Living a life waiting for the master

I encourage you to open your Bibles to First Peter, chapter 1, near the end of the New Testament, verse 13. I felt that the Lord was assigned to preach about it. It is not part of a series that I am doing but I felt the Lord guide me through various circumstances to talk about this text that we are going to reflect on together. Beginning in verse 13, the word of God says:

“…Therefore gird up the loins of your understanding, – we are going to take time to talk about it – be sober and wait completely for the grace that will bring you when Jesus Christ is manifested. As obedient children, do not conform to the desires that you previously had when in your ignorance, but as the one who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your way of living. Because it is written, be holy, because I am holy. And if you invoke as a father the one who without respect of persons judges according to the work of each one, conduct yourselves in fear throughout your pilgrimage, knowing that you were rescued from your vain way of life, which you received from your parents not with things corruptible as gold or silver, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without blemish already destined from before the foundation of the world but manifested in the last times for love of you.”

Let's pray. Father, in the name of Jesus thank you that you call us, Lord, to be alert, to be awake in you. Lord, there is a message that you, the good shepherd, have for us on this day. I ask that a revelation flow to me and to your people, Lord, that we listen to what you want to tell us because we are listening to you, in the name of Jesus, amen and amen.

I think this text deals with the focus that God wants us to have as Christians. I believe that today it is more difficult than ever to remain focused on the things of God because the enemy is pulling everything these days. You just have to watch the news. Now I hardly let my children watch the news because every week there is something terrible, something that would have been unthinkable in the past. And now it's something every week, unbridled violence, immorality that is coming to be accepted as something normal, common and current, often required by law, brothers. We are living in the last days and it is time for Christians to be awake and focused on the things of God.

Because as the word says, because of the increase in sin, the love of many will grow cold. There is pressure on the church to get to sleep, to cool down and God does not want this to happen to us, but it will require an effort because there is a flow in this generation, in the other direction and God wants us to stand firm and from this this text is about.

It begins with a phrase that I want to emphasize at this time, in verse 13 it says, "therefore gird up the loins of your mind." How many here understand what it means to gird up the loins of the head? That's kind of weird. It's nice because the translation that we use in Spanish is very precise, it uses old Spanish but follows the original language very precisely, and in the original this is what it says, and most of the translations change it a little to make it more understandable, "gird your loins" means that you tie your belt but do this with your head, buckle the belt of your brain. What does that mean? In the old days people didn't wear pants, they wore long clothes, like a tunic. If someone tries to walk into this you might fall on your face.

How many brides trying to climb the ladder? It's a little complicated because it's a lot of fabric. So what they did at that time was take all that cloth, pull it up, and then put something on, draw the loins in to get the belt out so the feet are free to move. In other words, get ready for action, ready for service, ready to do what you have to do. In English it would be, you roll up your sleeve to get to work. Be alert, ready, careful, faithful, awake, attentive, ready, quick, prepared, willing, cautious – I don't know what half of these words mean but I use them – cautious, circumspect, pay attention, put your batteries together because shrimp that he falls asleep, the current takes him away.

As Sister Leonora taught me last night, put on your apron because we are going to cook. Here we go. In English there is a phrase that a coach would say, put your game face on, the concentration face. Have any of you seen that? How many players do we have? Let me see some game faces. I see. We are going to show some, I have some photos of game faces, faces of concentration.

The Lord, this is what Pedro is saying, put on that face to play soccer. Keep your eye on the ball, as it says. There the best, the face of concentration. Let us pray that he is freed from his unjust persecution. [He is showing photos]

The Lord calls us as believers to be like him. Tie the loins of the head, of the understanding so that it is awake, focused, alert because the days are bad and we have to be focused and awake.

I believe that Peter in saying that to the people was referring to a conversation he had with Christ when Jesus had taught… and we are going to read that in Luke, chapter 12. I believe that Peter is taking this exhortation from the teaching of Jesus in Luke 12:35. Put on that concentrated face because the days are short and it is time to be focused on the things of God.

“…Let your loins be girded up – that's where Peter took it from. Jesus said it first – have your loins girded and your lamps burning and be like men waiting for their Lord to return from the wedding.”

So you are like a servant in charge of the house, you have to take care of the house. Your master, the boss, is going to a wedding, we don't know the time of his return and the servant has to stay awake, with his loins tight, ready to work, for when he knocks on the door he says, hello, here I am. That he is not asleep there on the sofa with a beer and some chips and the television on. Excuse me. And fall off the sofa, what are you doing here at this hour? No, no, ready, ready for the master. And look at what Jesus says in verse 36:

“… and you be like men who wait for their lord to return from the wedding so that when he arrives and knocks they will open immediately. Blessed are those servants whom their master finds watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will gird himself and make them sit down at the table and he will come to serve them.

I want to take a moment with that. Jesus says that when the boss arrives, if he finds his servant awake and attentive, the boss will gird his loins and serve him to give his servant a break. Go figure. That almost seems like something blasphemous that God, the boss, Christ, is serving his people when he arrives. It is a wonder.

He also says, “and even if the second watch comes, and even if the third watch comes, if I find them so, blessed are those servants. But know this, that if the father of the family knew what time the thief was coming, he would certainly watch and would not allow his house to be broken into. – I understand that Pastor Samuel was talking about that a week ago. – So you also be prepared because at an hour you don't think the Son of Man will come."

Put the batteries. Put on the ready face, the concentration face. Verse 41, now Peter launches with his questions, always speaking when he shouldn't.

“Then Peter said to him, Lord, are you telling these parables to us or also to everyone? And the Lord said, who is the faithful and prudent steward, a leader, someone with responsibility, who is the faithful and prudent steward whom the Lord will put over his house so that he will give them their ration on time? Blessed is that servant whom when his Lord comes he finds him doing so. Truly I tell you that he will put him over all his possessions, but if that servant says in his heart, my Lord is slow to come and begins to beat the servants, the maids and to eat and drink and get drunk, the Lord of that servant will come the day that he does not expect and at the hour that he does not know and will punish him harshly and will put him with the infidels.

Let's get ready... Pedro, I think after asking this question it stuck with him, okay, I'm going to fasten my seatbelt. This is for me too. He received this word. We have to be ready. Pedro knows what it's like to fall asleep when you shouldn't. Do you remember the story? In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus asks Peter for a favor, he says, "Please come with me a little bit, I need my friends." Jesus praying, Father, if it is possible for this cup to pass from me, do you remember? Bleeding, with pain in his soul, and he returns to find Pedro sleeping, snoring on the sofa.

Pedro, you couldn't even stay awake with me for a single hour. I imagine that Pedro will never forget that awake face and he says, yes, yes, I'm with you, let me cut off the ear and I don't know what. Then he ends up denying it, a madman like us, thank God. He knows what it's like to fall asleep when you shouldn't, and he's talking to the town. Don't fall asleep now. God needs his people, his church. Wake up. Watch and pray so that you do not fall into temptation, because temptations are strong, brothers, and many entire churches are falling, accepting sin as if it were normal.

It is not time for the church to be asleep. We have to be more vigilant than ever, more careful than ever. We have to put on that face and pray focused. How are we going to do it? Pedro gives us advice and this is what I would like to talk about more today. It says in verse 13, “be sober,” so I think this is talking about literal alcohol and drugs, not getting drunk. When you are drunk you are not focused, it is the opposite of focused. But I think there are other things that can intoxicate us, distract us in life. The anxieties of life can intoxicate you, the pleasures of life. There is nothing wrong with enjoying a good meal, a good show, time with your family, but not getting drunk from the entertainment to be dull and not attentive to things of the spirit.

Be sober, be attentive, and wait fully on the grace that will be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed. Wait completely focused on what will happen when Jesus comes. Now, I think that normally it is not good to live in the future and we must live in the moment and concentrate on what we are doing but for Christians if we focus on that day when our boss comes, our Lord, and if we focus on this we It will give us power to live this day in the light of that day, it will give us another perspective, another power, because I am thinking of that day, I live today so that I am ready for that day.

I think about it, my boy does karate. It is fierce, it is a tiger, it attacks me, it is terrible. And they sometimes break boards and what you have to do is watch… if you hit the board you break your hand, you have to hit a point behind the board. You have to look at what comes after the board and hit at that point and you hit through the board. You punch through the board because you are looking at a point beyond it. So it is with Christians.

There is a video that a friend showed me from YouTube that I am not that big of a fan of YouTube but that video was God for me to watch today. I want you to see it because it gives an example of how we have to focus on a point beyond to be able to fight at the moment. It's in English, forgive me for that, but all of you are more gringos than me. They will read it and they will understand what it is.

Video.

Isn't that great? Thank you Lord, we have to keep our eyes fixed on that point later because it is going to hurt us sometimes to fight the fights that we have to fight, there are going to be obstacles. The Apostle Peter wrote to people under strong persecution for being believers and they had to face pain, fear and see that there is something beyond, and it is worth fighting because there is a point on the other side of that table and I will to push through the pain, push through the trial, because on the other side I win.

But what does it matter to us? The important thing for us is to have that fixed point, you can't see it, it's on the other side of the fight, the other side of the test, you can't see the goal clearly, we have to imagine it but there we go to that moment. And that is the moment that the Apostle Peter teaches us through the Holy Spirit, he says "wait completely for the grace that will be brought to you when Jesus Christ is manifested."

We have to fix our minds on the coming of Christ. We have to think that our God is coming back and coming back soon. And we have to visualize that moment. The language that is used in this text helps us, I think, it does not say the grace that will bring you when Jesus Christ comes, although we know that Jesus Christ is coming. It says, when Jesus is revealed, because Jesus is invisible to us now, physically. My children ask me where Jesus is. And we say, well, in your heart. We don't see Jesus right now because he is not here in person physically. Physically he entered heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father reigning and from heaven he sent the Holy Spirit who enters us and that spirit enters us and so we say, Jesus is in my heart. Because Jesus from there is in me through his Holy Spirit, thank God.

I couldn't have made that up. It is in the Bible and it is true because we have lived it. But Jesus is not seen right now, he is in a certain sense hidden. We wait for him to come in person and one day the Bible says that every eye will see him but not yet, he is on the other side and we have to know that one day he will be manifested on the other side. As if a large curtain had to be opened and from the heavens he will appear and we will see him.

It says in Second Thessalonians 1:6 "a time will come when the Lord Jesus will appear from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire." From heaven Jesus is going to appear, he is going to be manifested. Where are the heavens? A philosophical question. When we say Jesus is in heaven. My children sometimes ask me in the past, is it on the moon? is it on Jupiter? If we take a spaceship we go and find, there the heavens. We do not know that heaven is not a geographical place, it is an environment, a spiritual state, it is a dimension of invisible reality.

As it says in the book of Ephesians there are heavenly realms, heavenly places. There is an environment, a parallel universe to this universe. How many have seen too many science fiction movies? Parallel, invisible universe called heavenly places. That shouldn't be difficult for us. We are always on the lookout for invisible waves that pass through the air and enter little things that we carry, that control our lives. And everything is invisible but we know when we are connected.

There is an invisible, spiritual environment, inhabited by first of all, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, sitting on his throne, next to the Father, reigning. Heavenly beings, angels that we cannot even imagine, are described in the Bible as incredible creatures, demons inhabit that environment.

We as Christians inhabit this environment but we are also seated in heavenly places with authority in the spiritual environment. We move in both worlds as agents of the kingdom of God because the two worlds are connected, but one day Jesus who is on the other side, who sent his Holy Spirit to this dimension to connect us with that spiritual environment, will be manifested and will enter here as if there is a big curtain and that is unzipped and there Jesus revealed to us.

The coming of Jesus is not him coming from the moon, it is he is already here reigning but it will be revealed that he is already here and we are going to see him. And how will it be? We do not know exactly how the coming of the Lord will be, but there are some details in the Bible that tell us about it. When Jesus was taken away he spoke to the Apostles after he was resurrected. He speaks to them and says that the Kingdom of God is still coming through you, you have to preach in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, ends of the earth and I will be with you always, I am going to send the promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit and then he begins to levitate and goes up and the Bible says that a cloud hid him. He says that having said these things, seeing them, he was lifted up and received by a cloud that hid him from their eyes.

And then the Apostles looking, wow, a cloud, Jesus hidden in the cloud and then some angels next to it. I believe this literally, I believe it happened. Angels saying, what are you looking at? As he left, he comes back one day. And Jesus said it. They ask him, are you really the Christ, the Son of God? He says, well, you have said it, I am and you will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.

I have found myself thinking about clouds a lot these days. Maybe I don't know why but I am fascinated with this idea of Jesus coming on the clouds. He made reference to a prophecy in Daniel, chapter 7, I recommend it to you, that God prophesied that, that the spiritual world connects with the earthly world, it seems that for some reason supernatural clouds are formed.

In the Old Testament what happened when Moses went up Mount Sinai, what happened to him on top? A cloud covered the mountain and lightning and thunder… Jesus says that we also know when in the tabernacle there was a column of clouds and fire at night, as if it were a portal between heaven and earth, a place of connection between the two things .

Jesus says that's how it's going to be when I come back. He made the prophecy very clear in that prediction, when he says, immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky and the powers of the heavens will be moved, then the sign of the Son of man will appear in heaven and all the tribes of the earth will lament when they see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Jesus is coming. I have a theory, it's my personal opinion, it's not in the Bible, you don't have to believe it, I'm just going to share it and I don't charge extra, as the pastor says, this is free. You know when there is a fridge or something cold on a very hot and humid day, the fridge door is opened and you see cold air, there is condensation in the air or vice versa, in the cold you are breathing and you see the air like smoke. I ask myself if it would be that when the heavenly air interacts with the earthly air there is some chemical reaction and supernatural clouds are produced. I think so, because I believe that we should take time and waste time using our imagination of what the heavens will be like and what the coming of the Lord will be like, because that way we break our minds on that, thinking about what it will be like and I am fixed at that moment thinking about it. Clouds. Jesus is coming.

Peter he saw this in life. One day Jesus invited Peter and two other friends to go up to the mount of transfiguration and there the face of Jesus changed, to shine like the sun, his white robe more bleached than what can be done in this world, like lightning, and there was a cloud of glory that enveloped them and a voice that said, “This is my beloved Son, listen to him, obey him.” Peter had seen the cloud. He had seen a little bit of the other side. He says, I want you to look at that moment of the revelation of Jesus Christ, of his appearance, his manifestation and that you push through the pain of this life to get there, because when Jesus comes he is going to bring with him grace to you.

How many here are saved? How many here are fully saved? Not yet, brothers. Your salvation is real. The Bible says that now we are children of God, there is no one or nothing that can take that away from me, we are children of God. But the Bible says, but what I will be has not yet been seen. I have not reached the goal because when Jesus comes my salvation will be complete.

He says, and this is the grace that comes from there, that when there is that cloud, Jesus in the cloud, I will be entered into the cloud with him and the cloud will envelop me and I will be transformed. As he says, I think Pastor Sam was talking about that, because the Lord himself with a commanding voice, with the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet of God will descend from heaven and then the dead in Christ will rise first. Don't worry if he's dead already, because you're not dead, you're sleeping and there's an alarm that's going to sound and don't worry, you're not going to sleep through that alarm, you will wake up when you have to, because the Death for the Christian is a dream until then.

And then we, the ones who live because some of us are going to be alive when all this happens. Those of us who are alive, those of us who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to receive the Lord in the air and thus we will always be with the Lord. And today here I tell you a mystery, not all of us will die but we will all be transformed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the final trumpet because the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised, incorruptible and we will be transformed.

Brothers, you are a daughter of God, a son of God but what we are to be has not yet manifested, but we know that when he manifests we will be similar to him because we will see him as he is. Jesus will be manifested but you and I will also be manifested. Because you look like a normal guy now, more or less, a more or less normal, ordinary person, but you're not. Because the supernatural seed of the Gospel has been planted in you and there is something eternal that lives in you that is sprouting, changing your life. This life is a seed that cannot be extinguished and one day when it meets the fertile air of the supernatural clouds, when the division between that world and this world opens, we enter there and the mask will be removed and what we are it will truly be manifested. And that seed will be sprouted in life.

You are not a normal guy, you are Superman, you are Wonder Woman in Christ, a glorious being, a being that is going to shine, we are going to see face to face, we are going to shine, the glory of Jehovah is going to stick to us and it is going to transform and we will be like Jesus after being raised up. You are not going to be a god, because no, there is only one God, this is enough, but we are going to be brothers of Christ. He was the first fruit of those who died, the first fruit of the resurrection, but this awaits all of us.

That is the grace that will bring us on that day. And for this reason when we are tempted, when we are under persecution and we have to push, do not look at the problem or the temptation, look at the glory behind and say, I belong to glory and for this I can suffer what I have to suffer now because there is a glory that awaits me later.

Brothers, this is the message to look at, he says, I have for certain that the reflections of the present time are not comparable with the coming glory that has to be manifested in us. And God calls us to be holy because he is holy in this text, to resist temptation because we are made for another world.

In the book of Colossians the Apostle Paul says that because you…. Put your mind on heavenly things, put your heart on things above even if it is hidden because you already died when you accepted Christ and your life is hidden in Christ, but when Christ is manifested you will also be manifested with him in glory. For this, put to death and kill all sin, all sexual immorality, all lies, all falsehood, all gossip, all malice, all anger, because we are made for another world. Be holy because he is holy and you belong to this holiness of Jehovah and that is your destiny. You have a glorious destiny. Don't live like you lived when they were ignorant. Do not conform to the patterns of this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, renewal by seeing the glory that awaits you.

This message, be holy, because I am holy, comes from a very special context, it comes from a book called Leviticus, which I preached a lot in the English cult, so Leviticus was a time when God lived among his people in visible glory. There was a tabernacle and we're going to put a picture of that, a tabernacle between the people of Israel in the desert and the shekinah glory, and supernatural clouds dwelt over the tabernacle. And God said, if I am going to live in your neighborhood, you have to be holy because I am holy and if not that fire does not transform you, that fire consumes you, because you have to offer sacrifices, blood, for this you have to follow laws .

And there were many laws, food laws, clothing laws, sacrifice laws, and I believe that each law, each rule was to remind you, I am not a normal person, I am for glory. Every time they decided not to eat this and to eat that because God had established the law, they remembered, I am a special people, I am a person marked for another world, for this reason I live as a foreigner in this world. We will never be accepted in this world. If the church wants to be loved by the world, we stop being a church. So they learned, I have to live with my eyes on the glory. Every rule...

Jesus said, all these rules are already fulfilled in me. Jesus is the sacrifice. He says that it is not what goes into your mouth that defiles you but what comes out of your mouth. Holiness is not on the outside, holiness is on the inside. He says that now I want you to live a holy life in your way of thinking, in your way of speaking, even in your feelings, but it is the same motivation, because you are made for glory.

Look at that moment. I believe that this visitation of Jehovah's shekinah at that time, that visible glory, was a sample of the glory that is going to be shown when Jesus comes. Set your eyes on that and say I am made for that glory. Because this tabernacle is too small. One day this whole world is going to be a new earth and a new heaven and the kingdoms of this world will be the kingdoms of our God because the glory, the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah is going to cover the world as the waters of the sea cover the sea.

Jesus is coming. And that glory is what motivates me to be holy, to change my life, not because I have to, although yes, the Lord is a judge, he is a Father but he is a judge who does not make exceptions for people, and he comes, but it is because when Jesus comes I want to be ready to receive them. I want to say, we're going to those clouds, I'll get in, because the blood of Christ has cleansed me and I'm waiting for you and in that cloud I'm going to be transformed thanks to the Lord.

Brothers, moments of suffering will come if we want to live a dedicated and holy life. There will also be temptations that will lull us to sleep if we are not careful. God calls us to put on the focused face we saw in those photos and be like this little boy who punched through the pain because he saw a dot behind the board.

Brethren, that is the point. The manifestation of Jesus who is already with us but is hidden at this moment and we will also be manifested with him in glory. Amen. Let us decide that we are a people with the loins of the mind girded, brothers.

Let's stand up. Let's pray. Father, in the name of Jesus, Lord as a people we want to live a life waiting for the master, waiting for our Lord. Father, I ask you in the name of Jesus that the Lion of Judah never fall asleep, but that we be, Lord, with our loins girded, that we be with our aprons on. Father, with your sneakers on, awake and ready for what you have for us. Father, we lay eyes on you. We know, Lord, that we, our eyes will see the Son of man in his glory coming with the clouds, prepare us for that day. Help us, Lord, to be a holy people because you are holy. Cleanse us with the blood, help us to live a different life, so that people can see that we are a particular people, a special people, Lord. Give us that fierce eye to be focused on the grace that will be brought to us when Jesus is revealed.