a radical life

Brothers, I invite you now to go to the word of the Lord in the Gospel according to Saint Luke, in chapter 14 and I want to talk to you about a radical life, a radical commitment to the Gospel, with Christ Jesus, a life committed to the Lord. One of the values of our vision as a church is to produce disciples who are radically committed to the Kingdom of God.

The word radical is often associated with politics, a radical is a revolutionary, dangerous, violent person. But actually the word radical is a neutral word, it refers to everything that is fundamental, everything that is passionate, everything that has to do with roots. In fact, the word radical comes from the Latin radix, it has an etymology lesson, radix which means root, where the Spanish word root comes from. It refers to everything that goes to the foundation, everything that is total, rooted in something.

And God wants a commitment from the roots, a commitment from the heart, a life radically committed to the Kingdom of God. God does not like warmth very much, God is yes and amen. He is committed, he is radical in his tastes. And we are going to see that the Gospel has to be radically lived.

As I see my brother here with his little daughter, at the risk of embarrassing him, a man who entered the Gospel relatively recently, I believe, but he came to church not that long ago, a year. And how long have you known the Lord? One year. I don't think I'm wrong then, it's recent in the Gospel, but these people can have their defects like any man has, but the important thing is that I love people who come to the kingdom and one immediately sees their passion for things of the world. Mister. They come in, they begin to live the Christian life, I see them regularly, I see them moving, and I feel that they have hugged, they have put their nails into the floor, or their hooves. It's not that I'm calling you an animal or anything, but like when one of those fast animals grabs the ground to gain momentum, so they have entered the Kingdom of God.

And I love those people who are radical, who are committed to the Kingdom of the Lord and God is doing things in their lives. They lack a lot, of course, all of us, but they are putting up a good fight. They have come to the kingdom to serve, to give, to assume an identity, they are soldiers of the Kingdom of God. And that is what God wants from us. This sermon talks about that, because it is a very important value of the Kingdom of God, commitment. We are disciples, we are not mere parishioners who come to church on Sunday with superficial piety. God doesn't want that from us. He wants a total surrender of being.

There is a passage in the Gospel according to Saint Luke that exemplifies this value of the Kingdom of God. I want to leave that in your spirit this afternoon. There is a lot of material and so I wanted to start very early, because there is a lot that I want to share with you but I am going to be reasonable, as we always are, but be prepared to receive a word from the Lord. In Luke, chapter 14, verse 25 he says the following:

“Large crowds went with him – that is very important, the writer says here that there were many people who followed Jesus at the beginning of his ministry, in the year of popularity, it was a time when the Lord healed the sick, it was the great ministerial sensation in Israel, in Jerusalem, the whole world was attached to this young preacher who performed miracles and did great things, portents, and many people thought, 'this is the one who is going to be elected.' follow him and stick with him because they thought, I want to be around when they put him in power, I want to be part of his cabinet. And the disciples often had that misunderstanding as well.

Large crowds followed the Lord because they sought benefit but did not understand what it was to truly follow Christ. And so the writer says that a large crowd went with him, but look at what he says, “and he turned and said to them – I'm reading from a Google Translate, because this morning I preached in English and I didn't have time to… so that if at any point I start to speak in tongues or look like I'm having a nervous breakdown, I'm reading from this very imperfect translation, but I'm going to try to make sense of it.

So he says, “Great crowds were going with him and coming back – the Lord had his way of doing things. Look, if large crowds followed me, do you know what I would say? I'm not going to say anything to upset you. I'm going to make them feel that everything is fine, it's good that they're happy, I'm not going to say anything that makes life difficult for them because I want them to follow me. The Lord did the opposite, he turned to them, I think a little impatient because in another passage he told them, you follow me for the loaves and fishes.

“He turned and said to them, 'If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father – there they came out like dolls, a lot of people left right away – and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, and even his own life, - at that moment there were 3 or 4 in front of him - my disciple cannot. And whoever does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple."

Imagine how radical. Now, that is the word of the Lord, what happens is that we sometimes ignore the radical nature of the commitment of the Gospel and we think that if I come to church and dress well and sometimes a little imperfectly too, I have already complied. I went to church, I punched out my card, I go home and I don't have to come back until next week. But the Gospel, the call to discipleship, is something radical, it is something complete, it includes a cross, it includes commitments, it includes a surrender of the heart. And that is what makes us worthy of being disciples of Jesus Christ.

"Because who of you wanting to build a tower does not sit down first and calculate the expenses to see if he has what he needs to finish it." Why did the Lord put that image of a person who has to calculate first when he is going to build a building like this? Do we really have the money? Do we have a congregation committed to God that can give what is required? Do we have a bank that lends us money? Do we have resources that allow us to finish this?

You do not know how many years of planning to begin the construction of this building, as well as the others as well. Because you have to count the cost first. Why does the Lord tell them to count the cost first? Because entering the Gospel is something that requires a commitment and demands a life, a lifestyle and you have to measure it. Am I really willing to take that step? And I believe that we all have to say, yes, Lord, with fear, with fear and trembling, we have to enter the waters. But you really have to measure that.

Now, understand that if you can't do that, why can't you do it? It is important that you ask yourself the question. So you have to come to the conclusion, because there are things that are more important to me than the Kingdom of God. And if so then, imagine, with whom are you making a pact at that moment? With someone you are making a pact.

I was listening to a song on a CD by Bob Dylan, he just won the Nobel Prize for Literature, something incredible, a singer of protest music and folk music, winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. Bob Dylan met Jesus Christ, he is Jewish, many years ago and he made about 3 recordings and there is one that I love. It's the first one on his first CD and it's called 'You've got to serve somebody.' Look it up if you can. In his inimitable style, he tells someone you're going to have to serve either the devil or the Lord but you're going to have to serve someone. And he, in his poetic genius, does it in an incredible way. It is not the normal hymn that you hear in churches. He is an artist, a poet writing, but he repeats it over and over again, you can be a leader of a corporation or you can be a beggar, but you will have to serve someone. Either you serve the devil or you serve the Lord, but you've got to serve somebody.

So, you have to ask yourself who I am going to serve. If I'm still not going to serve the Lord, I'm still going to be serving the devil and the flesh. But one does have to count the cost of Christian service because it is not just anything. Serving Christ is not living the easy life that so many Christians think, it is a commitment. And what I would like you to leave with at least that concern in your heart that you have to make a calculation, lest after you have laid the foundation you cannot finish and take your hand off the plow and suffer loss. Because the Christian life is a life of commitment and at the end of verse 33 it says:

"Therefore, any of you who does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be my disciple."

Have you given up everything you own? To be honest, what's more, I can't even say that I've given up everything I own and I'm preaching this sermon, imagine. There are many who have given up far less than they should. But the acceptance of Christ and the entrance to the Kingdom of God also implies a renunciation of many things.

What is it that you own? What is it that you love? Everything you consider important you have to give up. Now how do you quit? What you do is an internal transaction, it is not that right now you go home and hand over the keys to the landlord and say, I'm leaving my wife, children, home, work, everything and I'm going to be a I am a beggar, as the Hindus sometimes do, and I am going to walk naked down the street, commending myself to the grace of God. No. It is an interior renunciation of the heart, of the mind, where you give the keys of everything you have and everything you possess to the Lord and you say, Father, now you have control and give me back what you want, but I don't belong to myself.

How many of us have made that transaction? When a man or a woman makes that transaction, God listens to him and honors his request. I tell you from experience because I grew up in the Gospel from a very young age but for many years I lived with one foot in the world and the other foot in the Kingdom of God, and the day I decided to radically surrender to the Lord, it's like someone turned on the light . Incredible. If I serve the Lord today it is because God was waiting for that moment and I still have to give more every day, I have not arrived.

But when you take seriously and renounce, the Lord listens, it is clear, and he comes with all his power and all his resources into your life to do great things in you. A resignation. Remember the story of the rich young ruler? The rich young man was a very religious man, he was a deacon in the church, from time to time he even preached, but he had no internal satisfaction because he had not given up everything he had.

And it is what happens, you can come to church many times a year, Christmas, Easter, for different things but you have not given your heart. You are in the church but the church is not in you. So, God knows that, and the devil knows that too. The devil because he is a psychologist, God because he knows all things. But he studies us and he knows an engaged man and woman and a non-engaged man or woman. And then your Christian life will walk according to that transaction that you have made.

The rich young man was inside the church, a man of power, social influence, piety, he wanted to do good things but he had no peace in his heart. He heard from Jesus that he had a different calling for the people of Israel, one day he suddenly approached the Lord, he says he came running, he knelt down, "Lord, what do I have to do to win eternal life?" and the Lord set him up, tripped him up, said, "What you have to do is keep the commandments and go to church regularly." Sir, but I have done that since I was a child. I know the commandments, I know the rosary, and I know the Our Father and all those things, I know the Bible." And he said, “Ah, well, that's fine, well, if that's the case, you only need one little thing, take all your money, go to the ATM right now, take everything you have, give it to the poor and come and follow me. ”

The Bible says that the boy thought, wow, leaving my money, leaving my influence, my house everything, and he turned his back and went home sad just as he arrived. And then the Lord turned to his disciples and said, wow, do you see how difficult it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven?

And you'll say, well, thank God I'm not rich so that doesn't apply to me. No, we are all rich in something, we all have possessions that we do not want to give to the Lord, it may be a relationship that you have that is not good for you, a job, a practice, a habit, a temperament trait, there is something in your life, a career, aspirations that you have for the future, there is something in your life, you are a good dancer and you like to go to the disco every Saturday and there you get into trouble, but that is nice because everyone sees you when you're dancing and spinning around there. And how are you going to leave that? Do you like women or men, how are you going to leave that?

All those friends who drink and give you a happy time, how are you going to stop that? and then we are like the rich young ruler. And the Lord is there telling you, you have to surrender. Now, he tells you that and he says, you know what? I will allow you to pay in installments. You can go little by little. Enter the Kingdom, but enter knowing that God is going to change you, do not enter believing that you are going to keep all your wealth, because you have to give up everything. In your heart you have to give up.

This young man was not able to do that and he went home sad, as many of us go home on Sundays when the pastor makes a call and I say, no, I'm not ready yet. You go home defeated. You have to give up many things. This young man could not embrace the radical call of Jesus Christ, to give things up. The vitality and joy of the Christian life imply a renunciation of many things. And that's what I'm talking about. My sermon speaks to this thought, any legitimate relationship with God has to begin with a radical commitment, a total subjection, a complete surrender of self to the sovereign claims of Jesus Christ and his kingdom. Amen.

If you understand that, you can go home. Any legitimate relationship with Christ implies a total surrender. The Lord is not satisfied with two thirds, 30%, everything has to be delivered to the Lord. You have to deliver a blank letter to the Lord, with a signature below saying, write what you want in the story of my life. How cute was that!

God takes himself very seriously. For him it is all or nothing, it is that there is nothing bigger, more powerful than God in the universe. He takes himself seriously and he demands a radical surrender. We see this in the Old Testament, in the New Testament, the great characters that we see in the Bible were men and women of radical commitment, of total devotion to the Lord and they were willing to risk life, property, reputation, influence, esteem of others, everything to please the Lord.

Abraham was willing to kill his own son and left his land and his kindred. Daniel was willing to take on the wrath of the man he most respected who was the king of Babylon, he served the king of Babylon, but Daniel said, you know what, king? I love your affection but I will not worship gods nor will I eat food sacrificed to demons. He was willing and God honored and blessed him greatly.

Bible history is full of committed people willing to risk everything. What is the first commandment? Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. The 10 commandments are the essence, the heart of the church and of the Christian life and among those 10 commandments that are the essence, the essence of the essence is that commandment, it is the first. Unite all the faculties of our being, all of them, and direct them towards that sovereign throne of God and Christ Jesus. Love him with all your heart, all soul, all strength.

How many can we say? nobody. But that is what God requires of us, a total surrender of being, that is why it is there as the first commandment. The great heroes of the faith – read Hebrews 11 – those great men and women of the faith were radical believers, they were sawed, tortured, persecuted, many of them lived miserable lives. Others had great victories, they fought against giants, David. They defeated evil people like Esther. They earned a living for themselves and their families as Raab, the prostitute who accepted the Lord and defended her family. They were all willing to risk something, they all gave themselves to the Lord and that is why they entered the pantheon, the hall of fame of faith, because what distinguished them was a radical commitment.

But that commitment has… why do they put those men there? Because they are supposed to be models for us to imitate. They are simply inspiring role models but they cannot be role models if we do not inspire them. Let's not establish a barrier as artificial and say, no, that's them, glory to God. Amen bless them Lord. No. That means, I have to be like them. I have to live like this radically.

On the other hand, there are people who are not committed, they are double-minded people, and the Bible says that the double-minded man, the double-minded woman is like the waves of the sea that are moved from one side to the other, leaves that they are moved He says, whoever has that type of attitude should not think that they will receive anything from the Lord, that is in Santiago, read it so you can see. I am Roberto Santiago, yes, but that is Santiago who says it.

He says, O double-minded souls, do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God. Why don't we get what we ask for? Because we are double minded. The Lord wants radically committed people. Jehoshaphat's father, one of the most famous kings in the Bible, Asa, was a double-minded man. At the beginning of his kingdom God did a tremendous work and delivered him from a great enemy. Years passed Asa lost his faith and one day another great enemy came and was surrounding his city, Judea, and Asa forgot what God had done and sought an alliance with a pagan king and took the treasure out of the temple and gave it to this king to defend him and he got out of his predicament. This king, as he was paid, defended him and he said, uh, I got rid of that one.

When he came one day to his palace, the quietest thing, a prophet appeared to him and said, look, you don't know that the eyes of God look at the whole earth, they travel all over the earth to see those with a perfect heart towards him, to be strong in your favor. And now you have committed a madness because instead of that firm call, that dedication to the Lord, you established an alliance.

Many times we establish an alliance with money, with society, many things, and we look for defenses, we stop going to church, we stop serving the Lord, we make commitments with the world and we get out of trouble, but the Lord sees us. And then we continue fighting the same battles because we have not gone to the one who truly requires our alliance.

Asa was a double-minded man. But look what it says here, "the eyes of God run to and fro throughout the earth to show his power on behalf of those whose hearts are perfect toward him."

In this text there are 2 teachings, one, the double-minded person is not going to receive anything from the Lord, but there is the reverse side, the corollary of that principle and that is that God shows his power in favor of those who have a perfect heart, heart radically committed to the Lord.

If you want to experience the glory of God, the power of God moving in your favor, commit yourself, give your life, dive into the waters. Many of us in this service want God to move mightily. Perhaps there are ties in your life, perhaps you are going through a difficult financial situation, health, marriage, your children, your career, your studies, I have learned that everything begins by giving ourselves to the Lord, making a commitment, joining hands with him and then he becomes our helper, our strengthener, our warrior, our flag, our defender, our representative, our manager.

And there is nothing like living that life administered by the grace of God. Then, the word of the prophet becomes real in your life because the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn that increases until the day is perfect. It will take 30, 40, 60 years but your life will go up. You will not have to rebuild your house after each storm because it will be on a solid foundation that is the word of the Lord. Ally yourself radically with the Lord and you will see his power manifest in your favor. You will then understand what the God who keeps his promises truly is.

Many of us do not experience the joy of the Lord, the power of the Lord, because God is waiting for us to rise up and say, Lord, if I perish I perish but I am going to put all my resources in your hands, and I am going to see if truly your Are you God or not? How many of us have taken all the chips we have and we've collected them on the table and we say, Lord, I bet you, and he throws it all in front of him. When you do that, angels come immediately to cover you with their wings and it is heard from the Kingdom of God, I was waiting for you to do this to come to your aid and in your favor.

There is a sacrifice, a surrender that must be made for the power of God to manifest in our lives. I want to commit you to that. I'm going to quickly take these remaining minutes to draw a profile of what are the characteristics of a person. I've already said them in a coded form, but now I'm going to summarize them like this.

If I had to paint a profile, a portrait of a man, a woman radically committed to the Lord, what are the characteristics? And every time I mention one, that profile will become more and more real and I want you to compare these characteristics with your life.

Number 1, if you are a radically committed man or woman, a disciple, a disciple, you will live a lifestyle that honors God's word and commandments. You seek personal holiness, the favor of the Lord God in all that you do. You seek the approval of the Lord. You are engaged, a life of holiness. And when I mention that word we all tremble. I tremble because it is a life of commitment to the principles, the commandments of the Lord. You have a desire to live holy, pleasing before God.

The radical Christian life requires a commitment to the Lord. In Luke chapter 6, verse 46, the Lord says, "Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I tell you?" The Lord was sick of people saying, oh, yes, Lord, but he didn't understand what the word Lord meant. That means, you are the owner, you are the sovereign, you are the ruler, I will do what you command. Your life is [inaudible] to the principles of the Kingdom of God. You want more, no one reaches that point in their entire life completely, but you are a person who is in search of holiness, you are in search of a life committed to the Lord, an experience that pleases the Lord. And we are all trying to do our best with the help of the Holy Spirit to please the Lord.

And if you have not achieved it, I emphasize that, the Lord works with you, but God wants you to have that desire, that move in that direction. Holiness, a lifestyle that honors the word of God. Luke 6:46 – write down these passages and then study them.

Number 2. If you are personally radically committed to the kingdom, the Bible, say everyone, the Bible, it is the basis of your life, the foundation of your life. You study the word diligently and you know that this word is sacred and is the source of your energy. Because how are you going to know the commandments, how are you going to be able to align your life with God, which is the first characteristic that we mentioned, if you do not know the word of the Lord. There are the rights and responsibilities of a believer. The mature Christians I know adore that word, they love it. Your Bible is a very powerful weapon in your hands. A soldier is being taught how to assemble and disassemble his weapon and there are many images of people...

Interestingly, there was a representative from the House of Representatives who recently won the elections, do you know how he won them? In this time of nationalism and patriotism here in America, he had been a soldier when he was younger and in a campaign ad they put a blindfold on him and he took apart a rifle with his eyes closed and went back and quickly reassembled it. People said, wow, this man is a patriot, a soldier who wants to serve his country and he gave an example of being a committed man as a soldier. That got him a lot of approval from a lot of people and he won his campaign based on that political ad. Sure… but it indicated something.

What happens is that a soldier has to know his weapon very well and he has to be able to arm it, disarm it, if it locks him, if he gets into the water and doesn't want to work. It's your life. A soldier is taught, he drops his rifle in an exercise and they put him in prison almost because that rifle is sacred, it is his life. The Bible is that for you and me. You have to know the word of the Lord.

How many of us spend time studying the Bible, getting to know the word of God? Brother, I would like to turn into a figure eight here, become an acrobat, do something to point out to you how important it is that you know the word of God. Study the word of the Lord. Become an assiduous student of the word of God.

I used to tell my brothers about our mother who died several years ago, and I am privileged to have the Bible that she used years ago when she was young. Maybe Marina doesn't know that and she's going to ask me because I stole it, or Nancy who is here too, but I have it at home and sometimes she looks at it, the back pages of the Bible dislocated, underlined everywhere. parts. I was saying why underline it if everything is already underlined, and the idea is that I underline it to know what is important. Red, yellow, black, white, sentences written in the margin. My mother's biography is in that Bible. And it's one of several that she wore because she wore them out throughout her life.

Brothers, young people, others, you cannot be a powerful Christian if you do not know the Bible. I tell you, memorize the scriptures, let it live within you, become blind energy, move within you and shape your mind. The word of God is alive and effective. You know that I believe that the word of God is even conscious, it has consciousness, it is the heart of God poured into rational concepts, but it is alive, and when you ingest it, it moves within you and configures your character, your personality to her because she is powerful. Put it in. Study it, get to know it because that word is going to do a transforming work in your life. God is tired of Christians who don't know their rifle. The Bible is the basis of his life.

Number 3. As a radical Christian you live to serve the Lord and to advance the interests of his kingdom. You are radically committed to the Kingdom of God, your life exists to advance the Kingdom of God. And everything you have, everything you are has value and justification because you are investing it in the Kingdom of God. If there is something in the Kingdom of God that demands your resources, you give it. You serve. We just honored Sister Sonibel and her family because they are people who exemplify that, they work to live, they don't live to work. They work to serve the Lord.

When you are in this mindset everything you have and are exists to be a resource to the Lord. If you have something of value you invest it in the Kingdom of God. You are in the world and you do things but it is because you simply have to do it but your greatest interests are in advancing the Kingdom of God. You are a pilgrim and a foreigner on this earth and you use the things of the world lightly because you have to, but your interest, your loyalty is in the kingdom of the Lord.

You do not have, this is mine and this is God's. Everything is from God. And you are willing to invest everything for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. I wish we had time. Matthew 6:33 says, "seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all other things will be added."

When you exist for the Kingdom of God, God gives you everything else. It comes without pain because God becomes your great helper and representative. You live to serve the Lord.

Number 4. And this is linked to that thought, your life is not yours, nor does it exist anymore, you are hidden in Christ Jesus. That's in Colossians 3:3. You died to the world. The word of God says, "if the grain of wheat does not fall to the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies it bears much fruit."

You have to die to live. You have to let go to receive. You have to give to have. You have to abandon to enter into spiritual wealth. One must die in order to truly be a tree that bears fruit in the Lord. You have to die to your appetites, loyalties, dreams, desires, priorities, and you already died. You are a living dead. This place must be full of the living dead, in the best sense of the word. We are dead who live like Christ Jesus. My life does not exist, that is why he says, "I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." Paul could talk about it because he had left everything behind and had to reinvent himself as a man in the light of the word of the Lord. Your life is not yours, it is hidden in Christ. You have died, your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Many of us are too alive, that is our problem. We haven't died enough. When you die then you live, you become a dangerous weapon for the Kingdom of God. Each of these principles we could preach a sermon on. They are deep. But your life is hidden in Christ Jesus.

Number 5. First, your lifestyle responds to the Lord. Two, the Bible is the foundation of your life. Three, you live to serve the Lord and advance the interests of his kingdom. Four, your life is hidden and lost in Christ Jesus. Number 5, the world and what you have to offer is of secondary importance, similar, but I want to isolate that principle.

The first thing was that your life has to die, now the world fades too and no longer has the power it has on many of us. The world becomes secondary. That beautiful song that we sing at funerals but was not made to be sung at funerals, "the world cannot be my home, in glory I have my mansion, the world cannot be my home." And we sing it for the dead instead of saying for the living too.

The Bible says that we are foreigners and pilgrims. We are passing through the world. the world has already lost its attraction. Our appetite for the world, the things of the world, the interests of the world is fading more and more every day and we live as citizens of the eternity of the Kingdom of God. Money, pleasure, success, social influence, human relationships, become totally secondary.

In James chapter 4, in verse 4 we have a passage, “O you adulterous souls, do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity against God?” you see something of a constant theme in this. God is radical. Either you are with me or you are against me. Either you serve me or we scatter. Thus said the Lord once, "he who does not serve me, scatters." The Lord is black and white, yes or no, and it is so, he is binary. You are or you are not, or you are with me or you are against me. Either you are with the world or you are with my kingdom.

“O adulterous souls, do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity against God? Anyone who wants to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God." A mature person, committed to the Lord, is a person that the world either takes him or leaves him. The mayor is coming here to the church, and amen, it's good that you're here, brother God bless you, we're going to pray for you, thank you, see you soon. Let's worship the Lord now. We appreciate our authorities, but that doesn't make us hot or cold because no one takes the place of the Lord.

If you ever see me greeting someone up here or coming here, don't you dare think for a moment that person means much to me or to this church, you know, because we don't worship men or give homage to no man sincerely. It doesn't make me hot or cold, honestly, because the only one we honor is the Lord, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. So don't be upset that he comes up here or that he doesn't represent your values or whatever, those people don't even step on the mat. There is a layer between the carpet and your feet because we serve the Kingdom of God.

The world passes and its pleasures but what does the will of God remains forever. Understand that. The world does not matter to us Christ matters. We work, we earn money, people come and pay homage to us, that slips us. If you don't like it, it also slips because the world and men... it happens to one as a pastor many times too. But we do not allow ourselves to be influenced because the world, neither men nor anyone has that power to affect us as puppets what they think. The world loses its shine. You have detached yourself, you have disconnected and unplugged from the world.

Sixth. You are in a constant personal search for spiritual perfection. They are in constant process, constantly going towards something seeking to be more and more like Christ. A radically committed person wants his life to conform more and more to the person of Jesus. The word speaks of how we are transformed little by little, that our face reflects more and more the face of Jesus by looking at him, our life is colored by the perspective of Jesus, by studying the word, repeating the same truths throughout our lives, to glorify Jesus, to ask that his heart become ours, to pray in many ways, little by little we change and we look more and more like Christ. And so we are in continuous process.

The Christian who is – Gregory mentioned in his sermon, Shrimp that falls asleep is carried away by the current, last Sunday. It is so. Look, if you stopped flowing in the Gospel, you're dead. Everything in the universe flows and pulsates, the galaxy is continually expanding, the planets revolve around their suns at thousands of miles per minute, and revolve around themselves too and within themselves pulsate with the life of the atoms that compose them. The human body, the blood does not stop flowing, the heart does not stop beating, you do not stop breathing in and out, your lungs are always contracting and expanding. Everything in the universe throbs, moves. The Christian has to be the same, he has to be in continuous process.

The Christian who rested on his laurels and came to church to sit flattened, no, you can't. You have to be restless. Lord, how can I serve you more? How can I be more like Christ? How can I get rid of these things that besiege me? He is not happy, he is always in flux, knowing more about the word, looking for what to do in the kingdom, restless, that is part of the life of a believer. To be in continuous personal and spiritual search to be more and more like Christ.

Romans 12, verses 2 to 4: "Do not be conformed to this century, but be transformed by the continuous renewal of your understanding so that you may verify what is God's good, pleasing and perfect will."

What we said before, do you want to confirm the perfect will of God? Do not conform to this world but rather be continually, perpetually transformed, be in process, renewing yourself, knowing more, learning more, serving more, giving more, dying more, and then the Lord becomes more powerful within you and in favor of you . Constant search for spiritual perfection and configuration more and more according to Jesus Christ.

First Peter 2:9 gives us another principle. As a Christian committed to the Lord, you are not ashamed of the Gospel, as Paul says, "because I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes." You are not ashamed of Christ before men, on the contrary, you are a witness. That is what I want to configure, that you are a witness of Jesus Christ, you testify about your faith, you passionately want to lead others to the knowledge of Christ. You are bearing fruit.

The Bible says that we are set apart so that we can make known the power of the Gospel to give glory to him who called us out of darkness into his admirable light, to give him fruit, to announce the Gospel, so that you may announce the virtues of him who called you. from darkness into his marvelous light.

Are you testifying of Christ? Are you bringing others to the knowledge of Jesus? Are you restless to bring? How many of us have brought relatives? How many of us have given birth to just one additional Christian? And if we are not going to ask the Lord, start praying for someone, for your bloody boss, for your husband who needs saving, for your neighbor across the street, for your colleague who makes your life difficult when they are assembling a piece in the factory assembly belt, whatever.

Pray. Bring someone. Invite even someone to church or ask them if you want you to pray for him and if he wants to accept Christ right there. The worst he can tell you is no, but maybe you gave him a central blow and he's going to bleed out little by little and he's going to have to come to the God Realm at some point.

We will serve by witnessing. A believer bears fruit. The Lord appointed us to bear fruit. The Lord also says it, "I have appointed you so that you bear much fruit and that your fruit will remain." If you are not bearing fruit you are not doing what you are supposed to do in the Kingdom of God.

And the family of faith is important, Galatians 6:10. What is the family of faith? Church. I sincerely tell you my brothers, for me the brothers of the faith are much more important than my own biological family, thank God that the vast majority already know the Lord, but my loyalty is mainly with the family of faith. I have no nation, I have no biological family, my family is the Kingdom of God and those who sincerely love the Lord. That may sound outrageous.

Remember what the Lord Jesus Christ said, "if you do not hate your father and mother," that is, if you do not have them in such a lack of importance that it seems that you hate them, you cannot be my disciple. The committed Christian transfers his citizenship to the Kingdom of God. You are no longer Caribbean, Central American, South American, black, white, rich, poor, you are a member of the Kingdom of God and anyone who is a member of the Kingdom of God is your brother and your family and you exist to advance your family. You are loyal to your family, you defend your family.

Your local church where you are a member becomes your strength, your fortress, your point of support. You support their projects, you support their meetings, you come on Sunday not only because it is a blessing for you but because your church needs to see you here, because if you are absent, your absence is felt because your church is the detachment that God is using to to do a work of which you are a member and you have to support it so that this detachment has everything it needs to do the work of the Kingdom of God. Amen.

That is why you have to be faithful, not only to the kingdom but to your church. That's how it is. The Bible says, in Galatians 6:10 that we seek first what is for the family of faith. It says here, "so as we have opportunity let's do good to everyone and mostly to those of the family of faith." Look at that. Do all the good you want, but first of all to your family.

There are brothers who say, no, because I send my tithe to my church in Puerto Rico, in Santo Domingo, which needs it, but it's eating from here, I'm sorry it's like that, it's about time, maybe I'm hungry and I'm a little bit annoying. Look, your priority is here. Now if you also want to send to another place, glory to God, but that is separate. His allegiance is with the family of faith here. It is so, brothers. I'll give you theology next Sunday if you want, but now just accept what I'm saying because there are needs here too and you feed on this family.

The extended family must also give. The Christian has to be generous in many ways, but one has to serve where you eat, where you receive, so that that place can be better for your children and you can do the work of the Lord. The family of faith I know that I lost 10% of you there but it's okay.

And last but not least, you have a strong devotional life. You pray and praise regularly on your own and seek the fullness of the Holy Spirit in your life. He has a contagious, vibrant spirituality. Ephesians 5:18 and 19 says the Bible “do not get drunk with wine but be filled with the Holy Spirit praising the Lord and serving him in all kinds of religious activities,” that is the Miranda translation.

It says, "do not be drunk with wine in which there is dissolution, rather be filled with the spirit speaking among yourselves with psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing and praising the Lord in your hearts, always giving thanks for everything to God and Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. A strong devotional life.

How many of us pray during the week? How many of us read the word of the Lord? How many of us take time to melt in front of Dad? Those are the richest moments of the whole week, when you are there absorbed like Mary, happy that the Lord has entered your room and you are there seeing the Lord and loving and adoring him, and he is delighted with your babbling in love.

How many read the word, adore the Lord, sing, even if it's out of tune? Don't worry, when you get up there you're perfectly sanitized. A devotional life, always singing, praising the Lord. You cannot come to church and think that here you are going to eat as you should, it has to be at home. Here we come to give the Lord the fruit of our worship during the week. It is so.

And finally, say glory to God, amen, Hallelujah! If you are a Christian radically committed to God, the love of Christ is expressed through your relationships with others. Do you know why I put this at the end? Because the Lord once asked a man, what is the greatest commandment of all? And the man said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. And the Lord said, wow, you can see that he knows the Bible, because he didn't just stay vertical, but also horizontal.

When you are a man or a woman radically touched by the Kingdom of God, your human relationships reflect the love of Christ. You are a loving father, not perfect but loving, you are a dedicated mother, not perfect, but dedicated. You are a kind husband who serves your wife and vice versa. You are a worker who testifies with the quality of your service that your company or your firm, that you are a man or a woman of God. You give 8 hours of work for 8 hours of pay. You are a good friend, you do not speak ill of those who trust you. You express the love of Christ with part of your goods, your time, visits to the sick.

I end with an illustration. This morning at the 9 o'clock service, 4 Americans came. They had never come to our church, I have known them for many years, I see them because I am a member of a Gordon College board of directors and one of them is a trustee, is on the board of directors, and another has been an official of that organization. And the Lord moved them to come to church this morning, one is a retired pastor of many years, an illustrious pastor here in the city of Boston and its surroundings.

And they came to the church to visit her. It caught me by surprise. And I was like, wow, I should have studied my sermon better this morning. In the end I had the opportunity to greet them and they looked at me with the same astonishment with which another woman who came to the church 2 Sundays ago also looked, from the board of directors, to visit the church, and the sense of admiration for this congregation. And I say that to encourage their hearts, because they told me, "Roberto, we leave blessed in many ways and what moved us the most is the kindness and love of this town and the attention that is shown to people, to the dignity of people."

And someone said, you know what? We started to feel that since we were coming from the parking lot because people greeted us on the way here. Now regret if someone closed your car too much, what is missing is that there is a fight many times. Brothers, thank you, but know that our church also has many wrinkles, we are not perfect, we are far away. Because you have to make that warning.

But how nice when people come and say it all the time. In this church there is something and it is good that they are different... they saw African-Americans, whites, faded, they saw homeless, they saw people with money, other poor people, whatever, and they say, and all in harmony. That moved them. What moved them was the love they saw and that is not exceptional, that is why we have to preserve that, brothers. Bite your tongue before you speak in an inappropriate way, gossip about a brother, desecrate this beautiful place with a dishonest word, offensive to the Lord about someone, whatever. Look, it's better to lose what you have to lose, but don't sully the integrity of this sacred family, dirtying it with carnal acts. No, we are going to defend why human relations are so important.

The horizontal is as important as the vertical. May God allow us to grow more every day in being more like Christ Jesus in the treatment of others. May the fruit of the Holy Spirit, which is goodness, love, patience, peace, joy, benevolence, good feelings, Galatians 5:20 to 22, may the fruit of the spirit manifest. If you are a Christian truly committed to the Kingdom of God, your life, your human relationships will reflect that.

May the Lord help us to become more and more like Christ. Amen. To continually read his word, to adore him, to die more to self, to detach ourselves more and more from the world, to announce the Gospel, to bear fruit, to give everything we have in our treasure to the Lord, etc. that is what God wants from us.

Help us Lord to be radical Christians. Lower your head for a moment. And re surrender your life to the Lord. And if you have not yet given your life to Jesus Christ why not do it right now too. We open this moment too, if someone wants to put their life in the hands of Jesus I invite you to do it now and we would love to pray for you. I know it's a bit rushed and that's why I don't like to arrive at this moment in such a hurry, but amen.

The children are entering their classrooms, but if there is someone who wants to give their life to the Lord, stand up and someone come to your behalf or right here. If you want to give your life to the Lord and you haven't done it before, you want to put your life in the hands of Christ, you want to take that step of faith, surrender, commit yourself to the Lord, I invite you to do it now while I wait a little longer, yes you want to do it stand up and we will pray for you.

And if I don't want each of us to walk out of here with even one of those 10 thoughts ingrained in our minds. Has God spoken to you in any way? Have you asked yourself, am I a Christian who can serve Christ because I am doing what he says? Am I filling that task, the profile of that believer, of that servant, that servant of God? I can say yes, I don't fill it one hundred percent, but 80, 75% and the other 25 that I need, I want to get as close as possible before I die.

Surrender, commitment to the Lord. I want you to leave restless this afternoon, restless and calm too. The Lord accepts you just as you are, but he wants to show himself powerful in your favor by unifying your heart before the God who is already unified in himself. I bless you in the name of the Lord.

Father, our church, allow this word to bathe this congregation, let the breeze of the content of this word blow now and comb every place and I include myself in that, Father, bathe us with your values. We want to be a pleasant people to you and we renounce all foreign love, all passion that is not yours, all loyalty that is not yours, all practice that is not what you approve of, all appreciation of anything that not be what you appreciate, Lord.

We are very far from what we have preached but we embrace it as the goal, the target, the vision to obey and we say amen in our hearts. Help us to arrive, Father, to be that people that you like for their committed hearts. On this day I tie my people, Lord, to the values of your kingdom. We tie ourselves with ties of love and life to the values of your kingdom. We want to be instruments in your hands, Father.

This church desperately wants to be a weapon in your hands for the advancement of the Kingdom of God in this city. Help us to do it, Father, there is such a need. Here we are offering ourselves. Here we are, send us and prepare us, Father. We glorify you, thank you for all the life that has been manifested in this meeting this morning, in this place, Father, in the meetings that have been held parallel to this in this church and in this city and we give it all to you, Lord, for your glory and your honor in the name of Jesus. And the people of God say amen. I bless you in the name of Jesus, my brothers, go in peace. Amen.