Change the foundation from sand to rock

Matthew chapter 7, verse 24, reads like this: “…Whoever hears these words and does them, I will compare him to a prudent man who built his house on the rock and the rain descended and the rivers came, the winds blew and beat against that house, but this house did not fall, because it was founded on the rock. But whoever hears these words from me and does not do them, I will compare him to a foolish man, who built his house on the sand, and the rain came down, and the rivers came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell. and his ruin was great…”

You who were in the service last Wednesday had a preview of this message, I was talking about this and I was using it as an introduction to a message that is much larger, and today I am going to try to cover some of those things. But I was sharing on Wednesday about how important it is for each of us to be able to build our lives on the foundation of Jesus Christ. There is no more secure foundation than that. There is no foundation that can give our lives more security and validity than knowing that we are building, I am going to say it as a process that we are still building, it is not that we have already built, but that we are building our houses on a solid foundation and sure.

And in this parable these two characters obviously our tendency is to look more at the prudent man, the man who knew how to build his house, the man who knew how to build well on the rock. But for some reason I started to think about both. And if you look closely, my brothers, both characters had a level of work and effort to put in to be able to build the house they were building. Do you agree with me? They both sweated, both had to invest, both who knows if even their hands bled putting one piece of wood after another, one piece of brick after another. Both had to strive to achieve building, that house. But of course, one of them chose a foundation that wasn't very durable, and the other chose a foundation that was going to be long-lasting or have a solid home.

Whenever we see a house near the beach. Or how many of you, rather, have you thought I would like to have a house in front of the beach? TRUE? Has anyone here thought about having a house in front of the beach? Imagine waking up every day and in your room, if you have a window, with a very large glass and when you get up the first thing you see is the ocean, the waves of the sea. I am in the glory of God.

But almost always the terrain near the beach is sandy terrain. Unless you go to Rock Port or Guster where the shoreline of the beach is stone. So, in that case, if you want to have a house facing the beach, go to Rock Port and not necessarily to a beach in Florida where the terrain is more sandy.

Why do I say this, my brothers? Although both foundations may seem capable of holding up a house, one of them is more unstable than the other. And we in our life always since we have use of our reason we are building our lives in some way or another. All of us are using our forces, our energies, our resources to build according to what we understand is best for us or what attracts us the most or how we would like to build our life according to our own whims.

Some of us when those winds of life come, our house has sometimes cracked or become uneven, or on some occasions the house has fallen, because we did not base it well. According to the life experiences we had, or the way we decided to build that house, or the interpretations that we thought we could make of life, we decided to build in one way or another. And many times the consequences of those decisions we made brought more pain than glory to our lives so to speak.

But thank God that this building process is not something that is final. Okay, well, if that was the foundation that I chose, well, that's where my life stays and I have to continue struggling with what I have. No. How good it is to know, my brothers, that when we are in the Lord there is an opportunity to build again on a solid foundation, on a foundation that is sure, on a foundation that can give our lives length, for that matter. say it.

And I believe that this afternoon, my brothers, is an opportunity for us to expose ourselves to the study of this word, that we can reconsider how we are building, how we are building our lives. And I am speaking here in general, I am still speaking to myself. If you have spent years in the Gospel, years knowing the Lord, living for the Lord, amen, may God bless you. This message is for you however you want.

If you have come here today to visit, and you have never touched, as Pastor Samuel said a few minutes ago, if you have never touched a church lintel, and today is the first time that you are exposing yourself to a dynamic of worship like this, open your heart and allow the Lord to speak to you today. Today is an opportunity where you can base your life on a solid foundation. Today is the day where you can continue building your life on a solid, secure foundation.

Now, let's get to the heart of things. When Jesus says, “anyone who hears these words and does them” what word is Jesus referring to? Imagine, what word is Jesus referring to? Jesus is talking about the whole message that he just preached in the Sermon on the Mount. This parable is the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount. How many are familiar with the Sermon on the Mount?

I recommend something. Today I am going to, as they say, summarize some of the main points of this message, I am not going to read it completely because otherwise we will not finish today, or we will leave later than usual, but I do want to point out some points that They are very important to identify the Sermon on the Mount, and that this can help us understand why Jesus used that parable to close that message.

So if you can, turn with me to the 5th chapter of Matthew. In chapter 5 of Matthew Jesus begins to give what is known as his master sermon, the basis of his entire ministry. Verse 1 says:

"...Seeing the crowd Jesus decided to go up the mountain and sitting down his disciples came to him and opening his mouth he began to teach them saying..."

Let's understand this, my brothers, Jesus obviously the fame of Jesus was spreading like wildfire. All the miracles that Jesus was doing, the wisdom that was in Jesus, every time he opened his mouth and exposed a teaching that was reaching the hearts of the people, the needs of the people, that is something that was already there. raising the reputation of Jesus above any other of the Pharisees, therefore, there were many people who were following him. Wherever he went, there was a crowd there. And at this moment that Jesus is, I imagine, perhaps walking from one place to another and he sees that all this crowd is following him, he decided to go up a mountain and there he sat on top of that hill, let's say, and the people they began to crowd around him, each one crowding in different places, to listen to this teacher speak.

And something that captivates my attention, my brothers, from this message, from that sermon of Jesus, is that this is how Jesus was speaking to the crowds but more specifically his message was addressed to his disciples. I explain why.

Jesus was sharing some secrets of the Kingdom that not everyone was going to understand, only those people who had made a decision to follow Jesus as his disciples. So on the one hand, yes, Jesus is speaking to multitudes, but more specifically he is speaking to those who decided to follow him, that when he called them and they said, yes, Lord, we are going to follow you wherever you go, who left everything to follow the Master.

Jesus is taking advantage of this opportunity to teach them secrets of the Kingdom of God that they themselves would have to teach others later. Jesus took every opportunity to teach his disciples. But more than that, what Jesus was trying to teach, my brothers, was a concept of a life of justice, of a life of holiness.

If you understand well everything we have heard about holiness, my brothers, it is not a matter of one being a sanctimonious person and going straight ahead and not even killing an ant. Holiness is more than that. Holiness has a lot to do with an attitude, common character, with a perspective, with a sense of joy, a positive attitude that defines us because we are not living under the terms of this world, but we are living under the terms of God and his Kingdom. That is where we are heading.

And here Jesus when he begins to speak in the Sermon on the Mount, he is talking about attitudes that define a holy life, as well as the motivations behind those attitudes. So we go there. The first verses, he starts talking about the beatitudes. Do you know the beatitudes? It begins by saying,

“…Blessed are the poor in spirit because they will see the Kingdom of God…”

One moment. Come here. Why does he start talking about the poor in spirit? Why don't you start talking about those who have everything? Those who are happy, those who have their houses well made and start talking about the poor in spirit? What is the intention?

“…Blessed are those who cry…”

Wait, the panorama keeps getting more morbid, what is this?

"…Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek for they will receive the earth as an inheritance. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice because they will be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God…”

They may sound like words that perhaps one is not used to hearing, but was Jesus getting to something? What we see there in that word, my brothers, is what Jesus is talking about is the condition of the heart. When he says blessed are the poor in spirit, one quickly hears the word poor and one quickly thinks, how much money in my pockets? And for a reason Jesus said, blessed are the poor in spirit. Poor in spirit is a person who has a very great need and this is where Jesus plants the first stake, so to speak, here is a truth that I want to teach you.

You can have everything in your life. You can have tremendous bank account. You can have the latest model car. You can have your best Dolce & Gabbana suit, your glasses, your perfume, your house, whatever you want, you can have everything your heart has longed for, but if your heart is not focused on the Lord, you are poor in spirit. That's how the Lord said it.

What is inside you is worth more than the material possessions that you have. How your spirit is before God is better than the reputation you may have before other people. When Jesus says this, what he is trying to say, my brothers, is that our lives cannot begin to change until we recognize that my life is nothing, my life is poor, my studies, my money, my resources will have taken so far, but they cannot take me as far as you can take me, God, and that is why I recognize that I am poor in spirit and I need you, Lord, above anything else.

That's where Jesus starts squeezing people. That is where Jesus begins to make a difference. That is where Jesus begins to tell us, do you want to lead a life of genuine holiness? Start by acknowledging that you are nothing without me. As I recognize that, as I do it perhaps through my tears, crying, there is a promise that he has for each one of us. Because yours will be the Kingdom of heaven, because you will receive consolation, you will receive the earth as an inheritance, because you will be satisfied, if you hunger and thirst for justice, you will be satisfied, you will be satisfied. If you extend mercy to you they will also give you mercy.

Look how Jesus begins to change people's paradigm, their way of seeing life. If you start to think of yourself as less, as the saying goes, less is more. If you recognize that you are nothing without him, the grace of God will begin to abound on you, the blessing of God will begin to abound on you.

Tell the person next to you, blessed are you. But tell him sensibly. Hey, I'll make a parenthesis. Let's never lose the value of that word that you just said to the person next to you. We almost always wave well trivially, God bless you, so long, oh, God bless you, hey, how are you? But are we truly understanding what we are saying? The blessing of God means what Jesus was saying, an abundant life, a full life, a full life. So every time you say to someone, God bless you, you are wishing heaven itself over that person's life. You are wanting the richness of God's glory over that person's life. So when Jesus says to you, blessed are you, pay attention because there is something he is communicating there.

Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers because they will be called children of God, and even more here Jesus makes it more intense. Blessed are those who suffer persecution for the sake of justice, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.

Look, this is another verse. Blessed are you when because of me they reproach you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you, lying, rejoice and be glad then, because your reward is great in heaven.

If you consider yourself a person who, because you say that you are a Christian, because you say that you love God, maybe in your coffee break at work, you hide in a closet and decide to pray, and your colleagues They make fun of you for that, when they make fun of you, laugh, be happy. I start to think otherwise now, wow, if they don't tell me anything, should I worry then? Because if they don't tell me anything, it's because I'm not reflecting something that I should reflect.

So if they tell me something, for which I am reflecting, well, then I must say, thank you Lord, because I am reflecting what I have to reflect. I'm not being the same as them but I'm being like you want me to be. So, my brothers and sisters, in the face of persecution, calm down, rejoice in the Lord, for he is the one who has his reward.

But the message continues. He gives us a call that we have to make a difference. Living in holiness means that we have to be different. For something Jesus then goes on to say that you are the salt and light of the world. When we are like this, Jesus himself said at another time, you are in the world but you are not of the world. And there are times that some of us believers, I liked when Pastor Greg said this this morning, there are times that we believers want to identify so much with the world that it seems like we are and are of the world, because we don't make a difference.

But the call of Jesus is an entirely different one. Yes, you are in the world, you have to live with your feet on the ground, but even with your feet on the ground, you have to make a difference, you have to let my light shine through you. The sauce that you use has to make a difference. If the term doesn't make sense to you, then use the term sofrito. You are the sofrito of the world. And that little sauce is there to give the world a different flavor.

Another part of Jesu s' call is for us to be able to live justly, to live in justice. And justice is often measured by how we comply with the law. At least in the world's terms. But when we are talking about Jesus, Jesus himself is saying that he did not come to break the law, he was fulfilling the law. There are many laws from the Old Testament, both laws of dietary rituals, such as cleansing rituals, such as celebrations of specific days that became law, all of these things Jesus was fulfilling in his person.

They criticized Jesus every time that no, you are not fulfilling the law. You heal on the Sabbath, you are breaking the law. Your disciples gather ears on the Sabbath. You are breaking the law. But whenever they said something to him, Jesus kicked them back. This is what I am wanting to do. Ah, you don't clean your hands when you have to eat, and Jesus, like many of us, arrived, sat down at the table and began to eat quickly.

Many rituals that were held in the temple, sacrificing goats, oxen, doves, whatever, those rituals were giving a message and the message was that there is no forgiveness of sin without bloodshed, and what was Jesus doing ? What did Jesus do on the cross? He complied with each and every one of those laws.

Do you want bloodshed? Here I am. A dove is no longer needed, a kid, or a cow, or an ox is no longer needed, I am going to replace all those things. He came to fulfill the law, he came to give a totally new meaning to the law. He became our law.

Jesus continued to elaborate his message and is already beginning to point to things from within, the character of the people. And this is where he starts talking about something that a lot of us maybe have trouble with sometimes, not always. Jesus says in verse 21:

"...You heard that it was said of the ancients, you shall not kill and whoever kills will be guilty of judgment, but I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be guilty of judgment..."

The anger problem. Tell me, have you been angry with someone? Let me take you back, a couple of years ago, did you experience anger, anger with someone? Maybe two months ago? What's more, who knows this morning how many got mad at someone? If I go with that, you all are worthy of a good trial right now, all of us are worthy.

Look how interesting Jesus was setting the bar even higher. Because he's no longer talking about a deadly crime of taking someone's life, he's talking about more essential things that go to people's hearts. If you get angry, with that anger, you commit something that is wrong, you will suffer judgment for it.

Now, I have to clarify, my brothers, because in the Bible, also in Ephesians, the Apostle Paul tells us, look, be angry, anger is a feeling that is in us. Each one of us experiences anger, anger, I even dare to say that anger is a feeling that is also in God. God gets angry too. In the Bible on many occasions we have seen that Jesus was angry with his people.

But the difference is that we do not commit sins based on that courage. Be angry but do not sin, is what he is saying. Don't let the sun go down under that anger. What's more, Jesus takes it even further. Look how it says verse 23.

“…Therefore, if you bring your offering to the altar and there you remember that your brother has something against you, − is the basket of offerings there? Didn't they take it?

Imagine, the basket of offerings is passing through there, in your row, and you throw away your money, your little envelope, every day, and what Jesus is saying there is that if that offering is getting closer to you and Before you put your offering in that basket, you remind yourself that you have a problem with the person three rows behind you, or who knows if the person next to you is saying, let your offering be more genuine. Grab her, don't throw her out, give the person next to you a hug, ask for forgiveness, I told you something that I didn't have to tell you this morning, I did something that I shouldn't have done, forgive me, and then you're going to to say, the basket has already left and it is already 4 rows further back, well, I do not give the offering. No no no. He says, after you apologize, get up, go to the back row, find the basket, and then throw it away. Don't think they're going to slip away so fast.

That message that the Lord is bringing here, my brothers, is the need to be able to live in peace and in harmony with the people around us. And not only that, but the Lord also calls us to know how to live in integrity and respect, particularly when we are talking about people of the opposite gender.

When Jesus talks about adultery, about divorce, he is emphasizing the importance of being able to give each other the respect that we deserve at that level. It makes me laugh because every time I read this and it's not like I make fun of it, but I say to myself, wow, Lord, you set the bar high here. because he says,

“…You heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery, but I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman, − I am going to say also or at a man, because this is something that happens to both, it is not only for men, it is clear – to covet her or covet him, he already adultered with him or her in his heart…”

Hey Jesus, that's where you really made it hard. Perhaps you don't remember that you yourself made us human beings, particularly men, that the eyes are like what excites us the most and if a very beautiful creation of God passes in front of us, we are going to do it. look. What happened to you, Jesus?

And he says it, be careful, it was for a reason that I said it. I know very well how I created you. He did it like this for a reason, I know very well how I created you. But if you want to represent the values of my kingdom, that's why I'm setting the bar high for you, so you can live in light of that. By faith.

And just as he's talking about this, he's also talking about the respect that is due to marriage as well. Marriage is a sacred covenant, my brothers, a sacred covenant that must be taken care of, must be respected. I have to take care of my wife who was singing here, I saw her singing and I said to myself, wow, Lord, my wife, the most beautiful gift that you have given me. I don't know if you're seeing me on the internet, Heidi, but here's a kiss for you.

But I see that, my brothers, that voice was largely what conquered me. Because what I was seeing was a gift that was in this woman and I said to myself, wow, there is my ideal help. And of course, my brothers, the marriage dynamic is not easy. They are two people with two different mentalities, but at the same time united in one flesh. And you have to know how to work, how to negotiate with each other, in order to reach the level of integrity and intimacy that the Lord wants us to have, that as soon as we look into each other's eyes we already know how we are thinking, feeling. That if I do something that offends her, or vice versa, that we can have the courage to go, apologize, talk to each other, so we can continue building that marriage relationship. That if she sees that there is a woman who is hanging around me a lot, she is like a vulture. Careful. Before when she told me, be careful, why are you going to tell me, I'm not going to do anything.

But when I listen well to my wife's voice, she can see something that I don't. And likewise I am like a roaring lion around her. If I see that a man begins to behave towards my wife in a way that I don't feel comfortable with, I get the lion's share too. But that is part of taking care of that marriage relationship, of living in respect, in integrity, in harmony with each other.

And from that respect, then, I also transmit it to other people around me, other women around me. I am glad when Paul tells Timothy, treat the women of the church as your sisters. To the women who are older, they are your mothers, they are your grandmothers. Here I have mothers, I don't have grandmothers here. For the record. I'm not going to take it that far.

But one learns to live in light of those principles, of those values that help us, my brothers, to be able to demonstrate a life of holiness, the holiness that the Lord wants us to demonstrate.

Jesus right here says, if your eye is the occasion to fall..., Lord, why am I going to gouge out my eye if she is the one who is dressing very provocatively? She's the one with the tight pants, sir. They are not my eyes. Jesus says, if your eye is the occasion to fall, it is better that you arrive as a pirate to heaven than to go to hell with 2020.

But, my brothers, this is what Jesus is meaning. Look, the integrity that is required my brothers. I tell you, I am making a stop here, my brothers, because I know that this is one of the biggest struggles, both for men and women, today. The world in which we live sexuality is through the roof, something comes to everyone.

What's more, even those who thought that the only thing behind them were flies, even to those people, their sexuality can also be through the roof. And one has to learn how to deal with those things. You're in the grocery store and you see the rack of magazines and it's like, let me look for the newspapers because I can't look at the magazines. One has to be careful, and if Jesus says so it is because one has to pay attention to it. He mentions it for a reason.

Everything he is saying here is for a reason. He's not saying it to tell us like, this is impossible, forget it, I'm not going in. Narrow is the gate that leads to life, it says so here too, narrow is the gate and wide is the gate that leads to perdition. So where are we going to enter?

Another thing that Jesus says to help us live in holiness. Be careful with your oaths, be careful with your words. A few months ago I was here with my brother Rafael at the reception, and a gentleman arrived, I don't remember his name, but this person, look, I'm really bad at remembering some things, and those who know me well know that Sometimes I forget things, serious. But when this person came here we were talking among the three of us, and suddenly he comes out and says, − “Look, Omar, I'm going to tell you something, a saying that I've learned. And the saying goes, one is the owner of what is silent and the slave of what is said." Remember? One is the owner of what is silent and a slave of what is said.

In other words, beware of getting too involved with your mouth that you can't follow through on what you're saying later. Look, I don't know how many of us at some point in our lives, to get rid of some problem, told someone, oh, I swear on my mother who is still alive, that I'm going to give you the money next week . The mom got screwed.

I'm speaking well Puerto Rican, sorry. Omar, check. Can anyone identify with that? There are times when by compromising so much with our mouths, what we are bringing is misfortune, not only to ourselves but to those for whom we swear. And when Jesus says, look, do not even swear by heaven, because it is the throne of God, do not swear by the earth because it is the state of his feet, let your yes be yes and your no be no. See how I solve the problem for you.

You know what? This for me, as a pastor, often costs me, it really costs me, to say no to someone, one of the most difficult things. Pastor, I want you to come to my daughter's quinceañera. Pastor, I want you to come to my son's dedication. Pastor, we are going to celebrate my 103-year-old great-great-grandmother's birthday and we want you to pray for her. Pastor, we are going to baptize my kitten and I want you to be there to baptize the kitten.

If I start to say yes to all that, my brothers, poor Sebastián, poor Lucas, because they won't have a dad who can play with them, really. There are times when I find myself at a crossroads because the person who is approaching me is a person that I appreciate so much, but when I see how my week has been, that I have been away from home, 2, 3, 4 nights, and I am looking, yes, Saturday is coming, I will be able to be at home and be with my family calmly and someone tells me, Pastor Omar, you can come because we are going to do something very special, a little meal and we want you to be there. Can you bring me the plate of food on Sunday? I eat it with great pleasure, but on Saturday I have to share a plate of food with my family.

Just as I give my example, my brothers, you also have your own examples. It happens to you in different ways. They invite you here, they invite you there, your job asks you this, they ask you that, the other, your wife asks you one thing and another, your husband too, and you also have to learn to say yes and say no. Children must learn to say yes and no. If you tell your son, I'm going to reward you if you pick up your room, it's better that you reward him when he finishes picking up the room, because if you say yes, you're going to give him something, and after he cleans his room, He even licks the floor if possible, he comes behind you looking for the lollipop you were going to give him and you tell him, I'll give it to you later. Oh no, I'm back again and I'm rocking the room. You didn't give me what you said you were going to give me. May his yes be yes and your no be no.

And here Jesus is like Jesus abounds from one to another, from one to another. How many love the people around them? You can come and greet someone here in the church, brother, how are you? Ah well. They hug. But what about when it has to do with your enemies. How about when Jesus says love your enemies, those who hate you, love them too.

How many have enemies here? I am asking a genuine question. How many have enemies here? Let me define enemy. Enemy is not only the one who puts his foot in you and trips you up. That can be defined as an enemy, but also here an enemy can be defined as a person who does not necessarily share the same values as you, who does not live the way you live, who becomes different from you in some way or another, who maybe you walk past him and he looks over your shoulder, that you have Payless shoes and he has Bostonian shoes or whatever. How many can say now that they do have their enemies? No, no, but don't say amen. No. Don't say amen to that. Say yes I do.

Look, there's an opportunity for you to pray then. That is what Jesus is saying. You will love your neighbor, you will hate your enemies, but I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse them, do for those who hate them, pray for those who abuse and persecute them so that they may be children of your Father who is in heaven.

In other words, Jesus is saying, if you manage to make a difference at that level, look, you can consider yourself to have your place in heaven already. The pachangueros there in the world greet each other very well. What difference does it make if you are a pachanguero too and you greet yourself with a pachanguero? Is the same. If you are a Boricua and you greet another Boricua, it is the same. If you are a countryman and you greet another countryman it is the same.

Now, Puerto Rican, go say hello to a Salvadoran. Learn what it means to greet a Salvadoran. Learn that there are some words that you say that are offensive to him and you have to learn to love that person and treat that person.

At work, someone tripped you, pray for that person and instead of tripping him or her, give him or her a glass of water, give him a coffee and not Dunking Donuts, give him Starbucks, which costs you more .

When Jesus starts talking about personal motivations, our personal motivations have to be well measured in the light of God's word as well. He begins to speak in chapter 6, that when you go to give alms, look at this illustration,

"...When you give alms, do not blow the trumpet in front of you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to be praised by men, indeed they already have their reward..."

This is something literal, my brothers, biblically there were Pharisees at that time that when they went to give alms a caravan would go before them, with trumpets, with music announcing that they were going around giving alms. They were sitting in their seats and throwing their alms to the people. Imagine that here I am going to give my offering, I ask brother Roberto to bring the chofar, okay, Roberto, the chofar sounds in front of me, that I am going to give my offering now, so that everyone knows that I am going to give my offering.

Can you imagine how ridiculous that would be? When you do something, do not do it to gain appreciation or recognition from people, but everything you do, as Jesus says, do it in secret so that no one knows that you have done it except God, God who is seeing what you are doing. you do in secret, he is the one who will reward you.

He says the same with prayer, oh, how many of us like to pray at the top of our mouths? Ah, Lord... fire of God... look, there are times when the most responsive prayer is the humble and simple prayer made by the person who is there in the back seat, sitting there praying, Lord, Father, I am nothing, but you are everything, my family is in your hands, my life is in your hands, my work is in your hands, Lord, I don't know what else to say, so thank you. There he left it all. Surely, that prayer that was made in secret back there, the Lord will answer it.

It is what one does. Character is measured, I liked this when Pastor Greg said it, character is measured, what you are, what you do when nobody sees you, when nobody is around you, that is where your true character is. That's hard. That's strong. I just said that myself and it's like I definitely need God's grace, I need God's mercy.

We have to learn how to pray, my brothers, we can't be praying like a parrot, we have to make prayers that are focused, directed to the Lord, prayers that are humble, simple, honest and above all things, prayers that learn to extend forgiveness to others. Have you noticed that in the Our Father prayer the emphasis of that prayer has to do with forgiveness?

Jesus wants us to learn how to forgive others, how to live in harmony with others. The same speaks about fasting. When you fast, don't come with your haggard face telling everyone, I'm fasting, I'm more starving than a corner dog. Nobody has to know that. On the contrary, when you fast, what does Jesus say? Bathe well, shave, cut your nails, dress well, no one to know. I find it funny because whenever Pastor Greg is fasting, I come and offer him pizza, without knowing that he is fasting. He has to tell me, not Omar, today I'm passing because I'm fasting. But eat there in front of me so fasting is worth more. I eat, Greg, please. Nobody has to find out, my brothers, it is a practice of surrender, of subjection to God that you are doing and you are doing it with God and God to see what you are doing in private, in secret.

What is it saying, again? He will take care of rewarding you. How many need money? Jesus says, be careful with money. We cannot serve two gods. Either we serve God or we serve wealth. But obviously the idea is to serve him.

You know why? Because God knows all the things you need. God knows what you need. Before you ask him, he knows what you need. He knows the dilemma you have with your children, with your husband, with your wife, at work. He knows the dilemma you have with that depressive mentality that comes out from time to time. He knows very well. He knows your immigrant situation here and for a reason he says, don't focus on making treasures here on earth, but seek to make your treasures up there in heaven where neither rust nor moths corrupt any of it.

Seek first the Kingdom of God and his justice and all those other things that you need, he will take care of supplying each and every one of them. And in the midst of your needs, look how Jesus continues to elaborate his line, I'm finishing now. In the midst of your needs, don't make yourself judge others for what they have that you don't have. Beware of making ill-gotten judgments. Chapter 7. Do not judge so that you are not judged, because the same measure that you use to measure others, that same measure will be used to measure you.

Look, that one thinks she's the most self-righteous in the church, the favorite of Pastor Roberto Miranda. Be careful because in some way, what you have just judged there, is going to come back to you, in one way or another, maybe they will not tell you that you are Roberto Miranda's favorite, but they will tell you that You are Mari Ulloa's favorite. Those of you who don't know Mari Ulloa, he is one of the pillars of this church too. We have to be careful in the midst of that anxiety, that eagerness that we may have, we have to be careful not to be judging each other.

Otherwise, my brothers, we have to recognize that everything we need is found in God. If you spend your life on the rock that is Christ, your life will bear fruit according to that foundation. That is another of the things that Jesus is saying here. After saying that, you will know them by their fruit, that's where he ends up saying, okay, after having told him all this, after having shared all these words with you, if you listen to them and don't listen to me, if you feel through one ear and it comes out the other, I am going to compare you with a foolish man, with a foolish woman, who when she goes that way goes and continues building her life on shaky ground and then complains why her life continues to sink , they continue to sink and it goes from bad to worse, and it is because he is not paying attention to the words that I just said to him, not me, Jesus, and he is not putting them into practice, he is not making an effort to appropriate them. those truths and live in light of them.

Now, if after I have shared this message with you, and you hear these words and walk out of that door, with an intention, with a mentality of saying, Lord, today is, I am going to make an effort today. Today is the day that I am going to start changing the foundation of my life, I am going to tear myself from the sand and start planting myself on the rock.

I don't know how many of you have seen this Big Movers TV show, how many have seen that show? That they are companies that are in charge of moving, for example, an entire house, they raise it from the foundation, transport it elsewhere and plant it elsewhere and put it on a new foundation. That's why I was thinking about the church, because the church is that kind of company. It is the type of company that is responsible for taking your entire house, lifting it completely and transporting it to the foundation that is Christ, which is the solid rock.

That is the church. That is this place. That is the church. This afternoon, my brothers, is an opportunity for you to be able to say, look, I want to found my life on the rock that is Christ. On this side of my world there is a lot of wind, there are many currents, a lot of water, a lot of rain and there are times when I see the other side with a very rich, very cool sun, and why am I here suffering so much and so much and so much . My house keeps falling down. Look, contact that company called a church, and they will help you raise your house and put it on the right foundation.