If It's Not with Love, It's Worth Nothing

Well, uh, they told me to introduce myself and I always define myself as a gringo graft on the Colombian branch of the vineyard of Jesus Christ and fortunately single for Jesus. Thank Mr. And we are going to open the floor this morning, or this afternoon, in a scripture to enter into a very simple subject and at the same time what I consider to be the greatest challenge in our lives as Christians. Please come with me to First Corinthians 13 and we are going to read verses 1 to 3.

The word says “... if I speak the tongues of men and angels and have no love, I am like resounding brass or tinkling cymbal. And if I had prophecy and understood all mysteries and all science, and if I had all faith in such a way that it moved mountains and I have no love, I am nothing. And if I distributed all my goods to feed the poor, and if I gave my body to be burned and I have no love, it is of no use to me.

Lord, thank you for your word this morning. I ask that this word be like a double-edged sword, that it reach deep into our hearts, that it challenge us, Lord, and that it change us. I ask that no one walk out that door the same way they walked in this morning. I ask you, Lord, that your word and your spirit do a deep work in our hearts. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Now, in this passage the Lord mentions here many things that we do for him. It says that we could prophesy, understand the mysteries of science, that we could move in all faith in such a way as to move mountains. He says that we could even give all our goods for the poor, and we could even give our lives for him as martyrs, but he says that if it is not with love, it is worth nothing. Is not worth it.

Now, we know that we are not going to be judged when we pass into eternity for salvation or perdition because we have Christ in our hearts. Hallelujah! We have been washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have been born again. But the word speaks of the judgment seat of Christ and at the judgment seat of Christ, the works we do here on earth will be judged. And those works will only win some reward in heaven according to the motivation of the heart with which we did them here on earth. And whatever the work is, make breakfast for the family, give a glass of water to someone in need, do what comes on this list, if it's not with love it's worth nothing. Is not worth it. It is according to the heart when we do it.

Please turn around to someone next to you and tell them, what is not with love is worth nothing. What is not with love is worth nothing. And this sounds so simple this morning, but at least in my life, I see it as the greatest challenge in the Christian life, to walk in love.

How many have discovered that it is not so easy to walk in love? And the word commands us to love. Now, in Romans 12, verses 9 to 11, the word says “... love without pretense, hate what is bad, follow what is good, love one another with brotherly love. As for honor preferring one to the other...."

And he continues in 11 and says "...in what requires diligence, do not be lazy."

Now, love be without pretense. The Lord wants a true love, a sincere love in our hearts. And true love and the fact of truly loving is not just a feeling, love is expressed, expressed with words, yes, expressed with deeds, expressed with attitudes. And many times it is not so easy. It's not just a feeling.

I am convinced, we talk so much today about spiritual warfare, I believe in spiritual warfare, but I am convinced that God's love and forgiveness are the two most powerful weapons that God has given us to win battles. True love breaks down barriers, breaks down walls, destroys things that the enemy has built.

The word says that loving an enemy is like throwing coals on his head. It's something that can't stand. Love is tremendously strong and wins battles.

Now, this morning we are going to be looking at three groups that I have been able to identify, there may be more, but in Scripture I have been able to find three groups that the Lord commands us to love. And he starts here so, maybe, we're going to start with the supposedly easiest group to love.

Let's go to First John 2, please, from the 9th to the 11th. And we're going to read this out loud, all together please.

“Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. He who loves his brother remains in the light and in him there is no stumbling block. But he who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes."

Here the Lord speaks to us about the family of God, about our brothers. And one enters the church, and one thinks, oh, here it will be too easy to love people. And we quickly found out no. How many quickly found out no? And how many have realized that sometimes you are not easy to love? I should raise both hands here.

Please turn to someone next to you and if you're with a family better, and tell him, sometimes I'm not easy to love. And now tell him, and sometimes you're not easy to love either.

What is our problem? We are forgiven but we are not perfect. Sometimes we continue with problems here in our hearts, our character is being carved by the Lord. We are being worked by God, worked. And the place where the Lord really adjusts us the most is in the family and in the church because it is where we form the closest relationships.

It is very easy to demonstrate all the fruit of the Holy Spirit with people you spend an hour a week with. They can see you as a super saint there, because one hour it is not difficult to control yourself, but when you enter your house, when you are here working closely in the church, already in close communion, what starts to happen? There are crashes. TRUE? There are differences, there are misunderstandings and many times the tremendous attacks against our lives come from the same brothers in the church, from other sheep. And there we are discovering that we are not so easy. Forgive us God. Forgive us, Lord. He is very patient with us, with his people.

Now, some time ago in Colombia a sister rose up, a pastor, a missionary, she rose up against me overnight and I honestly don't know what I did to her. It has to be that he did something to her but I never could find out what it was. He was my friend, I did my best to help him rise up in the ministry, and as David said, if it had been a stranger on the street who had risen up against me, it wouldn't have hurt so much, but he was my brother, says David, with whom We entered the presence of God together. that was what happened to me. And she began to slander me, she began to say many things and, talking to the pastors, and thank God that at that time, some pastors knew me and did not believe her. But, others who didn't know me believed her, so she did her best to destroy me. And the Lord came time after time and told me, forgive her and I didn't want to. I did not want to. And I was like, oh, oh, she keeps talking, God. And he came back and said, forgive her. And I was like, Lord, didn't you hear what she said yesterday? Forgive her, it said. But Lord, it's just that he keeps talking, I don't want to, I don't want to. And the Lord loves us so much that he will not allow us to continue on that path because where we continue on the path of lack of forgiveness we can all lose, our hearts will be damaged.

And for a year I didn't forgive her, for a year. For a year under the soft care of God, I did not want to forgive her. But how many know that God knows how to spank well given. And after a year I received my heavenly and well deserved good spanking. And I was flying in a small plane over the Amazon jungle, over a department in Colombia called El Vaupés, it's pure jungle, pure jungle. You can fly hours in that jungle without seeing where to land, a place to land in an emergency. In a plane with a single engine and six seats. We were a missionary pilot, a missionary who worked with the indigenous people and myself who was going to another tribe of indigenous people, there in the jungle. A plane with very few instruments, the pilot had to be able to see to fly and suddenly, out of a blue sky in a matter of seconds, what I am convinced could have been the worst storm since the days of Noah appeared. It's awful. Water was falling, water was falling, the terrible wind, that plane went up, down, up, down. The few instruments he had got out of control due to the violence of the storm. The metal sounded like the wings were going to come off. And I was with my heart in my throat, terrified and inside I was praying. But at the same time I was consoling myself and thinking, well, the Lord must be used to this. And in that the Christian pilot turned around and looked at us. He was pale, he was sweating and he didn't exactly use these words but the feeling was, pray or we're going to die!

So there I already began to cry out in the voice of ...... I began to cry out loud, Lord, help us, Lord. And as soon as I began to pray aloud, the Lord made me remember this sister that I did not want to forgive. And well aware that I probably had a maximum of minutes, and perhaps seconds left on this earth, I did not want to arrive with that sin in my heart, and with that excellent motivation I forgave her. But, well forgiven. As the Guatemalans say, forgive me, I left her there, but well, well, I forgave her with all my heart.

And you know what happened? The storm stopped, I instantly forgave her and the storm stopped. Do you remember the story of Jonás and how Jonás went in rebellion and how the entire crew of that ship had to go through that storm. To this day I have not dared to tell that pilot that this storm was my fault. I am going to tell him in heaven where there will be no more anger.

I forgave her and it was such a nice thing because a load went away. But the woman kept talking and then a few weeks after that, the Lord gave me a vision of her that totally healed my heart. And in that vision I saw this woman in the hand of God and this woman in the hand of God had the shape of a hammer, and with that hammer God was giving me, pracate, pram, prum prum and he was forming me. . He was forming his character in me. And I understood that thanks to God I have many people who are blessed with the ministry, blessed through my life, who encourage me, who tell me. But I understood that I need hammers too.

I understood that I need someone to lower me. Are you with me this morning? Because I understood that I would be able to stand up in pride and that everything could be destroyed, so I need the hammers.

How many have hammers in your life right now? Oh, and when the Lord showed me this woman as a hammer, the next time I saw her she was always meditating, she wouldn't let herself be hugged, she wouldn't let herself be greeted, she turned her back on me. But a few days passed and I saw her at an event and she had her back turned, and I ran before she could stop me, I ran, grabbed her, turned her around and hugged her and said, I love you, you are a blessing to me. life. And I released her. And she stayed... and that relationship was healed. But I never told him that he was blessed to be a hammer.

We need to be treated by God. We need and sometimes the attacks come from the same brothers in the church, but God can use those things to form the character of God in us.

The word says that we are clay vessels. The word says that our purpose in this life is that my clay pot carry the presence of God, carry his glory. But I learned something in college, studying art. When one is going to make a piece of clay, one almost has to spend more time working, preparing the clay, than forming the piece itself. You have to take that mud, throw it, hit it, smash it, throw it again, smash it and the mud should be saying, I'm not going to survive this. But do you know why? Because you have to remove all the bubbles, because if there is a little bubble left in that mud, the piece is formed, it is put in the oven and the heat will cause the whole piece to burst because of that bubble.

In our lives, there are bubbles of pride. In our lives there are bubbles of self-sufficiency. In our lives there are bubbles of jealousy, of envy, of so many things. So God lets those hammers come in, wow, wow, wow, smashing bubbles.

If you have a hammer in your life, take this moment, raise your hand, look to the Lord and say, Lord, thank you for the hammer. Tell him, thank you Lord, for the hammer. And tell him, Lord, teach me to love this hammer. Amen.

In this process, with this woman, do you know what developed in my heart? A determination to love her. Whatever his reaction was. That is why the first group, the second group, the Lord already extends the border of our love.

Let's go to Matthew 22, from 37 onwards. All together please read with me. Well, first they ask him in 36, “Master, what is the great commandment in the law? 37: “.... Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment and the second is similar, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Two commandments, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind, and the other, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The first is easy to fulfill, because God is easy to love. It is not difficult at all to love God. The Lord never does anything against us. The Lord never has a wrong motivation towards us. The Lord never slanders us. The Lord is never cruel towards us. How many have realized that God is very easy to love? It's not hard to love. He's unbelievably fantastic. Marvelous. It's unique.

But with the second commandment it gets complicated. And you will love your neighbor as yourself. You will love your neighbor, he is no longer saying, only the brothers of the church, it already goes further, loving the unconverted as yourself too. We as Christians have a problem with our treatment of unbelievers, and our problem is this, we demand that they live as if they are believers and they are not.

Many times we criticize and reject them because they are in adultery, because they are homosexual, these days, because they are drunk, because they are drug addicts, because they are into this and that, but the person's problem is not is that she is an adulteress, the person's problem is that she does not know Christ. And many times we are the only vessel through which God can demonstrate his presence, his character, his love, his glory for that person to see. And many times we don't.

And I have a question for you this morning: in your family and those around you, in secular work wherever you are, can the unsaved see Christ in you? Can they see Christ in you?

Please walk me here to a Scripture, Second Corinthians 2:14. Thank my Lord. Everyone together please: "But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ Jesus and through us manifests in every place the scent of his knowledge."

Please turn to someone and tell them, you have a certain smell. And now tell him, calm down, it's the smell of Christ that you have. This is our goal, say it with me, this is my goal, to smell Christ everywhere. It is the greatest goal of my life, to smell Christ, to give fragrance to Christ wherever I go. And my question this morning is: can the unsaved around you smell Christ in your life?

I have a cousin, my cousin got into everything except God. Whatever there was, there was and for there she got in. I was involved in witchcraft, new era, I was involved in so many things, atheism, humanism, and my mother and her four Christian children, baptized in the Holy Spirit, my father was missing, he recently arrived at the feet of the Lord, thank God. But in our house, my mother and her children, we were all Christians, we loved the Lord with all our hearts. And this cousin went to do her university in our state and on Saturdays my mom invited her to come and have lunch with us.

Since I passed through the door looking for war, I was walking. Awesome. It was, but he walked and prac... he just needed to physically throw the door. He hit with his words, insulted, offended, it was something very tremendous and then... and with my brothers we were finishing it off and do you know what my mother did? When she said her crazy things, my mom would go and hug her, even though she had to hug her almost by force, and she told her, don't worry, honey, one day you'll understand these things.

Lunch ended and we all thanked God in our hearts, that time had ended and my mother said, you'll come back the other Saturday, right? And we inside, that it does not come back, as if it were going to come back. So long. My cousin, in the four years she was there studying in our state, never showed a drop of interest in God. But when my mother died in the year 2000 my aunt was there with us and my cousin was in the state where she lived, and my aunt, her mother, called to let her know that my mother had died. And I tell you that all over the house, there in Colorado, my cousin's screams were heard on the phone. And what she was screaming was this, she was screaming, it can't be, it can't be, the only person on this earth that I was sure loved me has just died. It can not be, it can not be.

And my cousin there where she was, she threw the phone, took her car, left blinded by tears and there already crying and shouting to God she had an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ that day. Thank my Lord. Thank my Lord. That day my mother died and my cousin was born, but I am ashamed to stand here today, brothers, and tell you that if it had been because of my testimony, my cousin would not be in the ways of the Lord today, I would not be. I didn't want to see her even in painting. No. I didn't want to. It irritated me, I wanted to keep her away.

But I know that this is what happens with us, with many of our relatives, with many of those who surround us. But we are called to love them, we are called to love them, not to approve of their sin, to reject the sin but to love the sinner. It is a challenge, the Lord has called us to love the unconverted too.

Now, the third group that we want to see this morning the Lord goes even further, further. In Matthew 5 from 44 to 48. Thank you Lord. “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. More that you be children of your Father who is in heaven who makes his sun rise on the bad and good and who makes it rain on the just and the unjust because if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Publicans do not do the same. And if you only greet your brothers, what do you do more? Don't the Gentiles do so also? Be ye therefore perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

He is telling us, be perfect in love. And it begins by saying, love your enemies. Now, the enemies are not only those who go against our beliefs, they are those who go against our lives. They are the ones who hate us, they are the ones who do things against us. A true enemy wants the worst for one, the worst, and the word here tells us that we should love them. I think this is one of the biggest challenges there is: loving your enemies. But when we make this decision and when we start to love them we are going to see very, very big victories.

Some time ago, while ministering in Peru, I saw the Lord do the greatest things I have ever seen him do. If there are Peruvians here this morning, they know stories about the Shining Path. For reasons that only they and the devil can understand, in Peru the Shining Path rose up against the Christians in terrifying fashion. They massacred shepherds. I don't know how many pastors were assassinated, many from all the missions. The attack was so strong that the churches had to take down the signs, anything that showed that it was a Christian group, had to be removed at this time.

They were arrested, they were put in various life sentences was their sentence. And several life sentences, it was their sentence so that they could never get out of prison. But there in those prisons the Holy Spirit arrived and God did beautiful things. And there were some who were saved in prisons, transformed in prisons, and God worked miracles to get them out of there. And when I went to minister, I went to minister in a pastoral school, for pastors and for those who were in training to be pastors. It was a large group, and in the course of the week three men separately looked for me. And they asked for counseling, now when I do counseling with a man, I never do it alone, I do it in a place where they can see us but cannot hear us, for testimony. So I did that with each one of them, all three had been from the Shining Path. They had been saved in jail and now they were getting ready, God worked a miracle to get them out, and now they were getting ready for the ministry. And one morning the theme was forgiveness. And that morning, at the end when I gave them an opportunity to forgive their enemies, I did not know that others in the place knew these three. And I seen Hilda, an Assemblies of God widow, a short woman. Her husband was killed by the Shining Path. And I saw that Hilda left this place, this side and left, and went straight to one of these three men. He was tall, she was short, she pulled his arm to get him down and said something in his ear. And when she said something in his ear, the man fell to his knees with a piercing cry. It was impressive, but what he yelled was, thank you. And he started shouting, thank you, thank you, he said. I knew that God had forgiven me but I never thought that you could forgive me for killing your husband. Thank you, it said, thank you.

And when that happened, widows and orphans began to come from this side who had already inherited their father's church, orphans already grown up who were shepherding, they came, surrounded these three, everyone knew them , and began to proclaim forgiveness over them. It was such a beautiful thing. There the families were victims of these men, they ended up embracing and loving the former murderers, now brothers in Christ. And when that was over, looking at that, I cried. I thought, Lord, there is no stronger power, there is no greater power, Lord, than your love and your forgiveness, because you can heal everything, everything, God. And when they finished ministering then Hilda said to this man, she said, son, I know your home. I know that you never had a mother who looked after you, and she told him, today I want to take you as my son. He said, I want you to count on me as you could count on a mother. And he threw himself into hugging her. There, the families of the victims and the former murderers were also totally healed.

Loving your enemies and when I saw that and really thought about what are the things that we normally do, now there may be people here who have experienced this, what the Peruvians experienced. But in our daily, normal life, what are our struggles to forgive and to love. And compared to that, it's bullshit, it's bullshit. But the power of God's love and forgiveness is for us today, to be able to win big, tremendous battles in our life.

They are the three groups, the believers, unconverted and the enemies. Now, it's a risk to love. When I open myself up to love, I risk it because I risk it because they can reject me, they can make fun of me, they can take advantage of me, they can do many things. It's a risk, but do you know why we can love? Because we are loved. And when we know our position in God and when we understand how much he loves us, we are no longer afraid of taking risks, we are already so secure in our position in him that I don't care if he rejects me because I know that there are arms around me here, that are his arms. I can already be brave to love. Now I can take a risk, I no longer care what they can tell me, what matters to me is that person, the need for that person, because I know my position.

Please join me here for a quick scripture and we're going to pray in a moment. Let's go to Isaiah 49. Thank you Lord, from 14 to 16. All together, what is my position in the Lord? Everyone together out loud, please, "...But Zion said, Jehovah left me and the Lord forgot me, the woman will forget what she gave birth to stop pitying the son of her womb, even if she forgets her, I will never forget you. Behold, I have you sculpted in the palms of my hands, before me your walls are always”,- it is written in feminine because it is to Jerusalem, but it is for our life.

Then he says “...in the palms of my hands I have carved you”. Please raise your hand for a moment and look at that palm, and pretend that this is the hand of God. And look at yourself sculpted in that hand. Not glued, sculpted.

Now, turn your hand over and shake it. Can what is sculpted fall? No, you can't get rid of there, that's how the Lord has you.

Now we go to Ephesians 3 from 16 to 19. "That he may give you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power in the inner man by his spirit." Paul is praying for them.

“That Christ may dwell by faith in your hearts so that, rooted and grounded in love, you may be fully capable of comprehending with all the saints what is the width, length, depth and height and to know the love of Christ that passes all knowledge so that you may be filled with all the fullness in God.”

Rooted and grounded in love. Raise your hand again, please, and see yourself there sculpted in that hand, now rooted. Now, look at yourself putting down roots. Deep roots, turn your hand over, shake your hand. What is sculpted and rooted, can it fall? No way. But the Lord does not stop there, he says grounded.

Raise your hand again, we are making you like children this morning so that this truth remains in your heart. Now, look at yourself again, look at yourself sculpted, look at yourself rooted, and now look at yourself cemented in that hand. Now, turn your hand over, shake it. What is sculpted, rooted, cemented, can it fall from there? No, but the Lord does not stop there. His love is so great over us.

Let's go to Ephesians 1:13, please. And read with me, "In him you also, having heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, and having believed in him, were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise."

Raise your hand again. And look at yourself sculpted, rooted, cemented and now take your other hand, and give me, and sealed. Hallelujah! Sealed in the love of God. Find me, God has me sculpted, rooted, cemented and sealed. Hallelujah!

Thank you, Lord. Thanks God. Thanks God. Oh thank you Lord. Tell someone next to you, I am very loved, supremely loved. If someone can go for the children and adolescents, please call them and this morning God wants to do something in us here.

If you have realized with this message, as I realize every time I give this message or on this subject, if you have realized that you have lacked love in your dealings with others, I invite you to stand up where you are. Thank you. Thank my Lord.