God wants your perfection

Let's go to the Word of the Lord in Second Timothy chapter 3 verses 16-17, one of many verses that we could choose to talk about these issues that: God wants your perfection. I am going to be a good Pentecostal: turn your brother next to you and tell him: God wants your perfection. God wants us to be perfect, God wants us to be like His Son.

The Word of the Lord says: "Be perfect as your Father who is in heaven is perfect" and although we never reach that measure of absolute perfection because we are always in the flesh, and we will always be in this body that betrays us many times, in This rather human biology will never reach that absolute perfection, but the goal of the Holy Spirit is to lead us to that fullness of attributes and virtues that make us more and more like Christ and that is the purpose of the Holy Spirit in our lives and for that the Spirit of God exerts all his efforts and uses all the infinite resources that He has to bring you and me to that state of perfection.

We see here that even the Scriptures, this Bible that God has taken so long to forge and prepare, and fashion it has been for a purpose itself for our perfection. The apostle Paul says in 3:16: "All Scripture is inspired by God and useful to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice" look at all the nutrients that are in the Word of God, but what are they for? all those nutrients, why did God establish His Word? It says: "So that the man of God" and women don't get too comfortable and say: oh that's for men, not for us; no, that is for you too, so that the human being, the son of God, the daughter of God is perfect, is perfect, "entirely prepared for every good work."

This means that God uses all the resources of heaven for one thing and that is to prepare us for every good work. That's too much, if you do me a favor, give me half, please, just a little bit, thank you brother. I tell them not to bring drinks here and then if they throw me away it will make a scandal and they will not let me forget it for the rest of my days here in the Church, I always ask the ushers to please give just a little bit. Thanks brother, very helpful.

God wants us to be perfect, and that perfection is not for us to flaunt it and walk around strutting and boasting about being perfect, but rather for us to be prepared, says: "For every good work," for whatever God wants us to do, for anything that God wants us to do. OK thanks?

So that's what I want to talk about and you know that we have been dealing with this topic in the last few weeks that God has placed in our hearts one of the most fundamental aspects of the Christian life and that is that when we enter the Gospel God enters us into a journey of growth, and improvement, of effort like a journey of an athlete or a soldier. We don't come to the Kingdom of God to be comfortable, that's what we've been saying over and over again, we don't come to the Kingdom of God just to get God to give us what we want.

Many times God will bless us, understand me, in the process of the Christian life and I have preached, and you know that we believe a lot in prosperity as a blessing that God has for His children in health, happiness and joy; I think, for example, of the Word of Jesus Christ: "I have come so that they may have life and have it abundantly." But what happens is that many times we put the cart before the horse and then we put what should be the result of a process, and we do it as an end in itself, as if God's only purpose was for us to enjoy the Christian life and have a good time as the Americans say, but it is not so. There is a process that we have to go through.

And God blesses us, prospers us, gives us health, responds to our needs, answers our prayers, but He also deals with us and takes us through a process that many times includes suffering and suffering, and times of effort, and of preparation, and even crucifixion, and from time to time even our little hair gives us as we said last Sunday, right? all of those things are part of the totality of the Christian experience.

If we only say to people: oh! come to the Gospel to have a good time and to have a good life and all these things we are lying to you and we are diluting the totality of the Gospel. I say that many times people miss the beauty and the sublime character of the Gospel when they reduce it simply to the luminous aspect and the beautiful and pleasant aspect. And you know that every artistic work has tension.

If a work of art, be it a novel, a poem, a movie, or a painting, has no tension, music is not a great work. Think of Juan Sebastian Bach's Fugues for example or I don't know, a painting by Tintoretto or a novel by Cervantes for example, there is always a fight, there is always a conflict because that is what makes a great work. If a painting were only yellow colors, there would be no shadows, then there would be no painting; then there would be no painting, there must be contrast, there must be conflict. That is part of the beauty and greatness of something and it is part of the greatness of the Christian life as well.

Your life is going to include times of trial, difficulties, training, confrontation from God in your life and that is the totality of the experience. In this process of God dealing with you also takes you to sublime and very beautiful levels.

And what I want is to alert us as a Church so that we grow evenly and so that as many new people who are entering the ways of the Lord know what they are coming to, know where they are entering in their Christian journey. We cannot enter the Gospel expecting only pleasant things. The main desire of the Holy Spirit is: our improvement, leading us more and more to be like Christ Jesus. If we expect only pleasant things we are going to be disappointed, we are not going to be prepared for when the difficult times come.

And that's the problem with much of the preaching one hears today, we rob God's people of the fullness of the Christian experience and leave them without the antibodies they need and the interpretive elements they need so that when the test comes to life, be it illness, be it difficult economic situations, be it the loss of a job, be it a disappointment in life, a marital problem, something with a child, a betrayal by a friend, the loss of a dream; If we don't give them the interpretive elements when those things come into their lives, they won't know how to deal with them, and they won't know how to deal with them, and they won't know how to navigate those stormy waters until they reach the other shore.

And I always see Scripture warning us over and over again that we are also going to go through difficult times in our lives, and that is part of God's process, that is good and necessary for our lives, amen? It's good that at least some of you agree with me.

God's desire is not our comfort but our perfection and our sanctification. God is not as concerned that you are happy as that you are clean and prepared to serve him as he needs. The Holy Spirit is always in labor pains until you bring forth the figure and character of Jesus Christ.

Think of the words of the Apostle Paul in Galatians 4:19 where Paul says, "My little children, with whom I travail again until Christ is formed in you." It is as if Paul is expressing the feeling of the Holy Spirit who is doing all kinds of work in our lives to produce a baby that looks like Christ. God wants your life as you go through a formation process to reflect the character and attributes of Jesus Christ and He is going to do whatever is necessary in you to bring you there.

My brothers: do not miss out on the sublime of the Christian life by simply limiting yourself to a superficial experience, limiting yourself to only coming to Church religiously on Sundays and thinking: well, before I went to mass, now I go to the evangelical Church and that that's all. And we leave here and we put the padlock on the chest of the Christian life until next Sunday when we open it again to come to Church again when what God wants is a process of intimacy with us.

I think of the words of the Apostle James who says that the Spirit of God yearns for us jealously. Do you know that what God wants is to be intimate with you? God wants to spend life together with you, God wants to walk with you every day of your life, every moment in every circumstance. God wants to have a dialogue, he wants to come into your life and sit there and have a cappuccino there at three in the afternoon sometimes, and talk to you.

These days I have been thinking about that, in the Book of Genesis when it says that the Lord came near, in the Garden of Eden and came to seek company with Adam and Eve. What was God doing in the Garden of Eden? and do not ask me how God manifested himself, if he came in the form of a cloud or, how does God lose weight to be in communion with two humans? don't ask me that. In the Bible, for example, there is the idea of the angel of Jehovah that some say was like an epiphany, a manifestation of God to be able to interact with reduced human beings, like a projection of God almost to put it in some way, those are theological depths very big. But the fact is that I see God there approaching Adam and Eve to dialogue with them like this in the Garden of Eden and unfortunately he found them distant and having sinned.

And so sometimes God comes and wants to be intimate with us, he wants to deal with us, he wants to dialogue and have intimate moments, and then he finds us superficial and indifferent, or with an expectation that: no, God is here for the only thing he is. to do something for me and that's all, and I go to Church to prepare myself so that when I die they'll accept me there in heaven and that's all. No, God wants.

Brothers: the benefits of the Christian life are totally secondary. We exist for the Glory of the Lord, to have intimacy with Him, to become like Christ and I encourage you brothers to enter the Christian life with an appetite to have intimacy with God and to be treated by God, to become something extraordinary for God and be useful to Him.

Why does God treat us the way he treats us, that is, disciplines us? I was talking about paideia, that regime of treatment of God in our lives, why does God treat us by forging and perfecting us? There are many reasons. Number one I have already mentioned slightly and that is that God deals with your life, disciplines you, passes you through different formative experiences so that you become more like Christ Jesus, that you resemble Him, that you exemplify the qualities and virtues of character of Jesus Christ, that is what gives God the most pleasure: a Christian who resembles His Son.

And then God is going to treat you and put you in difficult situations many times to cut off from you everything that does not resemble Christ Jesus so that you reflect. What good is it for us to spend our entire Christian life coming to Church and then living like devils out there without manifesting the character of Christ? God wants you to reflect the attributes of Jesus.

Second, God treats you, disciplines you, and tests you to kill those carnal traits in you that make you stumble, make you unhappy, and make other people around you unhappy as well. When you enter the ways of the Lord God he tests you, so to speak, of all the imperfect traits that do not please Him and that do not reflect the values of the Kingdom of God, and then He begins and He ardently desires to put you through of a process of killing one by one all the things that do not please Him; your sensuality, your attachment to the world, your harsh treatment of others, your selfishness, your anger, your resentment. All those things that hurt you and hurt others God wants to cut all of that and put you through a process.

Thirdly, God also tests you and breaks you to lessen and diminish, and overshadow the love for the world and its vanity. Do you know that a worldly Christian is a contradiction? God doesn't like it. The Word of the Lord says that we do not love the world, First John chapter 2 verse 15 says: "Do not love the world or the things that are in the world, for if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

There are Christians who love the world too much. They love the Church and have a desire for the things of God but wow, their eyes go out with anything in the world, they live in vanity. Men and women too conscious of their appearance and their attractiveness. Others who love prestige and influence too much, and the opinion of others. Others who love money and possessions too much. Others who love their career excessively.

And many times we bring these things to the Church, we give it a little spiritual painting but the devil and the flesh are still alive within us. And that is why there are many people who like, no, they want to be Pastors. Everybody wants to be a Pastor, nowadays everybody wants to be here on the platform singing or whatever, I'm not giving anyone a hint, please understand, but many times it's because of that, because there are people who like to have influence over others, they want to be seen and they want to be respected or that everyone stands up, or kneels in front of them and then they end up spiritualizing but they are, the flesh is what is driving them. So God has to kill those worldly appetites within us.

A person spiritually treated by God is a person who enjoys the world and life. For example, if God gives you the blessing of having a good profession and that you earn good money, and that you have a good house, and a high-quality car, look: enjoy it, it's more; buy one for me too and give it to me as a gift. There is no problem with that. Do you know what God doesn't like? when you become attached and cling to material things.

Look: if God gave you the blessing of being an attractive person, glory to God, thank God for that, but if life takes away that beauty over time for whatever reason, don't get depressed or go to a place over there to shoot yourself, to commit suicide, to throw yourself off a bridge. That is reality, that is life; God gave and God took away, be God glorified, right? We have to enjoy what God gives us as if we didn't have it, do you understand me? If God gives you the privilege of having many friends and having influence in life, look: use it for the glory of God but don't get attached to it as if your value depended on what people think of you.

The Christian moves lightly through the world, enjoying the things he receives but as if he did not have them in a sense. So when the Christian walks he does not leave a very deep mark because he does not tread too hard in the world and that attribute is what enables a man, the woman of God to be useful in the Kingdom of God, that is what enables a man or a woman of God to give advice to someone who has lost a child or who has been diagnosed with cancer, or who has lost their home, and that person can speak with authority to that other individual and say: look, don't worry, you value does not depend on it.

The Bible says that having sustenance and shelter we are happy with that, that we do not set our hearts on riches, do you understand? (applause). Now, glory to God, if God blesses you with those things: enjoy them. I'm not saying that we walk around like beggars, do you understand? or that we do not seek excellence in life, that we do not study, no. Do all that but know that that is not where your happiness is.

So God often wants to disconnect the cables that bind us to those things and that make us willing to sell our souls to the devil to have them. And then they allow us to live in the world as foreigners and pilgrims, the Bible says, we are passing through, and this world does not catch us and cannot betray us.

Did you know that the devil kicks people around to use a very Caribbean word and fights them very easily when they are attached to the world? because he puts anything on them and then with that he controls and manipulates them. Whether it's a pretty woman, whether it's a job that demands eighty hours a week, whether it's a bank account or whatever, and with that he leads them to hell itself.

and it destroys them many times, because they are too attached to the world. So what God wants is to disconnect those cables so that we can live in the world as a divine presence exerting influence of the Kingdom of God in the world. And then if God gives us wealth we use it for the glory of the Kingdom of God and for the advancement of the Kingdom of God.

First, Second Peter I don't remember right now but it says: "Tell the rich of this world not to put love above riches" do you remember that passage? what does it say? "But invest in the Kingdom of God" in the future, right? in eternal life, that they do not put love on the things of this world; I'm not going to worry too much, if I find him at some point. Well if they get it there let me know.

But again, brothers, he says not to put your hopes or affection in those things, but put it in eternal things. Now how do we come to that conviction, how do we come to that enlightened attitude? it is the Lord working in us and dealing with us so that little by little we become detached from it. Many times when one sees that people betray us and that we cannot depend on them, when we have a lot of money, everyone is there at home because we give them good food and the bar is full of drinks, but the day we go into crisis because we lost our job they don't show up there for nothing and then one says: oh look, it's like that. Then one comes to that conviction.

God forges situations that take you off little by little throughout life until you then learn not to love the world, because there he says again in First John where I was reading: "For everything in the world, The desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, the pride of life do not come from the Father but from the world, and the world passes, and its desires, but the one who does the Will of God remains forever."

The Lord Jesus Christ says: Set your sights on things above, and that is where we always have to set our sights, always on eternal things, right? So God sometimes treats us and disciplines us, and makes us go through troubles and difficult situations to lessen that love for the world and its vanity.

Another thing, God also treats us and disciplines us to make us more suitable for Christian service. You will never be able to be useful to the Lord unless God has dealt with your life and you have gone through some troubles, some difficulties, some trials because how are you going to be able to comfort others if you have not been comforted yourself? How are you going to talk to a person who just lost their job if you don't know what it's like to lose something you love so much?

So you have to have many times a negative experience to be able to help others. Moreover, there are people who have had difficult situations in life and then enter the ways of the Lord, and can then be useful to those who are going through similar situations. A person who is in the world of drugs or alcoholism can now minister to other people who are going through the same thing, and God in His sovereign Will many times allows us to go through those tribulations in order to reach that point of life. life.

Look at the case of Joseph in the Old Testament, where Joseph is sold by his brothers, betrayed by his loved ones, he arrives as a slave in Egypt, he is also betrayed there again, this woman who falsely accuses him of wanting to rape her, falls into the prison and all that process that he was going through was because God wanted to position him for an encounter with Pharaoh that would allow him to interpret that terrible dream that Pharaoh had had and prepare the environment for his family to come, and they would go to Egypt, and Egypt would serve there. like a womb for the people of God to develop for 300 years as a nation, and then take them out of Egypt to take them to Canaan fulfilling a promise that he had made to Abraham centuries ago, look how God is.

And I imagine that when José was going through those tests and those difficulties, he must have said: what did I do to deserve all this? I have loved God and wanted to live in integrity, but God was thinking of something beyond. Many times, God is using the situations that you are going through in your life, even though it takes a long time, to forge a man, a woman who can be a blessing to the Kingdom of God, who can be useful.

When Joseph's brothers come to Egypt looking for food, do you remember the story? and they discover that now that young man they sold as a slave to Egypt is now the vice president of Egypt, they begin to tremble and believe: he is going to cut off our heads and take revenge on us, and do you know what Joseph says? No, don't worry. What you wanted to do for evil God used for the preservation of life and for good, that's why I don't hate you, because I understand now that it wasn't that the devil was working through you but that God was using you for purposes greater.

And perhaps you have gone through a very difficult situation in your life or you are going through trials and difficulties, wait for God's end, because many times God uses those difficult situations in life for something precious. There are sisters who have been sexually abused as children or suffered all kinds of verbal abuse, brothers, men who had other kinds of situations in their lives.

And many people live depressed and sad because of these things, where was God when I was suffering? It is that God's mercy and treatment is so broad and so mysterious that if we can see God even in the most difficult situations of our life, that can redeem and totally change suffering, see God preparing us perhaps for ultimately as The Bible says to bless us.

God can turn the mistakes, the falls, the sufferings, the abuses, the tragedies of your past. If you see them in the light of God's great purpose you can see that God was preparing you right there for something greater later and that allows us then not to live depressed, and sad, and feeling like victims. Everything that happens in your life through faith you can turn into gold, everything, everything. And I encourage you, whatever there has been in your life, a divorce, a failure of some kind, some suffering, some abuse you suffered or something like that, believe that God can use all of that for the glory of His Name and for the blessing of your life, and for the blessing of others as well and by your faith you can redeem those things.

Refuse to see yourself in life as a victim, you are not a victim if you are in Christ Jesus. If you are in Christ Jesus, everything that you lived in your life acquires a sublime purpose, whether you lived in poverty or wanted it, believe that God has a purpose and then ask the Lord: Lord, give me wisdom to interpret what has happened in the light of Your Word and Your redemptive purpose and show me the gold hidden in that tragedy that I have been going through. And see God preparing you to be a blessing for His Work.

And finally God deals with us and breaks us, and tests us to prepare us to be good witnesses through our testimony and our behavior. Because many times there are many very well-intentioned Christians, they tithe, they fast but they have some character flaws that contradict everything they preach with their mouths, what they do with their hands they undo with their feet. And people say: you know what? I can't hear your testimony because your behavior speaks too loud and I can't hear your words.

And God sometimes treats us to purify us, cleanse us, deal with us so that we can give off that fragrant smell of the person of Christ in our life and when we go through those difficulties and those tests, that produces in us an ever more excellent and eternal weight. of glory says the Word of the Lord.

Do you remember that passage? It says: "Although the outer man wears out, the inner man is renewed from day to day" and many times God wears out the external part of our life so that the oil of blessing can be manifested through our behavior treated by God.

There is a very nice passage in John chapter 15 verses from 1 to 4 where the Lord Jesus Christ speaks that we have been made to bear fruit, John 15 verse 1 onwards. Do you know that you have been called to the Kingdom of God to produce good works, to be a blessing, to be useful as I have said to the Kingdom of God? and if you do not bear fruit of works of justice, of lives that know the Lord, of help and support for the Kingdom of God and the advancement of His Church, then you are a useless Christian, you are a barren fig tree that does not please the Lord. And everything that God does in your life when you enter the Gospel is to prepare you so that you can bear fruit.

In chapter 15 verse 1 the Lord Jesus Christ says: "I am the true vine and My Father is the Husbandman." Many times in the Bible God is presented as the owner of a land or the Holy Spirit as a vinedresser or a gardener, or a farmer. Because? because we are like a plant, like a garden, like a vineyard, like a land that God takes a lot of work to perfect and prepare so that it bears fruit.

What good is a vine, for example, or a mango tree, or an avocado tree if it doesn't bear fruit? It's just to cut it. And what use is a Christian if he does not bear fruit, if in some way the Kingdom of God does not benefit from his life, if he is not bringing others to the knowledge of Christ, if he is not interceding for others, if he is not witnessing, if you are not contributing to the Kingdom of God?

God does not call you to the Gospel only for your benefit brother, he does not call you to simply come and sit on a bench, God calls you to bear fruit for His glory and for His honor. We must always be restless. How is God using me? what am I doing for the Kingdom of God? how am i contributing? If every Christian continually asked themselves that, their Christian experience would be completely transformed.

And so God is always working in your life minutely, in detail to form you, to prepare you, and He is always intervening in many different ways in your life through meetings, sermons, service, tests, all oriented so that you produce fruit. God is the quintessential farmer, God is the quintessential vinedresser.

Do you remember the Word of Jesus Christ where it said that a man had a vine that did not produce fruit? the owner and then he comes to the vine and sees that it does not produce anything, and he says: you know what? this plant is not producing anything, cut it down, what is it occupying the land for? if we can plant something else in it. And he says that the vinedresser who is the image of God, in this case of the Holy Spirit, says: no sir, you know what? give it a little more time, give it a little time to see if it reacts and if it bears fruit, and if it doesn't bear fruit, then cut it down.

But notice that the owner of the land comes and he waits for there to be fruit. That vineyard is not there for decoration, it is there to bear fruit and if it does not bear fruit, it must be cut down. And there are many Christians who ask themselves: why am I not blessed more, why am I not enjoying the Christian life, why is it that God does not prosper me more? Well, maybe it's because you're not bearing fruit. And when a person has been in the Gospel for a long time and does not bear fruit, God treats him there as distantly, he will enter the Kingdom when the door is closing like those movies that are thrown headlong to enter smelling smoke many times.

But I want God to say to me when I enter the Kingdom of God: "Come, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a little, I will place you over many things, enter into the joy of your Lord." There are many Christians who are going to suffer loss, says the apostle Paul, when they come to the Kingdom of God. They are going to tell them: well, come in, we can't do anything else, come in because you are under Christ, well come in but there are others that God is going to tell them: thank you for having worked so much for My Work, come and enter into the joy of your Mister. I want God to tell me like that and you also want God to tell you like that, don't take advantage of God alone.

God expects us to bear fruit and if we want to bear fruit as God wants us to bear it then we hope that God is going to work in us and dig around. Notice that many times the images in the Bible of preparing a plant to bear fruit are images of violence. Imagine a land where you plow into it and break the crust of the earth and violate it, and go into it so that it can do what the earth does, receive the seed deeply and interact with it. Think of the grain of wheat as I said the other days that falls to the ground and the crust breaks so that the life that is in it can come out.

So the Lord Jesus Christ says here: the Father or the Holy Spirit is the husbandman "And every branch in Me that does not bear fruit he takes away." There is another passage that says that those who have will be given more and those who still do not have what they have will be taken away, that is, the people that God blesses the most and gives them more are those who are using the talent that God gave them. When God calls you to the Gospel he puts something inside of you, he puts a gift, a call, a capacity. Every Christian has a calling, every Christian has a gift, believe that.

So the question is: what are you going to do with that gift? And if you don't do something with that gift, you're going to have to give an account to the Lord for that, you know? The Bible says that one day we all have to appear before the Throne of God to give an account of what we have done, whether it is good or bad. It is that sometimes we have such a wrong idea of what paradise and eternal life are.

Eternal life and the Kingdom of God, heaven, what we call heaven is a very dynamic place, it's not like you're just going to come to the pearly gates and they're going to give you a white coat, and they're going to give you a harp, and they're going to give you a little cloud, and they're going to tell you: go up there and play that harp for all eternity, that's what we think. No no. The Kingdom of God is something very dynamic and one of the things is that we are going to arrive at the Kingdom and they are going to tell us: well, okay, let's review what did you do for the Kingdom of God?

And it does not mean that you do not enter the Kingdom of God, but I believe that there will be levels of glory, there will be levels of blessing, there will be levels of reward. There are going to be gold and bronze medals and some are going to receive a can medal, a Coca Cola that they are going to cut into a small piece and they are going to say: look, there is nothing else for you because what did you do there in the ?

The Bible says to sow treasures, right? for the eternal kingdom. There is a connection between what you do here for God and what you are given up there. Some will receive a huge mansion, others a one-bedroom condo, a studio, and that's all because that's all they deserve. It's like that, brothers, you have to work here for the Lord because God is going to judge your work.

He says that each one's work will be judged, be it straw or gold but what you produce. I invite you to enter the Christian life and see how dynamic this is. That is why we do Christians an injustice by making them believe that well, just come to Church and be a religious person, and you are already living as a Christian. No, the Christian life is a very interactive thing where the husbandman, the vinedresser, the Holy Spirit is working with you and is calling you to do something very sublime, to enter into the experience of Christ Jesus, to enter into a journey as a knight-errant. , a great adventure where giants will come so that you cut off their heads and you will experience great adventures, and sometimes they will knock you off your horse and sometimes you will suffer; sometimes you are going to be defeated in one or another battle but you are going to stand up and you are going to go forward stronger than before, because even those battles that you lose teach you things and prepare you.

What warrior does not have a scar to show from his battles? What experienced soldier hasn't been wounded at some point in battle? or what army that has fought many times has not lost a battle here and there?

And so we Christians say the Bible that we carry the marks of Christ in us, that makes us sublime and beautiful. There are soldiers that you see and they have a number of medals because they have been wounded, because they have shown courage, because they have had great achievements in marksmanship or whatever and they walk with their medals there but there is also blood there, there are losses, there are efforts, there is work. While you see a soldier over there who dances his revolver because they don't even know how to put it on well with his shirt all wrinkled and his pants, they don't have a medal because they haven't fought a single battle, what's the use of that? ? There are so many Christians, you know?

There are many such Christians in the Church who are a dishonor to the Kingdom of God. I want to invite you: embrace the Christian life in all its fullness. Embrace her in all her tragedy and in all her glory too, embrace her in all her suffering and in all her victories too, embrace her in times of rest and refreshment, and also in times of battle and war because you have been made for war ; you are an eagle, you are a lion and you have to experience those experiences in your life to truly be a legitimate Christian.

The Bible says that we run legitimately, that we authentically run the race of faith as Christ ran it, we must pay the price of being a Christian. I was telling the brothers this morning, do you know the story when the Lord is on the cross and they give him a mixture of myrrh with I think it is another substance? and they want to give him that, vinegar, it was a substance that is like anesthesia that was used as an act of mercy with a person who was crucified to lessen the pain and agonies of the crucifixion that sometimes lasted hours and hours.

And the Roman soldiers even while executing this person by means of the cross had consideration for that poor man who was suffering so much agony and they gave him this substance that kind of lessened the pain of the cross a little bit. The Bible says that the Lord refused to take it, why, because He was a masochist? no, because He knew that He had to pay the full price on the cross of Calvary for the redemption of humanity and we have to be like that too. There is a price to pay, don't shy away from it.

"Take My yoke upon you" says the Word "And learn from Me that I am meek and humble." We have to bear the yoke. If we do not wear the yoke, if God does not deal with us as I said last Sunday, we are bastards, if God does not discipline us we are not legitimate, if we do not suffer something, if we do not go through the process and God's treatment of crucifixion, the transformation and God's treatment we do not deserve the name of Christians. I want to invite you to give, to sacrifice for Christ, to pay the price. If the Christian life does not hurt you, you are not living it as you should live it, you know? but you will also experience glorious moments of happiness and triumph, and you will be able to brag about what God has done in you and through you.

"Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit he will take away and all that does bear fruit he will cleanse." The word cleanse it is prune it in Greek. When you bear fruit God tells you: wow, look my son, my daughter how well you are serving me, I am going to tighten the nuts a little more so that you bear even more fruit, I am going to be able to. What does God prune us for? so that we bear more fruit.

Look at a vinedresser who takes a plant, a tree and prunes it, for what? so that it bears more fruit. I think I have shared with you once, brother Roberto Naranjo that I invited him to our house, we have like a vine in the patio of the house and I invited brother Naranjo who knows a lot about these issues of agriculture and that so that help us and cut, and prune the vine. I thought I was going to take a little scissors and cut about two twigs there.

And one day when I got home he was already there and had begun to prune this vine, and when I saw what he had done I put my hands on my head and said: this poor vine killed me, and I I thought of Meche: when Meche arrives, she's going to kill me because the poor thing had left her just skinny and I said: this vine won't bear fruit for the rest of her life, not even anymore.

Do you know which brothers? that was like spring. By September, already in the summer, that vine was so full of grapes and leaves that it was incredible. Why? Because when you prune a plant, what happens is that you remove all those weak and dry twigs that steal life from the main part of the plant. So you cut off all those unnecessary external things and those thin twigs that don't give anything anyway, and then you leave only the thick and healthy parts.

Then those thick and healthy parts have more life to drink, and the sap of the plant is distributed over less surface area and therefore grows much stronger, and so it happens in the Christian life. Where is God going to send His Power, His Glory, His blessing? it is the branches that bear more fruit, the healthy branches. What are the trees that God is going to treat more and power more? those who are good, who bear fruit so that they bear more fruit. Now that poor tree when they are pruning it so that it bears more fruit if it could complain it would complain.

And so we. When God wants to deal with us, look, he puts us through difficulties, through trials, but that is God pruning you, taking away all that is external. Love for the world, sensuality, selfishness, pride, rancor, vanity, all these things that steal your strength and leaving only what glorifies the Lord so that it bears more fruit for His glory. bears fruit he will cleanse it so that it bears more fruit. Then know that this is what God is doing in your life. God is calling you to holiness, he is calling you to perfection.

God perfected Jesus Christ through trials and anguish, and He wants to do the same. Don't think that if he did that with Christ he won't do the same with you. Take for example Hebrews chapter 2 verse 10, the Lord Jesus Christ went through that process in His flesh and His humanity, and we also have to go through it. It says: "For it was fitting for him for whose sake are all things and by whom all things exist that having brought many sons to glory, he should perfect the author of their salvation through afflictions."

Christ was perfected through afflictions, in His flesh because He is God, but in His human manifestation, due to all those troubles that He went through when He was in the world, God was perfecting and polishing Him to carry out His blessed mission of redeeming humanity. humanity. Hebrews 5:9 says something similar or we go a little further, Hebrews 5:7 says: "And Christ in the days of His flesh" see? it was Christ in His human form "Offering supplications and supplications with a loud cry and tears to the one who could deliver him from death, he was heard because of His reverent fear, and although he was a Son by what he suffered he learned obedience."

Many of us will never learn to be meek, submissive, subject to the Lord unless we are tested and weakened first. Many times tests weaken us but make us stronger, how interesting that is. Many times the difficulties of life and the trials that God puts us through make us dangerous to the devil and to hell. A man, a woman who has been treated by God and broken by God is a terribly dangerous thing for hell.

Now the person who walks around like an untamed untreated horse is only good for running through the prairie but they cannot ride him or use him as a load or anything and that is how there are many Christians; very beautiful, very leafy and apparently showy but they are useless because they have not allowed themselves to be treated by God. Like Christ right?

Christ, although he was a Son, learned obedience because of what he suffered "And having been made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation for all those who obey him." When you are perfected through afflictions and tests, and difficulties then you can be in a sense the author of salvation for many as well, so do not deny the discipline of the Lord, as the Bible says: "For God disciplines those who love and deal with him."

Look at First Peter chapter 5 because that's everywhere, First Peter chapter 5 verse 10: "But the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory in Jesus Christ, after you have suffered a little while, He Himself will make you perfect." affirm, strengthen and establish." How nice. After we have suffered a little while, then God perfects us, affirms us, strengthens us, establishes us.

Many of us want to be strengthened, affirmed, perfected but we don't want to suffer a little bit of time. No, let God deal with you. Invite him to work in your life. Enter the Gospel with both feet so that God does what He wants in your life and prepares you, and uses you for His glory. The Holy Spirit will work tirelessly in us to perfect us.

I finish and invite the brothers of praise to stop by for a moment. In Ephesians chapter 4, Ephesians chapter 4 let's read a couple of verses here. Let's start with verse 11, look at God's work in the economy of Christianity of what He wants to do. Verse 11 says: "And He himself" God himself "constituted some apostles, other prophets, other evangelists, other pastors and teachers" why has God created these gifts to the Church? Pastors, evangelists, teachers, prophets, why say these different categories of service that exist in the world and in the Church?

It says: "In order to perfect the saints for the work of the Ministry and for the edification of the Body of Christ." My brothers, you come to the Church, God has given the gifts of Pastors, evangelists, teachers, all these things; It is to prepare men and women to serve Him, to be workers. There are so many people in the Christian life who are consumers, not producers. In the Church of Jesus Christ 20% at most serve the Lord in some capacity, in something and I am not saying that you have to be a Pastor or sing in the choir, or be a deacon, no. I am talking about serving there at work, in your neighborhood, in the school where you are, being useful for the Kingdom of God, but I would say that a maximum of 20% are useful because it hasn't dawned on them why they come to the Church.

So there are many people who come to Church who come to Church more as consumers, as clients, not as participants and co-producers. So they come to church and sit there and say: well today the choir is kind of good, it doesn't sing so well; Anita got a rooster, the one behind me bothers me, next time I'll sit somewhere else if I see her. The Shepherd: oh! He has preached better on other occasions. In that Church they are always asking for money for everything, etc., etc., etc.

They are wine tasters, they come to church to see how the wine is today, they make a mouthful and then spit it out again like wine tasters, they don't swallow it, they are critical. Ah there the children's ministry is not so good, God wants a ministry where my children, is a first class ministry; Well, go to work in the children's ministry, help. No, discipleship teachers are not that well prepared, they are not good teachers. Look get ready, if you are so good take discipleship, grit your teeth, learn and then do a better job for the glory of the Lord. Pray, fast, prepare, study and then give the Lord the benefit of your benefit.

Do you know how many people? For example, here in the United States there are many Christians who live complaining about what is on Christian television, that the preaching is always not theologically high, that they are saying a number of barbaric things, that there are people there who want what they want. it's stealing people's money and all that. Those theologically developed people with great character and integrity just criticize these people instead of them then jumping in and setting up their television stations with a solid message, and they going into Christian ministry, and using their academic and professional training. , and his great integrity, and present to the world a better face of the Gospel.

What happens is that many times it is the crazy people of the Gospel who get involved in doing what the sober and the wise do not do. So as the Bible says, right? if those who are highly developed do not do so, God will use whoever he can, whoever is willing; but why don't they get better instead of criticizing? sacrifice yourself, leave your profession, leave your high studies and start working for the Kingdom of God with integrity and quality, and excellence. Do not be throwing stones at the poor who do what they can and sometimes mess up but at least they are doing something and preaching the Gospel, and people convert and come to the Lord.

There are many things in the world of television and radio that I know do not please the Lord, but if it is the only thing there is, then look, it is better that there is someone there putting their legs but with good intentions that there is nothing, there is not a testimony for Christ. Because sober, wise, measured and prudent people sometimes don't do the crazy things that people of faith do and they get involved anyway, right?

So what I tell you brother is that we are called to the Gospel to serve. God invests and does all these things in the world of faith: "That we may be fitted for Christian service in order to equip the saints for the work of the ministry." Listen to me if people changed their understanding and understood that you have come to the Kingdom, you come to the Church to serve not to be served, to give not to receive, to work not to rely on others who work, that would change your life.

So, from the moment you enter the Gospel, you would immediately start taking classes to prepare yourself, you would be studying your Bible, you would fast, you would pray to the Lord to use you, you would seek with courage and zeal the blessing and visitation of the Holy Spirit in your life, you would be crying out to the Lord for God to use you and allow you to give birth to the life of Christ in your life, would you ask the Lord to work in you and to deal with you because you know that you have been called to bear fruit and that a tree that does not it bears fruit God scorns it and cuts it off, and you are at risk. If you are not doing something for the Kingdom you are at risk, God is not happy with you.

"For the edification of the Body of Christ until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." There is a lot of cloth to cut. God is going to work on you until you reach that beauty that He describes here.

God does not want cold or hot areas in a Church. Do you know how heat analysis is done through science? Sometimes a photo is taken, like an x-ray and there is red, yellow, white and blue color depending on the zones and how hot an environment is, and thus God can take a photo, an x-ray of a Church and he sees hot zones, zones warm, cold areas. No, God wants us all to come to the unity of the faith: "Until we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God."

My great desire as Pastor is that our Church be a Church, as the saying goes: couple, where we are all walking together towards the same goal, where there are not some there giving one hundred percent and others twenty percent.

I am not saying this to criticize brother or to condemn him, understand me, I say it to encourage you. Do not waste this great opportunity to be a servant, a servant of God. Do not waste the beauty of the Gospel for simply two or three banalities there, that is not the Christian life and that is what I say, we have not been taught why we exist and why God tries so hard to work with us , because He wants to cooperate to produce a man, a woman who manifests the same life of Christ in him and in her, and that the same Congregation is made up of people who are all being treated simultaneously by the Holy Spirit, all being led in unity "Until we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ so that we are no longer fluctuating children carried about by every wind of doctrine, by stratagem of men who cunningly use the tricks of error to deceive."

Churches are full of such people: fluctuating children. The Bible says that the double-minded man is: "Unsteady in all his ways." He says don't expect a person who has that attitude to receive anything from the Lord. One day in a Church, another day in another Church, one day watching this television program, another day jumping like a monkey: from stick to stick as they say over there. God wants solid people, committed people, who listen to a preacher and know how to discern if it is the Word of God or the word of man.

There are many people who are fooled by a two hundred dollar tie and believe that because this person speaks like a giant, he is a spiritual giant, discern. Ask the Lord to give you wisdom so that you do not give up. Today there is a lot of doctrine of diabolical error, doctrine of the devil on television, in churches, everywhere, and there are people who are being led by the devil because of a ring that he has put in their noses and he takes them where he wants because They do not know the Bible, they do not know doctrine, they do not listen to the Holy Spirit within them, they do not pray, they do not have discernment, they do not have maturity, they do not have experience in the things of God and the devil fights them as he wants because they have not been treated by God; They are fluctuating children, that is, ephemeral children, changeable children, they do not have that weight, that maturity of a son, a daughter of God.

The churches are full of these people and God says: I don't want you to be like that, I want you to be a mature, solid, firm person who doesn't take you wherever they want. People who want is to make money from you or for you to come to their Church and decorate it with your body sitting on a bench to say: I have a large Church and they change the good doctrine, the sound doctrine of the Gospel.

Instead, it says that God wants us to: "Following the Truth in love, we grow in everything into him who is the head, Christ Jesus, whose whole body is well concerted and united among themselves at all junctures that helps each other according to the own activity of each member, receives its growth to build itself up in love." Take that home with you and study it because it is very deep.

You are part of the body, you are an eye, you are a hand, you are a foot, you are a little piece of the liver, you are an ear, you are a finger of a hand, you are part of the nose, you are part of the heart or stomach; I believe that nobody wants to be part of the intestine but someone has to. But each one of you is a tiny part, a cell of the body of Jesus Christ and all those parts have to be growing in harmony, they have to be growing organically because what happens when a cell says: you know what? I'm not going to obey this body, what's wrong? it turns into cancer.

That is cancer, it is when a cell leaves its coherent functioning and subject to the body and develops a life of its own, and develops, and begins and that is what a tumor is; a tumor is a cell gone crazy in other words that's my non-medical definition. A cell that decided to go its own way and began to reproduce madly without taking into account the rest of the body.

Instead of that, what God wants is that each cell, each little bit of the body grows, directed by the Holy Spirit, in harmony, producing a strong, prosperous, useful Church in the city, testimony to the glory of God, bearing beautiful fruit. Me and you want to be that yes or no brothers? Oh ask the Lord to make you a little piece of the Body that is growing according to the director par excellence who is the Holy Spirit who is forging a beautiful body that adorns the Kingdom of God and that is useful to the Kingdom of God.

Do not steal strength from the Body of Jesus Christ with your inertia, your inactivity. Make sure that when they find you they find you working. When the Lord comes he will find you with the sword in your hand, the plow working the land of the Lord. May death surprise you by giving the Lord the most of your life and experiencing the joy of the Christian life receiving blows and giving blows too, doing extraordinary things for the Kingdom of God, experiencing the beauty of being a legitimate servant who is earning his salary and that he is justifying what Christ did on the cross of Calvary for him or her.

Brothers: that is the burning desire of the Holy Spirit and by doing that we are going to come to understand the sublime character of the Gospel. We are going to lower our heads for a moment and ask the Holy Spirit to work in us.

I want to invite you right now also if you have not given your life to Jesus Christ to do so right now and put your life in the Hands of the Lord, and enter the Christian militia, enter this glorious life that is the Christian life. And enter as I said with both feet, enter with an appetite to experience things that the angels would give what they do not have for them to live the life that we can live in the Gospel. The angels do not have the privilege that a man has, a woman because they do not have the freedom that we have; They are not part of that mysterious plan, of this race that God has placed on Earth to complete a drama of which only He knows all its details.

There are angels that I believe would give what they don't have to experience what we can experience and yet we continually waste it. God tells you: My son, my daughter, enter into the beauty, the glory and the drama of this career that I have designed for you. If you feel that God is calling you, don't waste any more time: surrender your life to the Lord, stand up and ask the Holy Spirit to enter your life. Do it there where you are but I would like to pray for you.

If there is someone who has not done it yet, do it there where you are right now or stand up if you want, or at the end of the service come and talk to me, and we will put you in the hands of someone who will instruct you and put you where you have to go to grow as you have to grow. If you haven't, do it now.

I am afraid that many times when we are in this slightly larger place, many people are intimidated by this opportunity to give their lives to the Lord. If we are not willing to suffer a little now to give our lives to the Lord then wow, how is God going to bless us if we are not willing to pay the price for something as simple as that? Pay the price and ask the Lord to enter your life, testify that you are a follower of Jesus Christ and you are inviting him into your heart.

If there's anybody, raise your hand and we're going to pray for you right now, before I go I'd like to. Let's pray and ask the Lord in the meantime to work in us and make us a trustworthy and honorable member of the Body of Jesus Christ. Father: we adore you, we bless you, we say amen to the Word that you have entrusted to us this afternoon. We want to be like Jesus, we want to see Jesus, we want to honor him with our lives, we want to imitate him. deal with me

Father: I ask you to put hunger and thirst for restlessness in the hearts of Your sons and Your daughters this afternoon, that no one is left without feeling the sting of the Spirit stinging them, inviting them to a deeper life and closer to Christ Jesus. We give you our life, we give you our being. Make each person here a useful servant, Lord, and a vineyard that bears fruit for the glory of Your Name. Give us an even Church, a homogeneous Church in the sense that all of us in unity grow to express the full measure of Christ Jesus in our lives.

I give you this flock, Father, keep working with it, Lord, as Your Word describes, don't leave us without discipline, don't leave us without treatment, Father. Use this Word to create men and women hungry and thirsty for You Lord. Thank you, we adore you, we bless you, thank you Lord in Jesus Name, amen. God bless you my brothers.