A life worthy of the Lord

Colossians 1 beginning with verse 9 to 14. As we look up that text if we were to take a survey this morning and I ask you: why did you come to Church this morning, why did you come to this service? Good Pastor, because the 9 o'clock service is convenient for me, so I can get to work, have lunch or perhaps you have more sublime reasons; Pastor: I am sick and I want the Lord to heal me, or Pastor: I have a little legal problem and I need the Lord to enlighten me or for the Lord to reveal to me how to ride the wave. Pastor: My home is going through a crisis and I want the Lord to intervene. These are reasons.

If you have come up with those reasons, they are valid, welcome. But many others might answer this way: Pastor, I'm here because I want God to change my life. I want to change my life. And frankly, my brothers, in these days of consolidation, I think we can speak with great authority that this is the desire of our hearts, that this Congregation be filled with people who come to the House of God with that desire.

Pastor: I want to change my life, I know that I am not sure what God has for me but I know that it has to be something different from what I have been living, and I say: glory to God. I want to change my life; good. So my question would be: change it for what, or in what, or towards what? And this morning this Word is addressed to that desire, to you who have come with that desire, and I suggest this: if you want to change your life, change it to a life that resembles the life that God intended you to live when He created you, a life that life worthy of the Lord. The Lord who created you, the Lord who gave you that life, the one who rescued you so that you could live it in victory.

This text provides us my brothers with an outline of a life worth living, what does this life worthy of the Lord look like? Verse 9: "Therefore also we from the day" by the way: Father, Lord I bless you, I bless you. Lord: I declare that Your Presence is so sweet and so obvious, so manifest. Now, Lord, revive this Word with the same freshness with which you delivered it to me, Lord, so that hearts receive it and make changes, in the Name of Jesus.

"For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you be filled with the knowledge of His Will in all wisdom and spiritual intelligence, so that you may walk as is worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him in everything, bearing fruit. in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to His glorious might for all patience and longsuffering, with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to partake of the saints in light."

And my brothers I stop at verses 13 and 14 because to understand, for us to understand why it is worth living a life worthy of the Lord, we first have to understand what Christ did for us. In verse 13 and 14 he encapsulates a gigantic miracle, the reason why we are here and why we can expect to live a life worthy of the Lord.

Verse 13 declares that He, the Lord: "Has delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the Kingdom of His beloved Son in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. Who has delivered us from the power of the darkness." Here is a truth my brothers that if we do not grasp it, nothing else in this passage will make sense.

This life worthy of the Lord would not be possible, it would be rather impossible without the redemptive work that Jesus did for us, who has freed us, it says there; in other words, he has rescued us from the power of darkness. Some biblical versions translate that word "power" into: domain of darkness. I mean, it's not just some vague power, they're talking like a kingdom or a state. They are organized darkness, structured under the command of the one whom Scripture calls "the prince of this world" may the Lord rebuke him. It is an organized state.

Imagine my brothers a dark labyrinth both vertical and horizontal and we were hostages of that domain. We were lost in that labyrinth of darkness. Within this labyrinth one can move from one level of darkness to another still, perhaps a little less oppressive but you do not realize that you are still in darkness; Do you know people like that? You get better a little, things are going a little better for you maybe, you attend a conference or maybe you hear a message and maybe you move but the oppressive thing about this place is that one cannot escape from this place on our own. unless someone rescues us, unless someone comes in like Jesus did.

It says that the Lord delivered us. The word there is "caught us." Imagine the Lord reaching out His Hand and grabbing you by the neck or by the bow as the prophet Zechariah says: "Like a brand taken from the flames, the Lord reached out His Hand and grabbed you, delivered you from that place and transferred us." The word they use here is the word they used when they gave you a passport to enter another country.

In other words, he handed us the papers of a totally different reality. He transferred the papers to the Kingdom of His beloved Son. Sure, boy. I know some churches that upon hearing that, my goodness. The Lord rescued us from hell through the redemption of His precious blood, redemption. In other words, He paid the price through His blood, paying a debt of sin, the sin that separated us from our God, separated us from His Grace, separated us from His light, separated us from His Will, separated us from the life, from the source of life.

He paid the price by giving it value, this is what redemption means, giving value to something that was worth nothing. That's what He did. And that is why we are now in this Kingdom of light, that is why you can still hear this Word because the Lord rescued us from the domain of darkness, for what? so that we live a life worthy of the Lord. Glory to God.

Pastor: this sounds very good, how is this Pastor? tell me now, how is this, what is this life worthy of the Lord? Let's go back to the verse 9 passage. You know? no one reaches the Kingdom of God instinctively knowing how to live a life worthy of the Lord, don't worry.

When the apostle Paul found out that the Lord was doing this redemptive work among the Colossians, he prayed this prayer and my brothers, we should also pray this prayer for each other, pray this for you and for the brothers of this Congregation; I think it would be the most noble prayer that you can offer to the Lord, we can offer to the Lord for one another: that we be what? "Filled with the knowledge of His Will in all wisdom and spiritual intelligence."

Welcome to the Kingdom of God and you know what? We are all new to the Kingdom of God. We do not know how to live a life worthy of the Lord, we arrived with our bad habits to the Kingdom of God. I compare it to rescuing Tarzan from the jungle and they sit him down at the table and have to train him to use a spoon and a knife, and what is done at the table and what is not done at the table. Something like that we arrive at the Kingdom of God, totally unprepared, born again. And we arrived with our bad habits, with the habits we acquired navigating the domain of darkness.

The things that you used in the domain of darkness that you use here in the beginning. The problem is this: maybe in that realm it was necessary to lie and cheat and cheat in order to get away with it, but you soon find out that that doesn't work in the Kingdom of light. Perhaps you arrived here with an angry character, skin that is too tender, you are easily offended, you offend others too irregularly; You also learn that this doesn't work in the Kingdom of Light and that you have to change.

Let us pray that we be filled, filled with the knowledge of His Will. In other words, the knowledge of God's Will for us, the pattern of life that God wants us to adopt now as part of His Kingdom reflecting on Him, does not merely remain in our emotions, does not merely remain in our little hearts; do not remain merely in the tears that we shed when the Gospel first comes to us.

We want to be filled with the knowledge of God's Will. We want this Will to penetrate our mind and to change our wiring, our way of thinking and even our way of dreaming or planning or envisioning. One of the things that I loved about the marriage conference we had a few weeks ago is a conference they had about how the mind is capable of changing. God gave us a plastic, malleable brain. Don't say: that's how the Lord made me, I can't change because the Lord didn't make you like that first and two: yes you can change.

And pray that the Lord fills you with the knowledge of His Will, and that this reaches even the unconscious chambers of your mind and your brain. And this is not magic. To be able to do this work, and I know it's difficult, and it's hard, and it will be the hardest thing you're going to do in your life, but this requires God's tools, all God's tools. As it says here: "All wisdom and spiritual intelligence."

Spiritual because God becomes our coach, our couch. We submit to His system and He will give us His intelligence, intelligence. Our ability to handle data, our ability to handle information; a sermon that you hear, the discipleship class or perhaps what you read in the Word, may this not be merely information but may the Lord turn it into intelligence and wisdom which is something else yet.

Wisdom my brothers is acquired by hard experience lowering our faces and submitting ourselves to God's treatment, still seeing our struggles, our brokenness and troubles as an opportunity to find out what God is showing me about His Will? What is the Lord showing me about His vision for me?

And in the long run the Will of the Lord for us is this: "That you walk pleasing him in everything." The Reina Valera version translates the Greek in a literal way, walk, the word prelepatesae literally means this: that we walk the Earth and that our experience be worthy of the Lord; not only our words or ideas but even how we walk is worthy of the Lord.

My brothers then how is that? can be reduced to this, pleasing him, pleasing him. Here the image in classical Greek is very humiliating, what's more, in non-scriptural Greek, in classical Greek this word was an insult. It indicated a person who was too servile. A servant, a person so servile that he is not satisfied with waiting for his master to send him but anticipates the wishes and tastes of his employer and his master. In English it was called a brown-nose, in my neighborhood it was called a lambe ojo.

There was a waitress, by the way, my favorite on the label, when I read this Word I thought of her, I entered this place, a sushi restaurant. When I entered I already had my tea ready, it was not part of the custom of the place, she always knew that I always asked for that. I would sit down, open the menu and she would even scare me sometimes; let me see, you want bento box with samen or chicken? you feel like samemen today don't you? Chery: how do you do that? how do you do that? but I anticipated my wishes beforehand and yes, who doesn't like that? and to God more.

My brothers, think about this, take a moment and think about how wonderful this is. The Lord has made us, it is possible that our lives can please or please God, don't you marvel at that? that He takes pleasure, is pleased with us. It's more that's why He created you, He created us to give pleasure to Him, we were created for His pleasure; He made us, he created us because it gave him pleasure to create us.

Do you want to live a life worthy of the Lord my brother, a life that is worthwhile? I ask you this. What is your biggest concern in life, what is your biggest concern? that they notice me? to get promoted in my profession? Who is surrounded by family and friends? That I can retire comfortably and be called "you"? whatever you care about, your goals in life is what your life will be.

I suggest this. If you want to find the secret of all joy, of a healthy life, change your concern to this: Lord, I want to please you. Lord I want my life to please you, spending your life asking you: does my life please you Lord? allow me a moment in English because this is more my dialogue with the Lord. God does my life please You, does it please You? God at the end of the day that this day pleases you. God whatever I came through today, Father did that give You pleasure? when you look at my heart does it give you pleasure, does my life please you?

Lord: by looking at my heart, by reading my life, by reading my thoughts, by looking at the steps I take, does my life give you pleasure? make that your concern. Make that your goal. If so, soon your life should take on these characteristics of a life that pleases God, a life worthy of the Lord; First bearing fruit in every good work.

If you dedicate yourself to living a life worthy of the Lord, a life that pleases the Lord, you will see that the Lord did not create a single soul unable to take it away. Enclosed in you there is a seed of fruit that God buried in you before you were born and now you are part of His garden, you are part of His Kingdom and perhaps you require that the Lord treat us as the good gardener, as Pastor Roberto has been preaching , that he prunes us as the Pastor has been preaching, but the promise here is that you will bear fruit in every good work, that is, his good work in the Kingdom of God will bear fruit. Do you want to bear fruit? It begins to work, it begins to work.

Here the emphasis is not so much what you do as why, not what you do but why it's ushering or babysitting, or teaching an English class, or painting a wall, or shoveling snow, or take out the trash; if you do it to please God, if you do it to please the Father it will bear fruit. It will give Him joy and above all as this is a Kingdom and as this is a team together we will advance the Kingdom of God against the domain of darkness and that is the point, and thus God's purpose for your life will be fulfilled.

A life worthy of the Lord is a life constantly growing in the knowledge of God. This excites me: the word here is not merely gnosis, which is simply understanding or science, but epignosis, which represents deep, full knowledge. We are not talking here about academic knowledge, books, even a knowledge of the Word like that or what we hear secondhand about God.

The hope is this: by living a life worthy of the Lord, striving to please Him, we will grow in our knowledge of God or words, as Paul wrote elsewhere: "I want to know Him, Jesus, I want to know Him and the power of His Resurrection."

I loved it at the marriage conference that they used this phrase: "There is no lit to God." There is no lid to the Lord, there is no summit, there is no top, there is no limit to God. We will live eternally discovering aspects of Him and of us in Him, this is part of our privilege as children of God, it is to know Him in person. We will discover and this is the part that you may not like, but we will discover fight after fight, temptation after temptation, challenge after challenge that there is so much more to this God who rescued us, first He is our salvation, the One who rescued us.

Through our lives, through pleasing him, through a life dedicated to being worthy of the Lord we will discover that the Lord who rescued us is also the God who anoints us; that is why the Hebrews had so many names for God. He is the God who anoints us, He is the God who heals us, He is the God who provides for us, He is the God who had mercy on us, He is the God who fights for us, He is the God who loves us and like layer after layer, like trying to open an onion we are seeing that there is no bottom for this God and no layer for this God. Every day we will discover that God is immense and beautiful, and every time like an astronomer exploring the universe and does not get tired because there is always a wonder in a corner of the sky, you will discover wonders exploring the heart of your God.

Whatever the cost as Job declared. After having gone through a hell of tests, of escapes that this just man had fled, but now that my eyes see you, we will grow. A life worthy of the Lord grows in your knowledge of God.

Speaking of tests, tests yes my brothers are an indelible aspect of a life worthy of God, they have their place, they have their place. Because the Lord promises that we will be, look in verse 11: "Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious might, for all patience and longsuffering." Sure, through our struggles we will grow in our knowledge of God, so is our training but we will also discover other things, yes it is exciting.

The Lord covers us with a force that we never imagined we had, a force that comes from above, that comes from another place. The idea here, the language that is describing is that the Lord literally covers us, the idea of the Lord covering us in the power of His Glory, in the majesty of His Glory, or in other translations: in the fullness of His Majesty, in the fullness of His Glory, literally He comes and covers you like a bullet vest; strengthens you in His Glory.

Interestingly, in the Old Testament it speaks of when the Spirit of God came upon Gideon, Gideon clothed himself with God as if it were a mantle that he put on, he put on a mantle of the Spirit of God, a mantle of God's anointing and in these moments in a life worthy of the Lord, a life directed by a heart dedicated to pleasing him, that his goal is to please, to please this God the Lord recognizes those who belong to Him and He will cover you as Psalm 91 says, I love the Psalm 91 what does it declare? "With His feathers He will cover you and under His wings you will be safe, shield and buckler is His Truth."

"You shall not fear the night terror" excuse me (broken) (applause). You shall not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor the mortality that destroys at noonday." It covers you, it covers you, and in those moments, my brothers, you know? to pray in this way: Lord heal me, Lord provide me, Lord pass this cup from me, you have every right to pray in this way and perhaps the Lord will answer you healing you at the moment, we believe that in the Name of Jesus or providing for you in a wonderful way, glory to God if the Lord were to do that.

Or maybe he'll take the cup from you before you drink it. But my brothers, do not doubt that the Lord can decide that there is a glory enclosed in that test. There is a glory locked up in that trial that you will lose sight of if you stop going through those trials, an aspect of the glory of God, an image of God that you will not discover unless you do not allow the Lord to let you go through those trials.

"He will clothe you with the power of His strength and you will grow more and more in patience" the word: microtimea what does it literally say here? long fuse, before it explodes, patience. Who is asking for patience? this is the method by which the Lord instills patience in us. Through these tests we know that the Lord; Look when you put on the Superman cape, what bothers you? people are people but the Lord gives you more patience with people, more patience with yourself, Lord but what things! here I am again and we are still going, we have work to do. Men don't cry Samuel, uh... get up, come on, there's work to do.

Patience with God, truly brothers, what do we have if not to have patience with God? Where are we going to go if we don't have patience? Where are we going to go if only You have the Word of life Lord? patience and long-suffering, I love this word. It means the ability to tolerate, the ability to endure, the ability to go the distance.

This is the same word that Paul uses in Philippians chapter 4 when he declares: "Everything hypomunim" "I can bear everything, I can withstand everything." I know what it is to have abundance and I know what it is to have scarcity. I know what it is to hear applause, I know what it is to walk alone. I know what it is to have friends, I know what it is to have their backs turned on me. I know what victory is, I know what it is when things don't go well for me. I know what it is to have wool, I know what it is not to have it; I can do everything, hipomunim, I can do everything in Christ who strengthens me, who covers me, who protects me. It is precisely the same idea.

You won't believe it's you, that's what's precious. You yourself are going to be amazed, you are going to hear yourself and you are not going to believe yourself saying: I know that I live with this cancer, I know that I am raising these boys alone, I know that they are going to take away my house but never I have loved God more than now, I have never felt the Presence of God more than now, I have never felt more supported by God than now; I can do everything in Christ who covers me, who protects me, who keeps me, who strengthens me.

Those words, brother, when you live a life worthy of the Lord, what matters to Him is that you get to know Him, know His ability to save you, know His ability to work in your favor, know what God is capable of doing in society with you and with your faith, that is a life worthy of the Lord.

And in the midst of those flames the person who lives a life worthy of the Lord discovers: joy, joy, "With joy" verse 12 "giving thanks to the Father who made us fit to participate in the inheritance of the saints in light." A life worthy of the Lord my brothers and yes, perhaps I am addressing many brothers who love the Lord, love him sincerely and up to now they are checking everything else, Pastor: I want my life to please the Lord just like you just did preach, I want my life to please the Lord. Pastor: I want to grow in the knowledge of my God.

Pastor: I have just preached my life and you do not know what I have gone through, and it is true, I have felt the strength of the Lord, I have felt that the Lord has done a work in my life, I am more patient and I have a longer fuse, I surprise myself but Pastor, what about joy? and what about thanksgiving?

My brother: that's the whole point, that's the point, that's the target. A life worthy of the Lord is known by its joy, it is known by its thanksgiving. This is the idea that the way we bear fruit in every good work, that we know God, that we resist everything that hell sends against us, we experience a joy that comes from the heart.

Haven't you experienced it brother? I want to suggest something to you. Start celebrating, say: celebrate, start celebrating your God by giving him thanks for even the smallest nonsense. Celebrate your God.

In contrast, a parking lot near their appointment on a snowy day: glory to God, God is with me, you are his servant. Start swirling wow! Did you see how the Lord intervened with me? Thank God. See if the Lord provided salt for his egg and a table to serve it on, thank God, thank God.

If the Lord provided you with a car that turns on, a 12-year-old Toyota that nobody kills with 165,000 miles but turns you on, glory to God! I walk, do you have change for the bus? Glory to God, if not I have pesetas together here for, now, give glory to God. And you know what? that will become a dialogue.

You give glory to God, you mark, you create an altar marking those moments and the Lord will speak to you and tell you: I walk with you, you are not alone and do you know which son, do you know which daughter? I am proud of you. I feel proud of you, I'm proud of you; your life, your struggle, that simple gesture of pleasing Me with such a small thing, do you know what it does to My Heart? says the Lord, that pleases me, it fills me with pleasure, I am going to give you a surprise: your life pleases me.

I want to hear something fabulous: your life pleases me by itself. And if that doesn't fill you with joy, if that doesn't fill you with joy, I don't know what else could, knowing that the eyes of your Creator are on you, they are aware of your movements, it has every beat of your heart. counted and is pleased to have created you.

And we discovered something else, that our victory does not depend on us but on Him. How nice, here we end as we began. Praise the Lord. We discovered something else my brothers. One of these days He is going to receive you and He is going to smile because He has already qualified us, what a thing. The point, there is a lesson in this, it was training, this is like a father training a boy to play soccer and the ball comes to him and perhaps one goes away, the other comes; That is not the point, that was not the object because God already qualified us beforehand. God made us suitable, God already beforehand, already beforehand you discover: but Lord, what happened? you won, congratulations. Come here here is your prize, but how was this? you won, but what, if I was a failure Lord, nothing worked for me? Won. Well done, well done, good and faithful servant, come here and see what I already have for you.

Already in advance he qualified us, already in advance he made us fit to participate in the inheritance of the saints in light. I want to say something, starting with me none of us are, none of us will ever be truly worthy of the Lord, will ever be truly worthy of the Lord. As he had to do with all the saints in quotes and all of them were imperfect, He makes us fit to dwell in His Presence, He makes us fit for us to call Him Father and if you are willing this is the Work He will do in you .

Let's lower our heads for a moment. Father: there is no one who compares to You. Lord I thank you, I don't know how we got to this place but I know we got there Lord and it was by Your Grace and Your Mercy. The eternal work, Lord, there is not a soul here that is not precious, that is not precious to You. You are pleased to create us all, purpose you have for each one of God. I beg you Master, anything that is between You and them, anything that serves as an obstacle to your redemptive and powerful Work in their lives, Lord in the Name of Jesus I remove that stone.

I declare that the day of the Lord has come in their lives and by Your Grace and Your Power and the power of Your blood will make them worthy of serving such a good God, so valuable, so generous, so present.