God is always in control

I want to continue with the theme of health, emotional healing, the advice of God's word for us when we are looking to navigate crises, life's difficulties, life's challenges and we want to learn those teachings that help us to live in God's perspective and see things as God sees them.

I want to start, and remember I'm going to finish, I'm going to develop a little more and conclude the topic that according to your perspective of the events that affect your life, this will be the effect they have on you, whether negative or positive, depending on how you frame and Whether you see the things that happen to you, whether you see them in the light of God and the light of God's involvement in your life, or whether you see them as simply something that happened to you by coincidence, chance, or because the world is bad, whatever. That will determine the way in which you either always grow and are in perpetual spiritual development, because everything that comes into your life you use for your development, or if the events of life destroy you, squeeze you, overwhelm you and end having a negative effect.

I just want the first part of the song, it's a Samuel song. This morning as I was developing the sermon this song about God is always in control came to mind, and it is one of the great thoughts. We are going to listen to the first part and then I am going to have the meditation and at the end I think we are going to see if we can sing it too.

Song.

God is always in control, why despair.

God is always in control, why be afraid.

God is always in control, why question him.

And even if I don't understand what's going on, I live calmly

I live in peace because God is always in control.

I am blessed, I sleep peacefully, I live in peace

Because God is always in control.

God is always in control, why despair me.

God is always in control, why be afraid.

God is always in control, why question him.

And even if I don't understand what's going on, I live calmly

I live in peace because God is always in control.

I am blessed, I sleep peacefully.

I wanted to establish that thought as the basis of what I want to share with you. Again, developing that central idea that one of the great keys and secrets to a healthy life, a life that takes advantage of everything that happens in our environment, is to understand that somehow everything that operates in our lives has an end, it has a benevolent purpose, an uplifting purpose, because God is in control of all our circumstances and we must frame and interpret everything that happens in our lives in light of that central truth.

The past community I used in the 9:00 service the story of José as an illustration of when one can look back many times and has the privilege of being able to see what one lived in the past in the light of the glorious present of God, one is then more prepared to see. Wow, what I thought was a hopeless tragedy, a tragedy that didn't have any kind of redeeming element to it, God was using it for my blessing.

Joseph after long years of captivity, of slander, of having been exploited and abused by his brothers, taken to Egypt, his dreams apparently broken. When his brothers appear before him, once he is second in command in all of Egypt, he tells his brothers, “You know what? Don't worry, I forgive you because now I know that God sent me,” it wasn't them, in other words, but God sent me to Egypt for the preservation of life.

Joseph was then able to see his experience in the light of divine purpose and was able to understand that everything that seemed indicative of God's forgetfulness was the opposite, it was God's love that was fulfilling that dream that he had as a child that his brothers and his parents would bow before him and that he would have great authority.

I can say that in my life there have certainly been situations in which while I was living them I thought, wow, what good can come of this? What good thing can come out of what I am living? And yet looking back I can say, wow, truly God was using that to shape me, to work me, to make me a better man, a better servant of God.

And there are many passages in Scripture that show us that same truth that it all depends on how we frame, how we interpret, how we view the events of our life and that we must always use the biblical lens, the divine lens to interpret everything that is presented to us. is happening. We see that even things that we say, well, Lord, deliver me from this, a disease, a diagnosis that I am going to have to take pills for the rest of my life, or that I have a degenerative disease, for example, or that they are going to take the house, or that I owe it to the IRS is more than I thought, those letters that sometimes come to us like in May or June, after we pay the taxes: "we are sorry to say that you still owe $500.00 more because we made the adjustment of your form." And that kind of thing

How can we already have a mentality that sees things, the inconveniences of life, the troubles and that we interpret them in the light of the divine mentality? In the case of Paul, for example, you will remember the famous thorn of the Apostle Paul. No one knows exactly what was the sting, the suffering of Paul, what it consisted of. The thing is, it says that Paul had an affliction in his life, which I personally believe was something in his spiritual life, his character, something that humiliated him, made him feel like a sinner, and that he did it compulsively even though he didn't want to. . And 3 times he came before God to free him from this, "Lord, please, give me the strength."

How many of us sometimes struggle with situations in our lives, including attitudes, circumstances, that we say, Lord, that's enough, if you wanted to teach me something, you already taught me, that's all right? But God says, "No."

And the Lord told him 3 times, each time he came before the Lord, perhaps in a day or two of fasting, and the Lord said to him, “Paul, I am not going to take it away from you, my grace is sufficient for you.” In other words, be content with my grace. My grace meant my mercy, my forgiveness, my kindness to you. It says, “…for my power is made perfect in weakness.” In other words, God wanted to use that opponent in Paul's life to give him more strength, actually make him stronger.

And so he says, when he got that answer from the Lord, who said, “You know what? It's not you, it's me allowing something for your good." God gave him the interpretative key, which is what many times we do not have, when things are happening in our life, how to interpret it correctly, in light of God's benevolent purpose. Because if we had that, wow, it would be easy.

But Paul now having heard from God and understanding that this was for his good, says, "...Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me..."

And that is what happens many times, that in the difficult situations of our life the Lord is being glorified. This is what Peter says, I believe, in a passage where he says that when we are going through afflictions we rather rejoice because the powerful spirit of God rests on us. Sometimes when we are weakest, most tired, most burdened, it is when the Lord is closest to us, not further away.

He says, “…For this reason, for the love of Christ, I rejoice in weaknesses, in affronts, in needs, in persecutions, in anguish because when I am weak then I am strong…”

In other words, brothers, there is a lot of theology, a lot of preaching today that only glorifies strength, prosperity, the good things that happen to us, and we are ashamed to admit that many times God uses unpleasant instruments to strengthen us. And we have to accept that too and interpret all the events of our lives in light of divine interpretation. Frame everything that happens in your life in light of God's way of seeing things.

In the 12:00 service last Sunday I also spoke about Paul, in his famous epistle to the Philippians where Paul finds himself in jail and produces one of the most glorious and most optimistic and endearing epistles in all of Scripture. And one wonders, how could a man stuck in a jail, unsure about whether or not he was going to get out of it alive, produce a letter that overflows with joy, joy, hope, adoration, affection towards his readers? And it is because Paul had acquired the perspective of a man of God who did not see things only according to his own immediate carnal benefit, but according to the way in which God saw things.

And that is why Paul says in verse 12 of chapter 1 of Philippians: “…I want you to know, brothers, that the things that have happened to me – in other words, these bad things of being in jail – have redounded rather for progress. of the Gospel… – and we already have a key to how Paul sees what is happening to him.

He found the correct interpretation and it was that in this jail God is being glorified, because he discovers that there in jail, after testifying to the soldiers of the praetorium... That is, they are soldiers from the emperor's palace. For some reason he was near that palace and the Roman praetorium guards were used and he was witnessing to men who were very influential in Roman society and through those soldiers the Gospel was spreading.

So Paul says, wow, look at how God is glorifying himself. He saw the positive side and the other thing that I believe is that Paul was a man who had already died to the world. And that is one of the things, I preached months ago in this very long series that I have had on this subject, that one of the things that we have to do to live healthy and healthy lives is to detach ourselves from the world and know that the world is not Our home.

I believe that every Christian has to develop a healthy detachment from the world and the things of the world and know that our life is already lost in Christ, we are hidden in Christ Jesus. We do not live for this world. I do not live for my pleasure, I do not live for my benefit, I do not live simply for things to go well for me, I live with an instrument for the glory of God. I live as someone that God can use to advance the interests of his kingdom. Amen.

When I get there, to heaven, then I'm going to enjoy everything I want. I'm going to drink all the piña coladas that I couldn't drink here, I'm going to go on vacation to Jupiter for a thousand years, I'm going to discover the beauty of the galaxy without a telescope, because there it's an eternity without any kind of effort. Here on earth, brothers, let us live for the glory of God, let us live for the advancement of the kingdom. When you live like this you know that then you can be happy. When you deny yourself, when you die to the world, when you abandon the desire to take advantage of your life and you lose yourself in the Lord, then you can truly become happy.

That is why Christ said, "he who loses his life will gain it and he who gains his life will lose it." Because when you lose your life in Christ and for Christ then you win it and then God blesses you in many ways.

So, Paul there in jail unsure if he's going to live or die, he says in verse 19, “…for I know that by your prayer and the supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ this will result in my deliverance according to my desire and hope that in nothing I will be ashamed. Rather, with all confidence as always, now Christ will also be magnified in my body or by life or by death, because for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if living in the flesh results in the benefit of the work for me, then I don't know what to choose because I am in a tight spot between both things, having the desire to leave and be with Christ, which is much better, but staying in the flesh is more necessary for your sake…”

When was the last time you reasoned like that? I would love it much better to be with Christ now, but if staying here on earth benefits the Gospel, a blessing for the work of God, then I am going to resign myself and I am going to stay here. Most of us pray Lord take me with you but when I am 99 not now please Father let me enjoy as much as I can here on earth. So, we say, no, I want to go to heaven, I want to be in the presence of the Lord, but for the angel to come and say, "I want to take you with me tonight," we kick our feet and pray as much as possible that it won't be like that because we love this world.

Pablo, however, had reached the point where he saw that living on earth was a consolation prize for him, it was simply the second alternative. The first alternative was to go with Christ, because he already knew that being with Christ was much better. He despised the world, he despised the things of the world and that is why if they put him in a prison for him... he says, "I have learned to be content in all situations, anything, I know how to live in abundance and I know how to live in lack and in poverty."

How many of us can live like this? Look, if people praise me, if they give me prizes, if they recognize me, glory to God, thank you very much, take the trophy and put it on a table somewhere, hide it over there, because you don't care so much about the praise of others. the men. And if they don't praise you, if they ignore you when you get to a place, if they look at you as one more thing, amen, they miss it, glory to God, I'm going to enjoy it alone with my God.

How many of us can live like this, that the world can't touch us? Because we already disconnected from it. Many of us praise and adore our bodies, we adore our youth and when it is being taken away from us day by day, we get depressed and cling to it in any way.

But the son of God says, "No, look, Lord, take everything you want, I will learn to enjoy myself in any situation in my life, because I know that you are working." Paul says, “Why does this slight momentary tribulation produce in us an ever more excellent and everlasting weight of glory? If the exterior wears out but the interior is renewed from day to day.”

There you have a correct perspective of the body, although you wear yourself out physically but internally you become more and more beautiful every day, so you can interpret the troubles, the things of old age or poverty in any way, much better than if you makes you think, oh, how sad life is.

So, this idea that everything we experience, everything we are, everything we have, we have to interpret through the lens of the Gospel, the values of the Kingdom of God, not the values of the flesh, not the values of the man, of the self.

Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “…I have been justly crucified with Christ and I no longer live, Christ lives in me…”

Look at the interpretation there, we have to die to the world, but then look at what it says:

"... and what I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God..."

And it is so, brothers, everything that you live in the flesh, live it according to faith, to the word, to the values, to the principles of the Kingdom of God, everything that happens say, how can I interpret this to in light of the principles of the Kingdom of God, not in light of my preferences for I already died, I already ceased to exist in a sense as a man? So, this idea that what I now live in the flesh I live in the faith of the Son of God. Many of us do not have that mentality of living things in the faith of Jesus Christ.

I also think of the words of Second Corinthians, chapter 5, verses 16 and 17, another passage that we can apply in that way, because Paul says there:

"... so that from now on we know no one according to the flesh, and even if we knew Christ according to the flesh, we no longer know him like that..."

I could say, from now on we interpret nothing according to the flesh, and even if we read the Bible we do not interpret it according to the flesh, but according to the interpretive lens of the word of God, as Christ would interpret it, not as we interpret it . We have to ask the Lord, "Lord, help me to acquire the perspective of a man, a woman, who no longer lives according to the values of the world, no longer lives according to the values of my self, but according to the purposes that you have."

Because many times God's interests for your life will be very different from those you have for yourself. And if you have not changed the way you see life and see the events of your life, you are going to look at things in life in a negative and destructive way, and you are going to miss the gold hidden in many of the riddles that God gives you. through the events of your day.

The born again person, truly born again, does not interpret the events of life according to the flesh but according to the rules of the spirit and the purposes of God. What seems negative to the flesh, to the intellect, to man, to human reasoning seems negative, the spirit sees it in a very different and often positive way. We have to believe that everything that happens in our life has a purpose and it is God's purpose for you that it will always be good. Nothing in the life of the believer happens by inertia, accident or mere tragedy, but there is always a benevolent purpose in everything and God is in control.

When I made that note this morning, the song that God is in control came to me, because when you know that God is in control of your life, the Bible says that not even a bird falls from a tree if God is not in control, all the events of our lives are already foreseen by that benevolent God. If God allows or allowed something sad in our life, it is because he has a greater purpose in this and with time we will see it. Amen.

And so it happens many times in other situations where God is sowing for the future but at the moment we are not able to see the edifying purpose. That is why even if you do not see at the moment the meaning of something that is happening to you, give the Lord time, give him time and wait for him to complete his work. God is such a craftsman that when he starts working he doesn't like them looking over his back saying, “Wait, why are you doing this? Why don't you hurry up and why don't you change this for him?” Never dare to approach an artist and say, change this, hurry up. No, no, artists are very protective of the process and the Lord himself works sometimes years and years, decades away setting the stage for what he wants to do in your life and you have to give the Lord time.

Another passage that I really like but that is in another context but that this idea can be applied is when God does things that sometimes we don't understand at the time. Remember when the Lord asked the disciples to remove their shoes because he wanted to wash his feet as a sign of his character as a servant, a servant leader, and Peter was scandalized. Because Peter's human, carnal schemes were that if a person was in authority how could he serve those who were under his authority. That does not happen in the world. In the world you use what is under your authority, certainly that was the scheme of Peter's time. And here we have this man who is God, full of all authority washing his feet and assuming the role of the lowest servant in the whole house, the one who washes the feet of the visitors. And Peter says, "Lord, I will never allow you to wash my feet." And the Lord said to him, “You know what, Peter? If you don't let me wash your feet, go home, I don't want to hear from you, you have no part with me, because this is part of me."

And look at what the Lord tells him… Peter says, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, "What I do you do not understand now but you will understand later."

How many times is God saying that to you? When you are shouting, complaining, thinking that God was unfaithful in his promises, that he did not fulfill what he had told you, that this contradicts everything he has taught you about his procedure and his behavior towards you. And the Lord tells you, "What I do you do not understand now, but you will understand it later."

Pedro later in light of God's treatment in his life and of all the things that happened to him, including denying Jesus Christ and all this, that were filing and bleeding him and taking away that masculine carnal strength that he had, full of testosterone At the age of Peter, he writes the two letters of First and Second Peter, which are two jewels about integrity and faith in the midst of suffering and surrender to the Lord and seeking divinity and imitating the complete virtue of Jesus Christ in the character.

And evidently that Pedro who decades later writes those two letters, was not this fiery and carnal Pedro that they cannot understand. Because when you are full of human flesh and blood, and human reasoning, the principles of the Kingdom of God seem completely foreign and even scandalous to you. But when you have acquired the mentality of the Kingdom then you can understand many things that you did not understand before, because God has put you through a deal, because God's deals are mysterious.

I tell everyone who enters the Kingdom of God, it will be better that you sign a letter to the Lord before entering the Kingdom that says, Lord, you can do whatever you want in my life, I want it to be look more like Jesus Christ. That's all God cares about. God does not care that you have a shiny car and a house with 4 or 5 bedrooms. No, the only thing that interests God is that you reflect the virtue of Jesus Christ and his character, and he will do everything necessary for you to achieve that.

The most important thing for God is that we be like his Son. And everything that goes on in that process God is going to do in your life, and many times you will have glorious times, times of great enjoyment, times of celebration, times of laughter, times of prosperity, times of blessing, but it can also some difficult moments come in your life, and what are you going to do? Are you going to take only the good and reject the bad? God knows, God is in control of all things.

The interpretive framework that we assume in life and in life events is key to determining the effect that negative or positive life experiences may have on us.

I want to leave you summarizing with some principles that I call 'ruling principles', principles that you can apply in any situation that comes into your life. Some of them will already be summaries of what I have said before.

1. Don't react automatically, thoughtlessly when negative or positive events come into your life. Do not react as if without thinking, but stop your reaction until the event passes through the filter of the principles of God's word. You can't control what happens in your life, but you can control how you react to what happens in your life. If you simply react according to the program that you have put there, as your childhood, your past, your suffering, the abuse you received and the disdain you received and all that, when a negative event comes into your life you will poke at once and filter it through your faulty program.

No, what you have to do is stop and put the Kingdom program inside to process what is happening. I explain? Or am I being too deep. Say amen if only to help me get a little excited about what I'm preaching. Stop, do not react immediately with contradiction, with rejection of God, look God what they did to me or what you did to me. No, say, okay, Father, how can I interpret this in light of what I know of you and your word, of character? So stop, count to 10 and then interpret what is happening to you in a calmer, more measured way. Go into a fast there for a day or two, seek revelation from God instead of acting in an impulsive and automatic and instinctive, carnal way. Look for the hidden gold.

2. This is very important. Try as much as possible more and more in your life to know yourself and to know the springs of your formation, the things that have formed you in your life. One of the things that we have to gain in life is introspection. Take time to analyze your parents, your family formation, your environment, how it has formed you and what are those areas of your life of brokenness and pain and deformation that are in you. Not to get depressed about it, but to know that many times these negative experiences will condition how you relate to others and to the events of your life.

By knowing yourself you will know when something is happening and you are reacting in a negative way, ah, this is for such and such a reason. An insecure person, for example, when someone comes and praises them, they can manipulate them however they want. Oh no, you are a great man, I admire you and this. Can you lend me $20.00? Men, come, take $50.00 and if you need more, call me within a week and I'll go get more. Because? Because they manipulated him, his insecurity. So, when you know how you are, you say, don't wait, just a minute. You control yourself.

So, knowing yourself and how past experiences have shaped and deformed us, how they have predisposed us to interpret life experiences in a certain way, because this will allow us to control our reactions with lucidity and self-control. So get to know yourself, spend time with yourself. Many of us spend as much time as we can listening to the radio, television, and avoiding knowing ourselves as much as possible because we may not like how we are in the first place.

But spend time getting to know yourself and your background, your past, your flaws and be true to the truth. I was saying that to a person I was talking to this week, fall in love with the truth and follow the truth wherever it takes you, because the truth will never betray you. And the truth about yourself is important for you to know. God already knows that you are a scoundrel, so why hide or deny it. Admit it and then you can talk to him. Many of us blame the parents, the social system, the environment that did this to us, the father who was not at home. No. you, what is your responsibility? What are your defects, what are your virtues? Know them exactly and by knowing yourself you will be more able to accept things and the ways in which you distort the events that come into your life. Know yourself.

3. The third principle is that God is always in control, that's why we're going to sing that chorus at the end. God is always in control, even if you don't see it. Assume that. assume that God is always involved in your life. He never takes a vacation. The Lord says, behold, I am with you every day until the end of the world, indeed, he is in us. The spirit of God is within you. God is not forgotten. God is not neglected. God does not turn away. God doesn't take naps. God is always involved in your life. He is in control. What's more, he says that he has you sculpted in the palms of his hands. It's the only time he says that God uses tattoos in the Bible, he has you carved, written on the palm of his hands so he doesn't forget who you are.

So assume that everything that is happening in your life, even if you do not understand it, you have to tell yourself, yes, God is in control and if I believe that he is not in control it is because I do not understand what he is doing, but With time I will know what he is doing. And believe, believe, believe, confess it, even though everything inside of you screams at you, curses God and dies, as Job's wife told him, she says, no, I know that my redeemer lives and I know that one day I will see him, even when you are drinking the tears in your mouth. Bless the Lord and give thanks, even though every carnal instinct within you screams, God betrayed you. Say, no, God is faithful, God is good, God is involved in my life and I know that he will take me forward and that I will see it with my own eyes, even if I don't understand it but I confess his goodness because he is always in control and nothing happens outside of your will.

4. A fourth principle is to exercise patience until God's purpose is fully accomplished and to wait patiently until we receive the answer we need from God. One of my favorite psalms begins: “I waited patiently for the Lord, I waited patiently for the Lord and he leaned down to me and heard my cry and led me out of the pit of despair, out of the miry lake. He put my feet on the rock and straightened my steps, then he put a new song in my mouth, praise our God, many will see this and fear and trust in the Lord. Hallelujah!"

How many of us when we find ourselves in the pit of despair, in the miry mire, can say I am going to wait patiently until the dawn breaks, until the sun of God rises again? And you know what? When you come out of times of affliction and trial, God gives you a new song then, because it gives you a new personality, a new way of seeing God and seeing life. And others say, wow, look how it came out. He came out clean, he came out with 20 pounds less sin on top of him. Look how good it looks, wow. And they are comforted too and they will fear and glorify Jehovah. Exercise patience until God shows all he has for you.

5. Understand that God sometimes uses painful and unpleasant means, instruments, and processes to bless us and develop the character of Christ in us. Look at the cross, an instrument of culture so sinister that it is the cross. The crucifixion of a man is the most horrible and terrible thing that one can imagine and the Lord used it for the blessing and redemption of humanity. Sometimes God puts us on the cross ourselves too. And through that God brings out wonderful results. God uses sinister instruments at times to bless us and bleed us dry. Do you understand that? Don't just see the beautiful instruments, the bouquet of roses, the praise of the world, financial prosperity, great health, the leafy bank account. No. God will sometimes use other instruments to bless you, accept them too.

6. Understand that we can take advantage of everything. From all things in life we can come out edified and strengthened if we have the divine perspective. Paul says, "before in all these things we are more than conquerors, tribulation, anguish, famine, nakedness, danger, sword." All things, in all the believer can be built up and strengthened. The believer is a great alchemist who turns all low things into noble and beautiful things by the power of God in us.

7. Soak up the divine narrative, the biblical narrative and the paradigms of the Bible. That sounds very big. Let's soak up the biblical perspective and the patterns of the Bible so that everything we live and experience can be interpreted through God's dealings with his people. You know that the Bible is the best source of perspective. And that is the work of a lifetime, that is why we have to live immersed in the word, because when you insert yourself into the word, the word inserts itself into you and colors the lenses that you use to interpret life. . I believe that we have to be so immersed in the word of God that everything that happens immediately we see through a biblical supernatural mentality, of the Kingdom.

For many of us, we do not spend enough time immersed in the context of the Kingdom, of scripture, so ours is more carnal than divine, more mundane than biblical, and you have to live immersed in the word, because that word will shape you. , to use an anglicism, that word will set you up. The word of God says, "it is alive and effective" and it searches the interior and conforms you. When the word gets inside you, truly when you receive it, it changes the contours of your mind, of your brain. You begin to see things through the word and then you can better understand God's procedures for your life. So soak up and saturate yourself with the principles of the word of the Lord.

8. You must see yourself as an incessant project of God. He is creating a masterpiece in each one of us and he is using the circumstances, the events, the sufferings of our life to create that work of art that you and I have to be. And God sometimes uses the hammer, the chisel to sculpt us but this allows us to become what Christ wants us to be. Amen.

So this morning, I'm going to leave there, I want to invite you to put on the interpretive glasses of the Kingdom of God. Why don't you lower your head right now for a moment. I want to invite the brothers that I spoke with Vanesa and Orlando, to come by and help us, the brothers of the musicians too, of the praise group. As I say, this occurred to me... unfortunately I am not one of those pastors who prepare my sermons 10 weeks in advance. The Lord gives them to me and then I prepare them and this morning while I was working on the sermon, it came to me so I apologize to the brothers in the praise group for calling them early and letting them know… Thank you, dear. I am glad you… is wearing the interpretive glasses of the Kingdom. Amen. Instead of saying, this bloody shepherd who bothers us in the morning. He says, No, this man of God working the sermon at 5:00 in the morning, what a spiritual giant.

So that chorus from Samuel says that God is always in control. I want you to confess it. Let's learn it. We have a full orchestra today. Stand up, receive the word of God. Say, Lord, thank you that you are in control of my life and that nothing happens by coincidence.

Please put the video, unless you… did you want to interpret it? OK. Awesome, well, amen, I'm not wearing the Kingdom glasses. Glory to God. God is giving me more than I thought. Amen.

Let's sing that chorus, God is always in control and why be afraid, why question if he is in control of everything. Receive that word, you leave here with the benevolence of God on your life. Your Dad doesn't leave you, your Dad accompanies you, your Dad has a purpose in your life. The devil is not going to get away with it. You are going to be in victory every day of your life and you are going to reach the goal that God has destined for you. Thank you Lord, we praise you Lord.