Lose to win

I invite you to go to the Gospel according to Saint Luke in chapter 2. Through this reading and this meditation I want to match, in a sense, and synchronize with last Sunday's preaching where I spoke about radical commitment, total surrender to the Lord , a life radically committed to the Kingdom of God, a surrender of our entire being to the Lord, a life that pleases the Lord, a life where everything has been lost to gain everything, where we leave everything to have all of God in our hearts . Amen.

If we don't lose everything we can't win everything. The Bible is full of those images of losing to win. When the disciples had their encounter with Jesus in the deep sea, it is said that they left their nets, they followed the Lord. Levi, I think it was, I don't remember which character was a tax accountant, he had another name as well, and he also left his changing table and went and followed the Lord.

The Lord asked the rich young man, hey, sell everything you own and follow me and you will be happy and you will have God. So, we see that radical call, to lose everything, leave everything, father, mother, brothers, and live a life radically surrendered to the Lord. And I want, brothers, desperately to strengthen you in that call and myself and our entire congregation, we want to be a church of people committed to the kingdom, not Sunday people. Amen. Not people who put on the evangelical hat when they walk through the door and then hang it up so they can pick it up next Sunday. No. People who live on a slow fire consuming themselves for the glory of God, who have a vital devotional life, who continually meditate on the word of the Lord, who in their jobs are witnesses of Jesus Christ, people who love others and are kind and compassionate to the others, who exemplify the character and fruit of the Holy Spirit.

we want that. I wish, I greatly hope that on a day like today, with a little rain, I do not have to fear how many people will arrive at the church, because I know that everyone who can will come and even if it is snowing they will bring a sled or skis or whatever, but they're going to get to the Lord's church as much as possible. Also one has to be prudent many times. But people whose heart is a surrendered heart, surrendered to the Lord, a church of disciples who are living the life of the Gospel red hot.

So we talked about all that and this afternoon I want to do two things through this sermon, number 1, reinforce that call to a radical commitment, to a radical life with the Lord through this reading and these characters that appear here. So, number 1 continue to reinforce last Sunday's sermon. And number two, also celebrate Christmas time with a Christmas reading and meditation that has to do with the advent of Jesus, the coming of Christ into the world in the time that we celebrate today and that we call Christmas.

Luke chapter 2 beginning with verse 21 talks about when the Lord completed 8 days of birth, which was what was customary, the law said that at 8 days a child was presented in the temple to be circumcised. The parents of Jesus obediently... note something very interesting that the Lord did not come to abrogate the law, the Lord did not come to undo it, he says that he came to fulfill the law and to interpret it correctly. And we see here that the parents of Jesus in obedience to the Old Testament, which were the scriptures that they had, brought Jesus on the eighth day to circumcise him and also on the eighth day the name was already formally given, it was considered that the child was already rooted in life, so to speak, and already formally named. And they called him Jesus in obedience also to the word and commandment of the angel and to the prophetic word that Zacharias and Elizabeth received that his name would be Jesus which comes from the word of Joshua, which means 'God saves'.

In the very nature and in the very name of Jesus there was this idea of being the savior of the world and that was given the name, because in the Old Testament and in the New Testament the name of a person as incarnating nature, the prophetic aspirations of the parents who named that child. Then he was called Jehovah Yavé saves, Jesus is the content of that name. And they named him Jesus, which had been given to him by the angel before he was conceived.

And when the days of their purification were fulfilled, because again, the law also said that a woman after giving birth had to spend a certain time at rest and in separation until her purification was completed, long story there, but they also obeyed that commandment because it was what they knew at that time, it was the law, it was the scriptures that they understood. And then Mary and her husband go there when those days are fulfilled according to the law of Moses and they brought the Lord to Jerusalem, they brought Jesus to present him to the Lord as it is written in the law, that every firstborn male who opens the womb would be called holy to the Lord.

That also the Lord said when the Jews were going to leave Egypt, that every firstborn male should be consecrated to the Lord. And so they came and presented Jesus in that capacity. And they also came to offer, according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two pigeons. Interesting detail there. You know that poor people were not expected to bring, for example, a lamb, wealthier people brought a lamb but for people who did not have much means in that particular rite, they were allowed to bring turtledoves, pigeons, which already indicates something of the socio-economic status of José and María.

They were not people who were destitute, they were not destitute, as they were... Jesus was born in a manger because there was no place, everything was full, it was the time of registration, but they could possibly have paid for a small hotel if there had been. They were not rich, they were obviously from the working class and that is why their offering was a modest offering, a pair of turtle doves or two pigeons.

But here we now come to matter. I want you to see these marvelous characters that accompany this story, Simeon and Ana. It says that there was already a man named Simeon here in Jerusalem and this man, just and pious, - remember those words - expected the consolation of Israel.

Here is a characteristic about this man, just, pious, he expected the consolation of Israel and something very beautiful, very important, he says that the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he saw the Lord's anointed. And moved by the spirit, three times the spirit accompanying the life of this wonderful man, is over him, reveals something very powerful and moves him to come to the temple.

Moved by the Holy Spirit, he came to the temple and when the parents brought the child Jesus to the temple to do for him according to the rite of the law, Simeon, this old man, advanced in years, took the baby, the child Jesus in his arms. and he blessed God saying, and this is a prophecy what he is also saying here, and very revealing of Simeon's character, that I want us to also see something of his psychology, that we too should imitate.

He says, now Lord you send your servant away in peace. Notice something very interesting, is that he speaks in the future. He is not speaking the imperative, dismiss your servant, now Lord you are dismissing, now you dismiss your servant in peace according to your word, because my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples.

Notice where Simeon's mind is when he says these things. And we're going to deal with that a little bit later. He is light for revelation to the Gentiles and glory to your people Israel. And José and his mother were amazed, amazed at everything that was being said about him at that moment. And Simeon blessed them and said to his mother, Mary, behold – what can sometimes be the prophetic word, can sometimes be a little shocking and he says, behold this one, this one is not contemptuous, it is a mystery one , this being, this human being, this character that I have just taken in my arms is set for the fall and rise of many in Israel.

Do you know that when the Holy Spirit is moving powerfully in an environment, in a life, dangerous things happen. The Holy Spirit is dangerous. When the Holy Spirit is moving in an environment, it will be better for us to be on our toes because the Holy Spirit has its sides... Here it says that Jesus is set for the fall and rise of many.

There are many people who want to heal Jesus, turn him into a meek little lamb, into something we can consume, a doll that we can carry in our wallets. The Lord is sinister. The Lord divides. The Lord creates dangers, many fall before him and others rise up. There is division. The Lord said that he came to divide. Many people say that Jesus accepts everything, Jesus loves everyone. No, the Lord divides. The Lord separates the good from the bad, the true from the false.

He says, he has come for the fall of many and also for the rise of others. "And for a sign that will be contradicted," in other words, what he is, that sign that constitutes many will not believe in it and they will fight against it and they will deny it and they will contradict it and they will not accept “to the point that a sword will pierce your very soul.”

Because? Because she would watch her son die. She would see her son crucified, she would see her son experience the greatest agony and humiliation a human being could experience, see her own son tortured to death.

"A sword will pierce your very soul," he did not tell him what was going to happen but in the spirit he perhaps saw what was going to happen to that child. "That the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." The Lord brings to light, the word of God says that it is like a two-edged sword, which penetrates to divide the thoughts and intentions of the heart, and penetrates to the marrow, he says, to the bones, and there is nothing that remains hidden in front of her.

And Christ has that virtue, he has that power to bring all the vermin and all the bad insects to light because he has that power to disturb and divide, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

So we see Simeon, we are given an implicit profile of Simeon's character. He says, but Ana, a prophetess, daughter of Fanuel, from the tribe of Asher, was also there, very old. I believe that God wanted that in that important event where that son of his was going to be presented, formally blessed before God and initiated into his ministry through this prophetic word, that there would be a representative of Adam and a representative of Eve, so I believe it. And that is why there is a man there who is Simeon and an old woman too, she prophesies.

“…of the tribe of Asher, very old, for she had lived with her husband for 7 years since her virginity and had been a widow for 84 years.” That is to say that this woman was about 100 years old or so or more. He was an intergalactic, weird character. Hundred-odd years at a time when a woman probably lived to be 40 or 50 and also men 50, 60 years. She lived to be a hundred years old. God was preserving her for something. And he had lived his entire life consecrated to the Lord. Her husband died, she didn't look for another partner or anything, she lived as a servant of God only.

"And he did not depart from the temple serving night and day with fasting and prayers." There you have the profile of this woman radically committed to the Kingdom of God. "And she, appearing at the same hour, gave thanks to God and spoke of the child to all those who were waiting for redemption in Jerusalem."

Two characters radically committed to the Kingdom of God who appear at an important moment in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. And these two characters, as I say, are fed, governed, directed by the Holy Spirit. Anna is a prophetess. You cannot be a prophetess, you cannot prophesy if you are not filled with the Holy Spirit, if the spirit of God is not revealed periodically through you and in you. She was a woman filled with the Holy Spirit.

Simeon lives in the Holy Spirit. It moves prophetically. God speaks to him and has given him a portentous revelation. The Holy Spirit is nothing new in the Bible, brothers, it is not like the day of Pentecost came and then the Holy Spirit is recorded in the history of humanity. The Holy Spirit has been in the universe since the very creation.

The Bible says that the spirit of God rested on the waters and was the one who created everything that exists. The Holy Spirit and his gifts are in manifestation throughout all of scripture. It manifested itself in the life of Saul, it manifested itself in the life of David who says that the Holy Spirit came upon him and from that moment God walked with him and killed giants and did great things in the spirit of the Lord, he danced in the spirit.

It was in Elijah, a man filled with the Holy Spirit. It was in Daniel with his supernatural wisdom, it was in Joseph too, it was in all the prophets of scripture that God used greatly, who prophesied under the prophetic anointing of the Holy Spirit. And now it's here at this moment which is like an in-between time between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Simeon and Anna belong to which testament? Because Pentecost has not yet come, Jesus has not yet manifested his ministry, he is just a baby. But they are not in the Old Testament either because Jesus has already been born. They inhabit as an intermediate place, a no man's land and everyone's and there is the Holy Spirit moving in both. They are people of the spirit.

And Lucas is a writer who specializes in talking about the Holy Spirit. How many know that Lucas wrote the book of Acts? right yes? The book of the Acts of the Holy Spirit, where everything that has to do with the Holy Spirit and its role in the initiation of the church is recorded.

So we see this matter of the Holy Spirit being there present in the life and ministry of Jesus. The Lord himself subjected himself to that law that every move of God, every ministry, has to be animated and strengthened by the Holy Spirit. And we want to point this out because we want to encourage you and I myself to live in that life filled with the Holy Spirit, brothers. It is not just the life of coming and singing and praising. No, it is also the life of looking for that fullness in our life every day.

You have to be on fire for the Lord and hopefully I will have a moment to talk about how to live that Holy Spirit filled life. But the Lord himself lived in that filling of the spirit. We see in his childhood, his infancy, the Holy Spirit moving, when he is baptized the Holy Spirit appears as a dove blessing him and baptizing him. The Holy Spirit takes him after that and leads him into the desert to be tested and to go into action against Satan himself.

John the Baptist says that he will baptize with fire and with the Holy Spirit. He is the specialist in baptizing with the Holy Spirit. So we see that the Lord himself was governed by that law that every move of God, every ministry, every life in the spirit has to be baptized, filled, saturated with the Holy Spirit. And we have to do the same, brothers. And that is not necessarily automatic for every believer, there has to be a time when after your conversion to Jesus you ask him to fill you with the Holy Spirit and you have to look for that, not just once.

Brothers, the Christian life has to be soaked with the Holy Spirit. I tell you the following, I could not minister or serve the Lord if there were not periodic baptisms of the Holy Spirit in my own life. It is something that has to be continuous. Many times I look at the gas tank and I have it in E spiritually speaking, and I say wow, what happened? Has that happened to you? who looks at the tank of his car and sees that wow, where is he? And then you remember I went to Maine and visited there and that's why…

When we work, when we do things in life, we correct the boys, we have a disagreement on the road, we fight with the woman, the anointing is lowered little by little, for using it. Me as a pastor, those who serve the Lord continuously processing spiritual energy, one also loses energy and what happens? If you stay there in 3 weeks you are creeping in the spirit. That is why churches die and ministries die because they forget that we have to come periodically and be filled with the Holy Spirit, because we cannot move without that power of the spirit.

As I told you, one is a pastor, brothers, and he is the first to be subject to that law. One would say, no, the pastor does not need to be searching because when he reads the Bible and prepares a sermon, when he is in church several times a week that is automatic. No. There have to be those intimate and personal moments when you step away from your ministerial role and come as an ordinary man, thirsty and in need of God's presence in your life.

And Simeon, Mary, all these beings that we see, Ana, exemplify that hunger, that filling of the spirit of God. And you see that they were humble people, they were simple people, they did not have great studies, they did not have a theological pedigree, they were not highly studied people, they were not people of great lineage or a lot of money, they were ordinary men and women, but they had something , who loved the Lord above all things and were people of spiritual quality and were thirsty to see the glory of God manifested in their lives.

And that is what qualifies you to be used by God. If you consider yourself an ordinary and unqualified person, glory to God, you are the person that God wants to use. Those who think they are the last Coca Cola in the desert are not going anywhere. Now if you know that you do not deserve to serve the Lord then God can use you. If you know that you are humble and simple in condition, God wants to fill you. If you are full of yourself and full of personal security, God is not going to use you.

That is why God revealed himself to shepherds, he revealed himself to a humble priest who was simply one more servant in the temple, like Elizabeth's husband, Zacharias. Elizabeth herself, a humble and simple woman, Maria was uneducated, Joseph, a carpenter. God revealed himself in great moments, old Ana and Simeon. Ana, a woman who did not qualify for anything in those times honestly... a woman was worthless in Jesus' time, however there she is, the Lord wanted an old woman to witness the presentation of her son. Because God wants above all people who are searching.

And that is what I was saying last Sunday, in favor of whom does the mighty God appear? In favor of those whose hearts are perfect with the Lord. Do you want to reach the heart of God? Search your own heart and purify your own heart. When other pastors sometimes ask me, “Pastor, how can you be successful in the ministry?” I tell them, “Look, first of all, I would like to have a very sophisticated formula, I mean, your heart.” How is your life ahead? of the Lord? How do you love the Lord? Do you love him passionately? Are you letting God deal with you and work for you? Are you being honest and transparent with God? Do you love him passionately?

Because when God sees a heart like that, the Lord wants to play that guitar, the Lord wants to play that instrument. The Lord wants to do something with those hearts. When he went to choose a replacement for Saul, he did not look among the great and mighty sons of Jesse, each one of them a great warrior, beautiful in appearance, he looked for a spirit-filled little boy whose heart was after God's own heart tucked between the sheep and brought him before his presence and anointed him and filled him to be his chosen king, where his son Jesus came from hundreds and hundreds of years later.

Because God searches the heart and God wants burning hearts that are seeking the filling of the spirit, desiring to be filled with the Holy Spirit and God is going to speak to those people and God is going to do things through them. That's why I want, brothers, to tell you, let's be like Simeon, filled with the spirit. Simeon has lived his entire life under a prophetic word that I imagine took years and years and decades to fulfill. One day Simeon had a powerful spiritual impression, or he had a dream, we don't know how the word of God reached him, but they told him, 'you are not going to die until you see God's anointed Messiah and witness him before your eyes.'

And Simeon lived by that word. And here we see that word realized. And I wondered while meditating on this scripture, what Simeon must have felt during all those years about that word that he received? I suspect that on many occasions he doubted her and thought, no, that was just all those cakes I ate that night I had that dream. No, that is my ego playing with me, believing that I am going to see something as powerful and as portentous as the coming of God's anointed. At other times you may have felt full of faith and said, yes, that is true, what I witnessed and felt is true. He lived in that fight.

And one of the things that this passage evoked in my person is that idea of when God tells us something and when we are pregnant with a word from God, with a vision of God, with something that God has told us, look, I go to do something through your life. And the years go by and that is not done, but one continues struggling with it and believing it. As it says in Hebrews 11, read about the great heroes of the faith to whom I alluded last Sunday, many of those people God told them things that they did not see in their own lives and they died, they say, saluting the vision and celebrating it in faith because it was reserved for others to enjoy. They just started it, they declared it, but others would receive the fruit of those things that God had told them.

And I see in that passage all that. God speaks to Mary and tells her about this son who is to be born, who is a sacred being, but he does not tell her everything, he does not really tell her that this is God himself in the body of man, perfect God, perfect man. Those ideas, those theological truths were developed by the church centuries later, brothers, through the development of its theology and fought great theological battles. It says, Jesus was part man, part God, whether he was God in some illusory form of man or what. These issues had to be fought in large theological congresses.

Maria didn't know anything about that. She knew that this being came from God, that God had rested on her and that this holy being that was to be born was something special, but she did not have all the elements about who this being was. You see her amazed here at what they say about him, what Simeon says. He says they were amazed, they couldn't believe. Wow, what are they saying about my son? I do not understand this. Maria kept many things in her heart. When he saw Jesus conversing with the doctors of the law, he was surprised. She was such a humble mother that those things ran too deep for her. She knew that God had used her for something but that revelation was unfolding over the years. And she had to live with that unknown, with that internal struggle of what it was that she had given birth to.

And I wonder about Jesus too. I am going to tell you my theory, you do not have to believe it, but I do not believe that Jesus at the age of 7, at the age of 5 knew that he was God himself and that he was born for the salvation of humanity. You may disagree. He knew that there was something special about him and that God had called him and that he was separate. He had an identity that he understood and he knew that it came from God, but I believe that his total awareness and lucidity about what he was, in detail, came to him over the years while that life of God was fully developing in him.

That silence that there is here that many of you are not convinced with what I am saying. But brothers, this is how I have always seen the prophetic move of God in our lives. Where God tells us things and we understand only part of it but we don't understand it all. Many of the prophets in the Old Testament said things that they didn't even know what they were saying. That if you believe me.

There are many things that they prophesied that were prophecies that were sealed and closed until the fullness of time. They said many things and they said them in the spirit and they were simply bearers of truths, but those truths were being thrown into time and space to be developed much later.

And I also say in our life of faith, when God speaks to us, when God tells us something, when God speaks to us prophetically many times it will take time and one does not know if it is from us, if it is our flesh, if it is the Holy Spirit, but God rejoices in that internal struggle. And what I want to tell you is that if God has told you something in your life, if God has prophesied something in your life and you believe that it comes from God, receive it, sanctify it within yourself, screw it in so that it does not go away. and learn to live in the agony of that realization until God fully fulfills it in your life. Let yourself be guided by it.

We have to learn to live, brothers, in that agony of the spirit. Do you know why there are many people flattened in the Kingdom of God? Because they have gotten used to living by emotions. When they're hot, nobody beats them. When they feel a little doubtful, they stop coming to church or stay home sleeping. No, you have to believe. God has said it, you obey it and you execute it and you move in that security. If God said it no matter how I feel, I'm going to keep living in it.

And sometimes the prophetic word of God takes years to be fulfilled, it takes a long time but it is fulfilled to the heart. And we have to learn to obey that word, brothers, to live in it. I can tell you that no word that God has given me in my life and that I have believed comes from God has fallen to the ground. When I have held on to it and have stayed with it, God has always fulfilled it. And we have to stay that way.

When God has spoken to you about something, there are so many people that God has spoken to them about a ministry, a prophetic call, a ministry of pastoral or counseling or composition or art, or whatever, you received it, you are pregnant, live in it until you see the full realization, like Simeon, at the end of his life. And every day throw water on that mat and keep it alive for discipline. Study, do everything possible because that word…. Do what is on your part for the realization of that word, because you have to fan that gift of God that is in you.

What does Paul say to Timothy? I advise you to fan the fire of the gift of God that is in you through the imposition of my hands. In other words, Timothy was pregnant with the prophetic laying on of hands that Paul placed on his life. And the gift of God was beating within him, there was a part that he had to do, he had to fan, fan into flame. When you pick up a fan and blow a fathom into life, that's what Paul says to Timothy.

When God gives you something and tells you something, hold it in your heart and in your spirit until you see it come true and then do everything possible in your power to do your part so that it comes to its place.

God has told me things that I still haven't seen in 30 years… No, 55 years since I first perceived them as a child and they still haven't come to pass. But when he told me, I want you to pastor this church of 50, 60, 70 people, I saw that this was a step towards what he had told me in other areas. And I said, amen, Lord, here I am, 30-odd years later in my position until he fulfills what he has promised. And here I am, doing my part, doing the best I can with this little piece of the Lord's vineyard. And it's done, glory to God, otherwise I won the lottery anyway. It has been a great journey and I thank the Lord for all the good he has allowed me to do. But one has to live waiting for the realization of the word of God in our life and do everything that is on their part.

Right now I have to do everything on my part, doing my job well and learning things and preparing my heart and my spirit. And you have to do the same in your own life, it may be studying, it may be improving your marriage, it may be freeing yourself from some of the demons that grip your mind and other things, your way of treating people, your character, many things, giving all that to the Lord, purifying, purifying, preparing, adding things.

One of these Sundays I am going to talk about adding qualities to our life so that we can then bear fruit to the Lord. Simeon, Ana, lived under that revelation of God and now the time had come for that word to be fulfilled and to see the Son of God presented before them. And all these things were what made them, brothers, deserving and that we have to imitate.

There are a couple more things and I leave you with that. It is said that Simeon was just and pious, two words in the Greek, dicaios and eulabes. Simeon in his character was fair, dicaios, in English it is said righteous, and eulabes is the word that is translated pious. Two qualities that one has to have as a man or a woman who lives the radically committed Christian life and who make possible the work of God in your life. They are two qualities, one speaks of horizontal, the other speaks of vertical.

Dicaios, fair, talks about behavior, talks about human relationships, talks about testimony before others. He was a righteous, correct man, the idea of a man who behaved well, was righteous before God. It's the idea of fair. It's not fair in the sense that he treated people fairly, although that was included, but he was an upright man in front of others. He was a man who could not say anything bad about him, his behavior before others was an admirable, respectable, honest behavior.

And godly refers to his relationship with God. He was a pious man, he was a man… the idea of having pity, of visiting the temple regularly, of praying to the Lord, of loving God, of giving his life to the Lord. And so these two things were in balance in his life. That is why it says that he was just, upright in his behavior, and pious towards his God. And we have to manifest these two elements in our life.

We want the people of León de Judá to be a just and pious people. Just because we have a good testimony in the city, we have good behavior. I was saying last Sunday that one of the qualities of a radically committed person is that their horizontal life, their relationships with others is something good and admirable. He just talks about ethics, how we behave in our work, how we treat our loved ones, in our marriage, our wife, our husband, our children, our friends, what testimony we give to people who know us, how we behave ethically .

And pious speaks again of that passionate life with God. And I think we need both. I believe that there are many Christians who compartmentalize the Christian life and specialize in one thing or the other. I know a lot of very pious people, they are filled with the Holy Spirit, they speak in tongues more than anyone else in the world, they know the Bible inside out and they quote verses like they can't, they tithe, they serve in church, everything, they are pious, ah, but you know, look at how you treat your husband or your wife, your children, how you behave at work, what testimony you have, how you behave on the road, a disaster. What are your practices in your business and with others?

So, I say, no, on the other hand, there are people who are very correct and behave well and do a number of things but they do not have that passion for God, they do not seek that filling of the Holy Spirit, they are not crying out before God, They are not worshipers, they do not get fully involved in the search for the word of the Lord and then they are with an outdated wheel and we need both things, brothers.

A man, a woman truly used by God is a person in whom the Gospel has entered through the pores and even the very marrow of his life. You don't even have to think it's evangelical because the identity of a servant of God is embedded within them subconsciously, brethren. His way of speaking, thinking, the structures themselves, his neurology itself has been changed by force of being immersed in the word and the principles of the Kingdom of God. Because the two things are linked.

Simeon exemplified the filling of the Holy Spirit, justice with others, mercy and passion for God, firmness, fidelity in the word received. And we have to do the same. Anna was the same. Ana this wonderful woman, an old woman of 100 years. How did that woman get to the temple? She says she lived in the temple. From her youth she had decided, no, I was left a widow, let others look for a husband, I am going to serve the Lord all my life, and she lived in the temple as a priestess of the Lord.

It says that he fasted continually and prayed continually and worshiped in the temple and witnessed. Because when he left there he immediately began to say, I have seen the Messiah, he was already born, as we have to do in our lives. We have to witness to others about Christ. We have to live a life of fasting, of prayer, of seeking the Lord. It is the only way, brothers, to be used by God and to have these experiences, for God to speak prophetically through us.

I want that for you and me. At this Christmas time and looking forward to the beginning of next year we will make a redoubled commitment to seek more of God's anointing in our lives. Amen. Fan the fire of the gift of God that is in us. If God gave you a word and you let it die, today you can take it out and blow on it. Remove all that ash that has accumulated. There is still heat there, it begins to blow so that it can live inside you again.

If once you were in love with the Lord and time passed and you forgot about that first love, recover it again this afternoon. Say, Lord, this year I am going to passionately seek your kingdom, I am going to commit myself to you, I am going to live for you.

What does Simeon say when he has just seen the Lord? Now you dismiss your servant in peace. Simeon lived so much for God that when the prophetic call was fulfilled in his life, Lord, that means that I am leaving with you. I lived for the fulfillment of your promise but this world no longer offers anything attractive to me because my life is lost in Christ, it is hidden in Jesus, so now I can leave this world.

A man, a woman of God lives for the word of God, the revelation of God in his life, so that God's purpose in his life is fulfilled. That is the most important. We are going to give our lives to the Lord. We are going to give our marriage to the Lord, everything we have, everything we are, right now I take everything back and place it at the feet of Jesus.

I invite you to lower your head for a moment there where you are and deliver your boat to the Lord right now, your nets, your money changing table, everything, throw it at the feet of the Lord right now. Give it all up and tell him, Lord, I commit myself to you, I rededicate myself to you.

If you have not done it before and you are here for the first time and God has spoken to you and you want to surrender your life to the Lord and invite him to take control of your life, and you want to raise your hand I want to pray for you this afternoon and I want to start you on that journey of intimacy with Christ. If someone wants to give their life to the Lord, I invite you to come forward here or get up, stand up, raise your hand wherever you are, we want to pray for you this afternoon and place you in the hands of the Lord.

Will there be someone who has not done it before and who now wants to give their life to the Lord or wants to reconsecrate their life to the Lord? You can raise your hand or stand up or whatever you want.

Lord we adore you, we bless you, we thank you for your presence, Father. We want to consecrate our lives, we consecrate our lives to you, Lord. We surrender our life to you, Father in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Did someone raise their hand? God bless you. Amen. We bless you, we declare the grace of the Lord upon you. Right now invite Christ to enter your heart, tell him, Lord, I reconsecrate myself to you or I open my life to you for the first time and I surrender. You are my Lord, you are my owner, you are my God, take control of my life. I consecrate myself to you, my savior, my Lord, my king. You are born within me this afternoon. Receive it there, mark this date, write it in your Bible or somewhere, remember this moment because God is recording it and you are being presented as Christ was presented before the priest in the temple.

So right now your soul is presented before God. And if there is someone else we want to pray for you. God bless you, young man, and we say the same to you. Give that life to the Lord. Open your heart to him right now. Say, Lord, I receive you, I receive you within me, you are my God. I receive you as my savior, my owner and I invite you to reign in my life. Forgive my sins and make me a daughter of yours and we declare it so in the name of the Lord to the glory of the Lord.

Is there anyone else? This is the moment, don't leave, the Lord is powerful to hear your request and say yes. If there is someone else who has this concern, do not leave without doing that this afternoon. We want to bless you and pray for you. Glory to God.

And we who are here, who already know the Lord, give our lives again. I rededicate myself this afternoon to my ministry, I rededicate myself to my desire to serve the Lord as he needs to be served and I surrender this church to the Lord and we rededicate ourselves. This year 2017 is going to be a wonderful year, a powerful year and we want to enter that year prepared, we want to enter that year with new batteries. Amen. They are not renewed batteries, no, they are new batteries. Amen. And we are going to do great things in the name of the Lord.

We are going to take down giants, we are going to defeat armies in the name of the Lord. We are going to bring souls to the knowledge of Jesus. We are going to be better known to the glory of God than ever, as a consecrated and delivered and anointed people of the Lord. Amen. We are going to serve the Kingdom of God, we are going to give to the Lord, we are going to live burning for God, fervent hearts for the Lord, not half hearts, but hearts fully delivered to God's purposes.

Commit to the Lord. Give him everything. Consecrate everything, seal everything for God, your home, your marriage, your youth, your studies, your money, your time, your energies, your body, everything for the Lord, for the Lord, for the Kingdom of God. This is how we will live, Father. We want nothing different except your full glory, Lord. Until you are happy with us, Father. Help us to do feats in your name and for your glory. Thank you Lord in Jesus name. Amen and amen.