Serving Jesus without Jesus is torture

Book of Judges. The pastor has been speaking in these weeks about the filling of the Holy Spirit, about the fact that God pours out his Holy Spirit on his people and he wants to revive us. We are an evangelical church in which we believe in the word of God. We are also an evangelistic church and we also believe in works of mercy in society. But most of all, and first of all, we are a Pentecostal church. Even though we are Baptists, how crazy. It is a Baptist church but it is a Pentecostal church that believes that the Holy Spirit lives among its people and that without the anointing of that Holy Spirit we are not going anywhere. But with him pouring out his power on us there is nothing we cannot do in his name. And that's why the pastor is preaching about this these days, because every once in a while we have to revive ourselves in this, reconsecrate ourselves to the filling of the Holy Spirit.

But we also have a lot of new people who haven't heard of it and that's why we have to take the time to talk about it. My goal today is to talk about the need and the call for each one of us to dispose ourselves to the use of the Holy Spirit, to be vehicles for the Holy Spirit. This works in English, I don't know if it works in Spanish. To say, I want to be a vehicle for the Holy Spirit as if I were a car and I want to say that if you want you can drive it. Here I am, for your use, if you want to fill me up and use me, I am at your service, Lord. And some think, well, this is not for me because I don't know, I still have problems, I still have struggles, I am not like those, or that person, the truth is that the main qualification, and we are going to see that, for this fullness of the Holy Spirit is a willing heart.

And we are going to look at some cases in the Book of Judges that was a time in the history of the people of God, the nation of Israel, that they lived with ups and downs, as a people they were struggling to worship the Lord, and sometimes they fell in idolatry. And the Lord handed them over to the power of their enemies and they suffered punishment until they cried out to the Lord again and said to the Lord, “Lord, help us, for we are suffering for our enemies.” And the Lord answers them each time by saying, “I won't leave you alone. I will come to you and I will fight you through a person and I will put that spirit on that leader, that judge who is going to declare the judgment of God against the enemies of God and he is going to be an anointed leader, he is going to represent me among you."

And every time the Holy Spirit fell on one of those people, the Bible uses different words and teaches us how the Lord wants to put his spirit on his people, not only then but also now, because we live in a similar age. There are strong enemies against us. Sometimes some may think, Lord, what are we going to do? The Lord says, "I will not leave you alone, I will come to you, but I am looking for a vehicle to use, a bearer of my power among the people."

So let's look at the variety of ways the spirit falls on your people. We know that in the Bible sometimes the Holy Spirit falls with a peace. There was a dove that descended on Jesus and the voice of the Father. But there were other times that the Holy Spirit came like a wind and a fire. The Holy Spirit comes in different ways. The Lord wants people who say, Lord, I am here for what you want, what you want, do it in me. That is, with a gentle wind or with a consuming fire. I want to be used by you.

So let's look at the cases of this. And in the Book of Judges in chapter 6 we are going to start with Judge Gideon. Now, it was a terrible time for the people. They were under the oppression of the Midianites, bad guys, oppressing them. And it was so bad that this nation had stolen their wheat, their cattle, if they had wheat or cattle they had to hide it from them. They lived cowed, they lived denigrated, because they felt less than men.

And we are going to see a special case when the angel of Jehovah comes and finds Gideon, verse 11 of Judges 6:

“And the angel of the Lord came – which, by the way, I think it is Jesus but I do not charge you for giving my opinion of that – and sat under the oak that is in Ofra, which belonged to Joash, the Abiezerite, and his Gideon son was shaking the wheat in the press to hide it from the Midianites.”

I want to stop there for a moment. I was shaking the wheat, I don't know if we have some farmers here who have shaken wheat, but they tell me, I haven't, that they take the wheat and throw it a lot and they have a stick that they used to hit the wheat hard and hit it and the The wind came and went and blew and everything that was not the grain of wheat went out with the wind and the grain stayed. I find it funny because you have a stick and you are hitting the wheat. I don't know, sounds like fun. They did it on a special floor in the open air so that the wind would pass by carrying everything that was not the grain.

But Gideon is shaking the wheat, where? In a winery Does anyone know what a winery is? A press – in English it is called a wine press – was like a small well, about 4 feet into the ground, like a hole and the person took all the grapes and gave them to make the wine. It was like a hole, like a hole, like a little pit, a small cistern. So Gideon is with his stick, with wheat, in that wine press trying to shake the wheat. That you believe? Will it work there?

He was hiding from his enemies, there like hitting it hard, any Hebrew who reads this laughs out loud. It's like it's said in English, it's like a person trying to fly a kite in your basement. It's like you're trying to catch one of these things that blows in the wind and you do it in the basement of the house and it doesn't work and you don't know why it doesn't work. It's there, giving the wheat. It didn't work there. I was at the winery.

And the angel of God comes and sits down and begins to talk to him. He sits to the side and watches the conversation, verse 12:

“And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “The Lord is with you, mighty and valiant man.” And Gideon replied, “Ah, my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonders that our fathers have told us saying, did not Jehovah bring us out of Egypt? And now Jehovah has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.” And looking at him Jehovah said to him, “Go with this your strength and you will save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Did I not send you?" and then he answered him, “Ah, my Lord, with what will I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father's house." And Jehovah said to him, “Surely I will be with you and you will defeat the Midianites as one man.” Thank God.

The angel tells him, "You are a strong and courageous man." And he replies, "Then why am I hiding in a wine press?" "God will be with you. You are going to win a battle.”

I want you to imagine. He is in a well, head looking back, Lord, where is God? has abandoned us The angel says, “No, he has not abandoned you. He's going to use you to save your people." And it's like right, very good! If you say so. I am from the smallest family and I am the black sheep of the family and you call me. And I imagine the angel with a smile thinking, but this guy is a little thick-headed. I'm going to have to give him special treatment.

And look what happens. Then he begins to obey the Lord with a step of faith, but then he has doubts, he hides and in the end I want you to look with me at verse 33 and their enemies come but to really fight.

“But all the Midianites and Amalekites, two enemy nations, and those from the east came together as one and passed by and camped in the valley of Jezreel. Then the spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon, and when he blew his horn the Abiezerites gathered with him.”

And I want to stop it there. There the enemies against him, this fearful man, this unqualified man, this doubting man, with doubts of what God can do, the Lord then touches him with the spirit, he blows the trumpet and the whole nation comes after him. Because? Why did the whole family respond to this man? That he said that he was the black sheep of the family, and in this is the answer that we are going to meditate on today. They did not follow him because he blew a very beautiful shofar, they followed him because he blew the shofar, the trumpet with authority from heaven, that it was not he who blew it, but another who blew it through him.

Let's pray for a moment. Father, in the name of Jesus thank you that you have a call for each person in this place, Lord, and today is the day of battle, today is the day that you need vehicles to carry your power, Lord. I ask you in the name of Jesus that your Holy Spirit speak to us and teach us, Lord, through the words that we are going to meditate on. I ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

The spirit of Jehovah came upon Gideon. In the original Hebrew this is a beautiful phrase, very cute, it literally means that the Holy Spirit clothed Gideon. The Holy Spirit came upon Gideon like a new robe, like a battle uniform. The Holy Spirit clothed him.

Another way of translating it could be, the Holy Spirit clothed himself in Gideon, as if he were a disembodied spirit, looking for a body to use on earth. We know this. The Holy Spirit in the world does not have a body, it is a spirit, it looks for vehicles, it looks for people who say, if you want, I know you don't have a mouth, use mine. You don't have eyes but you can see through mine. You don't have hands you can use mine. The Holy Spirit clothed Gideon and he blew the trumpet with an anointing from above.

It's almost a visual image, I want you to visualize a cloud as luminous even though it's invisible. This is in my mind, in my head, it's like a cloud that comes and covers him, envelops him and then he comes with the Holy Spirit on. As if he was acting for him, or as if God was acting through him. That image touches me a lot because I think of people that sometimes I see and I can almost visualize them dressed in gala or uniformed dresses with medals. And I almost believe that I am seeing their reality with the eyes of the Holy Spirit.

Because Jesus himself took this language when he said, already risen, he said that I am going to send the promise upon you, in Luke 24:49, he says:

"I am going to send upon you the promise of my Father, but you must stay in the city until you are endued with power from on high."

Jesus was referring to what happened to Gideon. He says, Gideon blew a trumpet, you have to speak a message and you can't do it without being empowered to do it effectively. Like I said, sometimes I feel like I can see it in people, especially with worshipers. There is a worshiper in the church for more than 20 years who is here and every time I see him I feel that I see him dressed in the many-colored robe that Joseph had in the Bible, dressed in gala, praising God, as if the same tunic is reflecting the glory of Jehovah.

How are you dressed? It doesn't matter what jacket you have or what shirt you have if you are clothed with the Holy Spirit, you are clothed with glory. And this starts now. It is that at that time the Lord put that power over certain selected people, over a judge, over a prophet, over a king. And that is why the people asked him the question, when you come Jesus we hope that a savior will establish the Kingdom of God. Jesus already resurrected, his disciples say, now are you going to establish the Kingdom of God, establish the kingdom on earth? You are already alive, no one can kill you. Jesus says, “Not yet, I am going to extend the kingdom through you. Power will come upon you and you will be my witnesses.”

You see that in the past the Holy Spirit would come upon kings, prophets, or a priest. But the word says that in the last days, our days, says God, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy and your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams. It is true, on my servants and on my servants, in those days, I will pour out my spirit and they will prophesy.

I'm not only going to dress Gideon, I'm going to dress you. You are in the situation and I, God says, I want to be there but I am only going to enter there, not with an angel, I am going to do it through you. I dress from you in the situation. I need your eyes, I need your hands, I need your voice, the Lord says. How are you going to answer him? Lord, I am yours, here is a body bought by the blood of God, I am not mine, so use me however you want. Used by the Lord. Chosen and used by him.

We have to seek this fullness. I want to look for another case in the book of Judges, in chapter 13, and we are going to talk about a more anointed person, almost any other character in the Bible. A person that the Bible says received the power of God not once, not twice, not three times, but 4 times, says that the spirit of Jehovah came upon him. He is an example for us. Who do you think it is? Samson himself. An anointed man, a man who is an example for us.

And some wives are looking at me, how come Samson is an example for my husband? We all know Samson as a scoundrel, as a womanizer, who fell in love with Delilah, that this, that that, and it is legitimate to know it. And I don't want anyone to leave this message thinking, well, Samson was very anointed, Gregory said 4 times, and he had his Delilahs here and there, so I did too. Before justifying yourself like that, brother, please think about the New Testament which teaches that as a man sows so he will reap. If we sow to the flesh, from the flesh we will reap death. If we sow to the spirit we will reap life and joy.

Before thinking that you can do what Samson did, you have to think about the end of this man's biography. Things didn't end well for Samson. If you like to have your eyes where they belong, then don't live like Samson. This is not an excuse at all and we are going to talk in another message about the importance of holiness in the life of the filling of the Holy Spirit. But we have to remember that Samson lived in a most wicked time.

The people of Israel were totally misguided and their city in particular, the camp of the Dan tribe, was one of the worst there was. And he was among those and he was a man with complexities but the Lord chose him. The Lord spoke to his mom and dad before he was born. Some of you have had experiences that feel like God spoke to you before your baby was born with certain promises. Samson was like that. The Lord spoke to his parents that they could not conceive and told him, "You are going to have a son and this son is going to be special, he cannot drink wine or cut his hair to fulfill a special vow from the Old Testament, the vow of the Nazarene , which is a vow of separation for the things of God.”

He was a set apart man with a mission from the womb. Jehovah said, “This man is going to start delivering my people from the Philistines.” A process that began with Samson, continued under Samuel and King Saul, and was perfected under a young man named David. Samson is a parallel to David, a man anointed with the special mission of making war against the Philistines who held the people bound as slaves. A man set apart for the Lord.

So he was… I don't know if you've seen a movie The Borne Identity, Jason Borne, has anyone? If you haven't seen it, don't worry, don't watch it. Samson is that character who can do anything, he is the anointed warrior of the Bible, an example in many ways that he was like Moses, he was like David, that he was a man of God in the midst of a people so evil that he had to fight God battles alone, nor did he have an army with him. He was a one man army.

And so the Holy Spirit fell on him 4 times. Let's look at the first. Judges 13, verses 24 to 25. This is the culmination of the narrative of his birth and youth and it says in verse 24:

“In due time the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson. The boy grew up and Jehovah blessed him.”

This phrase reminds you a little of the New Testament, Jesus grew in wisdom, in favor, and all that. It's a similar verse. Verse 25:

“In the camps of Dan, between Sora and Estaol, the spirit of Jehovah began to manifest in him.”

So as a young man growing up the spirit began to manifest in him. Once again I would like to go back to the original Hebrew in which this scripture was written. And the word that is used is the word to move, to be moved. So the spirit began to move within him, awakening him to the things of the Lord.

I want you to think about the life of Jesus himself, the Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit, grew up and at the age of 12… does anyone know the story of what happened to him at 12? He was lost from the family, he went into the synagogue, thank God, better than elsewhere and there in the temple of the Lord, he was talking with the Pharisees and teachers of the law. And mom and dad after 3 busy days, José and María appear in the temple and say, “Jesus, how have you treated us like this?” Jesus looks at them and says, "Mommy, didn't you know that I had to be in my Father's things?"

Imagine, if it wasn't Jesus, she gets a good spanking, but it was Jesus and I think she saw that the spirit was beginning to move in him, to wake him up, to show him that he wasn't a normal son, that his Dad really wasn't José, no matter how much he loved him, I imagine, but that his Dad was God and that he had a mission to accomplish. The spirit moved him, moved within him to awaken him.

How many here as children, as young people, had this experience? Perhaps a child of 7, 8, 10 years old had a dream, something inside of you that told you, God has something with me. It was the spirit moving in you. Waking up to your call. And even if you have not experienced it, it is not too late because the call and the gifts of the Lord are irrevocable.

But this word has a slightly special connotation. It is used 3 more times in the Old Testament and in every other use the word to be moved joins in a negative way, it is used of people who are so restless that they cannot sleep. It is used for pharaoh after his nightmare, his prophetic dream and he had to look for Joseph to interpret it. It is used of Nebuchadnezzar when he had a dream and sought out Daniel to interpret it. In both cases his spirit was moved, restless and he lost sleep because he was disturbed inside. It is also used in Psalm 77 when the psalmist is looking around at sin and saying, Lord, where are you? It seems that everyone has abandoned you, and he loses sleep saying, sleep fled from my eyes and my spirit was stirred within me.

So this word, I believe, in this case also means that the Holy Spirit began to trouble Samson with the sin that he observed. Their camp, the camp of Dan, we learn later in the book of Judges, was one of the more sinful people than all of Israel. It was an ugly environment and he would go out to see the idolatry and the sin and the people who had forsaken the Lord and the Philistines oppressing and I think he began to become concerned with what he was observing and prompted him to do something to change it. This is from God.

I'm sorry to say this so quickly because some of us think, I don't want to lose any sleep. I already lose a lot of sleep. Restlessness, I already have a lot of worries in my flesh, I don't need one from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is normally a spirit of peace, which gives us peace, which helps you to rest, but sometimes the Holy Spirit makes us feel upset with what bothers God. It makes us hate what God hates, it makes us offended by what offends the spirit of God. sometimes the Holy Spirit worries you, it makes you lose sleep a little. You feel that something is not right.

We see this a little later in the Bible, with a young man that I have already spoken about, who saw Goliath offending and saying evil and ugly things about God's people and he says, who is this uncircumcised Philistine to speak so much nonsense? I'm going to fight him. This nuisance is a healthy nuisance, it is a nuisance anointed by the Holy Spirit. Again, I don't want to say that I want you to always be upset. No, don't bother with everyone and tell them I'm anointed. No no. you are in the flesh and for this you are upset. Usually. But sometimes, like Moses, who was able to see his people under slavery by the Egyptians, he got upset, he intervened. Like Jesus who came to the temple and he saw in the temple, in the atrium, where the people outside had to pray, the Gentiles, there were tables for people selling doves and exchanging money and Jesus was offended, he was upset with what he could notice.

We know what Jesus did next. He made his own rope whip and entered the temple knocking over tables. Now please don't come throwing chairs and everything and getting upset. But it is that Jesus says that it is not right for the house of God to be abused. David said, it is not right for a Philistine to abuse God's people. And Samson, I believe, began to feel a holy anger against the enemies of the Lord and he felt that he had to do something to change it.

So if the Lord troubles you listen to this sometimes. I have learned to trust the Lord more and not worry too much, but sometimes I feel worried about someone and I don't know why. I'm thinking of someone and I'm worried. I have learned to pray for that person and maybe call him or talk to him and how we are, what's up. I don't say, hey, bro, I'm worried about you, what's up? I do not do this, but listen to the concerns that the Holy Spirit puts in you, because the spirit is going to put certain things on your heart.

Well, the last 3 cases of the Holy Spirit falling on Samson are experiences of power. The spirit of Jehovah comes upon him and gives him a supernatural strength to do works that he in his natural strength would not be possible for him to do. It is an anointing that amplifies the natural forces of a person to do something that in his natural he could not do.

I think about the case at this time. I am here speaking to you in a natural voice, I am not yelling, I do not have a loud voice, but everyone listens to me. Can you hear me there on the balcony? Can you hear me back there? I will use my own strength. Can you hear me now? So, I could preach like this for the next 20 minutes or 10 minutes but in the end how am I going to feel? It's much better. Praise the Lord.

Trying to do ministry in your own strength, you can do it, but you have to shout a lot and it's not enough. You try very hard and you achieve almost nothing and you get tired. Serving Jesus without Jesus is torture. Talking about the Holy Spirit without the Holy Spirit is a joke. It is much easier to use this miracle machine to be heard. And the Holy Spirit takes your strength and amplifies it and empowers you to do it effectively. It is called in the New Testament the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Many of the gifts are not supernatural, they are natural talents that the Lord amplifies with supernatural power. So the Holy Spirit helps you to do the natural in a supernatural way. For example, some like to teach but there is a difference between teaching and moving into a spiritual gift of teaching. When someone does with the Holy Spirit, wow, they change lives, it makes a difference. People who serve, people who work here as ushers, you know if you do it under the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

There are people with the gift of mercy who can give a hug and is anointed by the Holy Spirit to heal a heart. There are some of you who have a gift for cooking, anyone can cook an arepa, a sancocho, a tostón, but some do it with unction and you know it. Because there is a love, there is a power that comes with natural action.

But there are some gifts that are nothing… they are completely supernatural, they help you do things you could never do naturally. God puts supernatural information in your head that you would not have known. You see a person, a situation and you know something, you have a dream and God reveals something to you. They are supernatural gifts. Some who have a gift pray for someone and the person is healed. Others who have a gift of casting out a demon and leaving. They have no power to do it in the natural, but they have a supernatural gift but they learn to do it naturally.

Now I am speaking in tongues, forgive me. So spiritual gifts are sometimes helping you do the supernatural naturally and sometimes the natural… okay, we're good. Therefore, it is much easier to do ministry like this. Sometimes we make the mistake of thinking that an anointed person is super man or wonder woman, so powerful. The most anointed people are not the most qualified people, they are the people most submitted to the Holy Spirit's guide. They are so that the lightning can come through them. They are not so perfect, they are carriers of perfect power.

One question, how do you visualize Samson? If you were to draw pictures for an illustrated Bible, how would you visualize Samson? This morning I asked brother Yurik, the husband of [inaudible] to stand up. Okay, look at him, look at me. Which do you think to play the role of Samson in a movie? One visualizes. Where is the glory to the Lord in a strong person doing something strong?

God's power is perfected in human abilities, not in human strength. We are clay vessels so that the excellence of the glory that we carry inside is clearly from God and not from us. This is why God chose a coward like Gideon to do something brave in the Kingdom of God, to show where power comes from, that he is clothed with and was from the Lord.

His army, is that there was a great army against them, three evil nations united against Gideon. And the Lord says, you have too many people and he had to minimize the army until he had 300 men. How were these 300 men do you think? They were the best, the ones who shoot the best. The Bible says that we know that they were the men willing to stay and fight because everything that did not want to stay could go. So he told the army, if you're afraid, if you want to go home, go in peace, there's no problem. Take a vacation. We don't need you. And almost all left.

So, we know that the ones that were left were willing but they weren't the best warriors. There were 300 men who drank water in a strange way, they were drinking it differently from the others. I don't know if this showed something of his character or was something completely arbitrary, because he had to minimize the army. So there were 300 willing men drinking in a weird way, maybe half different people, I don't know.

The Lord does not look for the best warrior, the best looks for who he wants who is willing to be used to win the battle. That is why the Apostle Paul said, "I do not want to preach with my own strength." The Lord does not need good or eloquent sermons, thank God, the Apostle Paul said, "neither my word, nor my preaching - this is Second Corinthians 2:4 to 5 - were with persuasive words of human wisdom, but with demonstration of the spirit of power so that your faith is not founded on the wisdom of men but on the power of God.”

You don't have to be qualified, but you do have to be willing for the God who is qualified to flow through you. Samson learned this very young. Okay, I want to look at the second experience of him receiving the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Judges 14:5-6. We know that he is traveling with mom and dad to meet his girlfriend whom he was going to marry. She was a Philistine so it may be that there was no woman of God among the Hebrews so she chose someone from the outside. Don't do it please, there are many Christians you can marry, but he was going to do that. and he got away from his parents for a while. I visualize a young man and he says the word of God:

“Behold, at the end, a young lion came roaring towards him, then the spirit of the LORD came upon Samson, who tore the lion to pieces as one might tear a kid to pieces, having nothing in his hands. He did not tell his father or mother what he had done."

Anointed by the Holy Spirit kills a lion. What things! So I want everyone to get out of here and kill a lion by next Sunday by the power of the Holy Spirit. Why all that? This is very extrange. Is there any case in the Bible of an anointed person killing a lion in the name of the Lord? The same little shepherd of sheep, in the field, a lion and a bear come to him and he kills them with his little stones. In private, in secret. Why was it so important that this experience of power be in private? He never told his parents.

Why is private experience so important that only you and God know what happened? Why is it so important? Because one in private learns what God can do through you in public afterwards. It's like a rehearsal for another time.

King David says when he comes against Goliath, the Philistine, he says, the same God that has delivered me from the paws of the lion and the paws of the bear, he will also deliver me from the hands of this Philistine. The Lord who helped me before is going to help me again in public.

Samson learned what he can do to a lion, he's going to do to many Philistines. And then when he's there at his wedding and all the drama that I'm not going to get into, but he then the spirit comes against him with power again and he kills 30 Philistines. Now, I don't want you to go killing neither lions nor Philistines. I know a Philistine, a Palestinian, a good man seeking God, please don't kill him.

But at that time the Philistines were enemies of God. We now have a new enemy. Our fight is not against blood or flesh but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness in this world, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly regions. We have a battle and we need strength if we are going to win it.

The Lord is going to give you opportunities to fight battles in private that will later be practiced in public. An example of that, a sister from the church who wanted to be a discipleship teacher but we already had a teacher, so she recruited two friends from her job, pulled them to the church, sat them in a classroom, gave them a discipleship class. . And the Lord anointed her and now of classes, classes, one of the best we have. Our discipleship teachers are all anointed. I thank God for that.

But what is done now in great was done in little. He who is faithful with little will be faithful with much, because it is the same anointing that flows through one. I think about my own life. I do almost no different now than I did 30 years ago as a university student, talking to young people at school, working surveillance at night in an almost empty building, I learned to speak Spanish with friends at night, to study the word, to share the Gospel. Everything I do now, I did in the middle of the night working as a watchman 30 years ago. The same, the same anointing, the same practice. You learn what God can do through you. Amen.

So don't kill Philistines but move on last. Judges 15:14 to 15. The last case of Samson's anointing. Now the battle is increasing, the Philistines hate Samson because he is killing them a lot and this is the big surprise, his own people also hate him, because they say, Samson, we were happy as slaves of the Philistines but now they are angry with we. We were happy under his rule, why are you making life difficult for us? It is that sometimes people prefer slavery, right? and they say, we are going to hand you over to the Philistines and Samson says, okay, don't kill me, but tie me up with two big ropes and hand me over and we'll see what happens. Here we go:

“When they came to Lei, the Philistines came out shouting to meet them. – Screaming, you see, in what other text does he come screaming against him, he comes roaring against him. The lion comes roaring against him, now the Philistines come shouting against him. He is cured of fright. He already knows that roar, he knows who is going to win. – But the spirit of the Lord came upon him with power and the ropes that were in his arms became like flax burned with fire and the bands fell from his hands. Seeing a fresh ass's jawbone, he reached out his hand, seized it, and killed 1,000 men with it."

With an ass jawbone. So instead of giving our soldiers pistols, we should look for some good donkey jaws because that's how it's going to work. Or maybe it was a magical jaw, a special jaw like from the movie… no, no, it was a jaw, it was like David with his pebbles. The point is not the glass, it is the power that flows through the vehicle. And if you look first, at the beginning, Samson kills a lion, then he kills 30 Philistines, but he ends up killing 1,000 with the anointing of God and at the end of his life, sacrificing his life, he earns more in his death than in his whole life. . As well as one that we know died defeating the enemy.

But Samson his anointing and his success was increasing. It began in private, then it was lived in public and then it entered into glory. Brothers, I felt that from the Lord. In the morning I was praying for some elderly brothers and sisters and I felt the Lord restless in my heart telling me the best is yet to come for them. His anointing is more now than before. The power of your prayer, your faith, your wisdom is better than before. Brothers, the Holy Spirit, all these years has not grown in you to be hidden, brothers, there are a thousand Philistines to kill, brothers and we need them to do it. So there is no jubilee of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. We don't let go that easy. Maybe you can retire from work but not from praying. No, we need you. We need you in the Lord. The anointing is growing, increasing from glory to glory to glory.

The Lord uses the simple things, the ridiculous things to embarrass the powerful, to say that I can use a donkey's jawbone so that you worry about being a big deal. Amen. We need that anointing now. And the other thing I want to note in this last experience of God's power is that the Holy Spirit came upon Samson to break his bonds. The thing is that the other Israelites had gotten used to their slavery, they entered into the comfort of their bonds, they did not want to be free. But Samson under the anointing of Jehovah broke his own bonds and fought to set others free as well.

Brothers, the ties that we believe today are not visible, they are invisible. I think of an image that was given to a friend of my wife. He was in Las Vegas one day with a group – it's a long story to explain – but he was there, in Las Vegas, in a casino and the Lord gave him a vision of a man in those machines that are used for coins, he saw a person in the slot machine and there were chains like tying him to the machine, that man could not get out of the machine.

Brethren, sin is like that. We have people, we are people who have experienced ties, addictions, we live here in this church in a drug addiction center, a place famous for that now, people who cannot get out, feel tied up. We give him food, we give him lunch, thank God, but we know that without the power of God there is no liberation. There are people bound by sins they can't break, lifestyles that feel so natural to them that they can't visualize another life.

Brothers, we do not have the luxury of having a church as normal, we need power, and not an invented power, not a fabricated experience, we need genuine power among us, because where the spirit of Jehovah is, there is freedom. This is why the pastor is talking about it so much.

Nice sermons but the idea is not sermons, it is the power of God so that people's faith rests on Christ and not on man. Jesus said, the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me and has sent me to preach good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to publish freedom for the captives and for the prisoners to be released from jail. Where the spirit of Jehovah is, there is freedom.

Brothers, I invite the musicians. Brothers, the message to the judges is obvious. They were under the oppression of their enemies. Sometimes they felt abandoned by the Lord. Gideon said, where is the God of the exodus? I do not see it. Where are your miracles? The angel of God says, “You want to know where it is? Well, I send you to make war and you are going to do it not with a gun, not with a sword, but you are going to break bottles and blow the shofar and have lights because all these are from Sinai, lights. The shekinah light of glory, the sound of the shofar blowing. Gideon learned where is the God of the exodus? He is here through me to free his people.

The Lord says, I will not leave you alone. When it seems that many of them than with us, do not worry because I am going to anoint vehicles, people who will be carriers of my power, although it seems impossible, these people will be clothed with the Holy Spirit. They are going to be disturbed by the Holy Spirit, they are going to receive a miraculous power to do the impossible. They were chosen judges but as we know, in the New Testament the Lord says, in the last days I will pour out my spirit not on a judge, not on a prophet, not on a priest, but on all flesh. Each of us are people that the Lord wants to use in this way.

This now is not for a few, this is for all of us, to say, Lord, here I am. Use me As I am, may you speak through me, may my eyes be the eyes of Jesus, may my hands be members of Christ, may my voice speak your words. This is my car, drive it because I am at your command, Lord. Amen.

I invite you. We are going to end this time with a call to say yes to the Lord. The pastor feels a concern from the Holy Spirit to move us, to renew our commitment to be a Pentecostal church, very confused Baptists, a Pentecostal church. As I have already said, the Lord is not looking for super churches or super people, the Lord is looking for willing people and if you are weak, if you have problems, even more qualified so that the glory belongs to him and not to us. Amen.

But we have to say yes, if I invite you at this last moment, let's pray together. This is a call to offer your being, your body, your life to the Lord, to say, Lord, do it with me. I want whatever you have for me, I want it, however strange it may be, however uncomfortable it may be, that you use me for your glory in this world. I am available to you. Amen.