A Journey of Spiritual Growth

Genesis 13. In the English service, each week we are holding a service about the lives of the patriarchs in the Bible, beginning with Abraham. We are studying his life and how his life is a journey of faith; it is a literal journey, but it is also a journey of spiritual growth.

On the one hand, God called this man to go from one country to another country. I do not know if anyone here has had that experience of going from one country to another, which in itself is an adventure, isn't it? God called him to do it, and as we know, it is not only a geographical journey but also a spiritual journey, because God is teaching him, shaping him, changing his life, teaching him to trust in Him, because God made promises to him.

God told him: if you trust Me enough to leave everything and go to an unknown place, I promise you that I will not leave you stranded there. I promise that I will go with you, but you have to be willing to trust, and with trust and faith comes risk. You have to be willing to risk everything, trusting that I am faithful, that I will fulfill My promises in your life.

I remember a conversation—I think it was the first conversation I had with Pastor Roberto Miranda twenty years ago. We were in the process of constructing this building here, and it was a small congregation at the time, and they had to invest almost everything and take a major risk to renovate this building. And Pastor Roberto told me: I am sort of betting, putting everything on the table, risking everything. If I lose, I lose, but if we win, the Kingdom of God will grow.

It is almost like—I do not know whether some of you gambled before entering the Christian Kingdom, right? Please do not keep doing it; it is addictive. Some say, “But I am going to pray first.” No, we are not going to do it. But in the Spirit we have to learn to bet—is that the word?—to bet that God is faithful, to put things on the table, and to know: You know what? If You are not faithful, I am going to lose; but if You are faithful, if You fulfill Your promises, I am going to win. The life of faith is a life like that. It is not a life of gambling, but a life of risk, and God is faithful.

Some people learn it once you begin to develop a whole personal history. You learn that one time I took a risk and God was faithful and fulfilled His promise; He pulled me out of the pit and was there with me, and afterward you have more confidence the next time, right? And there is always more and more and more. As they say in English: the stakes get higher and higher and higher, but we have to start somewhere. We have to begin somewhere and take that first step of faith, and that is what we are studying in the life of Abraham.

So it began with a promise. Abraham, if you are willing to leave your country and your nation, I will make you into a great nation. If you are willing to leave behind your name in the place where you are known, where everyone knows you by name, and you are willing to become a nobody, a complete zero—I don't know if I'm saying it wrong—are you willing to become that? Then I will give you a great name.

If you are willing to leave your security, your comfort zone, and live a risky life, then I will fight your battles. Everyone who blesses you, I will bless; everyone who dishonors you, I will curse. I will fight your battles. I will watch your back, but you have to be willing to leave everything. If you are willing to let go of your life's dream—perhaps the career, the plan you had for your life—and lose everything and wander in an unknown land, then I will give you a new plan for your life, a new destiny. In you all the nations of the Earth will be blessed.

You can hold on to your small plan and lose everything, or let Me fulfill a great plan in your life. But if you do not put it on the table, nothing happens; you have to take the step of faith. Amen.

And thank God Abraham was faithful, and he took the risk. He left the next morning; he did not even wait. The Bible says that Abraham left everything and followed Jehovah without knowing where he was going. Isn't that something? Some of us want to say: Lord, show me what You want from me and I will follow You. And God says: Look, follow Me and I will show you what I want from you, right? But you have to put on the blindfold, take My hand, and trust that I will work it out along the way. I will show you what I want from you, but you have to be willing to follow God even though you do not know where you are going, even when you do not know where you are headed, and Abraham did it.

And when he arrived in Canaan, which would later be the land he was going to inherit—Israel—he arrived there and God said: Here you are. You are in the land where I am going to bless you. And so the Word says that Abraham believed God, built an altar, called upon the Name of Jehovah, and walked through the land knowing: God is going to give me this land, thank God. How many have had victories like that? Maybe you decided: I am going to follow Christ, and you take your risk and God blesses you.

Many of you were baptized last week, and that was a very big step of faith. And you come out of the waters, or you take a ministry risk and God does the work, and you are on top of the world. And how many of us know that after being on the mountaintop, we often go down into the valley very quickly, right? After the victory and the glory, sometimes we do not remain so victorious, because life is a life of highs and lows, and the life of faith is like that.

Do you know what happened to Abraham? After his spiritual victory, after arriving in this land, after God made him these promises, a terrible famine began in the land, and neither he nor his wife, his nephew, and all his people had anything to eat. He had to travel to Egypt, where there was food, in order to live. Now, this man of faith, this courageous man—do you know what he did? He told his wife: My love, when we are there, can you say that you are my sister? Because you are very beautiful, and they are going to kill me because of you. So if you love me, my love, you will say that I am your brother. And, well, we are half-siblings, right? We are brother and sister in Christ, right? It is a little white lie; it is no big deal.

Look, if you love me, you will say it, okay. They go to Egypt: Hello, Mr. Pharaoh; hello, Egyptians. I am Abraham, and here I present to you my sister Sarah. She is rolling her eyes: My dear little brother. Pharaoh falls in love with her, and what does he do? He takes her to be part of his harem. Now one expects: All right, now the game is over, okay? Now, Abraham, you are going to say that I am not your sister; that man is going to take her as part of his harem. Bye, little sister; take care, please. (Laughter.) And she is standing there like... There is a saying in English: Abraham threw her under the bus. He threw her out there to fend for herself, right? He left her there.

Can you believe that? It is right there in the Bible. The Bible does not hide the failures of the men of faith, you know? God does not feel obligated to present us with perfect role models. He knows that we are flesh and blood, and the Bible even highlights the mistakes of men of faith so that we will know: Well, maybe I have my failures, but I am in good company, right? If there is hope for him, maybe there is hope for me.

So he lied. Pharaoh almost married Sarah; it got right to that point. Then God had to intervene and say: No, stop, Pharaoh; she is married. He punished him with plagues. This was earlier, but with certain plagues against Egypt. Then Pharaoh said: Abraham, what have you done? She is your wife. Why did you lie to me? And, well... Okay, fine, take a lot of money, gold, silver, animals, and go in peace. Please, go in peace. So despite his foolishness, Abraham leaves blessed. Imagine that.

God fulfilled His promise. He promised to bless him, and He blessed him. He promised to defend him, and He defended him despite his failures. There is a saying—and let me see how it goes in the Church—if we are faithless, God is still faithful because He cannot deny Himself. If we are unfaithful, God remains faithful because He cannot deny Himself. Thank God, God is faithful, and His faithfulness does not depend on my faithfulness. Thank God, right? I am in the hollow of His hand, and God holds me there despite everything.

But, but sins have consequences. We have to learn; we have to improve. We do not want to suffer either, so Abraham learned. I imagine that Sarah punished him quite severely when he got home. The Bible does not go into that, but we can trust that he paid for his sin. But anyway, Abraham comes through it.

And after that terrible failure, he returns to the place where he had built his first altar, in a place called Bethel, which later becomes very important in the life of his grandson Jacob. But there he had an old altar that he had built a few months earlier. He returns to the altar and worships God again, as if he were saying: I have to be reconciled. I went astray, and now I return to the altar and say, Lord, forgive me for not believing Your promises. Forgive me for fighting my own battle, for taking matters into my own hands, and for trying to solve my problems in the way that seemed right to me.

Lord, next time I want to trust in You—that You are faithful, that You will fight for me. I do not want to act out of fear again; instead, I want to live with faith, with courage. The Lord says: I forgive you, and I give you more tests, more tests. Thank You, Lord.

But the Lord's tests are not for us to fail; they are for us to win, right? When God gives you a test, it is so that you may come through victorious. God wants you to pass the test. He does not want to shame you. He wants you to learn who He is and who you are in Christ. But in order to learn, we have to be tested and go through the test, and that is how we learn that God is faithful, because it is a process of learning to trust Him, right? We begin by saying: Lord, I will give everything for You, like Peter, right? And then Christ says: You will deny Me three times this very night. We have to learn that we are flesh and blood so that afterward we may trust in Him.

Before reading the text, I would like to share something—a testimony about something that happened with my son this week. I have a six-year-old boy named Noah. Some of you know him very well and have taken care of him and served him in Sunday school and everything. He is a boy who thinks a lot—too much sometimes.

After reading his bedtime stories, we were about to put him to bed. I told him: I love you. And sometimes a child does not say anything, but that night he said: I love you too, Daddy. And I was like: Oh, okay, I like this. I could get used to this. That's good. I love you, Daddy. But then he said: But you know what, Daddy? I love God more, because we have taught him that. And he said: But I love God more, because we are teaching him that we have to love God more than everything else, and then we can love others. I said: That is wonderful, my son. If you love God more than everything, then you can love me better.

And after a little while, he said: You know what, Daddy? I do not know if I am telling the whole truth. (Laughter.) Sometimes I think I love God more than you and anything else, but sometimes I think that perhaps this is not true; maybe it is not quite like that. I want to love Him more than everything else, but I am not sure whether I love Him. And I was like: Oh, son, this is life. It is a process of learning to love God. Sometimes we feel that, yes, I love Him more than everything. The test comes, and we are lying about Sarah, right?

But I believe there are tests so that we may come to love Him more, so that we may understand Him more, and so that we may know what is in our own heart. So God dealt with Abraham that way. He gave him two more chances to test his faith, and God sent some tests. These stories are a little long, and I am going to trust that if I read them, you will not fall asleep on me, right? Can I trust you with that? Very good, and the ushers will be watching.

Did you know that among the Puritans, if someone fell asleep, the ushers were authorized to use weapons to wake people up? (Laughter.) So I am going to read, beginning in Genesis 13. And I understand that they are doing the same thing upstairs with the children, right? The same text, Abraham and Lot. There you go. Look at how God is speaking. I did not know that, so God wants us to read this.

So we are going to read about two situations in Abraham's life involving his nephew Lot: a family conflict, and Abraham is going to be tested. How are you going to resolve this family conflict? After that, Lot gets into trouble, and Abraham has to decide whether he is going to fight and defend his nephew—another test of whether Abraham has the faith to take a great risk.

So I am going to read, beginning in Genesis 13, verse 1, okay? One moment, I am going to do this. Thank you. “Then Abraham went up from Egypt toward the Negev, he and his wife”—this is after lying about his wife and everything—“with all that he had, and Lot with him. And Abraham was exceedingly rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold, and he journeyed from the Negev toward Bethel, to the place where his tent had been before,” between Bethel and there, “to the place of the altar that he had made there before; and there Abraham called upon the Name of Jehovah.”

“Lot also, who went with Abraham, had sheep, cattle, and tents, and the land was not sufficient for them to dwell together, for their possessions were many, and they could not live in the same place. And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abraham's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock; and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelt in the land at that time.”

“Then Abraham said to Lot: Let there be no strife now between the two of us, between my herdsmen and yours, because we are brothers. Is not the whole land before you? I beg you to separate from me. If you go to the left hand, I will go to the right; and if you go to the right, I will go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw the whole plain of the Jordan, that all of it was well watered, like the garden of Jehovah, like the land of Egypt in the direction of Zoar, before Jehovah destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.”

“Then Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan. And Lot journeyed eastward, and they separated from one another. Abraham camped in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived in the cities of the plain and pitched his tents as far as Sodom.”

“Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord. And the Lord said to Abraham after Abraham had separated from him: Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, toward the north and the south and the east and the west, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can count the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be counted. Arise, walk through the land, throughout its length and its breadth, for I will give it to you.”

“Then Abraham moved his tent and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.” So, well, let’s stop there for a moment, and then we’ll continue, okay? This is hardcore today; this is spiritual university, okay?

So Abraham and his nephew Lot: a family conflict. I don’t know whether anyone here has ever had a family conflict, but it can become complicated, especially when money, possessions, and children are involved. It’s all here, you know? There’s nothing new under the sun, right? What we experience was experienced before.

God is the same; He deals with human beings, and later we’re going to talk again about how Abraham chose the path of faith to resolve this problem. They separated, and then Lot went to live in Sodom, but later Lot got into trouble. I don’t know whether anyone has relatives who are always getting into trouble; maybe you are the relative who is always getting into trouble. Lot was captured; let’s see what happens.

At that time, Canaan did not have the nation of Israel; there were no superpowers like there are now controlling the entire region. The Middle Eastern region was divided into cities that were like small kingdoms: the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Salem, the king of various places, and every king wanted to become greater. They formed alliances with one another, and there were wars, and all of this has been verified by archaeology—is that what it’s called? Archaeology.

You know, the Bible is not a collection of inventions, brother; these are not legends, this is history. This happened; archaeology and history verify these things. So there were many wars at that time, with certain kings fighting against others, and there was one king who was like a big fish in the sea. There was a more powerful king named Kedorlaomer. Well, he was important back then; now he is forgotten. And he had an alliance with other kings and dominated part of the region, and there was a rebellion against him, and he crushed the rebellion with force—so much force that other cities became afraid.

And there was another war against him, with several other kings opposing him. Once again, Kedorlaomer crushes them and wins, and in the process he captures and kidnaps Lot and his entire family and their belongings. So Abraham later hears about it, and we’re going to see how he faces another test: what are you going to do now?

Before, when you were in danger, you lied about your wife, and God blessed you; now you are in danger again. Let’s see what you do, okay? So turn with me to Genesis 14, verse 12, okay? 14:12: “And they also took Lot, the son of Abraham’s brother, who lived in Sodom, and his possessions, and departed. And one of those who had escaped came and told Abraham the Hebrew, who lived by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and brother of Aner, who were Abraham’s allies.” Abraham had allies too.

“Abraham heard that his relative was a prisoner, and he armed his servants who had been born in his house, three hundred and eighteen of them, and pursued them as far as Dan. And he and his servants fell upon them by night and attacked them, and pursued them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus. And he recovered all the possessions, as well as Lot his relative and his possessions, and the women and the rest of the people.” Abraham won, thank God. “When he returned from the defeat of Kedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh, which is the King’s Valley. Then Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High, brought out bread and wine and blessed him, saying: Blessed be Abraham by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand. Abraham gave him tithes of everything.”

“Then the king of Sodom said to Abraham: Give me the people, and take the possessions for yourself. And Abraham answered the king of Sodom: I have raised my hand to God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, that I will take nothing of all that is yours, from a thread to a sandal strap, so that you cannot say, ‘I made Abraham rich,’ except only what the young men have eaten and the share belonging to the men who went with me—to Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, who shall take their share.” Amen. Did you follow the story? Are you with me? That was a long story, but it’s worth talking about.

Test number one, which came with the blessing: despite his sin, Abraham left Egypt blessed—imagine that. There were so many possessions between him and Lot that there was already strife between them. How many of us know that more tests come along with the blessing? Now the house fills up with children and everything, but now there are too many children to fit, and only one bathroom, right? Even the best families have problems.

Churches that are blessed have problems because we grow; we no longer fit. The building can no longer handle it: many children, many adults, no chairs; you get annoyed because you have to look for parking, all of that. There was conflict. Now, between the two of them, Abraham had every right to insist that he should be able to go to the most blessed, most beautiful part of the land and that Lot should have to settle for what was left over; he had every right to do so. He was the chief patriarch; he had the right to claim the best for himself, but instead of doing that, this time he chose another path.

He decides: instead of seeking what is mine, I’m going to let God be the one who takes care of me; I’m going to be generous. I’m going to let him choose whatever he wants, because there is One who takes care of me; I don’t have to take care of myself. That sums it up. I’m going to let God be the one who fights my battles. I’m not going to fight with you, Lot; take whatever you want. He chose based on logic.

Many times, even after becoming Christians, we continue living with a worldly mindset, and sometimes we say it: Mr. Gregory, I’m a Christian, but you have to do what you have to do; business is business. Wonderful, isn’t it? Okay, but is it that way for God? Changing our mindset takes time sometimes, doesn’t it?

Lot was still a man of God, sort of, but he still had a worldly mindset. He lived near Sodom, a sinful and dangerous place, but Abraham said: I’m going to let God take care of me; I’m going to let God fight my battles. And do you know what God did? He appeared to him. I don’t know what the experience was, whether it was a vision or a dream. I don’t think it was a dream, because in the conversation with God, God asks him to turn around and look. I think it was something literal. I don’t know whether anyone here has had experiences with God, but you know that God is there, right? You feel it; you experience it, right?

For some, sometimes through dreams, sometimes through a vision, sometimes you just know that you know that God is right there, wherever you may be. God told Abraham: now it’s your turn. I want you to look in every direction—to the south, to the east, to the west, to the north—at everything you can see. I want you to picture a mountain from which you can see for great distances, and that was a place from which he could see, and God tells him: I am going to give you everything you see. And then Abraham may have thought: and who is going to live there? My wife and I have no children, and we are already advanced in age. And God says: don’t worry about your descendants either; you will have children like the dust of the earth. It’s not that they’re going to be dirty, but that there will be so many of them that, if the dust could be counted, your children could be counted.

And then Abraham had to walk through the land as though he were claiming it: this belongs to me, to God, and He will give it to me. We have to do that with the promises God has made; you have to walk in the promise. Lord God, I know I don’t see it now, but I live it, and I know that one day You will give it to me. I trust in You as though it were already here; I take hold of it by faith, and I do not let go of that vision. I do not let go of this faith. I walk through the land and claim it because it belongs to God, and He is going to give it to me.

Abraham passed the test, thank God. He built another altar—why not? Building the altar means coming, seeking God, and lifting your heart to Him. He passed the test.

Then Lot went to live near Sodom. We have the situation I just told you about: he was captured in the war. Now this Kedorlaomer seems to have been quite powerful, right? His city had conquered at least twelve other cities; he was beginning to dominate the region, and Abraham had his three hundred and eighteen men. Now, I don’t know how many men Kedorlaomer had, but I imagine there were more than three hundred and eighteen. It was a little group. How many do we have here? There are more of us; we have more people here on the first floor than he had in this great war he had to fight.

Before, he learned to let God fight the battles that he himself had to fight, but now Abraham has to decide whether he trusts God enough to fight God’s battles. I don’t know whether I’m explaining myself clearly: the walk of faith is learning to let God fight your battles and for you to take up and fight His battles, and to keep this in the right order.

I’ll say it in English because I’m sure I’m butchering it, but the challenge is to let God fight your battles and for you to be willing to fight His, even though it’s risky—even when you have to take a risk, put everything on the table, and trust that God is faithful. He had a handful of men; he went out at night, and I don’t know why it isn’t in this translation, but other translations say that, even with a small group, he divided them at night and attacked the enemy and won against a group much, much larger than his.

Why does it say three hundred and eighteen men? I think it is so that we can see that this is real; it is flesh and blood. And do you know what else is interesting? He was learning that God is my help, that I am not going to help myself, that God is going to help me, and therefore I can be bold. It reminds me of another young man, a great-great-grandson of Abraham, whose name is—I’m not going to say the name—but a young man who dared to attack a giant with a few little stones. He said: you come against me with a javelin and your size; I come against you in the name of the God of Hosts. The battle belongs to God.

David did not approach slowly; he ran toward the giant courageously. Abraham boldly went by night with a small group of men and won the battle—he won the battle. Once again he learned: God is faithful; I can fight God’s battles and He can fight mine, and I know I am going to win, amen.

Now comes a third test, and we’re almost finished—a third test. You know, after winning victories, what do we do afterward? Sometimes that is very important: what are we going to do with success? Sometimes when someone is successful, he becomes proud and lets down his guard. This happened to that same great-great-grandson, right? After his success, when he was in control, David let down his guard and fell into sin. Abraham returns from the battle, and now he is the powerful one in the region, right? He conquered the conqueror; he was the winner, and now several kings come out to meet him to collaborate with him. There was a valley of kings, and they were there.

And there were two in particular, one good and one bad. Guess which was the good king and which was the bad king: the king of Sodom and King Melchizedek. And Abraham has to choose between the two: whom am I going to trust? How am I going to deal with this? Brothers and sisters, in the life of faith we have to discern whom we are going to trust. Do not trust just anyone, but do trust when God sends someone who has been sent by Him, right?

So we know about Melchizedek; we learn about him in the Book of Hebrews, right? His name—and let’s say it together; we did it this morning—Melchizedek. Melchizedek, isn’t that cool? You just want to say that name: Melchizedek. Now you know Hebrew because his name is Hebrew. Well, almost all the names are Hebrew, but it is a name with two parts: Melchi means “my king” or “king”; Zedek comes from the word for righteousness. He is the king of righteousness—an impressive name, isn’t it?

He is also the king of a city called Salem. We have heard of Salem, haven’t we? It is not the Salem here next to Lynn, although that Salem got its name from it. Does anyone know the meaning of Salem? Shalom, peace. He is the king of righteousness, the king of peace—wow. Take note of that name; there is something there: king of righteousness, king of peace. He was not only a king but a priest-king of a God whom he called El Elyon, God Most High. Now, at that time there were many little gods, many idols, but Abraham knew: look, this man has known the same God. He must be the same God as Jehovah, my God.

And this man ministers a prophetic Word to Abraham. He tells him: blessed be Abraham by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, as if he were teaching him: your God is greater than you think. He is not your little god who is defending you and no one else; He is the God of the whole world. He created heaven and earth, yet He has chosen you; but He is great.

And then they begin to worship, and it says: “And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand,” and as though he were teaching him, knowing: I do not want you to miss the lesson; your God has shown you His faithfulness—do not forget it. We forget. God gets us out of one tight spot, we find ourselves in another, and we become anxious. God says to you: Look, I am the same One who saved you once before; I will save you again. Trust in Me, it’s gonna be okay. I know how to perfect what I have begun. That is what God wants to tell us, right?

So Melchizedek ministers to Abraham, and I imagine that Abraham had an experience at this moment almost as though his eyes were opened, and for a moment he could see standing before him not a Canaanite man, the king of Salem, which would become Jerusalem, but other kings of Jerusalem who would come from his descendants. Perhaps with the eye of faith he could see King David sitting on the throne there in that very place. Perhaps by faith he could see Solomon in all his majesty, and other righteous kings such as Asa, Jehoshaphat, Josiah, Hezekiah, and Uzziah.

Perhaps with his eye of faith he could see an entire line of kings, and I do not know, but perhaps at that moment he was able to understand the promise that in you, Abraham, all the nations of the earth will be blessed; that your vision and your life are not meant to bless something small, nor merely to bless you, but for the whole world to be blessed through you if you trust in Me. Perhaps there before him he saw another King, the true King of Righteousness, the Prince of Peace, the priest who would mediate the blessing of the Holy Spirit on this earth for all nations.

You know what? Abraham was forgotten in his homeland, but God promised him a great land, and here we are 4,000 years later talking about him. There was a promise that in him all the nations of the earth would be blessed. How many nations of the earth are represented here? Blessed—we are blessed by the descendant of Abraham, by Jesus Christ, the King of kings, the Prince of Righteousness. What an experience.

Abraham knew that God was speaking to him through Melchizedek; he knew it, and that is why he responded in faith and gave him a tithe of everything he had obtained. You know, the tithe is not an obligation that you—no, it is worship. It is how Abraham acknowledged that my God is the God of all the earth, that He takes care of me, and for that reason he gave Him ten percent as a symbol that He owns everything, right? And that is how it is: it is voluntary, not compulsory. It is not something legalistic; it is something joyful.

At this moment Abraham was worshiping God Most High. Yes, Lord, You have made promises, and I say yes, You are going to give me the nations as an inheritance; I believe in You. Then the king of Sodom comes, and what does Abraham do with him? This king says: Okay, give me the people and keep the goods. He says: No, thank you very much, no. I do not want anything from you, so that you cannot say, “I made Abraham rich.” I am not going to have anything to do with the evil one, because I have raised my hand to this God Most High, whom I have just learned about, and I trust in Him. I do not need you, king of Sodom; I do not need your things. I have Someone who will fight for me. I have learned to let God fight my battles, and then I will fight His, and He is the One who takes care of me.

Brothers and sisters, God has made promises to you in your life. You have gone through struggles; you have passed some tests and failed others, but we are in the process of learning that God is faithful, and that if I do things His way, I will be blessed and God will fulfill His mission in my life. But it is about much more than my life being blessed. It is also about fulfilling my destiny and knowing that in Christ all nations will be blessed, and that here, in Christ, God has a mission to bless the nations and the surrounding city.

There is a great mission here, and it is not to fill a new temple; it is much greater. It is to be a channel of blessing for revival, not only for Lion of Judah, but in many churches throughout the region and the world, promoting the advance of the Kingdom of God. God has made promises, and it is up to us to believe and then respond.

I want to end with a Psalm, Psalm 2, and with this I am going to invite a special guest who is going to perform a dance to a song based on this Psalm. But I want to read it first in Spanish because the Psalm is in English, unfortunately. It speaks of the sovereignty of God, the sovereignty of Jesus. Psalm 2 says: “Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot vain things? The kings of the earth rise up, and the rulers take counsel together against Jehovah and against His Anointed One, saying: Let us break Their bonds and cast away Their cords from us.”

“He who dwells in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall mock them. Then He shall speak to them in His fury and trouble them in His wrath. But I have set My King upon Zion, My Holy Mountain.” Who is that King? Amen. “I will proclaim the decree”—a conversation between the Father and the Son up there in heaven. “Jehovah has said to Me: You are My Son. Today I have begotten You. Ask Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance and the ends of the earth for Your possession.”

“Thank You, Lord. You shall break them with a rod of iron; like a potter’s vessel You shall dash them to pieces. Now therefore, O kings, be wise; receive correction, judges of the earth. Serve Jehovah with fear and rejoice with trembling.”

“God says: You are My Son; ask Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance.” God wants that spirit of faith. Lord, I am willing to fight Your battles. I am willing to be generous and, in some cases, not fight my own battles, but let You take care of me. Yet I will ask for the nations as an inheritance, because I know that You are faithful. I believe in Your promises for my life and for this Church.