Trading for the Kingdom

I want to talk about trading for the Kingdom, how to trade for the Kingdom. The keyword in this message is business, negotiate. I say this intentionally. We refer to a position, an attitude that we must have when we approach Christian work, negotiating for the Kingdom.

This passage also reminds us that preaching the Gospel is something serious, it is something that has to do with life or death. It's a tremendously deliberate thing. And I am going to read the parable that the Lord spoke regarding this aspect of the Kingdom and remember that we are in this series of sermons that has to do with the call to evangelize. What I want to do and achieve through this series of sermons is to sharpen your awareness of the importance of preaching the Gospel, of seeing this as a serious responsibility, as a privileged burden that we have, the commitment as a believer, the fact that our identity as believers resides in that evangelistic activity, in that call to share with others what Christ has done in our lives and what Christ means to us.

If our life is not saturated with that urgency to preach the Gospel, then we are living the Christian life off our axis, because the center of our call, of our existence is to share the word of God. And I believe that this is going to be made very clear through that message. As I say, all these messages are intended to enrich us and establish a solid, biblical, theological foundation so that we can continue with the evangelistic call with all conscience and with all property.

So, it says here in verse 11, Luke 19: “…When they heard these things – because the Lord had already spoken about other situations and other topics – Jesus continued and told a parable because as far as he was near Jerusalem – and this is interesting – and they thought that the Kingdom of God would manifest itself immediately…”

So the Lord offers this parable in a corrective way, to correct an error on the part of his disciples, a mistaken perception that they had about the coming of the Kingdom of God and what it would be like. This parable is a correction to that wrong perception. Then the Lord says:

“…A nobleman went to a far country to receive a kingdom and return. – Ask yourself who is this noble man and what is this kingdom about and what does this mean that he went to a far country. It is a parable, it has its equivalences. – “… he went to a far country to receive a kingdom and return. And calling 10 of his servants he gave them 10 minas…” – minas refers to a coin of a certain value.

I was doing a little research on this and it is said that a mina was more or less the equivalent of 100 drachmas, and if he gave you 10 minas, that means he gave you 1000 drachmas. And a drachma was another type of currency, a drachma was the equivalent of a day's wages for a worker. In other words, by giving him 10 mines he was giving them the equivalent of 1,000 days of work for a worker, that is, practically 3 years of work. It was quite a considerable amount. Today it could be the equivalent of almost $100,000 if we estimate that a worker earns $30,000 or something like that a year. So it is an amount of a certain weight. So he gave each one 10 minas, a mina is currency, a unit of money.

“… And he said to them, “Trade while I come.” – I want you to meditate on that word, negotiate, because it is not a casual word. For me, when I understood the meaning of the word trade in the original Greek, it opened up a much broader, deeper understanding of this parable. He tells:

"..."Negotiate while I come." – And here the Lord interestingly adds another element that is not necessarily essential to the rest of the parable but that I find interesting. – “…But his fellow citizens hated him and sent an embassy after him saying, “We do not want him to rule over us.”

Here the Lord in his narrative adds an element of conflict and opposition, of drama in a sense, to the rest of the narrative. They have enemies they don't want. Who will those enemies be? Ask yourself while I read. What is the Lord referring to here about the Kingdom of God, the world and all these things and how many people perceive Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God and the Gospel?

“…It happened that when he returned after receiving the kingdom, he ordered those servants to whom he had given the money to be called before him to find out what each one had negotiated….”

Again, the word negotiate appears. And it's not put in terms of how much they had made, how much they had made, no, how much each had traded, how much they had earned as a profit through their investments and their business efforts specifically. It's profit he's talking about here, using that same business term. This parable is saturated with a business atmosphere, a corporation, a corporation rather, a business.

“…Then, the first one to whom that noble man has given 10 minas came, – let's say 100,000 dollars – saying, “Sir, your mina has earned 10 minas.” – Interesting, think about that too, your mine has won. How interesting that he does not say, I won or I did. No, it says 'your mine has won,' a very interesting and revealing detail in my opinion.

“…your mine has gained 10 mines. He said to him, “All right, good servant, because you have been faithful in a very little, you will have authority over 10 cities.” – He gained 10 minas and now the Lord gives him authority over 10 cities. It seems like a good deal to me, some effort, but now he is the governor of 10 complete cities.

“Another came saying, “Sir, your mine has produced 5 mines.” – This one only earned half of what the other one earned and one would think that perhaps he deserved less approval or praise from the Lord, because his performance was half that of the other, but notice that he receives the same expression of recognition from the Lord and also to this one he said, – “You also know about 5 cities.” – According to his performance they also give him a reward of 5 cities, but they praise him because he brought performance and made an effort and did what his Lord had commanded him to do.

“And a third came saying, “Lord, here is your mina, which I have kept in a handkerchief.” – I imagine him taking out a handkerchief with 4 knots and there is the coin inside and while he is saying it, he is unwrapping the knots one by one. – “Here is your mine, the one I kept in a handkerchief because I was afraid… – Think about that too. – … from you because you are a severe man who takes what you did not put and reaps what you did not sow.”

This is the perception that this servant has of the noble man. It's interesting because one of the things I like about this parable is the way it projects this noble man. Who do you think this noble man is? Jesus Christ, say it all, Jesus Christ. This is the man… Jesus is telling the parable but he is talking about himself, this noble man who is going to a far country. What is that far country? Heaven. So when he returns from heaven, he calls for him and this servant knows something of this man's character.

For me, this parable is also very revealing because it tells us something about Jesus Christ, for those of us who are used to thinking that he is a meek little lamb, always with blond locks and languid eyes and half like low energy, as Donald Trump says. But here we are presented with a severe image of Jesus Christ, he is a man to be careful of, because this man knows what Jesus is like or what his Lord is like. And note that this Lord does not say to him, “How do you think that, boy, if I am a bread from God? So good that I am, so calm." No, he says, look how he answers:

“…Then he said to him, “You bad servant, I judge you by your own mouth. You knew that I was a severe man… – in other words, you're right, you know that I am like that, – …that I take what I didn't put in and reap what I didn't plant, why didn't you put my money in the bank? So that when I returned I would have received it with the interest.”

Why at least, gosh, you didn't put it in Cambridge Savings to get 1.9 interest, instead you bring me the money here, inflation has already eaten 2 percent of that money, why not even if it is you deposited it in a high yield bond or something. If you were afraid that it would be lost, at least you would have looked for a basic way so that the money would not remain idle, if it was fear that made you skip some type of activity.

“And he said to those who were present, “Take the mina from him, and give it to the one who has the 10 minas.” – that is the counter-intuitive logic of the Kingdom of God – And they told him, “But Lord, if the other has 10 minas, in other words, it is an injustice, how are you going to take away from this poor man the mina he has and you are going to give it to the one who has 10.” And look at the Lord's answer:

"Well, I tell you that to those who have, more will be given to those who do not yet have what they have will be taken away."

The idea is for those who have little or almost nothing, if they don't give it up, if they don't do something with it, even that little bit they have, which is almost nothing, they're going to take it away and give it to the one who is… Who do you want to give your money to, brothers? A hard working investor who knows the market, who is diligent, wise, astute, or a pimp who does nothing, just lying on a bed all the time? Who are you going to give? To the diligent person right? And in whom is the Lord going to invest his gifts and his resources and his energy and his power? In those who are going to benefit the kingdom. That is something very logical.

Again, the logic of this parable comes out of the business world. As I tell you, this parable is permeated and saturated with logic and ethos, the sense of the corporate world, the world of business, the world of profit, the world of investment. And that is interesting when we apply it to the Kingdom of God. And then says:

“…And also those, my enemies, – now we return to the little detail that we missed at the beginning that there were people who did not want him to reign – And also those my enemies, who did not want me to reign over them bring them here and behead them before from my…"

How many can reconcile that last image with Jesus? Very few, right? However, there is one aspect of Jesus that is so. The Christ who comes in his second coming is not the one who was crucified, he is a judge, he is a king, who comes to take his inheritance and comes to take accounts, both of those who serve him and of those who oppose his coming. .

Now, I clarify here that it is not for... believers, those who have believed in Christ Jesus, salvation is not by what you do, you are saved by thanks, but there is a cost. The Bible speaks says that believers are going to appear before the judgment seat of Christ, there are several passages in the scripture, I don't have time to develop that point too much right now. We are going to appear before the judgment seat of Christ but it is not to determine if we are going to be saved or not, it is going to be to determine what kind of rewards we will receive.

I believe that in the coming Kingdom of God there is going to be all kinds of glory and activity. I believe that many people think that the Kingdom of God in heaven, everything is going to give us a white coat of the same size and a harp so that we can sit on a cloud to play for all eternity. The Kingdom of God is going to be a place of tremendous activity, the truth is that for me hell would be that, playing a harp for all eternity sitting on a cloud in a white robe. But glory to God that the Kingdom of God is going to be a place of different levels, of a lot of activity, of effort without the edge that work has in this fallen world, but God is going to allow it, I don't know how that is going to be But the Kingdom of God is going to have nations, it is going to have a government, it is going to have glory, it is going to have different states, different levels of glory and authority. And what is going to determine all that? what we do, the effort we receive here.

It is like in a competition, bronze, silver, and gold medals are offered for different levels of excellence in the performance of an athlete. Some are going to receive an aluminum medal, others practically wooden if that's the case, but we are all going to receive something according to the level of effort that we have undertaken here on earth. So think about it.

And the scripture is very clear, there are many passages that suggest this, that as we have sown and exerted here on earth, we have invested in the Kingdom of God at that level we will receive an equivalent reward. So, I'm a little ahead of myself but it's good that we keep it in mind.

Now, let's go back a bit. What we have here is this idea of a noble man who is Jesus Christ and the disciples think that the Kingdom of God is going to come immediately, that Jesus is not going to go through the cross, there is going to be no crucifixion, there is going to be no death, nothing of this. They refuse to believe this. They are thinking that this is going to be something quick, simple, that's why he says, "I would come immediately."

When Jesus goes to Jerusalem at this same time, the Lord is getting closer... Holy Week is that approach of Jesus to Jerusalem to be crucified. But they think that Jesus is going to Jerusalem to take the city, declare himself the Messiah and establish his kingdom and they are each going to have a position of some importance in this new political government. But the Lord tells them, "No, that's not going to be like that, it's going to take time, there's going to be drama in between." So, that's why he tells them this parable and tells them, a noble man went to a far place, that far place has taken 2000 years, it was a very long journey. For us at least we know that 2000-odd years was that trip.

That noble man went to a distant country, which is heaven, where the Lord is seated at the right hand of the Father, waiting for the precise moment to descend again and come and take His Kingdom. So, the Lord is going to a distant country and before leaving, as the Lord Jesus Christ did, remember in the great commission, Matthew 28, he told them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me therefore go , preach the Gospel, make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey the things that I have commanded you.”

And while the Lord was here on earth he was preparing those servants. These 10 servants are just an example of all those men and women with whom he worked while he was here in the world, trained them, put them through different kinds of evangelistic and missionary exercises, stuffed his word into them, a number of things and he prepared them and left them a parcel. "Go out into the world, grow my church, develop my church, preach the Gospel," and that's what this church of Jesus Christ has been doing for the last 2,000 plus years, evangelizing, planting the seed, developing the Kingdom of God, establishing all kinds of institutions, making all kinds of efforts to advance the kingdom of Jesus Christ, with different kinds of success and lucidity.

But the Lord was saying, this is not easy, it's going to take time. I'm leaving but I'm coming back. Then he says that he gathers them together and gives each one an endowment, he gives each one a mine. That is a symbol of what each believer receives when he receives the Holy Spirit by receiving Christ as Lord and Savior. Did you know that within you there is a gift that God has placed, a mine? It does not matter your level of education, it does not matter if you are a man or a woman, young or old, God has placed something of value in you, a capacity, an endowment of power, there is grace within you. In you there is a potential that God has infused into your life. Say amen to that. You have it within you. God has given you something, an ability to sing, an ability to teach, an ability to give, an ability to usher or teach children, or to be a philanthropist advancing the interests of the church, or to direct, or preside, there is something in you that God put so that you use that to advance his kingdom.

I want you to understand that, there is a mine, and I would say a mine in the sense that we also know that word, there is a mine of possibilities within you, so much that God has placed in your life. The Apostle Paul tells Timothy, "I advise you to fan into fire the gift of God that is within you."

So if this morning you can appropriate, internalize this idea that within God he has placed something that is of value for his kingdom, perhaps you do not know it and one of the tasks of the believer is to discover the gift of God. What is the gift, what is the specific potential that God has placed in me. But don't ask yourself, is there something in me of value? No. Say, what is valuable in me, how can I use it for the Kingdom of God and how can I enter into the use of that gift.

How do gifts develop? That is a topic for a sermon. But one of the things is serving. Start with what you have at hand, start with the smallest, the easiest, perhaps the easiest for you will be to talk to your flesh and blood brother, your blood sister, with whom you feel comfortable, the you know, she's your friend, they get along well, but she doesn't know Jesus Christ. You can start there. Give her a book, show her a video, sit her down one day and talk to her about your experience with Christ. That is something simple. It can be a friend at work. It could be someone on the bus that you meet and they start a conversation and they tell you about their family and their son or that they are sick and you ask, can I pray for you? I invite you to church. Do you know Jesus Christ? It doesn't matter, if you know Christ, don't worry, God is with you, he will get you through. I am going to pray for you. Here's my phone, call me.

What you have at hand, start. Right now we are needing help, for example, for Easter Sunday with the children. Many of us say, Lord, take me to Africa so that there I die for you, who are Muslims, they martyr me and I give my blood... But if they tell you, look, serve the children one day here. oh no that's too small for me. I want to go away in a ball of fire that immolates me, that they sacrifice me.

If you are not faithful in little, you will not be faithful in much either. Start where you can, do what you can. Tithe, offering, many people, Lord, my life is yours, do what you want of me, but when the time comes to give to the Lord, oh no, there we freeze. Many of us will not be able...

I was recently told the story of a group of young missionaries in the 19th century who wanted to serve the Lord by preaching the Gospel in foreign missions, and not all of them could go, so these young people – this is real – made a pact and they said, we are going to send, I think there were about 10 of them, you are going to go to India, to Africa, wherever, you are going to go as missionaries and we are going to stay here in the United States and we are going to work and make money for hold you. And throughout their lives these young people who stayed supported those who left on missions in their missionary needs.

Which of these two do you think deserved more praise? I believe that the two of them were working as one organism to advance the Kingdom of God. There are people who may not have a missionary gift but have the gift of making money and could give more to the Kingdom of God and serve in that way. You can help advance the Kingdom of God by using, for example, if you work in technology like brother Javier Encina, when you work in technology you know how many things you make possible.

I see brother Mario Ulloa back there, he knows that those first two buildings were made possible by the generosity of people like Mario Ulloa, like brother Roberto Naranjo and others like that who worked so hard. And now brother Mario comes here and sits there and nobody knows who Mario Ulloa is. That man who is there with the beard, that man glued to the window is... honestly, there are few people that I admire as much on this earth as that man. And nowadays people come and no one knows about their sacrificial work for God's work. But we wouldn't be sitting here today without the work of people like him.

And for me, people like him are worth 10 evangelists because they make this type of work possible, because their gifts are being invested in the Kingdom of God. There is something you can do to advance the Kingdom of God. The mine that you have received in your hand, what are you doing with it? You have to put it to generate, you have to invest it, you have to ask the Lord, you have to be restless and say, Lord, I do not want to leave this earth without leaving my mark in the Kingdom of God. I want to do something for you, use me. Pray, start, in the process of starting and doing something God is revealing to you the next leg of the journey.

When the cars that had standard gears were used, very heavy, do you remember if the car is in neutral, I don't know if it is still like that because I don't drive a standard car, but when the car is stopped if you try to moving the gear is very difficult. Now when you take it off and put it on one of the gears and start moving the car, much easier to move the gear. So it is with gifts. When you begin to move in faith and take one step of faith after another and you do what you have at hand, and you start in the name of the Lord, God is giving you wisdom about what's next.

In the beginning of the Bible it says, "Come good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a little, I will put you over much." If you are faithful giving a year of service to the Lord working with children, for example, or as an usher, or cleaning some aspect of the church, if you are faithful in that and you don't worry about getting glory and praise or being stopped here in front of the platform or whatever, but you do it for the glory of the Lord, and you are faithful in what you do, the Lord is going to put you in other things. Maybe one day you will evangelize crowds, maybe you will write a book for the glory of the Lord, maybe you will sing before crowds, but start with something simple and small and be generous with God.

I have learned that when one begins like this and serves not so that no one sees or praises it, but as if God is watching and that is what matters to you, the Lord blesses your life, blesses your gift, multiplies it , widens it and uses it on a larger scale. So don't be intimidated because you don't know where your gift is. Start exploring. Get on that wonderful journey of exploration that will last a lifetime and little by little you will discover new aspects of God's endowment in your life, but you have to start small. Do not worry about the result, worry about being faithful to the Lord and obeying that commission that you have received.

So, this man has left, he goes to that distant country, his servants begin to work, to invest and the instruction that he gives them is very important. I don't want to omit this, the word 'negotiate', pracmateusaste is the word in the original Greek. It is an imperative. You saw the word pragmatic, praxis, that's where it comes from, practical. This word in the original Greek that is translated into Spanish negotiated, its root is to work in a practical way, in a coherent way. I put here a small definition that tells us a little about this idea.

It says here, the head of the corporation, because that is what this man is, tells them "Negotiate while I come." The word negotiated in the original Greek is pracmateusaste, this word comes from the world of business. It carries the idea of conducting business diligently, investing great energy and effort in order to produce effective results.

It is not merely about working on something, but about working diligently, with a sense of purpose, with discipline and persistence, with a clear goal in mind and a well-defined methodology. In other words, it is an organized, deliberate, disciplined, calculated, strategic effort, that is how the work of the church should be.

The churches that work indisciplined, one thing today, another tomorrow, shoulder to shoulder because everything is for the Lord and the Lord is merciful, do not expect to do anything of excellence. I have always believed that the church of Jesus Christ should be the most well-organized and excellent organization in the world, using the resources at hand in the most efficient and effective way.

I am stingy with the Lord's money. You have to get the juice out of every dollar, you have to multiply its performance and the church of Christ that reflects excellence, has to reflect effectiveness and efficiency, has to reflect organization, discipline, purpose. For me, the church of Jesus Christ is an organism of great coherence and the work of the church must be well thought out, well planned, well executed, coherent, decentralized, directed with good principles, protocols and procedures, it must exude excellence, because we have the mind of Christ. And what does it mean to have the mind of Christ? It means having the mind that has structured the world, the universe, the atoms, the cells of all living organisms, the order of a living body.

That mind, the logos, which created the universe is what is inside of you. That is why I encourage the young people and my brothers to study, to develop their understanding, to expect great things from the Lord. If you are going to study, set the goal of being the most accomplished student in your class, set the goal of reaching the highest level, not out of pride but because the Lord has put something incredibly powerful in you. If you are going to be a mother, promise yourself that you are going to be the most exalted mother in the world, with more capacity, more knowledge, more wisdom, more anointing, because the Lord is willing to teach you the best principles of motherhood.

If you are going to be a factory worker make sure others envy the skill and discipline and excellence with which you do your job. No matter what we do, no matter what our territory is, God has given us the land and we are supposed to work with every sense of discipline and purpose. Don't tell me you can't because Christ is within you. And you yourself have said, I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me.

The mind of Christ is a thinking mind, it is a logical mind, it is a coherent mind, and we have to proceed with that same kind of endowment, that sense of high esteem, not for ourselves, but for the God within us. The church has to exude excellence. The church is a large corporation that negotiates for the Kingdom of God and that is why it has to be strategic in its interventions, its planning, its work. And we are workers. You are an investor and you are also a client and you are an employee, and that is why every believer has to live the Christian life with that sense of duty, but also of privilege, of endowment.

God is not God who tells you to do great things, but endows you in a minimal way. No. He gives you a great gift so that you can obtain great results in all areas of your life. We believers have to be excellent in all our lives because we have a powerful God who moves within us.

That is why Paul tells Timothy, "I advise you to fan into fire the gift of God that is in you because God has not given us a spirit of cowardice," which is what this unfaithful servant has, cowardice, "he has not given us God spirit of cowardice or timidity - another translation - but of power, love and self-control."

And you know that the word self-control is a bad translation, the original Greek is a healthy mind, that's why in English "he has given us a spirit of power, of love and a sound mind." Look it up in one of the translations. 'Sound mind' is a mind that thinks well, it is a mind that accurately perceives reality. That is the mind that God has given us. It is no excuse for us not to develop the gift of God that is within us because God's endowment is so great.

I say there are two ways the Christian can proceed in life, either from a sufficiency mind or from a lack mentality. There are Christians that everything is, I can't, I don't have, I don't know, they didn't give me, they didn't make me, they didn't give me the opportunity, and they live complaining about so-and-so, the government, the injustice of the world, that people is bad, that the pastors are corrupt, that the churches are bad, and then they are always flattened, sitting on a bench doing nothing.

That is called proceeding from a mentality of lack, of insufficiency, like the 10 spies who come to Moses' after examining the land and say, "Yes, Moses, it's true, that land is tremendous, it produces grapes that only one gives a full bottle of wine, but the men there are giants, they could all be members of the MBA, look at 6 foot 8 and they have very hard bones and therefore we can never get into that land.”

There were two, Joshua and Caleb, who say, “Look, if the Lord has given us the land we are going to eat it like bread, like butter.” I add the butter. If the Lord has given us the land we are going to win that land. That is called proceeding with a mind of sufficiency, of endowment. And who were the ones who entered the Promised Land?” the 10 spies remained dead, only Joshua and Caleb, of all that first generation, entered the Promised Land, all the rest died in the desert. Because? Because they had a different spirit, so the Bible says.

What group do we want to belong to? The group of 10 spies or the two spies like Joshua and Caleb? So, which team do you belong to? The one that says I don't have, I don't know, I can't, they didn't give me, they didn't make me, or the group that says I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me. I am going to preach the Gospel, I am going to share it with others, I am going to do everything I can to advance the Kingdom of God. Give a round of applause to the Lord.

Negotiate while I come. How can you bargain for the Kingdom of God? What can you do to advance interest? How are you negotiating for the Kingdom of God? I want León de Judá to negotiate until Christ comes, for León de Judá to be a corporation known for the excellence with which it proceeds to execute the directives of the CEO of the church, who is Christ Jesus, in every way and for us to have members who are equally committed to advancing this ship that is the Kingdom of God.

So, he says that parable when this gentleman comes he asks his servants to account. I find it interesting. How is he coming? I imagine, he lines them up in front of him and says, okay, let's go now. This is not a matter of, oh, little brother, what's up, how did it go? I know that what you have done to me is a favor and thank God that you accepted that mine. Could you do something with that mine? No, he calls them to account.

There is another parable that is in Matthew 25:14 to 30 and you can read it later and compare a couple of things. It has a few different things but it is practically the same parable. He called them to accounts, gathered them together and I imagine it in a way like that, good business, okay, I gave you a mine, what did you do with it? They give him the report of what each one did and then there is the third man who tells him, “Look, I know how you are, I know that if I had wasted that mine you would have cut off my head so what I did was that I put it under the mattress.”

So the reaction, as I said, afterwards and the attitude of this man reveals something to us. You know that when you look at that parable of Jesus Christ about service and accountability to the Lord and all this, all of this is pervaded by an atmosphere of seriousness, severity, of clear expectations and this is interesting, there is a passage where the Lord Jesus Christ says , "He who does not gather with me scatters." Have you heard that?

How interesting. It's like there are two extremes in the Christian life, either you serve as an instrument for the advancement of the Kingdom of God or you are an obstacle, you are stealing energy. Excuse me for being so clear, I hope no one is offended because that is not what I say, the word says it, you are either a facilitator or an obstacle to the Kingdom of God.

Let me put it this way, the branches of a tree, when a tree continues to grow and grow its branches multiply and there comes a time when each branch and each leaf and each end of the tree is asking for sap, it is asking for energy because it needs the food it the tree is picking up from the ground. And when a tree has so many branches, the risk is that it will not bear enough fruit because all the energy is wasted in distributing it through so many branches and that is why there comes a time when the fruit is weak, small or sour. And what does the farmer do? He prunes, the branches that do not bear fruit he prunes so that those that bear fruit have more food, so that they bear more fruit. That is the principle behind pruning.

So, I think that many times, something that I don't know occurs to me, I submit it to your consideration, I'm not sure that I can say this, but in any case I am going to ruminate freely and you tell me... it occurs to me that many Sometimes we pastors want churches that have a lot of people, even if they are half converted, even if they don't even believe in electric light, but they come because we want a big church, we want a church with a lot of people and sometimes what we do is download the Gospel to a very basic level for many people to come.

And I wonder if in the mind of the Lord that is what God truly wants. I do not know if God prefers a church of 100 people who work hard and each one is committed to the Kingdom of God or one of 1000 in which 800 have doubts about whether they are saved or not and do not know why they have believed and why they have been called to the kingdom and a sense of commitment and duty and total surrender to the Lord. I don't know. I ask that of you. I must ask myself, because it is the same thing, one wants a leafy tree, a tree with many leaves, with many branches, very large, very pretty, very showy, but is that really what constitutes a healthy tree?

What do you want, a fig tree like your Lord, the fig tree full of branches and leaves and when he put his hand in he didn't find a single fig and he cursed it? Or do you want a… there are some small mango trees, they are not very tall, but you put your hand in and anywhere you grab one, ten mangoes? What do you want, a tree with many leaves, huge, without handles, or a tiny but bushy tree?

So, the Lord uses that principle. If we do not bear fruit, the Lord is not happy and at least he will fine you. Many people wonder why it is that I do not feel the joy of the Lord, why those promises that are said in the Bible have not come true in my life, why is it that I do this and that and go to church and not I do not feel the joy of the Gospel nor have I seen those changes in my life.

Ask yourself if perhaps you are giving all you can to the Lord, you are praying, you are fasting, you are reading the word, you are worshiping the Lord, you are serving, you are giving to the Lord, you are working for the Kingdom of God.

I have learned that the joy of the Lord comes when we give to the Lord, when we give ourselves to him, when we serve him. There is no greater joy than a soul knowing Jesus Christ through one's work, not one's work but Christ in one. But to know that my life served for someone to be blessed by the Gospel, wow, that's worth millions of dollars, honestly. For me the greatest privilege is knowing that I am advancing the Kingdom of God.

What does the glory of man and the applause of humanity matter to me if the greatest joy is that one day I will hear the voice of God that tells me, "Come, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a little, over much." I will put you.” That is the greatest privilege of a man or a woman, to serve the Lord. What good is it for us to have large amounts of money in a bank account if there are so many things we can do for the Kingdom of God. It's not that we don't save and that we aren't wise, but many times we grab and grab and grab, and the money goes away like water. We got sick and the doctor took everything or a lawyer for a divorce, a marital quarrel to divide the property.

But when we serve the Lord, God blesses us and surrenders us. I have learned, when you give to the Lord and serve the Lord, the little that you have tastes like glory. You eat a banana with olive oil and that tastes like a delicacy from a French chef, because you are calm, because you know where you are going and where you come from and you have the peace of the Lord in your life. There is nothing like serving the Lord and hearing that voice of God, “Come, good servant, approved.”

Enter into joy, enter into the enjoyment of your Lord. Brothers, I leave you with this thought this morning that serving the Lord is something serious, it is a business, in the best sense of the word. It is a sacred, sublime, glorious, eternal business, a tremendous privilege and it is an obligation that is accompanied by great satisfaction because serving the Lord is not a sterile duty, it is continuous enjoyment, it is one to grow and grow knowing that the sap of the Lord is running through us. It is a business. What are you doing to serve the Kingdom of God? How are you trading for the kingdom? Let us negotiate for the Kingdom of God. Amen.