God calls us to prosper in the midst of difficult times

Let's go to the word of the Lord in the book of Isaiah, I want to share with you a new year's challenge and what I feel is the call of God for us, as a church, as a congregation, very much in light, very much in tune with what that God gave us through the time of praise, adoration, that call to be a church that breaks chains, that strengthens the structures of the Kingdom of God, that advances the interests of the Kingdom of the Lord here in the city where God has placed us, a healthy people, a robust people in the Lord, with a warrior and aggressive mentality for the Kingdom of God, a prosperous people, a blessed people and capable of going and bringing many to the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 60, we are going to read a few verses, especially verses 1 to 3, they establish a good base for our meditation, a call and also a promise. Says:

“…Get up, shine because your light has come and the glory of Jehovah has risen upon you…”

Wow, what a nice message. What a beautiful promise from God to us.

"... for behold, darkness will cover the earth and darkness the nations, but the Lord will dawn upon you and his glory will be seen upon you and nations will walk at your light and kings at the splendor of your birth..."

Receive that promise from the Lord over your life and I would perhaps point out some expressions here. That 'rise, shine, your light has come,' but there is also that 'because behold, darkness...' There is a contrast between darkness and light. There is a promise of light but there is also a warning of darkness that will cover the earth. But in the midst of that there is a promise above all that frames everything, that nations will walk in our light and kings in the splendor of our birth.

And towards the end of chapter 60 there is a blessing also in verse 22 it says: “…the little people will come to be like a thousand and the least among us, a mighty people, and the Lord says, I, the Lord, in due time will make May this be accomplished soon." Amen.

And what I want this afternoon is to bring to your spirit a series of thoughts, challenges for you that I see now as never after having preached this sermon in the morning service, I see that clearly God has assembled you as a totality, as something coherent. Because when I wrote it, I wrote it knowing that these were pieces that I had to put out, but not clear on how to unify it and how to present it in a unified way before you. But as the Lord preached it, I was arming my spirit because in reality it is one of those prophetic sermons that God gives us sometimes and that we simply proclaim as the word of God that inseminates and fertilizes the spirit of our brothers.

And I would say that the main thought of all this message about the new year that is coming, about what God expects of us, about the promises that we can expect to be fulfilled in our lives, the main message is that God calls us to prosper in the midst of difficult times. That is the word, God calls us to prosper in the midst of difficult times. Think on the one hand to prosper, on the other hand difficult times.

And I find the ruling image of all this idea in the book of Exodus, in chapter 11, especially verses from 1 to 7 and that chapter 11 and 12 as well, where in the midst of the context of the struggle that occurred between God , Pharaoh, Moses, the Hebrew people, the Egyptians, where God was calling Pharaoh and ordering him to let his people out and there was a resistance and there were judgments that God then sent upon Egypt to force Pharaoh to let his people out.

And God set up a whole stage to display his glory. Pharaoh and Egypt have always been symbols throughout all of scripture of man resisting God, the pagan world, the oppressive spirit in history, man in his arrogance, resistant to God. And certainly this Pharaoh who lived in the time of Moses when God was calling his people to finally enter into the identity that he had for that people and that he had been building little by little through centuries, that pharaoh represents that arrogant spirit , that spirit that wants to keep the people of God in chains, that wants to keep them oppressed, that calls them to prevent them from entering into their fullness, what God wants that people to become, to prevent God's purposes from being fulfilled in the midst of from his town.

And I believe that this is a very important thing for us as a church, and it is a message that has been developing more and more in my heart and my sensitivity as a pastor and as a servant of the Lord in recent times. Although I have always had that latent message within my spirit, that we are living and God has called us to serve as a church in a strategic time for humanity, that we are living in an extremely significant time in history, a time of consummation of many things and that these days that we have had to live are extraordinary times and that we have to live them as an extraordinary people in an extraordinary way also in which God wants to do unusual things, things that have never been seen, and that humanity and the church of Jesus Christ at the same time, are reaching a point of consummation and maturation.

Something interesting that I pointed out a few weeks ago, which says that Christ came in the fullness of time. Jesus came at the precise moment when humanity had reached a certain level of development. The Roman Empire served as a unifying element in the nations. There was a government, there was a philosophy, and also the Greek culture had previously brought humanity to a very high level of sophistication and maturity and that Roman government with its great highways, with its universal language, with its military power, which had united many nations, that humanity that had reached a level of development in terms of its philosophy, its ethics, its philosophical knowledge, was as prepared to receive the announcement of a different message, the lofty, glorious, sublime and sophisticated message of the Gospel .

Including the Apostle John himself and the book of John, it uses many of the images and the philosophical and theological language that Plato and Socrates and the Greeks had developed to talk about logos, Jesus Christ, and many other things. That is to say, that the Lord came at the precise moment in which humanity had been brought to a point of maturity and his coming begins a whole period of humanity that is still being fulfilled.

And in these 2,000 years of history within this new dispensation that Christ opens and that the Gospel opens, there are many things that God has also been working on and leading, because God is a strategic thinker. God takes time. For him, the Bible says, two thousand years is like one day and one day like a thousand years. God assembles one piece at a time.

I believe that God has been waiting for certain processes to take place in this creation, in this creature that is you and me. We are the children of God, we are God's creatures and God is pleased to treat us as a father treats his children, both those who believe in him and those who do not, the rebellious and the submissive. And God is fulfilling a plan and that is why now, 2,000 years later, 2,016 years later, I believe that humanity has reached another point in its development as a creation.

Today the humanity that walks the earth, the culture that walks the earth, is a much more sophisticated culture than the one that the Lord encountered when he came into the world, when he incarnated. We have 2000 years of process where science has increased, technology has increased, the subtleties in which man can engage in terms of dividing the nuances of knowledge, of philosophy, of ethics, of theology, are greater than never through all of history.

Humanity has reached a point of development where it is already quite an adult creature. And I see something that is that God adjusts his dealings with humanity as that humanity progresses and develops. And we see that's why some people wonder, well, why did God allow polygamy, that is, marriage with more than one woman, in ancient times? Why did God deal with men so harshly as to order the annihilation of entire populations and entire tribes? Why did God work so harshly in those days? And after Christ comes he kind of deals with humanity in a different way.

Well, because God gives a lot of credit to his creature, and God works with man according to his roughness or his subtlety or his development or his philosophical, ethical and spiritual maturity. And I believe that God in a time of great harshness, violence, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, war, extermination, worked with humanity in that same way because God respected certain things that existed, but as humanity developed and being able to process deeper, more complex things, God was also developing his revelation more and more. And Christ was the consummation of that revelation, for a humanity that had reached a certain point of development.

And now, in the time that we live in, in the 21st century, I believe that humanity has reached a time of even greater development, where God is also trying... I believe that we can say that we are in the consummation of time or at least for a while, but it is a very grand consummation, it is a very powerful consummation. That's why I see that verse 22 says, "I, Jehovah, will cause this to be fulfilled quickly in due time."

And there are other passages in the prophetic books where God speaks of that things will be done in a moment. There are things that God is going to do in humanity that one would think would still take a long time, but I believe that there will be, for example, a harvest of souls and some changes in human culture and in the human scenario that is so dramatic. you would think it would take centuries, but God is going to do it in a moment. A very great harvest of souls, a transformation, a very powerful humiliation of man, but it is at God's time.

And God is working in this time and God is taking this humanity to a point of prostration where this creature of the 21st century who believes himself to be so strong, so powerful, so independent... remember that I preached recently in Psalm 2 about that passage that says, "why do people riot and nations think vain things and speak of casting off the yokes of God and conspire against God and against his Son?" and it says that God will laugh at them and then confuse them in his anger.

And we are precisely at that time when we see the human scenario where humanity – and I have also alluded to this, because it is like an insistence, a voice of God that is speaking to us – where humanity is reaching a point of impasse, even while it develops technologically, scientifically in extraordinary ways, but also when one looks at the systems of the world, one realizes that God is also bringing humanity to a point of humiliation. Because God always humiliates man when he gets too conceited, he did it with Babel, that exploring spirit, that spirit that examines the cosmos, that spirit that always tries to investigate the mysteries, that spirit that tries to build homage and monuments to glory of man, that rebellion, that arrogance that is in the very heart of the human being.

And God has always had controversy against that spirit. And whenever that spirit reaches a certain point of development, God humbles it and what we see in our time is that what is happening – and that is why I speak of difficult times – is that it is a time where humanity and all its systems are reaching a point of impasse and deadlock, like a machine that by dint of working and working without good lubrication the parts get stuck.

If we had time I did an analysis some time ago, but I quickly developed it in another way, where we see that humanity right now in all dimensions, the economic world is in a very precarious situation where it is interesting that today more that economic systems are never all unified. What happens in China, what happens in Germany, what happens here in the United States, what happens in Japan, what happens in India, economically has effects, because the world is a great global village. Economic systems are intertwined with each other.

And if there is a disaster of a certain magnitude, it will be felt and felt by all nations, what happens in Europe definitely affects the United States and vice versa. And we see that this is a very precarious world where economies are very, very precarious and very fragile. We see a world where militarily every day – people thought when the Russian empire fell that by the end of the Cold War and the threat of nuclear war between the two great powers of the world, the United States and Russia, that a a time of prosperity, because all that money that was being allocated to nuclear weapons and all that, was going to be able to be used for great social and economic work, and it was not like that.

When the deadly enemy of nuclear war seemed to have been defeated, terrorism arose. And I remember decades ago when they began to say that, the next great enemy of humanity, the next great giant that is going to arise is going to be terrorism. And that seemed like a very subtle voice and it certainly has been, the threat more or less of nuclear war went aside and the giant of terrorism emerged. Terrorism today is establishing great instability in the world.

It is also interesting that when the Western nations, in their secular, rational arrogance, said God has already died, the world is already reaching another stage where that of God and the sacred and the spiritual, that is already going out of fashion, this is the great liberation of man where we are going to think only according to rational, secular principles. What's happening? Quite the opposite. Today, humanity is being affected in many ways in a powerful way by religions for which the sacred matters a lot. Islam is a powerful religion and it is interesting that it has given freedom to terrorism in this world. It is a religion that takes its scriptures very seriously and believes in a God who determines their way of life and that scourge that Islam has always been for the West. now it is out with a vengeance and is affecting the peace and stability of the world.

And it's like God is laughing, in a sense, at this secular man who always tries to put things of the spirit aside and is telling him, no, the spirit is always there, man is hungry for things divine.

So, we have an economically fragile world, a world also where there is a religion that is wreaking great havoc in the world. Israel is a source of contamination for the nations as well, because there is a very big conflict between the Muslim world and Israel, which hates Israel. Israel, another tremendously arrogant country and severely rebellious against its God, is also being brought to a standstill, because Israel right now has I don't know how many millions of Palestinians inside its own land. You have an enemy population, an enemy army within a little piece of land the size of Rhode Island, and there is a population there that considers itself the owner of that land and Israel obviously cannot get rid of them because they are there and they believe that is their land and they have a world that looks at it with great criticism and with great hostility and that enemy within them, with whom they cannot negotiate nor can they get rid of it, nor can they destroy it militarily, Israel is also stuck.

The Arab world, the Islamic world, the Muslim world, wherever you look, in any country where Islam reigns, it is destruction, death, violence, destroyed economies, people who want to get out by whatever means possible, be it Afghanistan, be it Pakistan, be it Syria, Be it Iraq, destruction everywhere, ethnic jealousy, religious jealousy, lockdown.

America right now is on lockdown too, divided between conservative people and secular people. There is a struggle Obama came to be like the great unifying element, we finally have an African American to heal the wounds of slavery in this nation, and it has been the complete opposite. There is more division in this nation now than ever. The Senate and the House of Representatives, the Republicans do not speak to the Democrats and vice versa. The candidates for the presidency are as divided and as different as light and darkness, water and oil. There is a total division in this nation, it is also locked in many different ways.

Europe, which with all its rationalism, all its liberalism, is now also seen in a straitjacket because Islam and the threat of terrorism force them to violate and do violence to many of the liberal values that they preach, of freedom, of expression , of a very limited government, all these things, terrorism is forcing them... and the growth of Islam within themselves is also blocked.

What I want to say, brothers, is that I believe that God is leading and we could continue with that, Russia, the Russian bear that we thought was already gone from history, raise its claws again through Putin and his desire to glory in the world.

I am giving you an analysis at the geopolitical level of what is a deeper biblical, theological, spiritual reality. I believe that through all these things God is shaming humanity. God is leading humanity, letting it proceed according to its own values and patterns by taking his hands off of it and saying, I'm going to see what you do. Now that you want to live on your own, like parents do, oh yes, do you think you're independent? Okay, so go live alone, see what happens. And when he sees himself out there eating a wire with no money and no job and nothing, he has to go back to mom.

I believe that God is doing that with humanity. We are seeing that all the systems in the world are like being blocked. These are hard times. These are times of God's judgments.

And when I look at this chapter of Exodus, which to me is like a governing image of what God wants to do in our time with us. When you look at the account of the Exodus and the Passover, you see a Hebrew people that God wants to leave the Egyptian land. God has had them 450 years since Joseph called his family to come to Egypt, 450 years the Bible says, that the Hebrews were growing as a nation, until they became a people of 600 thousand men plus their women and children, a million plus people.

And God took 450 years, because God is a God of centuries. God is not in a hurry. He lives in eternity, we are in a hurry. In 70, 80 years we are finished and that is why time counts so much. God exists in eternity and he waits for things to mature. He works in cooperation with man. 450 years are nothing to God. And when the time came for the Hebrew people to come out of Egypt, God said, this is the time.

And remember that before that there were 300 or so years, from Abraham to the patriarchs of Jacob, that is to say, that 750, 800 years God took to develop all the drama from Abraham to the exit from Egypt.

And in a sense we are like that Hebrew people. The church of Jesus Christ, God has been simmering us, preparing us, and in a sense I believe that we, in the 21st century, are like the Hebrew people that God has had us developing, growing, maturing, fighting different battles, but a time is coming, I believe, in which the church of Jesus Christ has to assume the identity for which God has created it in these last times. God is calling us now to a level of greater maturity, to a level of consummation, to a level of entering into that fullness of identity that God has for us.

And as we see in the people of Egypt, that when the time came for Pharaoh to release the Hebrew people, there were many chains that tied them. Pharaoh had economic interests with the Hebrew people. I didn't want to let them go. They were the source of their economy to a certain extent and God had to force Pharaoh to release his people. And that is why God sends plagues, God sends judgments on Pharaoh, which again, as I say, symbolizes that rebellious humanity against God.

And I believe that at this time in history God is also sending and will continue to send judgments against humanity more and more. We live in a time where I believe we are going to see even greater and more difficult things to come at this time in history. We are going to see more terrorist attacks, we are going to see more economic difficulties, we are going to see more violence, we are going to see things in the air and in the weather, weather changes, big situations that are going to happen. That is the time we are living.

And, brothers, you have never heard me talk about these things, in fact, many of you have criticized me at times because I don't talk enough about the end times, because I haven't really felt the urge to do that. But at this time, God is beginning to speak to me about the things that are to come and that we have to sound the alarm and that we have to start living in light of what God wants to do in this time in history. I feel that yes, that this is the moment to start blowing the trumpet and to begin to live like the mature people that God wants us to be.

Three or four days ago, Sister Kesia Sosa, a Brazilian sister who has been with us for several years, called me. A woman who has a very beautiful, prophetic and worshipful spirit, and Kesia left me a message on my phone saying, “Pastor, I had a dream. I am not a person of dreams, but I had a dream that really affected me and that I feel is a word from God." The story is that she saw in that dream that we were here in this sanctuary and at the moment she saw a tsunami, a huge wave. And this is not the first time that I… I think Vanessa has had similar dreams and perhaps some of you too, sometimes I have found myself going over the Boston Bridge and looking to the left coming south, and knowing that the sea is close by and it has overwhelmed me like an image of something that could… I don't know, I don't want to alarm you or anything like that.

The fact is that Kesia told me that she saw that wave, that tsunami that was coming and I am not going to recount the whole dream, but thank the Lord, she saw that although that wave was destroying many things, it stopped here next to this building where she was an element of the people of God, and that this attack was neutralized.

And it's going very well, now as I think about it, by which I mean. but I believe that there will be times of great judgments. The Lord is going to be attacking Pharaoh, humiliating Pharaoh and we are inside that Egypt. But God also tells us that he is going to protect us, he is going to keep us and he is going to prosper us in the midst of those judgments as well. Perhaps many of us are going to be bothered and perhaps many of us are even going to be affected in very strong ways. Perhaps we are going to lose our lives in some cases, that is why it is so important that your life is clearly placed in the arms of the Lord and that if you have to leave today you know that you are going with Christ. If you die for him you die, if you live for him you die. Whether you live or die for the Lord, you belong to the Lord.

We have to despise our life until death, as the word of the Lord says. Many of us perhaps, those martyrs who were martyred by Isis in front of the sea a few months ago, the attacks against the people of God. Israel, when it was in the midst of those judgments and those plagues, experienced a certain degree of attack also as a consequence of the context in which they found themselves, but also that account of the Passover and that account of the exodus tell us that God also protected the people and that there were also some aspects of blessing even in the midst of the judgments that God was carrying out. And that is why this message is a mixed message, that is why I spoke of the darkness that will cover the earth, but also of our light that will shine, because both things are going to occur more and more.

And in this world where God is judging Pharaoh, we have to be prepared for both. On the one hand, there is going to be some discomfort, there are going to be financial problems, perhaps there are going to be weather and geopolitical problems, etc. but the pattern that God has given us is that pattern of the exodus where the people of God in the midst of the judgments that Egypt was experiencing also says, for example, the plague of darkness where Egypt experienced a dense darkness where no one could move because it was the darkness so thick But it says in verse 23 of chapter 10 that "... no one saw his neighbor and no one rose from his place in three more days all the children of Israel had light in their rooms..."

There is a promise of protection that we are going to experience if we move in the obedience that God asks of us, if we move in the attitude and posture of vigilance, alertness, subjection to the will of God that God wants for us. in the midst of his move in humanity.

Do you also remember the terrible plague of the firstborn? When God was going to destroy all the firstborn of Egypt, all the firstborn males of the land. However, God provided a way for Israel to cover and guard themselves. What was that shape? Painting the blood of a lamb on the lintel of their doors. And we know that that blood that was painted, what does it symbolize? The blood of the lamb, Jesus Christ. The Lord established a whole symbolism and told them, throughout all of history, keep that symbolism of what I have done today.

That is, God was going to destroy life but also through the expiatory character of the blood of the lamb he was protecting his people from the extermination that would come. And I think that this is a good symbolism for us at this time, brothers. And when I talk about evangelism, I have said so many times that God wants us to start working hard this year, so I am planning and maturing that plan and at some point we are going to be talking with the leaders of the congregation on how to do this.

That is why I tell you, another part of this sermon is that a people is needed that is generous with their time, their energy, their talents, their money, because to set up strategies like this one requires all of those things. And a people is also required surrendered to the Lord, a dynamic people is required, a generous people is required, a consecrated people is required, a people is required that marches according to the trumpet sounds and that goes according to the guidelines that their spiritual leaders establish . A brave people is required, brothers, a people is required that listens to the voice of God in these times. We cannot be a normal congregation, we have to be an extraordinary congregation, we have to be a congregation delivered to the Lord and any person who is halfway, lukewarm, indecisive, uncommitted, is like an army in war that any coward, or anyone who isn't clear is going to drag the rest of the army down and it's going to do damage and it's going to slow down the progress of that army.

You want to be part of that force that goes forward. You want to be delivered, give everything to the Lord so that then that salvation of souls, that harvest of souls in extraordinary times, in difficult times, can be given. Because the only thing that can save humanity from the coming judgment is the blood of the lamb, the sacrifice of Christ, the person of Jesus, and that is why there has also been this idea in my mind that we cannot present a neutral evangelism .

The evangelism that we want to present is an evangelism that presents Christ as a refuge, that presents Christ as a covering, that presents Christ as a defense, that presents Christ as a door of escape, that presents Christ as a defender who stands by your side and defends you from the enemy's attacks. An evangelism that is proclaimed in the context of spiritual warfare and end times, is an evangelism that calls people to escape for their lives and take refuge in the blood and in the name of Jesus and in his church, that he can teach people how to live in a way that helps them escape the wrath to come. And that is the evangelism that we have to do.

And that is why in the context of that Egypt that is being subjected to the judgments of God and of a people that has already said, now I want you to enter into your maturity, to enter into your identity, to leave Egypt, that you launch yourself to be a pilgrim people, that you enter the promised land where I have called you. That people must be us now too, that prepares itself to do what God wants us to do and that we call many to know Jesus but that we preach a Gospel, again, of refuge, a Gospel of refuge.

Visualize a person who is escaping from someone who is chasing him, an army that is chasing him and goes into a cave, into a shelter to take protection and or to rest his body and to defend himself. And that is the idea, because we are in a time where Satan and the evil spirits and the forces of evil have been given more freedom than ever before.

I believe that we are in a time when the dirty will get dirtier, the clean will get cleaner. Lying spirits have been released upon humanity. God has given Satan freedom so that deceitful spirits whisper their demonic doctrine more and more into the ears of those who do not take refuge under divine protection. This world will be more and more defined by nations and individuals who will accept the lordship of Christ and His government and nations and individuals who will reject the Lord. And those who reject the Lord and do not have any type of divine protection will be at the mercy of any demonic power that wants to attack them, that wants to deceive them, that wants to corrupt them. Those who take refuge under the blood of the lamb and the divine protection of the Lord will be able to enjoy a certain degree of rest and divine protection for their lives.

And we have to present to this city and to this nation, even if by chance God called us, a Gospel where we have to tell people, look, the only protection that remains for your life and for your family is Christ Jesus, take refuge under his name, take refuge under his government, take refuge under his protection, take shade under the shadow of the Most High and give your life to the Lord, your family, your finances, your body, your marriage, your work, everything, give it to the Lord and live knowing that the only one who can stand up to the powers of evil is Christ Jesus.

Pharaoh wants to destroy, Pharaoh wants to keep humanity under his domination, he does not want to let go of it and an almighty God is required with his judgments, with his transforming actions and a people that obey the Lord and do what God wants them to do so that they give what God wants to do in this time.

So when I speak at this time of proclaiming the Gospel, that blood of Christ that heals and liberates, we have to present it that way. That is why I believe that when years ago I had that dream of those poisonous spiders that were symbols of demonic powers that were over the city of Boston and I saw the face above them, the face of the lion of Judah, that marked me. and it marked the identity of our church and that is why it is called the León de Judá congregation. This is not a church called to be a nice and pretty and nice and meek church, this has to be a warrior church, a loving church, yes, a loving church and a church that presents the grace of Jesus Christ, a humble church Yes, a church that recognizes that we are just like any other human being except by the grace and mercy of God, not an arrogant church or one that believes the big thing in the city, but also a church that is not afraid to introduce Christ as what he is and to present the claims of the Kingdom of God, not to water down the Gospel, not to use marketing techniques to attract people.

You have to present to people a clear, simple, clean Gospel, as it is and then say, accept it and enter that Gospel, that revelation that God has given to humanity. Not a church that tries to kind of cajole people into coming in and doing us a favor by getting into the Gospel. They are doing themselves a favor by entering the Gospel. We have to present a clear and well-defined Gospel and that church that also has the power, as we sang in this moment of great worship, breaking chains, Hallelujah! Destroying principalities and powers, driving away the works of the devil, because Satan, like Pharaoh, is not going to let a single soul enter the Kingdom of God without a struggle.

And I believe that only churches that have the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit will be able to resist the evil that is coming, they will be able to reap in the midst of difficult times, they will be able to bring souls to the knowledge of Jesus. And we have to be that church that understands, we are at war against Pharaoh and Pharaoh is at war against us and that is why I preach these messages with great fear and trembling because I understand the great responsibility that this implies on me and on each one of us.

The enemy gets angry when he hears the message of the word preached in this way and the attacks do not wait. That is why we have to put our batteries together and we have to be alert and live as God wants us to live. But remember something else as well, because this is not just a message of fire and brimstone, this is not just a message of terror and destruction, this message is also that God's people have the right to be blessed, to prosper, to grow , to shine like the light of dawn in the midst of times of darkness also and that people see in this town that shines like a lighthouse in the midst of darkness to which to turn and find their way through the light that emanates from that town.

It's interesting that in the exodus story as well – read that story because God gave it to me this morning as well as a weaponized form in chapters 11 and 12, especially and all that tussling that gradually occurs between pharaoh, Moses, God and God he builds a whole stage and hardens his heart so that his glory shines brighter and finally leads him to a final consummation.

But there is also one thing and that is that not only does God preserve the life of the Hebrews who paint the blood of the lamb on the lintel of the door so that the angel passes through, and from there comes the word passover in English, the angel passes from long, when he sees blood painted on the lintel, he says, a child of God lives here, I can't touch that house and he passes by, where he doesn't see the blood it is free prey for the angel of death.

But the other interesting thing is that it says in the account of the Passover, that God tells the Hebrews to go to the Egyptians and ask them for jewels. And I see here a picture of prosperity in the midst of destruction. And look how interesting, many of you may not know this aspect of the story of leaving town. God told Moses in verse 11 chapter 2:

“…Speak now to the people and let each one ask his neighbor – that is, an Egyptian – and each one from her neighbor for jewels – that is, jewels – of silver and gold, and Jehovah gave thanks to the people in the eyes of the Egyptians. It says that Moses was also considered a great man in the land of Egypt, in the eyes of Pharaoh's servants and in the eyes of the people..."

God gives prestige to his church. God enhances his church. Because grace does not come from man, I believe that many churches are wasting their time trying to be funny to people, and that is what they are, funny, but grace is only given by God, respect, favor, admiration, authority, what When the church proclaims a word, the people listen and are afraid and there is something, a special grace, that God gives, only God can do that.

And the world may hate you or the world may see you as weird, but they have to respect you because they also see God's blessing on your life. And that is what gives you authority to proclaim the word of God. When you speak to people, you speak with weight, authority, and people say, wow, what does this person have? What is there in your life? Why does this person speak to me in this way and I feel something that moves me inside? Because there is a spirit and we have to speak to people, when we preach the Gospel, speak to their spirit, do not speak to their mind, do not speak to their ethical values, do not speak to their philosophy, do not speak to them to your brain, don't talk to your culture, talk spirit to spirit.

Declare the word of the Lord humbly, tactfully, meekly, but speak to him from spirit to spirit, like a chemical reaction. This is a chemical thing, it is a chemical equation, speak to it directly and forget about the external apparatus and speak in the power of the Holy Spirit, speak with authority, because God is going to give you grace to declare the word and to bring people to the knowledge of God .

God is going to give a word of grace about this town. And notice how interesting it is when God tells you, "... now each one of you go to your Egyptian neighbor's and ask him for jewelry..." It's like going before an enemy of yours, going to the president of Bank of America, for example, and saying, "I I came here to find $15,000, please give it to me.” Or go to Newton with whom you work taking care of their children and say, "God told me to ask for a $5,000 bonus for this year." And God told him, go to your neighbors and ask them for jewels that I am going to put a special grace on them.

And it was like God hypnotized the Egyptian people, put them on and the Hebrews asked him, 'give me money,' 'yeah, okay, here's the money.' And look what it says at the end, when they come out it says that – and here is the importance of being obedient, because if God tells you to 'paint the lintel', paint the lintel, if God tells you 'ask the Egyptians for money', ask him. It is interesting, brothers, I think that is why I say believers, God has for us a spirit of knowledge, science and wisdom to do extraordinary things.

Ask God to give you knowledge, ask God to give you strategic wisdom, ask God to give you scientific knowledge for your business, for your marriage, for your emotions, for the way to educate your children, for your work, to find cheap and good things and to prosper in your life, because God is going to put that magic word over your life so that you prosper and be blessed so that your money yields, so that there is a blessing in your house, so that you buy bread and it lasts twice as long as it lasts for the wicked. And if not miraculously it doesn't fill with mold but lasts much longer. That your clothes last longer, that you find those special ones in Marshalls that nobody else sees, that it is there, and 10 women pass over that dress and they do not see it and you are the one who sees it and take it and take it with you to the house, for a third part of the cost.

That when you go to buy a car they give it to you for half the price, that you know where the best specials are, the best meals, because that is the prosperity and blessing that God wants to miraculously place on his people, that they obey him and walk in obedience to the Lord. In difficult times, in times of scarcity, in times of judgment over humanity, we are going to be like Gosen. Gosen was the place where the Hebrews lived, it was the Jewish neighborhood, where prosperity was. The power went out for everyone, but there in Gosen there was light. Everyone was in mourning but in Gosen all the children were safe, protected, covered by the blood of the lamb.

And the Bible says in chapter 12, verse 35, it says: "... and the children of Israel did according to the commandment of Moses..."

Here's the thing, many times when the church tells you, be obedient, give to the Lord, give your time, invest, be sacrificial, be generous, ah, those are old wives' tales, that's the pastor because he wants to take a vacation in Europe with my money, I'm not going to give it to him, I'd better eat it myself. And there are a lot of people who are continually undrinking the Lord. Read the Bible, seek the anointing of the Holy Spirit, serve the Lord. Oh, those are old wives' tales, I go to church, I'm going to punch out the card on Sunday and I go home and I continue the same as always.

And they disobey the principles. The simple people, the humble people, the obedient people, the dedicated people, the people who are like a soft mass on which God can put his impressions as he wants, these are the people who are going to be blessed, these are the people who are going to be prosperous, those are the people who are going to see their children grow and prosper and love the Lord and be protected from the wrath to come. Those are the people who are going to be blessed and prosperous.

It says that “…the children of Israel did according to the commandment of Moses, asking the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and clothing – and look at verse 36 – and the Lord gave favor to the people before the Egyptians and they gave them whatever they asked for… ”

Say, 'how much did they ask for,' ask for your mouth. And so it says, “they despoiled the Egyptians.” It was a spoil. You know that they are the armies that plunder the nations that are victorious, yet here the Hebrews plundered the Egyptians without firing a single shot, without shooting anything, without killing anyone, but simply God told them, I give you grace , be prosperous. And they took everything away. That work in vain of slavery that they had done for so many years, God made them return, they left full of riches and the poor Egyptians were left blank, because the Lord put grace on them.

Prosperity in difficult times. These are hard times, these are extraordinary times that we are experiencing. Expect things that are going to happen, these are times of maturation, the fulfillment of something that God has been preparing, there are things that we are going to see in different dimensions of human life, on the economic, social, political, geopolitical, military, natural scale. , things are going to happen.

In everything that can be moved will be moved, says the Bible. Everything that requires to be questioned from the pride of humanity, is going to be questioned and God is going to lead this humanity to a point of great impediment and a dead end. But the people of God can aspire to good things, it is not a disaster, not everything is a disaster, but sanctification is required, consecration is required, an attitude of urgency is required. Don't just live your life as if everything is going to stay the same. Don't spend your life saving money that you may not have a chance to spend. Do not spend your life building your own glory and working only for this and that, toiling away, God wants you to live your life with one eye on earth but another eye on eternity, on God's purposes.

One of the things I was saying this morning is that God told the people to eat their bread standing up, he says, there is no time to make bread. You know that for you, making bread takes time to rise. The yeast that you put on the bread takes time for those bubbles to get big and lift the dough and then you go like this and squash it and come back again and rise up, and then you bake it. And that takes time. God told them, there is no time for that. When Pharaoh says they are leaving me, you are going to have to run at once, you are going to have to leave. Be ready, take all your motets and put it in the truck [Inaudible] because when Pharaoh says, go, you have to go.

So they had to eat their unleavened bread, hence the Passover tradition of eating unleavened bread, because they didn't have time and they had to eat their food in a hurry, fast. They know that the Lord has always honored people who do not fall in love with comfort, that is why in Gideon's story he chooses those who drank the water quickly because they had an eye on the enemy that could come. They didn't go completely into the water, they were alert. And God said, those 300 are the ones that will win the victory.

God is always measuring our hearts. Those who are in love with the world, those who are attached to the world, those who think that this is going to last for all eternity, the lukewarm Christian, will not be able to resist the test that is coming. Only the people completely delivered to the Lord, the people of the word, the people who are sanctifying themselves, the people who are bringing the order of the Kingdom of God to their lives, to their marriage, their sexuality, their thoughts, their emotions, their human relationships, their work, their behavior in the world, the people who are sanctifying themselves and who are living their life as if they had already lost it, the one who despises their life to the point of death, that is the one who will prosper in this time . That is the one who will experience the glory of God. And I want our congregation to be that town and that this year many of you join the army that God wants to prepare.

We are going to pray that God enters us into our true identity. We have been a people that God has been cooking slowly, little by little, doing things, assembling isolated pieces around here. We have good machinery but it is loose, it needs to be tightened. Many of the systems that we have of discipleship, evangelism, other things, we have done tests but now the power of God is needed to assemble it, the power of God that gives it urgency, the power of God that sharpens it, the God's power that gives you coherence and intentionality. This is the time that we are living, purify ourselves, sanctify ourselves, prepare ourselves, circumcise our soul so that the Lord can do the great things that he wants to do in our midst.

He will not do it with less, brothers, that is God's call for this year 2016 and for the years to come. Ask the Lord to give us, me and our leaders, wisdom to set up that strategy and to carry it out... because these are great visions and that after announcing them in this way, we better carry them out. So we are going to pray so that the Lord fulfills his work, fulfills his purpose in our lives.

We are going to have a moment of meditation before we leave. I want to invite anyone who is here this afternoon if they have not yet received Christ as Lord and Savior, if you have not put the blood on the lintel of your door, if you have not taken the blood of the lamb that is Christ Jesus and you have painted the frame of your door, where the influences enter and the energies of your house, of your life, leave. The lintel of the door is what enters and what comes out, it is the place of access to you, to your life, to your business, to your family, to your soul, and I beg you in the name of Jesus that do not leave your door unpainted with the blood of the paschal lamb.

And if you have not done so yet, I beg you not to leave this place without saying to the Lord, "Lord, today I paint my door, I paint my lintel with the blood of your Son, Jesus Christ, and cover me from the coming judgment, cover me with your blessing, allow me to enjoy access to your protection and your prosperity, to your provision in the midst of difficult times.

Will there be someone who wants to invite the Lord into their life this afternoon and paint the lintel of their door with the blood of Jesus Christ? Wherever you are, I invite you to raise your hand if you have received that call from the Lord and want us to pray for you this afternoon. I invite you to raise your hand, stand up, come forward, as you wish. God bless you brother.

Will there be someone else? I suspect that there must be others here, entire families perhaps who need to invite the Lord Jesus into their home and take seriously this call, salvation in difficult times. This is already reaching a very serious point and people are needed who understand the call. The trumpet is blowing, these are not fairy tales, these are serious and mature times and you need committed people, people who say, you know what? If I am going to forget the embarrassment and those who are looking at me and I am going to believe that this is for my life. Will there be someone else? Come on, raise your hand, whatever, but paint your doorpost with the blood of the lamb. Invoke God's blessing on your life.

Come forward here. We want to pray for you. Establish a direct, personal pact with that powerful Christ, that Lamb of God, that Lion of Judah who wants to protect you, who wants to keep you, who wants to prosper you and who wants to save you from wrath, who wants to save you from judgments, who wants to give you a reason to live. Will there be someone else? We will wait for you if you want to come.

Do it seriously and promise yourself that you are going to live a serious life, you are going to live a Gospel of commitment. Do not come to live a half Gospel, give your soul to the Lord, give your life to the Lord. It's not to the church, you're not doing anything with the church, except maybe a place where you can grow up and be instructed, but your covenant must be with the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is the Lord Jesus Christ establishing his plans for your life. If someone else wants to receive that solemn call and I am going to ask the Lord to make it possible for hundreds of souls to come to his feet this year. I give you a charge, and that is to look for those souls and bring them to the church and that God prepare us to have great invitation and evangelization meetings where we are going to invite this Latino and North American, Afro-American, Asian community, whatever whatever, to come to the feet of Jesus Christ in different ways.

Evangelism is the slogan, salvation of souls, declaration of the Lordship of Christ, inviting people to take refuge under the wings of the Most High. That is, that is what it is about, souls that are saved for Christ, souls that are touched by the Lord. Right now I declare the blood of the lamb on your life. God paints the blood of Christ on the lintel of your door.

When you walk with the banner of the risen, crucified, powerful Christ who is to come, when you walk your life with the banner of Christ in your hands, that will give you power, that will give you protection, that will give you defense from the attacks of the enemy and you will be prosperous and you will be blessed.

Those who walk under the banner of the risen Christ will have great power in these times. Many will suffer terrible things because they will not want to accept the lordship of the Kingdom of God, others will accept it and they will be prosperous, blessed, lifted up, exalted. I urge you right now to walk your life with the flag of the Kingdom of God, the flag of Jesus Christ on your arm, in your hand. Put that flag in the school, put that flag in the factory where you work, put that flag in the taxi you drive, put that flag in the bank office, put that flag in the university, put that flag in the high school, put in That flag in the kitchen of your house, put it at the door of your apartment, the flag of Christ, when the devil wants to come in to hurt you and wreak havoc in your life, let him see that blood painted on the lintel of your door and say, there I can not enter.

When the angel of destruction wants to do his damage, he knows that he has to contend with the power of Jesus Christ. Receive it now. Invite Almighty God into your life in the form of Jesus. I bless you. Receive Christ. Tell him, Lord, enter my heart, take control of my life, I will live in your name, I will live in your power, you forgive my sins, you save my life, you give me eternal life and you give me blessing and prosperity here in the earth. Lord Jesus I receive you as my savior. Leaves.

Thank you Lord, thank you Father, we adore you, we bless you. I bless your life in the name of the Lord. Live in the power of the Holy Spirit. I bless you in the name of the Lord. The grace of the Lord is with you. Amen. God bless you my brothers.

We are going to stand up, we are going to live that powerful life that God calls us to live. We are going to live like the Hebrew people ready for their liberation, eating our bread standing up, prepared for when God tells us, to go out and do what they have to do, ready to obey the Lord's call. I bless you in the name of Jesus. Amen.