything that happens in your life God is using for that process.

Then: "The Lord for the joy set before Him suffered the cross, despised the opprobrium, the shame and sat down at the right hand of the Throne of God." Look at the victory that is at the end of your treatment because that is what God brings you to the Christian life and that is what I want to emphasize to you this morning. Because I had my sermon well worked out this morning and the Lord tripped me up and said: no, not for today, this is what I want you to preach and then I had to substitute everything.

Because that idea, right? that central idea that the Lord crucifies us and deals with us to make us happy, and that is why we must come to the Gospel, not so that it makes us happy. Because if that is the main purpose and you think that is what you are going to receive, many times you are going to be disappointed. You have to come for the right reason, which is to go through the same process that Christ went through in order to receive what you want for your life.

Let's continue. This is where he begins to get into the matter, the writer says: "Consider the one who suffered such a contradiction of sinners against Himself" to consider means: think about, focus; pay attention to, meditate on this person, Christ Jesus who suffered so much in His own life from people who did not love him, who wanted to destroy him, who betrayed him, who criticized him. "Think of Him, meditate on Him, observe His life and His career so that your spirit does not grow weary until you faint."

When God puts you in this race that is the Christian life, this glorious and paradoxical journey, adventurous with unexpected events, always turn your gaze towards Christ and keep Him as the paradigm, as the model of your life. Do you know that if that happened to Him, it will also happen to you? because you are His follower.

And some writers and connoisseurs of the original Greek say that the word "consider" is: look ahead, fix your eyes on Jesus, that idea of fixing your eyes on Jesus is to look fixedly at Him; remove all consideration and stare at Him starkly, focusing on Him. Consider Him so that your spirits do not grow weary until you faint. Fainting means: throwing in the towel, getting out of the Gospel, taking a foot, abdicating the Gospel and saying: I don't want any more, I don't want to continue anymore because no, this, I didn't sign up for this.

"Because you have not yet resisted to the blood fighting against sin." In other words, many of us believe that we have already suffered enough for the Lord, but look: most of us have not paid the same price that Jesus Christ paid and many martyrs who have given their lives.

When I am inclined to feel sorry for myself and say: oh Lord, how difficult! I am alone, how much I have suffered, how much this is happening, and I say: hey but if I have everything, God has blessed me, I have not suffered; What about those Pastors who are over there eating a cable? they work hard and do everything and they don't see the blessing, they don't get paid, they have health problems in Africa, Asia, Latin America. There are Pastors in this nation who give everything and do not see the fruit of their work.

And I say: God has blessed me in so many ways that I can't complain. Yes it is difficult, it is hard but hey: I could count thousands or tens if not tens of thousands of servants of God who are paying a much higher price than me. So when I am inclined to believe the big deal I look at others around me who have paid the price. I have not even suffered blood. I say: Lord if one day something happens in my life that truly sort of negates Your love for me apparently and Your work in my life, may I have the grace and courage to love You and kiss Your Hand despite any suffering that comes. to my life. And you have to do the same.

Why do you follow Christ, why are you here today? why are you in the Gospel? Is it because of the loaves and fishes that Christ gives you or because of Him, because He is the highest good, He is the pearl of great price? "You have not suffered to the point of blood and you have already forgotten the exhortation that is addressed to you as children saying: here I want to enter." Paul says: they have forgotten very quickly what the essence of the Gospel is, they have forgotten what the Word says when they are in trials and difficulties, and under persecution.

They have forgotten what the Bible says, which says: "My son: do not despise the discipline of the Lord or faint when you are rebuked by Him, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves and scourges everyone he receives as a son." In other words, do you understand the connection that Paul is making? We don't know if it was Paul or the writer of Hebrews, between the trials, the difficulties, the demands of the Christian life, the struggles and sufferings of the Christian life and the Lord who is disciplining us.

Many times we believe that what is happening to me is simply a product of life, but we often do not see that God is working on it and is disciplining us. The word that the writer uses: discipline is paidea, it is the word that means like: training, it is the educational system that was used in Greece to educate a child morally, to educate him in the formation of his character, paidea.

In other words, what the writer is saying, the Lord's deal is not a deal, discipline. Sometimes we think it is that the Lord takes a leash and whips us, we do something bad and God punishes us, no. It is the Lord's dealings with us. When you come to the ways of the Lord God, he immediately initiates a deal for you as a coach, like a coach that an athlete comes and the coach studies the musculature of that athlete, his style, his character and then generates a training plan to take him to the maximum according to its endowment and according to the idiosyncrasies and characteristics of its body and its character.

And so it is when we enter the ways of the Lord. If we know what we are doing, we must understand that what is going to happen is that immediately God says to you: Welcome to the Kingdom of God, now we are going to work. Here I have your training plan. And then God begins to put you through a formative process.

This process is going to include: tasks, assignments, it is going to include effort and tests, it is going to include stages of training and service, God is going to identify those areas of your life and your character that are not convenient for Him and He is going to start cutting and working, God is going to see, he is going to give you a gift and then, wanting that gift to fully manifest itself, he is going to begin to polish that gift and he is going to begin to remove everything that makes you stumble in the use of that gift.

God is going to determine a place in His Kingdom for you to work in it and He is going to begin to prepare and treat you so that you are the best servant or the best servant in that area of your life, and He is also going to identify those structural sins , those weaknesses that are in you, those defects, those imperfections and He will also begin to cut them through experiences and the work of His Holy Spirit, the conviction that He is going to bring into your life, people that He is going to bring that they are going to speak to you, sufferings and sufferings. Everything that happens in your life God is going to guide in very specific ways to lead you to be the most powerful and accomplished person that you can become.

Not necessarily the most prosperous, happiest, wealthiest, and most joyful person in the world, but the most glorious, most admirable, most worthy, and most useful person that can exist for the Kingdom of God. Are you willing to enter into God's deal? That is why he talks about discipline.

It says: "Do not despise the discipline of God." What about a lot of people? when God puts you in that training program you despise and say: no, I did not come to the Gospel for that and many people then begin to doubt God, to deny God, to criticize the Church, to criticize God, to criticize the evangelicals and they set foot and leave because they did not understand that no, that was it, God is trying, do not underestimate discipline. When the Lord treats you, do not belittle him, do not faint when you are rebuked by him.

Many times we are going to offend the Lord and God is going to come with His severe discipline like a Father that He is and He is also going to confront us, and there are mysteries in the Christian life. We have an accuser who also accuses us before the Father and many times God is going to have to take the leash too but it is because he loves us, because if he leaves us without discipline then we are bastards and not children says the Word of the Lord. The Lord who loves, disciplines and whips everything, mark everything there, that includes you and includes me.

When God leads you into the ways of the Lord there is a leash that is hanging from here around the waist and from time to time He will apply the leash too but in reality, most of the time what He is going to apply will to be the treatment, the training, the treatment that is forming you and is leading you to be more and more like Christ. But understand that God, when you enter into the ways of the Lord, welcomes you to an arduous life, the life of an athlete, a warrior, a soldier, a servant; that is His purpose and do not belittle anything that happens in your life.

Ask the Lord to give you the wisdom, the fortitude and the integrity to bless the things that come into your life that are for your own good. Many times God is going to take away things that you love very much but that He knows are not for your good. That man that you would have given both eyes of your face for him did not suit you and God took him out of your life, and many of us, many women or men are then inclined to despise God: ah, I asked him for a ring, I didn't ask this man to leave my house. So God no longer loves me and the Gospel is already a fake, and they stop coming to Church because they are looking for the ring, they are not looking for the one who made the ring who is Christ Jesus, right?

It is incredible but our priorities have to be correct, that God is not so interested in my joy or my happiness as in my holiness and my character, and He disciplines, He treats, He forms, He conforms, He whips, He blesses but He has a repertoire of interventions that do not exclude the intervention and the strong and severe treatment of a Father who loves us.

One of the things that scares me about God is that He is incorruptible. You cannot bribe that being, you cannot suggest it, you cannot blackmail him, blackmail him; you can't tell him: oh, I can't take it anymore, let me go. He says: No, you can still more, He knows exactly what you need. God is like that.

He sometimes loves the most treats him the most. God is totally vertical and straight in everything He does and that is why we have to walk very carefully before Him and we have to come to the Christian life with that sense of: oh, I am entering a sacred zone, a zone where I don't know what is going to happen because God may have things that I don't even expect, but I know that they are going to be good.

When I say that I remember the famous phrase from the movie this Narnia where one of the characters asks another character about the lion, Aslan who is a representation of Christ and says how is it called? that if he is meek, that if it is safe to be around the lion and he says: he is not safe but he is good, he is not meek but he is good. So is the Lion of Judah.

To the Lion of Judah I approach with fear and trembling. I know that he can roar at me and even his little claw can give me a slap, but I know that he is good and that everything he does is for the good and for the blessing of my life, but it is not very safe. And that is why I say that we do harm to the Gospel and to God when we offer people this cheap Gospel that is being sold everywhere today, that: come so that it may be good for you, come so that you may be happy, come to have a good life, come to be materially prosperous. That is a gross distortion for your life.

I cannot assure you that God is going to give you what you are asking at that moment because I do not know if it is for the good of your life, I cannot tell people: God is going to make you rich and God will to give money because that money can kill you and destroy your life. God is going to give you that man or that woman that you want so much, I don't know if it is for you, ask God; I am going to pray so that God gives you according to your need and that he enlightens you, and that if it is for His Glory. Because sometimes when people tell me to pray like that for something specific, I am afraid of how to pray because they are going to say: no, I am going to find another Pastor who prays more according to what I need. I pray in code.

Because I can't tell people sometimes: oh Pastor I want that job, please pray. And don't be afraid, and if you want me to pray that's fine, no problem. "Oh I want that job" amen! We are going to pray but: what if that is not the job that God wants for your life? How many things did God take away from me that hurt me when he took them away and then I said: thank you Lord that you took them away from me? Today I would be eating a cable if he had given me that, I would be in jail or who knows where if I had received what I asked for so much.

People kill themselves for things they want and are willing to sell their souls to the devil, and they want to force God's hand to receive something, and God says: Look, I love you too much to give you what you want, I'm going to give you something else better.

So let's get into the Gospel for God to deal with us, to discipline us, to make us the most powerful being that He can create. Verse 7 says: "If you endure discipline, God treats you as sons, for what son is he whom the Father does not discipline? But if you are left without discipline, of which all have participated" look, underline that. Do you remember that it says that God disciplines everyone he receives as a son? and here it says that we have all been partakers of some kind of discipline.

If you are in the Gospel and you are going to be there for a long time, there will be many moments in which you will participate in God's paideia, that is: God's treatment, God's formation, the merciful and loving discipline of the Father , the hand-to-hand fight with you of a God who loves you and wants to lead you to be more and more like His Son, and wants to take away that weight that you have on top of you that prevents you from running the race of faith lightly.

If God loves you, he will discipline you; if God receives you as a son, he will deal with you. If God has a purpose in your life, He is going to form you because He wants a child worthy of Him. Do not belittle discipline, do not get tired of discipline, do not deny God's discipline, God's treatment.

So he goes into an illustration: our parents disciplined us and they did it imperfectly many times. They did it for the wrong reasons, they messed up, they beat us up terribly sometimes and other things, and they treated us badly but because they loved us in their misdirected way, and we revered them even though they disciplined us "Why then won't we obey much more then to the Father of spirits and we will live?" wow. How are we going to despise God's treatment in our life then? If it is a deal that is for our blessing.

"Those certainly for a few days disciplined us as they saw fit" verse 10, "but this one for what is profitable for us so that we may participate in His holiness" underline that too, because that is why God brings you to the Gospel, it is so that you partake of the beauty, dignity, and perfect character of your heavenly Father. It is not for you to fulfill yourself or have your human rights. That is what is happening at this time, there are so many people with this question again, of homosexuality.

Again, it's not that I have a hang on with that, but I don't hear anyone out there saying that being an adult is a human right, so that's why I don't fight so much because I know that no, that's not a right. human. Oh I'm an alcoholic and that's my right, and it's my identity so a place has to be made for me in schools and other places because being an alcoholic that's my right, it's a human right. I don't see anyone saying that nor do I see anyone saying that being resentful or vindictive, violent, stealing. In other words, these are not issues, everyone knows, even those who practice it, that this is bad.

But today there is this desire then, instead of seeking the holiness of God, people say: no, I need to express myself and fulfill myself, and then we change the meaning of the Gospel. And we Pastors are many times willing to enter into that demonic game, and get people into an impure and harmful lifestyle so that they supposedly enter the Gospel and stay there; they are not in the Gospel, they are in hell while they practice that like any other sin that you practice and that you let enslave you. It is a contradiction of the reason why you come to the Gospel, which is to participate in the holiness of God. It is not for you to be happy or for you to manifest your identity, nothing. All of this you have to leave at the door when you enter the Gospel.

The only reason you truly enter the Gospel is for God to shape you so that you project the purity, the beauty, the harmony, the holiness of God. Can you say: amen, I am willing to enter the Gospel for that? Are you willing to pay the price?

That is what God has called us to, to leave everything that gives me pleasure and I like. Anything when you enter the Gospel you sign God a blank paper below and that paper gives God the right to do whatever He wants in your life, take away what He wants, take away what He wants . If you have to live a celibate life all your life, you have to live it. If you have to live a monogamous life with your husband, your God-given wife even though you want to live with twenty thousand women, you have to live because God called it that.

If you have to live poor and in a basic kind of life, although you could have a lot of money selling drugs or junk, or whatever, and you know that this does not please the Lord, leave all that because it is better that you go to the eternal Kingdom one-armed or one-eyed or lame to enter eternal life, hell with all his faculties and with all his money. What good is it to a man if he wins the whole world and loses his life? says the bible.

You have to give up whatever it takes to be like Christ, no matter what you love most: money, character, temperament, possessions, fame, prestige, influence, whatever. Whatever you have to say: Lord, here is everything, give me back only what You want and what You think I can use, cut the rest from my life. Are we willing to live that way?

The Bible is full of those passages. Please Omar begin, we are going to bring this to the ground. That is what God is calling you to. If someone does not despise father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, or even his own life, he does not deserve to be My disciple because God wants you to participate in His holiness, underline that. The reason I accepted Christ is to partake of God's holiness. The reason why I am in the Gospel is to be like God, to reflect Him; His character, His beauty, His holiness, His purity, His love, mercy. It is nothing more.

If God makes me happy in the process, that's great, that's the bottom line and I'm going to thank him, but that's not the reason why I serve Him. I want to be more like Christ. Ask the Lord for that: Lord make me more like Christ. Don't make me happy, make me more like Christ.

"It is true that no discipline seems to be a cause of joy but of sadness, but afterwards it bears the peaceful fruit of justice for those who have been trained in it." By the way there is a hymn that says: Do what you want from me Lord, Marlene: is that hymn out there? I don't know if that hymn is there, can you get it? I think we have it, I think we have it. Do what you want from me Lord, You the potter, I am the clay. See if you can get it, it's a beautiful hymn and maybe we can sing a couple of, I'm always looking for reasons to sing hymns.

"It is true that no discipline at present seems to be a cause of joy but of sadness, but afterwards it bears the peaceful fruit of justice to those who have been exercised in it." See what I say over and over again? The beginning is hard in the Gospel but the end is wonderful, the joy set before us. The peaceful fruit of righteousness.

There are many people who are happy but not happy, they are popular but lonely, they are healthy but they are sick at heart, they have a lot of money but they are beggars because they have not gone through the process of losing many of those things to have that sweet fruit. and peaceful. There are many people who have a huge house and a lot of money, and many things, but they cannot sleep peacefully; they have to take ten pills, because they have not experienced that sweet and gentle fruit.

When you let yourself be treated by the Lord and you allow God to cut off all those crap that are in you that give you pleasure, they give you pleasure but they do not give you happiness, they do not give you peace, they do not give you peace, when the Lord treats you and polishes you, and prunes you produces a sweet and peaceful fruit. That is what I want.

What use is it to me to have things that what they do is that they poke me and give me pain? that's not good and people are willing to do that, so we're going to ask the Lord to deal with us. If there is something in your life right now that you know is hindering you, give it to the Lord right now, lower your head right now. Lower your head for a moment, God is speaking to you, God is speaking to me and I want to call you to give everything to the Lord. God wants to form you, God wants to make you like His son, God wants you to participate in His holiness.

Please tell him: Lord deal with me, with fear and trembling I tell you: deal with me. Polish me, prune me, cut me, burn me. Do surgery on me, transform me, discipline me, I'll sign the letter. Sign the Lord that blank letter right now, sign it and give it to him. Lord with fear and trembling I tell you: do what you want from me. I give you my future, I give you my dreams, I give you my ambitions, I give you my character. I give you my family, I give you my money, I give you my desire to retire in such a place, everything. Do only what you want from me, deal with me.

Today I give you everything, today I remove the moorings, I remove the preconditions. Today I remove all requirements to serve you, I will serve only You Lord for You, for what You are and for what You want from my life. I give you everything Lord, I put it at Your Feet. Give it to the Lord, give it to him; put it there at the Feet of the Lord.

Father: I give you my life. Thank you for ordering my thoughts and teaching me what really matters, what has priority, what comes first, what is important: having You, knowing You, participating in Your sufferings and Your Glory. To be saints like You, to bring others to the knowledge of Christ, to be useful in the Kingdom of God, Lord, that is what we want to do. Do what You have to do in our lives so that we can reach that goal, Lord, this morning. Create for yourself a Church truly treated by You that knows the reason for serving You. We give you everything Lord.