The temptation of success

Revelation 3, we are reading the letters of Jesus to the churches. Jesus, to begin the book of Revelation, wanted to give a message to all the churches until he came, a message of encouragement and also a warning, because God knew that the enemy was going to try all possible tricks to neutralize the church of Jesus Christ. And for this reason there are 7 letters to churches elucidating the strategies of the devil, teaching the church how to be a winning church. Let's say this together, victor, in the name of Jesus the Lord wants us to be a victorious church.

We have already read about the strategies that the devil uses to remove the power of the church of Jesus Christ. It can be false teaching, the devil sends Apostles, super Apostles with false teaching and if people believe it they can lose the Gospel and be ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of all.

The devil also tried to use persecution and kill Christians, trying to intimidate them, and Jesus was giving messages to the churches, be faithful until death, because there is another life that awaits you. The devil also raised up false prophets, a Balaam, and false prophetesses, a Jezebel, to deceive Christians by teaching them that it is okay to do what the Bible says is wrong. We know this is happening a lot today, false teaching, justifying sin even in the name of the Bible. We have to be cunning.

But now we are going to read the letter to the church in Sardis and this strategy is more dangerous than all. The devil uses the temptation of success for a church. Anyone here want a successful church? Amen. I want us to be a successful church. The devil invents ways to make the church settle for human success and lose divine power. I don't want to just be a successful church, I want us to be a winning church. But for this you have to be careful, brothers, you have to read this letter with your heart and beware of the temptation to be comfortable and content.

The temptation to be satisfied with human success, because God has more for us. Amen. We do not want to be a successful and sleeping church. The devil doesn't even care about the sleeping church because he's self-satisfied that he doesn't even have to throw darts, they're already asleep, why waste a false prophet with a sleeping church? Why try to chase them if they are sleeping? This is a super dangerous temptation and we are going to read from Revelation chapter 3, the letter to the church of Sardis, saying:

“Write the angel of the church in Sardes, the one who has the 7 spirits of God and the 7 stars says this: I know your works that you have names that you live and you are dead. Be vigilant and affirm the other things that are to die because I have not found your perfect works before God. Remember then, what you have received and heard and keep it and repent, for if you do not watch I will come upon you like a thief and you will not know at what time I will come upon you. But you have a few people in Sardis who have not stained their clothes and they will walk with me in white clothes because they are worthy. He who overcomes will be clothed in white garments and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels."

Lord, we want to be a church prepared for that day before your throne, when the names in heaven will truly be read. Speak to us today, Lord, speak to me, I ask you in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen.

Conformity kills. Conformity is dangerous because along with conformity comes carelessness. You can put a photo of a satisfied and calm man reading his newspaper because everything is at peace. The Lord does not want people so calm that we get careless. Fame, this church was known, it had a name for being alive, it was a famous church. León de Judá, we are a little famous, there is a mayor who wants to come here with us. The governors, one senator than another that comes. You travel in the United States and talk to churches and many have heard from León de Judá that it is a living church. This is what people think about God.

I do not want to be a person with a name on earth without a name in heaven. The Lord wants real life. The Lord wants us to be awake, not resigned to things as they are, not satisfied with the accomplishments that have already been made.

Complacency, to be satisfied. It is dangerous. We don't know the story of King David, a very serious story, very dangerous. This man when he was young was hungry for the spirit, he wrote the psalms, sang Jehovah is my shepherd, I will lack nothing. The bear and the lion came to kill the sheep and David fought in the name of God. When David, as a young man, heard Goliath cursing the name of Jehovah, he got angry and said, but who does this Goliath think he is? I start to fight with him, I don't even need armor, I go with my little stones and defeat him in the name of the Lord. A warrior.

And then he became an important person. King Saul tried to kill him for a long time, he running, hiding in caves with his men, learning to war, to fight. A man who learned what it is to trust God in battle, and became a great king in Jerusalem and conquered his enemies and brought the ark to Jerusalem with dance and praise. And once he was already secure on his throne, in the spring, the time when kings go to fight in war, David decided to stay and rest a little in the palace. And one day he got up from his bed at sunset, maybe he spent the night in I don't know what, maybe a little nap, I don't know what, but there on his roof, there I have photos of him on his roof. There's David and he's looking at something he shouldn't be looking at. We know the story. It is that he was satisfied and sure and he neglected himself. He had the name of being a great king of God and that is why he rested and lowered his guard and suffered for this for many years.

This church is like David. It is that David had to know that there were more psalms to write, there were more fights and battles of the Lord to fight. The best was yet to come but he settled for the success he had already achieved. This church in Sardis was the same. It was a successful church, a church that grew, a church that acquired a name of fame, but it was a church that settled with what it already had and didn't try any harder.

It is that our God was not finished with them. Our God always has more. Look at the beginning of this letter in verse 1 it says, "he who has the 7 spirits of God and the 7 stars." Our God has 7 spirits in his hand. What does that mean? What do the 7 Spirits of God mean? I got to thinking because the book of Revelation begins by saying, "he who was, he who is and he who is to come greets you and the 7 spirits also greet you before the throne of Jehovah."

The 7 spirits are in a certain way giving the revelation of the Apocalypse. In another text in Revelation 4:5 it says "from the throne of God came lightning and thunder and voices and before the throne burned 7 lamps of fire which are the 7 spirits of God."

You can think of another time in the Bible when we see a spirit that is in many little fires, in many tongues of fire, at the time of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit entered and divided and distributed itself in tongues of fire over each one, because it is a single spirit but it can be anywhere at the same time. And 7 is the number of perfection, the 7 spirits of God that can be in each person, at each moment, the spirit of the Lord.

The word says that Jesus in the book of Revelation is like an immolated lamb that has 7 horns and 7 eyes, and the Bible says that these are the 7 spirits of God that are distributed throughout the earth. The horn is the power of the lamb, the eye is the presence of the lamb, the spirit that goes on earth says that the power of Jesus and the presence of Jesus is with us in the Holy Spirit. And this spirit does not end easily, there are 7 spirits of God that are here. God always has more of his spirit for his church, the 7 stars, the 7 pastors and leaders of the church. There is always more if you want.

How many of us know the parable that Jesus told? He says, which of you…you have a scoundrel friend who comes to the house at night and says, 'look, I have guests and I need to borrow some loaves to serve you some cakes. Give it to me, I have to serve them.' And the friend at home says, 'we're all in bed now, we're not going to get up to give you anything.'

Jesus says, this man gets up and gives him everything he wants, not because he is his friend, but because this friend is so annoying, because he is a shameless friend, the literal Greek says. For being a scoundrel, he gives her everything she wants. God wants us to be a little more scoundrels with him. It's that we are ashamed, we are too appropriate sometimes.

I say this like a gringo with a tie, we are too appropriate. We have to get a little more importunate with our God. Jesus says, ask and it will be given to you. Knock and it will be opened to you. Everyone who asks receives, everyone who seeks finds, he who knocks will be opened.

Jesus says, which of you if your son asks you for bread will you give him a stone? If your daughter asks you for a fish, do you give her a snake? If you, being as bad as you are, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. God wants to give his spirit to the church but here is the important point, the church has to want it.

You have all the spirit you want, if you are satisfied you will be left with what you have, but if you are thirsty there is a glass that has no limit, of wine from heaven, wine that makes you drunk in a good way, good wine from heaven and ours. God can change even water into wine, and he saves the best for last. The best wine is ahead, if you want it, if I want it, if we are satisfied we stay.

The church in Sardis settled for human success and wanted no more of the wine. Jesus says, "I know your works, be vigilant and confirm the things that are to die because I have not found your works well finished before God."

There is more. It is that they thought for all their efforts, they had made an effort, I imagine, their church had grown, gained a reputation for being a living church. And after that, having a good name, maybe a building, they rested thinking I've arrived. There is a saying that I learned very deeply, I think it is in Proverbs, it says shrimp that falls asleep... I read this in Proverbs I don't know what. A little sleep, doze a little, a little more, rest hand on hand and thus misery will come to you like a vagabond.

The church that is not moving forward is running backwards, brothers. This church had come halfway with God. Some here know the name Terah. Have you heard this name? It's in the Bible, it's in the book of Genesis 11, he was Abraham's father. And the Bible says that Terah took his family and all his things, he lived in Ur, and he set out on a long road to get to Canaan. This man with his son Abraham and the others wanted to reach the promised land of Canaan.

But the Bible says that we don't know why, but when he arrived at a place called Aran, he stayed there and died there. His son, Abraham, received a call, 'Take everything you have and go to the land of Canaan and I will make you a great nation and you will have descendants and I will make your name great and so in you all nations will be blessed.'

I wonder if Taré had that call first, I don't know. The Bible does not say why he was on his way to the promised place, the only thing we know is that he began a journey that he did not finish, he was left halfway, he thought that he had arrived when God had another place, another destination for him.

León de Judá we have gone through a lot to get here. There are some of you who have been in this church for 30 years. Much has been sacrificed to build these buildings, many souls have been won. There is worship in English, multi-ethnic now, so many things, ministries in the city, here is the question, have we arrived? All this was done to get here now. Brothers, I have good news for you, there is still more for León de Judá.

Brothers, we have not arrived. Not everything that has been done for this was done, an entire ark is being built but now it is time for rain. Let's see how this machine works. That's like a spaceship but here we go. Brothers, let's not stay here. It is dangerous. After a lot of struggle, a lot of effort, falling asleep here when God has the best ahead of us, brothers. We have not begun to see the glory that God wants to pour out here. We haven't seen it. Wake up because you don't want to lose what is about to happen, brother. I want to be a part of it, I don't want to be there and see something happen. Still the lion wants to roar more and I want to be part of that, brothers.

You have to watch. You have to recover that fierce eye, the eye of fighters. In the morning I talked a lot about a movie that I like, the movie Rocky, that boxer who started out fighting, but then he wins and wins and wins, and then he gets comfortable and another one comes along who does have a bad eye, the eye with the tiger seeing that he looks at him and he looking down like I don't know, because he lost. He is still hungry. It's just that Rocky couldn't even look him in the eye, he looked down because he was scared. Rocky had to go back to the gym where there's sweat, where it stinks, and he had to fight to get this strength back, brothers. Some of us started out hungry and we're getting quiet and it's time to get the fierce eye back, the eye to fight, to fight for God. Let's sweat again.

We may not smell very good, but we will win the battle. The Bible says, remember therefore what you have received and heard and keep it and repent. Remember. I believe that they had not forgotten the Gospel, I believe that they had not even forgotten its history, but they had forgotten how hungry they were, how they had received the word at the beginning.

I talked about these a few months ago. Remember how you were when you first accepted Christ. The crazy for Christ that you were. I love being with new believers and the young people in our church that you give them a book and they eat it alive. You teach them about Leviticus and they eat now, I want more. They are hungry, hungry for the Lord, hungry for the spirit.

I have a dog that is very hungry. He eats whatever. He ate my computer charger, sparks and all. He is like the super dog now because he has powers. It is that we are a little picky afterwards. God wants us to hunger for the spirit.

I remember recently converted, I think I shared the testimony, 16 years old, I accepted Christ and heard the teaching of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. I heard teaching that there is more of the spirit if you seek it and that we can pray for you and lay hands on you and maybe you will speak in tongues. I said, sounds good, let's do it. Let's get in! So they all prayed for me shouting, praying in tongues, and I, 'Lord, I want more of you!' nothing. But I was not satisfied. I want to try again another day. They sang, they cried out, I was there with my eyes closed. Nothing. After weeks and weeks a group of young people were there and there were some adults, perhaps the Lord waited to move with some adults, and they prayed for me and there was a prophetic word and I was driving the car later I began to speak some words that I did not knew. I thought, have I gone crazy? am I making that up? because it's so natural. I expected a trance but it was so natural that I spoke.

Later I arrived at the house and flowing a language that I did not understand. And I walk into the house half drunk and Mom looks at me and says, 'Gregory, what do you guys do at these meetings?' And I said, 'Mommy, now I speak in tongues.' And I think I told them, ' Gregory, don't tell your dad that he's going to call the child psychologist.” I stayed that night, didn't sleep at all, praying, as if in love, talking to anyone about Jesus. I was hungry.

I remember the date, it was December 5, 1984. Only 32 years ago but the question remains, and since then what? After receiving it... I want, if someone asks me when you were filled with the Holy Spirit? I mean today morning when I was praying, I don't mean 30 years ago, I mean today. There is more for today. and then you know that tomorrow there is another glass of wine waiting for you in the morning too. And it is good, it is wine from South America, good wine as it should be, it came from the Lord. Thank God.

I want part of these 7 spirits of God, put Christ every day. Rest in it, to be alive. Being alive and being active are not the same. There can be a lot of activity without anointing and it seems to be alive without life. I do not want the appearance of life, we want the reality of life and for this we must pray. Those who hope in Jehovah will have new strength.

And it is an activity that does not exhaust, because it is by another power, the power of God and not my human effort. Brothers, I want that. You have to stay awake because brothers, time is short. The Lord is coming, because if you do not watch, Jesus says, I will come upon you like a thief and you will not know at what time I will come upon you. Just like a thief in the night, beware of conformity.

Says the word, the day of the Lord will come, just like a thief in the night. When they say, peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them. Business care as usual. Jesus said, then there will be two in the field, one will be taken and the other will be left. Two women will be grinding at a mill, one will be taken and the other will be left. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.

Brethren, time is short. The machine is already running the clock of the last hours before the Lord. It is not the time to sleep on past successes. It is time to watch and unveil waiting for his coming. And this should scare us a little because the thief in the night, but I thank God, our Jesus is a good thief. We can wait for it not with fear but with anticipation, like this boy waiting to capture Santa Claus or the three Kings in the night before arriving.

Little gringo kids do that. I don't know what Latinos do. But they are there waiting for Santa and they don't want to sleep because they don't want to lose him, brothers. Maybe you have done it with the 3 Kings, I don't know how to do it, maybe wait for the arrival of the Kings. Well, we are waiting for a real king, the king of kings and Lord of Lords. And he comes. Keep your waists tight and your lamps lit. Be like men who wait for their Lord to return from the wedding so that when he arrives he will call and they will open for him right away.

Blessed are those servants whom their Lord 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. Brothers, I do not want to lose that moment because it will be rich and beautiful when our Lord comes. Let's stay awake Let's keep our uniforms clean.

Says the word, there is more in this letter that we have to read. "But you have a few people in Sardis, says Jesus, who have not stained their clothes and they will walk with me in white clothes because they are worthy."

Part of being awake is keeping my uniform on and ready so I can serve when it's my turn. What is the white vestment uniform? In the Old Testament who were the people who walked in white garments? The priests. The head priest, he had a special uniform, but the normal priests had white fine linen garments.

Jesus is saying that you have a calling to be more than a Christian, you are a priest, you are called to be someone who enters the holy place in the courts of Jehovah and to be a people through whom the shekinah glory of Jehovah can manifest himself on earth. We are not here to be a human institution. This church exists like any real church to be like the lamp that has the fire burning. We are priests of the glory of Jehovah. And you have a job to do on that. the pastor is a small part, each one of us is called to be ministers in the temple of Jehovah.

And the question remains here, how are your clothes? Here it says that some in Sardis had not allowed their clothes to be stained, but the majority had dirty clothes because of carelessness. Now, this refers to the fact that the priest to serve in the glory of God has to be clean under the ceremonial rules of the Law of Moses. And every priest got dirty at times for any little thing, for touching unclean food, for touching a dead body, for a sore that he has, perhaps his clothes could be stained. To stay clean, the priest had to be careful every day to observe his walk and when he got dirty, like everything else got dirty, to go through the purification rites that were in the Bible.

So, God knew that for us to be willing to serve we have to be attentive and aware of him every day watching, and we are going to get dirty sometimes, because we walk in a fallen world and our feet are going to get dirty with the mud on the ground. street, but thank God there is a soap that God invented, there is a detergent that can remove any stain from your clothing, the blood of Jesus can cleanse all sin that we have.

Brethren, there is a temple here in this world and we can wash our clothes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb. Human success sometimes has nothing to do with spiritual success, with being a supernatural church, a clean church, an awakening church, a church in the white robe, ready to serve. The Lord calls us to be such a church. A successful church on earth has a name on earth, but a winning church has a name in heaven.

And Jesus promises, "I promise you that I will not blot out his name from the book of life." If you have accepted Christ as your Lord and savior, if you have received him, your name is written in that book and it is with indelible ink, an ink that cannot be erased, because your name is there, I want my name to be on that book. A graduation like no other graduation awaits us.

I don't know how many have graduated and have felt the joy, perhaps in discipleship or in a school, and you hear your name and friends shout and make noise, there is a graduation that awaits us, brothers. There is something there and I want my eyes to be marked with this vision of eternity, because there will be determined what was really worth in the eyes of eternity.

Much human success will be irrelevant before the throne of God but many things that are not noticed in this world are going to be celebrated there with clamor, with applause, with joy, not only with God but with all the Christians of history and the hundreds and thousands and thousands of angels around.

He says that you, on the other hand, have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, Jerusalem, heavenly, to the company of many thousands of angels, to the congregation of the firstborn who are registered in heaven. And God calls your name and says, well done, servant, useful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord.

Brothers, let us be such a church, successful in the eyes of God above all, not satisfied with what God has already done but hungry for what God is going to do. Lion of Judah is just beginning, brethren, we are just beginning to do the work that God has called this church to do. And you're part of it, if you're here, don't think you can hide. Everyone has a part to play in that, brothers. How is your uniform? You have to bleach it.

We are going to close this time and I am going to pray and invite people if they want to make a decision right now, but then we are going to close with the sacrament because thank God there is a solution for our sin. We have to come not once but again and again. If you have had a hard time and have done things that embarrass you, God has a solution for you. God has the cure for all sin. He wants you to be a minister before his shekinah glory, you and your house, so come to the table and let this soap, this blood of Christ cleanse you and thus we will truly have a name, a name not on earth but in the heavens.

I invite you to pray with me. I invite everyone to close their eyes and I want to invite you, if you are here and you still have not accepted Christ as your Lord and savior, I invite you to be like this young man who was like a winning boxer before us, I invite you to take a step of faith right now and say, Christ, I want my name to be written in that book, I want to hear my name in heaven, I want to be ready for your coming.

I invite you to take this step of faith and we have holy supper, I am not going to invite you to come forward, but I invite you where you are to raise your hand before God and say, Lord, write down my name. I want to see it there. God bless you, sister. Another person who wants to accept Christ, you never have and now you want to receive Jesus in your heart as your Lord, lift your name high as a winner in the Lord so that we can pray for you.

Are there some more who want to take this step of faith? I invite you not to let this moment pass. Your God is not done with you. Are there any more who want to do it? Okay, let's pray and get ready for the table.

Father, in the name of Jesus I tell you, Lord, that I want everything that you have for me. I do not want part, I want all of your spirit for me, Lord. Lord, I confess that in so many ways I have neglected myself and have allowed my garments to stain, but I ask you, Jesus, that you with your blood be my Lord and savior and cleanse me and make me qualified to serve before your throne in the coming revival and on the throne before heaven.

Lord, visit us today. I ask you for a cleansing and a spirit of renewal, I ask you to be, Lord, a church hungry and thirsty for justice, a church that is not satisfied, Lord. Wake us up where we have neglected, Lord, lift us up Lord, before you and visit us at this table, I ask it in Jesus name. Amen.