Prepared to give

I want to direct your attention to the Book of Jeremiah, the 1st chapter, Jeremiah 1st chapter. I want to prepare your hearts. I think it is Paul who says that we plan what we are going to give to the Lord in one of his calls to deliver his offerings, he says that we prepare for what we are going to give to the Lord because if the will is willing, if we are prepared then we will give the Lord what He needs, what He wants us to give Him.

But it says that, right? that we prepare ourselves for what we are going to give him, that we meditate on it, that we think about it so that then we are ready because the first thing is that, it is the will, right? if the will is prepared then the rest will come naturally and that is what I want us to do this Sunday preparing ourselves now for what comes later.

For example, he writes in Second Corinthians chapter 9, he says: "Therefore I considered it necessary to exhort the brethren to come to you first and first prepare your previously promised generosity" see? He sends some messengers to go to Corinth and to prepare the brothers for the call that he has to make; oh here is the verse I was looking for, it is Second Corinthians chapter 9 verse 11.

He says: "Now carry out doing it well, so that as you were ready to want, so you are also according to what you have, because if there is a willing will first" I hope that in your heart and in your spirit you have that willing will, that disposition. There must be in our heart, our life, a willingness to always give to the Lord in everything He calls us to do. "If there is a willing will, first it will be accepted, according to what one has, not according to what one does not have."

Going back then to that verse from chapter 9 right there, right? that Paul says: "I had to exhort the brothers to go to you first and first prepare your generosity so that it would be ready as generosity and not as our demand" as generosity and not as our demand.

I have always tried everything possible in almost twenty-five years raising offerings for the constructions and acquisitions that God has allowed us to achieve, I have always wanted that feeling to exist, right? not demanding or manipulating, or using illegitimate methods to encourage people to give but simply bring them to a conviction through the Word of the Lord and it doesn't seem like it's the Pastor demanding because I know that doesn't work out. in the long run, and even if it turns out, if the heart that is behind that offering is not an enlightened, intelligent heart, according to the Word of the Lord, that offering that was extracted from the people through mass psychological methods, in the long run it will not have a product because it does not have the life of the Lord within it.

He may for a little while make something like a doll there animated by a string, but the string runs out. Now: when the Spirit is behind those offerings and the Word of the Lord was the one that encouraged them, then that offering bears fruit for a long, long time, many years, and that is why the methods have to be legitimate, and one of the That is what things are, is to prepare the land of the people, the will, the understanding so that they know why they are giving, and why what is being done is being done.

And that is why I have wanted this Sunday, just as I have been doing because there is a method behind my insistence. We've been talking about this connector for months since the Lord resurrected it and brought it to light, and I've always tried to keep, as we've worked with the documentation and the city, and the permits and the designs and all of this, I've wanted to keep in their hearts live that expectation that this would be given. And sometimes I myself have not been sure of.

First, frankly, sometimes people tell me: Pastor, this is from God, glory to God and amen, and amen! Look, sometimes I have to ask first, I have to ask first, is it from God or not? because not all good things necessarily have to be specifically from God for that moment in your life, and sometimes I have to cross a deserted terrain asking myself: Lord, is this truly from You? And then there is a process.

I have wanted to keep you, while this process of insecurity was going on as to whether such a permit was going to come out, if we were going to have such approval from the city, if legally we were in good territory, all of that, I wanted to keep your minds in in a generic way: this is happening, we are going to prepare, God is going to do it at a given moment, even while I was struggling with the possibility that this would stop at some point because of something in one of those key moments that were not there. in our control.

But the Lord in His great generosity has been opening the sea in front of us every day, each step that we have taken God has been doing it and you see, we have already broken out there to examine well the foundation that we had put there by faith thinking that If that ever happened, it would be years later, and look at how the Lord activated it so soon, incredible, and it was there, hidden. That foundation was invisibly there waiting for its moment; I say it is now, not in ten years, it is now.

And we are already doing that and as I said the contract has already been signed, a significant deposit has been put up for the steel and we had a nice and good conversation with the bank this week. Those people love us, let me tell you, those people are in love with Congregación León de Judá and it is a very conservative bank, okay? Those people don't loose their money. It is a very successful bank and in the recession that we had it was one of the banks that, they did not break a sweat, did not suffer at all because they are very cautious and very conservative, and those people get the juice out of me to drop a penny, they are always asking for documents and it is like having a bank living in your bedroom, these people are always asking for documentation and this and that because they want to keep up with life.

And thank you Lord, they opened the doors for us when I asked them for that line of credit to allow us to fulfill our promises more easily over the course of a year if necessary, they were a great blessing to us. And this week we had a nice conversation with one of the bank's vice-presidents, Lincoln Vermiere, and I ended up consulting with him more about a theological point, that was more of what ended up, more than anything; very nice, a very special time, very beautiful and everything is going from strength to strength.

Now it's just getting down to work, a little thing there we are talking with the neighbors now to finish the details and all that, pray that the Lord puts His peace there with them and everything else, but this is going ahead because it is that God is wonderful.

But that is why I wanted a long introduction, but first I wanted to prepare your heart and this week we are preparing ourselves, I beg you to pray so that this coming Sunday will be a time of joy as it always has been and not of demands, not of sterility, that we come eager to bring our promises to the Lord and to become partners in this company, of those connectors.

But God put it in my heart while I was thinking: how can I prepare the people, what word? Look, through these twenty-five years of construction that we have had, three buildings, some properties that are valued at twelve to fourteen million dollars, when we got here we had nothing like the Israelites, the shoe that we had on and the clothes, that It was everything and the Lord has allowed this Church to build a truly enviable physical plant in the city of Boston, in a central location, accessible to absolutely everything, strategically positioned in this city.

That is an incredible blessing and to the Lord we give all the glory and honor, and to the extent that we can humanly say: we have done it, God has used you through these years so that all this is fulfilled, I we thank God for His generosity, do not think that this is absent from the mind of the Lord, he is very aware of it.

But I thought: well, because as I say: I have a folder full of financial campaign messages. I no longer find new passages in the Bible because I have already used them all, everything that has to do with stewardship, with raising funds, if you know of any please write to me, help me, although I believe that this must certainly be the last because is that there are no forces left. But he was looking and he said, Lord, and I was struggling all morning with different passages, one could always take anything.

But the Lord put in my heart this passage from Jeremiah that doesn't seem to have much to do with fundraising or stewardship but I feel that it is like a freshly baked prophetic Word for us in the context of what we are going to undertake now, that we are already starting

Verse 4 of Jeremiah says, a famous passage of calling, says: "So the Word of Jehovah came saying: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I sanctified you. I gave you as a prophet to the nations" and I said: ah Lord Jehovah, behold, I do not know how to speak because I am a child; and Jehovah said to me: Do not say that I am a child, because you will go to everything that I send you, and you will say everything whatever I command you. Do not fear before them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord."

I remember that I said in the context of this series of sermons that one of the things that we must always keep in mind is that God is with me and is in my favour, that is the conviction behind every great undertaking, every victorious life, of every enterprising person, of every person who dares to undertake great and seemingly impossible things, and too ambitious. It is that idea that God is with me actively, personally, specifically, individually and He is on my behalf.

Because you know what? sometimes God is with a person but it is to punish and judge them, not necessarily to bless them, or he is simply there as a generic presence, but no. God is with you and he is there to bless you, he is there to take you forward.

"Do not fear before them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord. And the Lord stretched out his hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. Behold, I have set you on this day above nations and about kingdoms to uproot and to destroy, to ruin and to tear down, to build and to plant."

And then he says in verse 11: "The word of the Lord came to me" and the specific call and sending is activated, God says to Jeremiah: "What do you see Jeremiah? and I said: I see an almond rod. And I Jehovah said, You have seen well, for I hasten my word to put it into action." Bless the Lord His Word.

It is a pregnant passage, a passage full of implications for us. We could say: it is a great call to a small person, there you have the title of the sermon: A great call to a small person. The call is great for Jeremiah, God's purposes are great for him at this time. The moment that he is preparing to live historically is too big for him. It is a moment of great involvement for the entire nation of Judah. God is doing great things and that is why He says: I hasten My Word to put it into action. God is about to unleash something great on the nation and also on the nations around Judah.

And in this context of great events, historical events, God calls this young man, so young that he says: I don't know how to speak because I'm a child, he considers himself an adolescent, a child, and God is issuing a very powerful historical call to that inexperienced young man. . And it reminds me that God often calls people who consider themselves tiny, insignificant, powerless. God loves to call the unpromising and that should be a great spiritual lesson for us.

You always call people who seem like they are unqualified from doing something great, why? because if he calls the powerful and the great they say: oh no, well because I am great, I am powerful and God has a controversy against the pride of man because that has caused him so much pain through the ages. It began first with Lucifer, His great pride in being the perfect creature that God had chosen and has continued with all human beings through history and generations.

And that is why I believe that God says: Ok, I am not going to call the powerful because they are already powerful, they think they are more than necessary, if I call them they will say: it was by my strength that he did it, so God always calls to the disqualified, I alluded, for example, to Gideon.

Do you know that many of the great calls that God makes to people in Scripture, people when they receive the call always say: I can't, I don't have what it takes? how dare you call me? if I don't have the qualifications.

God calls Gideon and he is in there in the cave hiding the wheat from the Midianites and he is a young man from a tiny tribe, the smallest tribe in all of Israel. He has no theological experience, he hasn't gone to weeklies, he hasn't even been to college, and he's an insignificant farmer, and the angel of Jehovah as an embodiment of God's own divinity appears to Gideon and says: The Lord God is with you strong and brave man.

And he says: who, me? he can't believe that's the giant this angel is seeing. And he says: and if I am so big, why then? or if God is with us why then is this happening to us? How can you call me? my family is the smallest of the tribe and I am the smallest of the family, and the tribe is the smallest of all tribes, God loves to go to the center of disqualification. "No, it is you that I have called to do something great, to free My people."

When God calls him, Moses tells him himself: I don't know how to speak, I have a stutter. I have never taken a course on how to impress people and how to influence and win friends. And he says: no, no, you are the one called. I have been preparing you for eighty years, eighty years he tells Moisés, and this is the moment I have prepared for you.

That is, it is a call to the disqualified, great calls for little people. God loves to lift the poor from the dunghill, he says. God loves, says the one who does not have a family, to give her an abundance of family, to give her many children and to keep her in company. Over and over again God addresses the barren, the little ones, the powerless, those who have nothing and He loves empty vessels. If the vessels are full He cannot put any of His essence in, one has to be empty so that God can fill us then.

And what God put in my heart is: Tell each one of them that they are not small, that they are not insignificant, that they should not say that they have nothing to give, that they should not think like: that is not alluding to me. me, I do not enter into that call, I have nothing to give. Tell them that they are important, I need each one of them to commit to Me and not say that they cannot do it because they are going to do it, because I have told them that they have to do it as I told Jeremiah: Do not say: I am a child because everything I send you will go and say everything I send you.

When you are tired and think that you can no longer do more, say more, serve more, give more, God says: You can, within you is what you need, I can use you and you can do even more, don't let me say no

Do you remember the passage that I shared with you some time ago about that useless servant? that the Lord Jesus Christ says: Look when the servant arrives from being in the field all day, to do all the errands that his master entrusted to him, when he arrives home tired and his feet are dusty, the master does not say: oh my son come sit down, eat and let me wash your feet, no. He tells him: now prepare dinner for me, he tells him, and then when I have eaten, then you eat. Wow, good thing God doesn't treat us like that.

He pushes us a bit. He pushes us like a coach pushes an athlete to develop lungs and stamina but it's because he wants to invest more in us and he wants to bring out all the greatness that is in us. He doesn't put pressure on us to squeeze or exploit us, he puts pressure on us to enrich and bless us, and widen us. And sometimes one thinks like: I no longer have anything to give, I already squeezed everything. Search because there is still something there. Look under the sofa, there are some pesetas there that you haven't seen, you dropped them. There are things that God has that one thinks are not there.

I told you once about those feathers that I found, I don't know if you remember that story. God is always speaking to me like this through prophetic moments, and I always sit in the same space in my office, I am autistic in that sense that I am very attached to one thing. And over the years I have had pens slipping out of my pockets and down the crack in the sofa.

And one day the Lord, I was talking to someone there and I put my hand in like that absently and I hit a pen, and then I keep looking and I take out another, and another while I was talking to another person, the person is talking and I start to take out feathers, I took twelve feathers from there from that space that over the years had been falling into the crack of that sofa. Later, when the person left, I got up and then I found those twelve, thirteen feathers, I have them there. If you don't believe me, go one day and ask them to open the office door and say: where are the Pastor's feathers? there they are in a little thing. In passing he says: "don't remove these feathers from there."

And why are those feathers there? I felt that the Lord told me: Look, there are things that I seem to have forgotten about, things that I have written in your heart and in your life, and in this Church, they are hidden like that foundation that was hidden, but I have not forgotten them, they are there and I am going to resurrect them in their time, in their moment.

And there are times when you think that there is nothing somewhere but there is, sometimes you think: there is nothing more that I can give; you can give. And the good thing is that if God asks you, firstly it is because you have and secondly because He is going to give you more so that you have, not only have but have more than enough after giving.

Now that's easy to say, amen and hallelujah, but listen to me: when the time comes to put it into practice, many people's chests clench. I tell you: we say amen and hallelujah very easily, I am the first but how difficult it is to put it into practice when that has concrete, hard, specific implications that have to do with our well-being, our money.

But God calls Jeremiah, this young man who has nothing to give and who is far from thinking that God could have a purpose for him, and God tells him: I have a call for your life. And that is why God put this in my heart because look: one of the great challenges of our Congregation is the following: I was talking about this with Yosmar Rodríguez, who heads the finance ministry of the Congregation, the great challenge of this Church is how, because our Church has a nucleus, a center of people who are very committed financially and in service, those brothers who are right now making cakes and who do it Sunday after Sunday, and who smell like; you smell them and at quarter mile you know they are coming because they smell of oil. Instead of a nose they have a cake like that.

Oh, someone said: the Pastor's hand was passed, who was it that said? oh yeah (laughs). No, but I adore those people. Their clothes already smell all over them, their closet smells of oil and cakes, years working for their Church and they have raised tens of thousands of dollars. We have a nucleus of people who are very devoted to the Lord and that nucleus has been growing over the years, but I also hope that no one feels that they are being alluded to, please, I am simply speaking of a fact, and my desire is to call those people.

So around that core of committed people we have a large number of people who are either visitors or come from time to time, or are in search of the Lord, God is bringing them closer to His ways but they do not necessarily feel that they are part of Those specific ranks have not yet entered that level of awareness of what it means to be a truly militant Christian and dedicated to the Kingdom and to its Congregation through which the Kingdom expresses itself.

I say that one of the most difficult things to convert is the pocket, the bank account. A person can stop being an adulteress, drug addict, womanizer, vengeful, but being generous with God requires a miracle at the level of the Red Sea parting (laughs). Sometimes it is difficult, it is difficult to convert the pocket. The pocket is one of the most carnal and resistant things that there is when God moves, it is a crucifixion, it is a death. Living in that ease that I am going to give to the Lord and I will not lack it, quite the opposite. By doing that I am opening the key to divine provision and you have to crucify your pocket.

But when you crucify your pocket, the resurrection comes, the blessing comes to your life, it is incredible how the Lord reveals His shalom, His generous and comprehensive provision when you begin to give to the Lord because that is the center of everything; Everything belongs to God, I have nothing, everything belongs to Him, whatever He needs I am going to give and He is going to bless me. There you have the theology of generosity towards God in essence.

And we have always said that the key is to add more people to the center every day, to get them out of the periphery and to become disciples, to convert them from simply being people who are searching and quiet who love God, have a healthy fear of God, enter them to be militant disciples, active members of the Kingdom that their resources are at, and for that a conversion is required, a total awareness.

And I believe that behind all this is a low self-esteem of their importance before God and the Kingdom of God, that God wants to use them and has gifted them, and that they are responsible for carrying a little of the weight of the Kingdom. Behind everything many times, connecting this with the issue of emotional and mental health, psychologists and psychiatrists understand one thing and that is that a person's self-esteem defines much of their destiny in the world.

If a person feels self-conscious, tiny, that's why I was talking about your value coming from God and not from the world, because if you feel tiny, useless, insignificant, you will think that the great values of the world are not yours nor are they for you, that the great calls to nobility and greatness are for others and are not for you. The calls to greatness are going to go over your head because you are going to say: that does not refer to me, that refers to the other who is next to me, to my right or to my left.

Now when you feel like: no, I'm worth it, I'm important in God, then when they call a moment you say: no, that's my turn. The reason why many people abuse their body and damage their body with substances is because they feel: hey, if I'm not important, why?

I believe that a person should have a healthy value, a healthy sense of self. You are beautiful, you are beautiful, you are valuable, you matter, you are necessary, you are part of the factory, of the structure of your society, of your culture, of your family. You can bless many, you can be a spiritual father, you can be a source of advice. God has a call for your life, your Church needs you. If you are not there, your absence is felt.

I believe that when one feels that then one makes an effort, one wants to be a part. Sometimes we have been taught that the Christian is a person who says: no, God does not have to give me anything, I am worthless, I am rubbish, we believe that this is humility. Not on the contrary, that is an insult to the God who created you, God does not create garbage. You are worth, you are important, make sure you always represent well, yes sir.

Look: if what you have is just a shirt and pants, don't feel bad, but when you go somewhere make sure it's washed and ironed at least, wear it until it's transparent but make sure it's in good condition, don't walk around like anyone, whatever you have. If your house is simple, humble, poor, make sure that it is clean, that it is tidy and that it smells good, that is what is important in life.

And that will be a message to your subconscious about order, discipline, work, effort, and that will encourage you to move forward, but do not act like anyone because you matter, you are necessary and no matter what. that the world has made you or that they have not valued you, now you are in the economy of Christ, you are king and priest says the Word of the Lord. We are kings and priests filled with the Holy Spirit, God is going to do great things through my life.

That is why you cannot be outside the big events in your Congregation, in your family, in the community where you live, no, you have to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. It is important that one knows: I am important, I am worth. That is not pride, no, no, that is simply glorifying God who made me and that God does not do anything defective but He does it well.

I am always struck by Nehemiah's words when his enemies come trying to manipulate him and intimidate him when he is trying to build the walls. Do you remember the story? Because when it comes to building something, a number of things are always unleashed: gossip, attacks from the devil, ridicule, criticism, that happens, that comes with the territory.

And some men approached Nehemiah and told him: look, today they are coming to kill you so go into the temple and hide, and take refuge, because there was a tradition that if they wanted to kill a man or something, he would go into the sanctuary or the temple and held on to the horns of the altar, he says, that was part of the furniture, it was like those little games one used to play: they can't touch you, you're in a safe place, do you remember? I don't remember that little game but there is one something like that, right?

So the idea is: hold on, take refuge in it so they don't kill you, stick to the horns of the altar and they won't hurt you there. And do you know what Nehemiah's response is? he says: is a man like me going to run away and go into the temple to hide like a common man? no sir, I'm not going to do that, and there he defeated all the plot they had against him. But I love that word: a man like me? listen to me, that word, one would say: oh how proud, what.

No, it is that this man knew that he had a call from God, he knew that he had value in God. He couldn't put himself like anyone taking refuge there, well let others do it if they need to, I'm going to face the devil.

Never turn your back on Satan, you know? Don't let Satan know you're afraid, otherwise he's going to jump on you and beat you until you're completely knocked down. The devil does not respect a person who is afraid, the devil respects people who face him and who know: no, I am with God, he who is with me is stronger than he who is in the world.

It says out there that the only part of the armor that God did not give to the soldier in Ephesians, what is it? the only part that is not provided: your back, there is nothing to cover your back because you should not run away. If you ran, forget that they are going to hit you (laughs), even if it is stones they are going to throw you. Don't turn your back on Satan, always put on a confident face even if you're shaking in your boots, talk like a lion even if you feel like a mouse (laughs) that's one of my mantras.

The world does not respect shy people and who feel small, God has called us to do great things, believe the Lord. Say: Father thank you because you have made me powerful, you have made me strong, you have great destinations for me, great calls for my life.

Then God calls Jeremiah and how cute, he says: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you." Listen to me before Jeremiah's parents got together and that first cell of man that would be Jeremiah was conceived, the Lord had already seen him in three dimensions, high definition. All her life she had been stretched out before God, God had seen the video from her birth to her death, everything, and he knew it.

Do you know that you are not an accident? It wasn't like the day you were born that God said: Oh look there's a new person, let's see what his name is. He already knew your name, He knows you, He knows everything about you, you are perfectly transparent before Him, He knows you intimately. Before you were born I sanctified you, I set you apart. God has a purpose for your life, God has a calling, He has set you apart for a mission.

Every day hundreds of thousands of people die, I would say, on Earth, who did not discover what God's call was for their lives. Lucky are those who find out in time what their life's calling was.

There has been a lot of buzz this week about the retirement of Derek Jeter, that great baseball player is retiring young, one of the great players in all of history, one of the young men who has had a stellar career both as a man and as a player.

And I was thinking about him this morning and saying, how nice it is when a person is born with a calling and an athletic endowment like in this case, and they are blessed to discover it in time, to meet their calling and develop it, and deploy it in the world like this person did. He had an endowment and he found out that baseball was his passion and his endowment, and he was blessed, because I think there are a lot of people in the world right now working on Wall Street and as lawyers, and cooks, and how I don't know , whatever, striking out a machine and they have a gift for baseball but they never discovered it in time, or soccer or whatever, they didn't find their gift, the circumstances didn't arise and they will die without knowing they had that gift, they invested in other things, they did other things. How good it is when one finds what.

And each one of us has a gift, a calling, an endowment in life, God has brought us into the world with something special and we have to ask him: Lord, enlighten me so that I can take full advantage of the destiny that You have for my life, so that that we can be useful people in life and leave a mark, a footprint in this world so that when we leave someone can say: look there walked so-and-so, that's her footprint. Let's leave something in the world that marks our presence in it because God has a purpose for all of us.

And through this campaign, again: I pray to God to help us understand that sense of personal, individual calling, that this is not just for those who have already squeezed in giving because this is for all of us who are here. I hope that you feel touched by the Lord this morning. I don't want there to be people on the periphery and people in the center. God needs to do what He wants to do in this Congregation.

I have so much here that it has remained in the pipeline because I think this call from Jeremiah has four applications. I am not going to develop them, but this call that God calls the little ones to great things has at least four applications.

One is, and again, I say this in the context of knowing that our Church has already gone from being a Latino Church to being a very international Church with brothers and sisters who bless us from the African American, Asian, Anglo, Haitian, Africans, everything, it's amazing and I don't want to lose myself in it.

But I want to speak for a moment only regarding Hispanics and Latinos, and I am going to tell you what I always say wherever I go, I have now told a large group of Pastors in Miami, Hispanics, Latinos, among other groups. , but I am speaking specifically of Latinos, we have a prophetic call in this nation, a great call in times where God is preparing, as in the case of Jeremiah, to do something great in the world.

I don't know if you feel how history has accelerated in the last few months in the world. We live in the context of something big, it's like the womb of humanity is like a mother who is going to give birth to something; everywhere there is war, rumors of war, plagues, nations rising up, mighty giants that were dormant and at the moment you hear them unrolling like China and other big ones, Russia, getting back on their feet and demanding their own space, and a nation like this that has been great and powerful is in decline, in decline and is already a giant that no one respects, so they still ask for a lot but no one respects it. And we live in a time of great and portentous events.

And the Latinos, that immigrant town with an immense number, eleven or twelve million undocumented and it seems like nobody wants them. The Republicans have certainly made a fool of themselves by rejecting them. The Democrats do apparently but there are still many groups, unions and other ethnic groups that see us as competition and there is also a lot of cloth to cut. But the fact is that this tiny people, who do not seem to have much to give, God has sovereignly brought them to this nation at this time to bless this nation with the precious values that we bring, in our poverty, our suffering, and our ethnic and cultural wealth. historical.

And God has brought us here as a prophetic population to do great things, and God says to the Latino community: Do not underestimate yourselves as he told the Hebrews in Babylon, do not come here to be conservative and little, come to live expansive lives and entrepreneurs. Send your children to school, force them to study, invest time and money in preparing your children, take them to museums, buy them books, have them watch documentaries, and sign them up for magazines and newspapers so that they learn to be intelligent and intelligent men and women. wise. Invest time because I am preparing a town that will be a prosperous town.

Do you know that by the year 2050 we are supposed to be one third of this nation? 150, 160 million, now there are 50-something, 56 million more or less that have been counted as Hispanics, Latinos in the United States, that is supposed to triple by the year 2050. Imagine a third of this nation of Latino extraction , that's incredible, I was surprised to read that recently. It is going to be a people and it already is, very influential, very powerful, and that is why it needs a Church.

What I always tell them is that these people with a prophetic call require a Church that lives up to that call. A Church capable of educating, a Church with an expansive vision of what the Kingdom of God is, an enterprising Church, a Church with the physical plant that is needed, with Pastors and Pastors with wisdom and biblical-theological training, good education preparing children, doing work in the community, making himself known.

And in order to sponsor and disciple this people who have a prophetic call, it is like a hidden king who needs a nurse to nurture him and teach him well so that when he reaches his level of inheriting the kingdom he is prepared to do so. And that is why the second call is to the Lion of Judah, this Church. It is a call to us, to this Congregation, which is a Congregation that for the glory of God exemplifies many of those values of what a Latin Church should be and this is for the exclusive glory of the Lord, God forbid. God knows that when I say these things it is with fear rather that there is pride or something.

But the truth is that God has given us, has made us an exemplary Church for the glory of the Lord. We lack a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, we are far from being perfect, but there are many values here of what a Church should be to do its part in that call to bless the Latino community and help it to be everything that God wants it to be

And God tells us as a Congregation: Do not underestimate yourselves, I have great purposes for you, do not say that you cannot. Each thing that we do, that connector, that will enrich the operation and position us to do everything we want to do. A Church that has a call like this is going to be a dangerous Church to be in because God is going to ask a lot of you, because we are not a conventional Church; we are not an administration, management and maintenance Church. We are a militant prophetic Church, on-edge always living on the edge of God's call, frontier.

And that Church requires an equally aggressive and visionary people to be able to do everything. If we were a Church just now, it has reached its level and we are there just subsisting like so many churches that reach the period of maturity and old age, and you can simply come to Church on Sunday, collect the offering, have the Lord's Supper and we go home and come back next Sunday, and we do the same thing again, there are many churches like this and glory to God for that, it's not glory to God but you do understand what I mean.

God has not yet given us the privilege, not the privilege, we have not fallen for it. This is an aggressive, militant, expansive Church, always going a little further, always getting uncomfortable, because the call is great and God tells us: Do not underestimate yourselves, I have great things. In a time like the one we are living in, God tells this Church: Do not say that I am young, do not say that I do not have, do not say that we have already given too much, do not say that we are already there, no. You are going to do everything I tell you to do and you are going to say everything I tell you to say.

Do not be afraid or fall into apologizing for what you are, what you believe, do what I tell you and do not worry because I am with you, amen. So it is a call to the Latino people in the United States, it is a call to the Lion of Judah, it is a call to all this congregation in general telling them: You are worth it, you are important to Me, there is something that is in you that I need and want.

In this time of history in which I prepare myself to do great things as it says here: "Behold, I have put my word in your mouth, Jehovah says to me: I hasten my word to put it in your mouth." God has spoken to me clearly that this is a time in human history like never before in all the time that men and women have walked this planet, this is an incredibly important and seminal time for the development of humanity, and We have had to live that time.

And this parishioner, you move in that context of great cosmic importance we could almost say. God is rushing to do great things in this time and you have to live up to that time, and you have a prophetic calling.

And the last application, Latinos in the United States, León de Judá, general parishioner, is to those who, once again, need to enter that center, those who need to enter that center and leave the periphery, God tells you too : You are not a child, do not say that it is not time, do not say that: ah, I owe that to the consecrated, no. I have a call for your life. If you only take yourself seriously and Me seriously I will do great things through you. Do not stop believing that I have a call for your life.

In the Name of Jesus I refer to those who have not yet fully surrendered their lives to the Lord. Consecrate yourself, give yourself totally, plunge fully into the waters now so that the most glorious time of your existence is unleashed and you can enter into everything that God has for your life.

If you say that you cannot, you will not be able to, if you say that you are not, you will not be, but if you believe in God's call, God is going to infuse you, he is going to dress you in priestly clothes and he is going to put you where you need to be

I had some transparencies, there some projections but I will give them next Sunday, it doesn't matter, because this is what is important. If the will is willing, it is informed, it is enlightened, the rest comes specifically. When we make this call next Sunday, let's believe the Lord.

Look at the last one I promise you: this morning I was looking at all those sketches that I have there from the first time, I had a sermon there from the 90s, that is a relic. I think that if I sell that on Ebay for $5,000 they will give me. And there I was saying something very interesting to the Central Baptist Church of Cambridge when we had already started the first beginnings of this effort.

Look, it's like always the same arguments, the same things. At that time I said: "right now we are one hundred people" I had written, it says: "we are one hundred people" and look at my calculations as a desperate Pastor to get the juice out of people, he said: "one hundred people, if we do those hundred people, we make $15,000 per year, if 100 people in this Church are $15,000 dollars a year in salary" imagine in those times $15,000 a year, "100 people; that's 1 million and a half dollars."

And if only those people gave tithes, I would say like a big thing: "our budget would be $150,000" at that time, from what he says there was $50,000 a year for our budget, $50,000 a year, "and with that" I said "we will resolve all our troubles."

Do you know how much our budget is now, twenty-odd years later? $1,800,000 okay? That means that it is more than what the entire Congregation supposedly did in my theoretical scenario. God has blessed us, he has prospered us beyond what we thought. That little congregation tucked away in the recesses of the Charles River, God brought it to the prominence of a great city and God has blessed it, and has used it, and has allowed us to bless English-speakers and different continents, and nations, because we believed the Lord, and I still am.

This morning God was speaking to me sitting there telling me: Don't worry, I have what you need. But knows? that this budget every Sunday we are in a little bit of deficit, every Sunday to be able to reach that budget. It is about $30,000 dollars that we need and I will explain later but, and we never got there, we very rarely reach the goal of that amount of money because there are many things that we do, the expenses of this Congregation are many; there are three large buildings in the city and a Pastoral team that is small given all the great community that we serve, with many different ministries.

And it takes a people who give evenly, generously, and who feel: I am part of something powerful that God is doing in this city. And if we dare to believe the Lord God is going to do things that we haven't even imagined yet.

What I couldn't conceive of twenty-odd years ago right now I also can't conceive what God is going to do in fifteen, twenty years, I don't know if I'll be here but God has great things for you and for all of us. God can do impossible things, we just need to believe God and you are part of the miracle. Say: "I am part of the miracle" you, believe the Lord.

And my wish is not just for a small campaign but for your life, all the years that lie ahead of you that you live in generosity and greatness, and the abundance of a God who has good purposes for your life.

Lower your head for a second, receive the Word of the Lord, do not come with rhetoric but believe God and if you said amen put your signature on it, and say: I am going to give to God, I am going to serve God, I am I can, I have and I can be part of a miracle. God has called us to make that connector as a final point to this great narrative that has been our life up to now because God is a God of excellence and details, and you are part of His specific miracle.

Father: in the Name of Jesus we ask you to prepare us and to help us live up to the call and the context that we inhabit Father in this time of history. I bless this town, Father, and I ask that you foster it and prosper it, and that you make of it a great and powerful town that exemplifies the best values of the Kingdom of God, and that it be holy and good leaven for this city, and that it bless many.

Give us the courage Father, this campaign, the financial part. Not only of the campaign but of the daily life of this Congregation, Sunday after Sunday, week after week, I place it briefly in Your Hands, beloved Lord. Get us out of the bind and put us in holy abundance to do Your Will and worry about what is worth and what counts is to do Your Will and fulfill Your purposes Lord. Widen the context in which we are a little Father and bless us, and we will serve you until the last day Lord. Thank you in Jesus' Name, amen.

Brothers, I bless you in the Name of the Lord, let us live heroic lives up to God's call for us, God bless you.