I Am with You Always, to the End of the Age

I want to direct you to verse 20, Matthew 28:20, some powerful words from Jesus, a promise for us. I believe that everything we have been talking about this morning—these beautiful testimonies, the hymn that Mir has been singing—there are beautiful eyes for you, arms for you, that are with you in the different situations of life. That is precisely what the Lord tells us here in verse 20, in the second part of verse 20. It says, “And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” How many can say, “Thank the Lord for that”? Behold, I am with you every day. That means Sunday and Monday too, in winter when it is snowing, and in June when the sun is as beautiful as it is today. The Lord says, “I am with you every day, even to the end of the world.”

And that is the Word which I am convinced the Lord wants to share with us in this service, so that you may leave with that assurance in your heart. If you arrived this morning with uncertainty in your life, carrying some very heavy burden, going through tribulation or some family trial that makes you doubt God at this moment in your life—or if you know that He is with you, He also wants to strengthen that confidence. But He says to all of us this morning, “Behold, I am with you; I am with all of you every day, even to the end of the world.” And that is the Word Jesus placed in my heart this morning. Sometimes, when I am between one sermon series and another, I wait there for the Lord to show me the next stage.

Those are somewhat difficult times because there are so many things one can preach about. The Bible lies open before you, but you want it to be the passage God wants to give, the prophetic Word. This morning, once again, as I have shared with you on other occasions, I asked the Lord to give me a specific Word to share with you. I waited for a moment, and from the whole multitude of teachings in the Bible came that declaration of Jesus: “I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” So I believe this is a Word coming from the heart of Jesus for you and for me this morning: God’s companionship, the presence of Jesus, the work of Jesus in your life, and His firm, unshakable commitment to accompany you through any situation you may face. Whatever happens in your life, remember: the Lord is not absent; He is there with you.

He is by your side, He is watching over your life, and all the resources of heaven, which He embodies in His person, will be available there on your behalf. Whether in Honduras, in Haiti, in China, amid the abundance of the United States—wherever it may be, the presence of God will go with you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. And immediately the words of the psalmist come to mind: “Where shall I flee from You, or where shall I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; and if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn and dwell at the farthest reaches of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me; Your right hand will take hold of me. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will cover me,’ even the night will shine around me. Even the darkness does not hide from You, and the night shines like the day; darkness and light are alike to You, for You formed my inward parts; You made me in my mother’s womb.”

How wonderful, isn’t it? “In Your book were written all those things that were later formed, without one of them being missing.” Through his words, the psalmist expresses his confidence that the Lord is with him. He cannot escape even if he wanted to, because he has made an unbreakable covenant with the Lord, and the Lord’s eyes follow him. He says, “If I wanted to hide—which I do not—even there You would find me,” right? The writer of Psalm 23 says, “I will fear no evil, for You will be with me. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.” The Bible is full of references and promises concerning one fact: we are never alone; the Lord’s eyes never turn away from our lives.

Wow, and that is hard to believe, because sometimes situations of tremendous suffering happen in our lives. Sometimes we go through great trials that would seem to contradict the Lord’s promise that He is with us every day, even to the end of the world, because sometimes very serious things happen. And I do not want to get ahead of the sermon, because that is one part of the message, and I hope I do not forget it, because I do want to address that too. Sometimes we give people shallow, superficial teachings like that, but there are people who are going through, and have gone through, great traumas. When the doctor gives you a diagnosis like the one our brother received, you ask yourself, “Where is God at that moment?”

Whatever diagnosis you may receive in your life, it could be a bill—you thought you had plenty of money, then suddenly you go to the ATM and the balance was not as large as you thought. You thought you were going to get a tax refund, and instead they charge you five thousand dollars. But the Lord says, “I am with you every day, even to the end of the world.” And to me, that is one of the fundamental truths for a son or daughter of God: the confidence we have that there is no moment when God’s eyes cease to rest upon your life. Do you know that God can look at the billions of human beings who exist and give them all the attention they need simultaneously, without being disturbed or having any problems? His computer does not blow a fuse or malfunction; He has mega, mega, megabytes. He can do that. He can pay attention to you, and you, and you, and every one of us in every situation we face out there.

He is never too busy, never too burdened, never too consumed with one concern here, another problem over there, or a world war. No, the Lord can watch over all of that, and He says, “I am with you. I am aware. If I formed you in your mother’s womb, I can do that in your life. Every situation, your body—I am there.” So this is a statement made by the Lord Jesus Christ in a very specific context, but I believe it applies to every situation in life. It is an all-encompassing declaration. But I might ask, “And why was that not only for the disciples?” In a moment I am going to talk about the immediate context in which He makes that declaration.

Because the Bible is full of this. We could go to the Psalms, for example, but if we move forward through all the Scriptures—the writings of the apostle Paul, John, the apostle Peter, Revelation—we see that continual affirmation that the Lord is always with us. And this was simply a declaration made there which, perhaps because of its beautiful context, affirms us and reminds us very powerfully of that great truth: He is with us every day, even to the end of days. And we cannot lose sight of that. God wants to comfort you this morning, and God wants His voice to be heard in your heart and in your mind, so that you may leave assured of this: “Behold, I am with you. I am with you. I accompany you in your losses and your struggles, in your triumphs, in your career, and in your future. I am with you; do not fear.”

“Do not fear, little flock,” the Lord Jesus Christ says in another passage. But I am aware that one of the things that came to mind was that two Sundays ago I preached a sermon that may have been a little severe, when I spoke about homosexual marriage—you will remember—and you will also remember that I spoke about the affirmation of God’s love. But the Church often has to speak about different things. Sometimes God calls us to hear a sermon about holiness, which leaves us trembling a little and asking, “Could it be me, Lord?” But He also wants to take hold of us—as we Dominicans say—and cuddle us. I do not know whether that is also the word in South America. He wants to pamper us, as Central Americans also say. He says, “I am not going to ask anything of you; I am not going to command you to do anything. I am only going to give you a little kiss on the cheek and tell you, ‘I am with you.’” And that is what God wants. May God help me to be tender; that is not necessarily one of my most outstanding qualities.

But I want to assure you in your lives, my brothers and sisters, that the Lord has a Word. He says, “Lion of Judah congregation, if you are tired; Roberto Miranda, if you are tired or troubled or whatever it may be, I am with you. I am with all of you. Leave assured in the confidence that the Lord accompanies you through your trials, your sins, your falls, your struggles, and your tribulations. The Lord is with every one of you. Behold, I am with you every day, even to the end of the world.”

The first thing that stands out in this passage is that the Lord expressed this promise in the context of His imminent departure. It is the final assertion recorded by the evangelist Matthew. In that final discourse, the Lord told His disciples many things. In Mark we have some slightly different things, but more or less the same idea: “These signs will follow those who...” Then He says, “I am with you.” So it seems that this was something He very clearly wanted to tell them. How interesting, isn’t it, that in the context of His going away, His departure for heaven, the Lord wants to leave them with a Word of affirmation and assurance: “Do not worry. I am with you. I am leaving, but I am with you.”

Why? Because perhaps the disciples were a little troubled. They had had Him physically with them for three years. “We thought we had lost Him when they crucified Him, and now we have Him again. I am with you even though I am leaving,” right? And it is very important for us to understand this: even if we cannot see the Lord, even if at times we do not even sense Him, even if we do not feel Him, the Lord says, “Do not worry. Even if you do not see Me or feel Me, even if circumstances contradict My presence, I am with you; My presence accompanies you.” So I believe that is the first thing: the presence of Christ in our lives is not something you have to feel. It is good if you feel it—glory to God—but it does not depend on your senses; it depends on God’s faithfulness and character. Your senses are not the guarantor. So if the Lord says He is with you, His character backs it up; His promise backs it up.

Do not worry, even if you feel afraid. “I know that You are with me. I do not feel You now. The clouds are thick and obscure the sun, but I know that somehow the sun is shining up there.” Never doubt; do not doubt the Lord. Peter took his eyes off the Lord when he was walking on the water and placed them on the water, on the wind, on the roar of the waves. He took his eyes off Jesus and focused on the frightening circumstances, bewildered by fear. And what happened? The Lord stretched out His hand, steadied him again, and said, “Why were you afraid, O man of little faith?” And sometimes that is how we are. When things get difficult, we may fear and doubt because we do not see Him at that moment, because the circumstances around us seem terrible. And at that moment you have to say, like the psalmist, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you troubled within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, my salvation and my God.”

Many times when I feel afraid—and that often happens when things get difficult and fierce in my life—I do what the psalmist says: “Why are you cast down?” I begin to dialogue with my mind, with my feelings, with my overwhelmed nervous system, and I do not let it climb on top of me or take control. I begin to give it therapy: “My soul, why are you so cast down? Trust in the Lord. He says He is with me.” I take two tablets of Christ’s promise, and then things begin to clear up. Never allow anxiety to settle into your life. Anxiety will come because it is a nervous reaction. Before you realize it, the hormones have already been released; the body has already released the chemicals, because that is how it is, that is how biology works. An external stimulus—something frightens you—and whoosh, the chemicals are released. They contaminate your nervous and mental systems, and those chemicals cause anxiety, trigger adrenaline, and contaminate your mental environment. Then your thoughts become colored by that feeling of anxiety. That happens.

What you have to do at that moment is remember the Word of Christ: “I am with you. Do not fear. I have promised to walk with you.” Then, at that moment, begin giving yourself therapy. Talk to your mind, talk to your body, talk to your emotions, and tell them, “Hey, the Lord says He is with me, so calm down, okay?” “Easy, my son,” as people say.

So the Lord wants to quiet His disciples’ feelings and emotions. When they were about to crucify Him, it says that in the Garden of Gethsemane the disciples were so nervously exhausted, their nerves were so burned out, that they were overcome with sleep. When you are afraid, your system is working overtime, and you burn a lot of emotional energy, you know? Emotional labor is sometimes more tiring than physical labor. So the disciples were filled with fear, and the Lord wanted to quiet their hearts and spirits.

So the Lord is concerned about that part of our lives. When we are in crisis, He said: Look, even though I am leaving, do not worry, because I am going to be with you. And we are going to talk precisely a little more about that: the Christ who leaves but who is also with us. The second thing I see in this passage is that this is said in the context of a very great commandment that He gives them, a very significant assignment that He gives the disciples. He is practically commissioning them; He has just told them: Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all the things that I have commanded you.

Wow, that was an immense, stratospheric command. Just imagine: we are talking about the first century, sometime in the thirties, in a little village in an insignificant country, speaking to uneducated people, many of them illiterate, people who had no means of traveling across the earth. In fact, they did not even have an adequate conception of what the earth, the oceans, and its peoples were like. Many of those people had never left their own village, much less thought about leaving their country or region or crossing a sea. Those people had no sense of any of that. All they knew was that there was a city called Rome; they could not even conceive of what the city of Rome, which held them under its control, was like. And the Lord is telling those insignificant disciples: Travel throughout the world, go across the whole earth and convert them to Me, and teach them to observe everything I have taught you. That seemed like a recipe for disaster and total defeat.

So now I think: But how can the Lord tell us to do something so great and so important? And the Lord tells them, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. In other words, what was the Lord telling them through that? That they should not worry. He is the God of the impossible, He is the source of their power, and He was going to make sure that they reached the goal and did not fail in the undertaking He had assigned them. Today, twenty-some centuries later, that promise has not been completely fulfilled, but wow, all the nations of the world know about the person of Jesus, and we are still working on it.

But what the Lord says is much more feasible now; what the Lord told them is much more understandable now. Christianity has covered the earth. That band of insignificant people reached Rome and conquered Rome, continued through the rest of Europe, and has gone to China, Asia, Africa, and the rest of the Americas. Christianity has been the source of Western culture and has also influenced all the nations of the world. Christianity has produced some of the greatest and most sublime works of art, and many scientific discoveries have been based on things that Christianity facilitated for the rest of the world—a great many things. It all came from that tiny nucleus of men and women traumatized by His crucifixion, and He tells them: Do not worry, I am with you until the end of the world.

So, brothers and sisters, that also helps us to know something: all things are possible for the one who believes. For those of us who believe in Christ, all things are possible, even for a Central American family of the humblest background, whose children have never studied before or who do not come from a distinguished academic lineage, yet there is their child, earning a scholarship or attending the best university in one of the greatest nations on earth, because the life-giving sap that the Kingdom of God brings is beginning to inseminate that family, bless it, and lift it up in so many ways. How beautiful, isn't it? Because the Lord is with us.

Where Christ enters, all the resources of heaven enter with Him—into a family, a man, a young person. And listen, if we could understand that, if we could take hold of that truth and say to Him, Christ, enter my life, sit on the throne of my life—He enters, but with Him come the angels, the archangels, all the riches of the Father, the Holy Spirit, all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and all the might of the Kingdom of God. It all enters with Him and takes its seat within us. And wherever we go, that power of Christ goes with us—all the resources of heaven. Wherever you enter, that power enters with you as well, the power of Christ, because Christ is within you, and everything is possible. There is no circumstance that can prevent it. It does not matter if you come from a poor family; it does not matter if you have not studied; it does not matter if you do not speak the language; it does not matter if, for one reason or another, the nation where you are does not have all your documents. You and God are a majority wherever you go, truly, and always remember that.

The apostle Paul says it again and again in Ephesians chapter 2. Remember that, because it is also one of my favorite passages, where Paul says: I pray that God will give you a spirit of understanding so that you may understand how great the power is that God has caused to dwell within your body, that the same power that raised Christ from the dead is within you as well. And a large part of our problem, brothers and sisters, is not that God does not enter us, or that God does not bless us, or that God does not work on our behalf. No, that is not the problem. The problem is our ability to become aware that the power of God is already within us and works through us.

And when we become aware of that fact, then we can activate that power which is already waiting, and we can do great things in our lives. Many of the failures, omissions, and breakdowns that keep what God has for us from reaching us are not God's fault, nor are they due to a lack of Christ's Presence in our lives. They are due to a lack of awareness that He is within us. And part of our prayer should be: Lord, open my eyes so that I may see You and believe that You move with me, and that whatever I do, I can do it in the name of Jesus because You are with me. Paul says: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Hallelujah.

There is nothing you cannot do, no matter how great it may be, because Christ is with you; Christ walks with you. Ask the Lord—I have to ask the Lord: Father, open my eyes so that I can believe greater things each day. Because I know that you believe I have faith, but Christ tells me: Hey, if you had faith like a tiny mustard seed, you could do things a thousand times greater. For the disciples approached Jesus and said to Him, Increase our faith. I think Jesus laughed and said: What faith am I going to increase for you? If you had faith like a tiny mustard seed, you would tell this mountain to move, and it would cast itself away. I cannot increase something you do not have—that, rather, is what He meant to tell them.

No, part of what we have to believe is that He is with us, and that activates His power within us. And that is why He told them, you see: I am giving you—it is a tall order, as they would say in English, right?—I am giving you a great assignment, as they would say, but do not worry, because I will be with you. If you read the book of Acts, you see how that affirmation of Jesus begins to unfold in the life of the Church during those early years described in the book of Acts. We continually see the disciples in so many different situations: Paul when he was being stoned, Stephen. There you have one of the things I was telling you about, one of the situations that would seem to completely contradict that affirmation of Jesus. When you are going through a divorce and the person you are with wants to leave you, and your world is already falling apart, how difficult it is to believe that declaration of Jesus: I will be with you.

Today, when I am going to sign the papers, today, when that person leaves me—every day. I told you I would be with you every day. Yesterday they told me that I have an incurable disease, that they do not know how long I am going to live, that I have to take pills every day for the rest of my life, and that I am not going to be a very healthy person. Where was God? I told you: I am going to be with you every day. I am going to be with you in sickness, and you may be healed, or I may simply say: I am going to accompany you and use you in the midst of that illness, and I am going to give you the power and grace to hit a home run with that illness, because that is often how it is. You know, sometimes things can come into our lives that seem like an unredeemed tragedy, with no possibility of anything good coming out of them. And what happens? That very thing becomes the reason you are led to something much better and to greater blessing.

That happens many times, brothers and sisters. And who knows, sometimes, when situations come into our lives, what things God might be delivering us from? The thing is that you never—we cannot see all the elements of existence; we cannot know all the secrets of the universe. Something that seems terrible may, in tomorrow's light—oh, you missed the plane. Oh my God, how terrible! The plane crashes; everyone on the plane dies. Oh, glory to God, I have to testify about that on Sunday at León de Judá. How quickly things change. We do not know how many people, through an apparent illness, have gone on to greater things. In the book I am writing about life by design, I give the example of an autistic young man—not Baptist, autistic—who was born with this condition, and whose childhood was very frustrating because he could not speak.

Until one of his teachers in class discovered that he had an extraordinary aptitude for drawing. She used this to teach the child to speak, the alphabet, and other things. This child had an incredible visual memory, and by the time he was seven or eight years old, he had begun selling his drawings commercially. And this child is now thirty-some years old. I cannot remember his name right now. He has such an extraordinary ability: as he travels through all the countries and cities of the world, he can get into a helicopter, and after flying over a city for five or ten minutes, he memorizes all the buildings—for example, those of Manhattan. He has a photographic mind; there are people who have that. He can remember all the buildings, go to his studio, and draw them in detail and with the precise proportions of everything, the windows, everything. Willshire—I cannot remember his name right now.

And I have seen his webpage; he has his own website and everything. His drawings are worth tens of thousands of dollars, and they are a marvel of the human mind. In other words, his incredible tragedy led him to greatness. If you ask him—as he has been asked—whether he would prefer not to have his affliction, he says no, because it is a gift, a divine gift that God has given him, one that comes in a somewhat murky but utterly beautiful package. That is how God's gifts come into your life: they come in strange forms. That is why we sometimes reject God's gifts, because we do not like the wrapping. The Jews rejected God's gift through Jesus Christ because they did not like the wrapping. They were expecting a ten-foot-tall man with a very large sword who would cut off the heads of all the Romans, and here comes this young man, a typical little Jewish man with no beauty that would make anyone desire Him or seek anything from Him, and yet all the greatness of God was there in that ordinary being.

So I believe that no matter what situation you go through in your life, do not reject it simply because it comes in a strange, different package, and because Christ assumes the form of something other than what you expect Him to look like. Do not reject it, because perhaps it is the Presence of Christ manifesting itself in an unusual way in your life. And that is why I told them: Even though you are not going to see Me, even though it seems that this ends here, do not worry; My Presence is simply taking another form. And that is what happens in your life. It does not matter where you are, what the situation in your life may be, what problem lies before you, how great the responsibility before you may be, or how serious the situation and the challenge may be. Getting a new job is much more complicated than you thought; it carries more responsibilities.

Look to the Lord. Nothing is difficult for Him. Simply say: Lord, let Your power become greater because the situation is greater. You are with me; now simply broaden Your intervention in my life a little more, and give me the ability to overcome this and master it. The Lord does it. I am with you; I am with you always, even to the end of the world.

The other thing I see here is that it says, Behold, I—I. Notice that, to me, this is important. It is not that I am reading too much into it, because the Presence of Christ is personal. It is not some thing that is with you; it is not a higher force, a higher power, as one might say in certain circumstances. What is with you is not a power, not a principle, not a force; it is a being, a person: Jesus. It is the Father; it is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a vague, undefined gas; He is a person. God is a being; He is a personal God. That is why you and I are persons: because we reflect the personality of God. The Lord does not condense Himself or something like that in order to get inside you. Mysteriously, He is within you, and He is with you. He is the One who walks with you.

So you can talk with that being who dwells with you, walks with you, and is with you; you can cry out, you can let your tears flow, you can confess, you can psychoanalyze yourself with Him. He is a tremendous psychologist. Talk to Him and express yourself. The best therapy in the world is when you sit down somewhere, close the door, make sure there is no microphone and no one is watching you, and begin to let out everything that is in there. Talk with Him; speak to Him in lavish detail. Lay out your problems, sins, and needs, including their first, second, and even third surnames, and tell Him all about them, because He sits down with you, serves you a little cup of coffee, pours one for Himself as well, and listens to you; and His entire personality—His love, His intelligence, His wisdom, His ability to counsel you, His loyalty, and His fierce faithfulness—is with you and toward you.

I am with you; the Trinity is with you. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit walk with you every day. That is a powerful being who will be with you through thick and thin. And which would you rather have—an impersonal vapor or a person who is with you? A person. I was also sitting there thinking about when Paul is in serious difficulty in the book of Acts—I think it is Acts 18, if I am not mistaken, if it does not come to me; it does not matter. The point is that Paul is going through a very difficult season, and the Lord appears to him and says, “Do not be afraid, Paul, because I am with you, and I have many people in this city.” Do you remember that passage? It slipped my mind for a moment; I will find it later. It does not matter. What interests me is the fact that Paul was—it must be chapter 18—18:10, okay. How wonderful it is to have people who are learned in the Bible.

How beautiful. There were people persecuting him and opposing him; they were blaspheming, shaking out their garments, and looking for him to kill him. And verse 9 says, “Then the Lord”—okay? It was not something impersonal—“then the Lord, in a vision by night...” The Lord had compassion on Paul because, of course, sometimes we feel frightened and deprived of help in our lives. When things get tough, you feel like, wow, how good it would be if God would at least send me a message saying that He is with me, right?

Then, in a vision, He says to him, “Do not be afraid.” He told Paul, “Speak, and do not be silent, because I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to harm you, because I have many people in this city.” And you know what? It says that he stayed there for a year and a half, just so you can see, right? Paul used to travel from one place to another, but there he stayed for a year and a half. Whoever does not like it can take it up with Jesus, who is with me. How wonderful that the Lord, in His whole person and all His integrity, told Paul, “Do not be afraid. Speak; do not be silent, because I am with you.”

When you are in difficult situations, when people are attacking you, and you feel hemmed in by difficult situations or circumstances, remember that the Lord says, “Do not be afraid; I am with you. Do not be afraid or discouraged, because I will be with you wherever you go,” says the Lord. That is why it is important to memorize these passages, brothers and sisters. You must memorize and engrave those teachings and those promises from Scripture within yourself, so that when that difficult situation comes into your life, you can turn to them. I tell you, the Bible is full—saturated—with that image of a personal Christ who is with us even though we do not see Him and even though everything seems to contradict His presence in our lives.

So that is another thing: He is a personal Christ who is with us. The other thing—there are many things here; I realize that there is more here than one might think. I was afraid I did not have enough material, (laughs), but that is the flesh in us, right? His personal presence; His presence has not diminished since the beginning. Another thing: here it says, “I am with you.” Now think about the word “you” for a moment. That “you” means His Church, with a capital C—that is, collectively—but it also means each of us individually. Because He was speaking there to a group of His disciples while entrusting them with the work they would carry out over the centuries: preaching the gospel and making disciples of all nations. So there are two wonderful things there, right? Christ’s presence is both with His people as a whole and with us individually.

So we have already spoken a little about the individual aspect, the presence of Jesus with the individual, but also, as the Church, do not be afraid, because the gates of hell will not prevail against you.

You know, we are living in a time when everything seems to say otherwise, as though the Church were actually losing ground. In many parts of the Western world, that seems to be the case, while in other countries or other regions, such as Africa, Latin America, and Asia, the gospel is spreading like wildfire. That is something else we must also remember. Because sometimes one looks here at the United States and says, “Well, the gospel is losing ground,” but in many parts of the world the gospel is gaining ground in an incredible way. But you know that even here, in this nation of the United States, when I see all the backsliding, and the nations of Europe, which seem as though they really have closed their doors—do you know that it does not worry me at all? It actually fires me up. What I see challenges me to consider how we can change the situation; it does not make me feel as though, “Oh, we have already lost the war.”

When I see everything that is happening in this nation against the gospel, it is like David watching Goliath insult the Lord of Hosts and asking how we can cut off the giant’s head, rather than hide or be afraid of him. Why? Because Christ said very clearly that the gates of hell would not prevail against His Church, and He said that He would be with His Church until the end of the age. And if you look at His Church throughout the 21 centuries of the Christian Church’s existence, the Church has gone through every kind of historical period.

Look at Russia, the former Soviet Union. In 1914, I think it was—or 1917—communism was declared the philosophical doctrine governing that powerful nation, and Russia grew and engulfed a large part of Eastern Europe, and it began to expand. It even reached Latin America and the Caribbean through Cuba, as well as many nations of the world; and many intellectuals adopted Marxism as a philosophy. It seemed as though Marxism, Leninism, and communism were going to engulf the earth with their atheistic theology and their atheistic, materialistic teaching, and as though Russia were unstoppable; and it persecuted the Church in those countries. Not long ago, I was looking at the marvelous Church of Saint Stanislaus in Moscow. I have had the blessing of seeing it in person. It is a marvelous church. I do not know whether Bruno wants to show it to me; I think I am spoiled, pampered by that.

No, Saint Stanislaus Church. It is that church with those beautiful red domes there in Red Square, and that church, which is a world-class architectural wonder, escaped destruction at Stalin’s hands by a hair’s breadth, because he wanted to destroy it, since it reminded him of Christianity. Yet what is happening today? Marxism and Leninism are in the dustbin of history, while the church remained there. It has risen again; they were there, and they are once again growing and moving forward.

It is the same in communist China. They persecute the Church, but the more they beat it down, the more it rises, with greater power than ever. There are something like 50,000—I do not know the exact number per day—Chinese people converting each day. A tiny drop, because, you know, there are so many Chinese people in the world, but they are growing; there are millions and millions of them. But nothing will be able to prevail against the Church of Jesus Christ, because Christ has said, “Behold, I am with you every day, until the end of the world.” I assure you that great movements will come and go; there will be great wars; great schools of philosophy will pass across the earth, and then they will disappear and be heard of no more. But those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but endures forever.

How do I know that the Church will not disappear? Because Revelation says that Christ’s Church will remain so that Christ may take it away before His second coming. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My Word will not pass away. I can sometimes understand why the Catholic Church, with all the turmoil going on and everything else, is still standing; its people remain confident, continue speaking about the faith, and are not shaken. With all their errors, I respect that. And they do not try to bring themselves as completely up to date as some evangelicals do, or to remove the doctrines of the Church. Do you know how much pressure there is on the Catholic Church to remove some of its doctrines? I believe some things could be improved tremendously, but they stand firm because, in the 2,000 years they have existed as an institution, they have seen so many things come and go, so many princes and kings rise against them and try to destroy them; and when those kings die, they open their doors again, and once more the Christians return to fill the church.

And that is why it says, “Hey, we are going to have difficult times, but we went through them 100 years ago, 50, 500, 600 years ago; yet we are here, and we will continue.” And that is what the Lord tells you in your life, brother: “I am with you.” That is why the apostle Paul says in Ephesians chapter 6 that we are to put on the whole armor of God for when the evil day comes, right? We must clothe ourselves with the awareness that God is with us. He then says that, after the evil day has passed and after we have gone through everything, we may stand firm—stand firm. When you know that Christ is with you and that He has said, “I am with you every day”—because that is another thing; I will not have time, but let me at least mention one little thing there, right? Contrast “every day” with “the end of the world.” It is the contrast between the mundane and the sublime: the mundane things of each day, when you get up, start the car, and the snow is howling all around you, and the wipers do not work, and you slipped before getting into the car, and you arrive at work and there is no coffee because it ran out, or whatever.

He says, “I am with you until the end of the world”—that magnificent image of the end of the universe, when every atom will burn up and God will make new heavens and a new earth. The Lord will be with you in the small and the magnificent, in the mundane and the sublime, in the great crisis and the headache, in the car when its hood gets torn off because someone hit you on the street, and also when you need God to do something special in a brief moment, right there in a minor situation: “Lord, give me a Word for this.” Wherever you are, the Lord is with you. “I am with you every day until the end of the world.” That is the Word of the Lord for us today. Amen?

People of God, close your eyes for a moment, as though Christ were standing before you, just you and Him, and you visualize Him in all His glory, His power condensed in this way into a single being whom you can visualize and take in with your eyes and your mind. He is there, but you feel His power, and you feel His powerful, steady, and profound gaze. You see His simple and benevolent smile. You feel His faithfulness toward you and His commitment. He knows you inside and out; He knows every cell, every vein, and every thought within you. And despite all of that, you feel that He loves you, accepts you, receives you, and is committed to you. And then He opens His mouth, and you hear Him say, “I am with you every day, until the end of the world.”

Return home today with that assurance. Father, in the name of Jesus, take Your branding iron and seal our minds and hearts with this promise of Yours, so that nothing in this world can erase from us the truth that You accompany us and are with us through thick and thin, on Sunday and Monday, on the Friday of the crucifixion, the Saturday of the tomb, and the Sunday of the resurrection. You are with me at every moment. Help us internalize this promise of Yours today, leave this place, and not let it depart from our minds for even a single moment, so that we may live grounded in that unshakable truth: “Behold, I am with you every day, until the end of the world.” Thank You, Lord. We receive it; we live in it. In the name of Jesus, amen and amen. Glory to the Lord.