The Greatest Privilege - to Reflect the Glory of God

I want to talk to you a little bit about the glory of God. I'm going to be talking about the text of Romans 8, beginning with verse 16.

But before that I'm going to tell you a story. It turns out, and it comes to the case, that when I was 3 years old more or less there, they were going to enroll me in school, in kindergarten. How many of you are starting classes? How many children have in kindergarten? They have taken children to kindergarten, everyone knows. Okay, fine. Well, they take me to kindergarten, I was born in the Dominican Republic and they enrolled me in this school, La Milagrosa, a Catholic school, and that was an event. They bought me my little uniform, with my light yellow shirt, my little brown shorts, they even bought me the little yellow thing that is hard with little balls, that is pink, and a little cowboy lunch box, but it matched me because it was brown with yellow.

So, I was that I couldn't with myself. And the day before I went to school, I wanted to keep my uniform on, I didn't want to, I didn't want to. The thing is that I got up, my mom took me to the school, which was a few blocks from the house and we are walking and I am very happy, very happy with everything, and I only show the school, and I see the very kind nuns, a typical school, very pretty, with rose bushes and everything else. Immediately I see the gate and the nuns, what did I do? I began to cry that there was no one to shut me up. Grab my mom's blouse, she grabbed my leg. The little nuns who seem to have shark-tooth fingers because they put their hands on me and that was… I couldn't.

The thing is, my mom couldn't drop me off at school. The next day they came and brought my grandmother, my grandmother, I have always loved her very much and she has loved me, to see if my grandmother would convince me. What's happening? It didn't work. I stayed there at school and my grandmother stayed playing with me and when she got home she said, “I'm not coming back, those little chairs are very uncomfortable. I won't stay with her there again." And I became a bom girl basically. I didn't go to first grade, I didn't go to kindergarten or anything, I spent it like a drunk, with a bottle watching television and in my underwear, all day at home.

What's going on? Why am I telling this story? Many times we come to the Gospel and behave like this. We want to stay in kindergarten, we come with all the expectations, the Lord saved me, I'm new, ah, what a thrill! We enter what I call the first love phase, we are ah, the Lord, ah, victorious, ah what emotion! And when we see the real dynamics of the Gospel we enter the phase, in what I say, tantrum.

So, we begin the tantrum tantrum phase. Ah, but they didn't tell me that I was going to be happy, and what happened with this? I don't understand what this? And we let all those things steal everything we have received. Of joy not to be said, it goes away like foam and peace, we become the worst in the world.

So we have to take that into account. We have to understand that when we come to the Gospel, that when we come to what belongs to the Lord, it is not only a path of roses and a fragrant smell, but as the pastor says many times, we have to pay the price.

And many times I do not like to pay the price. I have started to become a coupon book, so I don't pay anything. I don't pay any price, I buy toilet paper with a coupon, I buy bath soap with a coupon, everything with a coupon. I don't like to pay the price, much less in my spiritual life, I don't like to pay the price. So I have to discipline myself in many things.

But now I want to remind you why it is important to pay the price, why it is important for us to fight to keep ourselves in that line, in that atmosphere of first love with the Lord, regardless of the attacks that come in life. That if we sing that he deserves all the glory, as Pastor Andrés said, he deserves it in good times and he deserves it in bad times. And we have to cultivate a sense of spiritual persistence in the Lord.

I want to read you Romans 8:16 beginning through verse 19, to get started and warm up. And says:

“…The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children are also heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, and if we suffer together with him so that together with him we may be glorified... - and this verse is very important that you pay attention -... well I have it certain that the afflictions of the present time are not comparable with the coming glory that is to be manifested in us..."

Amen. “…For the burning desire of creation is to wait for the manifestation of the sons of God…”

Brethren, this is serious business. Close your eyes right now and think about where the Lord got you from, think about the most horrible thing that you can believe that the Lord would not have forgiven you, that perhaps you still haven't forgiven yourself, think about that, think about where you got it from. the Lord brought out Now, go back and look at verse 18, "for I am certain that the afflictions of the present time are not comparable with the glory to come..."

Imagine, the Lord took me out of a strange affair. And he comes and promises me that he is going to give me tremendous glory because what do we do? We reflect his glory. And paying the price, brethren, helps us move from level to level, from glory to glory. So, paying the price is not only to obey, paying the price is to give glory to God, because we give glory to him and he in his mercy returns it. I don't understand that, but it returns it and we also reflect that glory of God.

I don't know about you, but I still don't understand that privilege. I don't understand how God can grab an unclean person, a sinner, who didn't last a moment without putting both feet deep in the mud, and he comes and tells me, "I'm going to clean you, I'm going to heal you, I'm going to I am going to cover you, I am going to give you word, I am going to give you boldness, I am going to give you wisdom, I am going to give you glory of my glory. You will reflect my glory.”

For me that is like no, the Lord is crazy, he must be crazy because how the most excellent being in the universe, the one who has all the glory, all the knowledge, who knows everything, who did everything, who is the most greatest of all comes and says he is going to share his glory with me. And that's not with the one who dresses well, that's not with the one who smells good, that's not with the one who has a bank account bigger than me, that's not with any specific type of person. That's with who? With the whole world, because the word says that all those who came to him, to those who accept Christ as their Lord and savior, what does he do? He makes them accepted, he makes them his children.

Imagine with something as simple as receiving a gift of salvation and grace, I already have a glory card. By grace I have a glory card where I can go, of course, I have to pass the tests and that is where we want to cover a little more. Because there is what? Pay the price. There are no coupons there, you have to pay the price.

There is a sister with whom I have developed a very nice friendship and I asked her if she could give this example, so I am not gossiping or anything like that, but the sister... I have been talking with her because she was going through a test and we know… which of you have gone through tests? Who hasn't been through tests? Who is going through a test right now?

It's like they say in English that there are two sure things, death and taxes. In the Christian life, do not think that you are going to get rid of the tests because it is what leads us to be able to go from glory to glory. If you don't pass the exam, what will happen? It will not pass the course, it will stay there. So, I told her, “Sister, you can't stay in kindergarten, that's why you're on that test.” And here comes the story of kindergarten and the tantrum.

So, I tell her, "What's happening is that the Lord is moving you and making you a more adept warrior so that you can understand where he is taking you." Because she was passing… her room mate left, her housemate left, so she was looking for people… you know that when you work hard and everything else, you don't have a lot of money to pay rent here in Boston, because it's very expensive. It comes on August 1, there is no room mate, it comes on August 15, there is no room mate. She puts ads here, she puts ads there on the internet, she says she's coming from the country where she's from, because she has a secure visa, that she's coming in a few weeks, to find her a job. She goes, talks, looks for work, the boy has a job, once and for all, what's up? When he comes back he says he can't come because they can't give him a visa. He went there, so another attack comes.

And another person comes from another woman who is going to come, who is very good, very servant of God, but then it comes out that she has a son who unfortunately is in prison. When the son leaves, where will he settle? In the apartment, then she says, "No, because it's for two women, I don't want..." So, another... so, the test went like one door opened and the other closed, one door opened and the other closed. other. She finally got a roommate, a few days ago, and it was through the church. That happened providentially, from God, it was from God, where the person arrived. The sister got everything she needed and everything just like that, well, a Christian person who needed all of that.

Now, we were talking and I told him, “It's just that you can't stay in kindergarten, that's why the Lord is moving you from test to test, because if you don't pass the test then what will happen? You're not going to graduate, you're going to stay there in kindergarten, like me, watching TV by yourself.

So what's up? The Lord wants us to focus on what is here. That we know that to those who love God all things come to good. It tells you the same thing in that verse, yes or no? all things are good for you. You have been called, you have been redeemed, you have been given all the weapons so that you can take that trial that afflicts you right now and say, “You know what? I am going to stop at the principles of the Lord's promises. I will declare that he is King. I am going to declare that he has the key to every door that needs to be opened because my trial is not greater than the God that I have, the God that is in me is much greater than the trial.

So, you grab and get half [inaudible] with the test and say, "No, it doesn't test with me." And you stand. I was talking to this sister, I told her, “Look, I have a great privilege and that is that I work here in the church. So, when I am going through a trial here I know that the cameras have seen me running my nose here in church many times, crying and asking the Lord to help me, to help me from the trial. But brothers, there are many times when we forget that. We forget that in the midst of trials is where we can glorify our God the most.

There are many families here that are going through many trials, many trials that we cry with those who cry, we laugh with those who laugh, but there are many trials in these difficult times. I think of Sister Patty, for example, that her son has just been murdered. Or in Sister Edna's family where they are in a situation that we prayed for their son last Sunday. Many people who are going through hard trials.

But, brothers, the glory of that test is super, super great. It really has nothing to do with the glory of proof of where you are going to pay your rent. Do you understand what I'm saying? You have to take on your test, your challenges in the Lord, and say, You know what? No, I am going to stand firm and whether it is life or death, I am going to glorify the Lord, because he glorifies himself in many ways.

The times in which I have believed that I have been in deficit is when I have been in more, because the Lord knows how to reward many things and if we are faithful to him and we stand on his word, and on his principles, we can tell the proof, “My God is greater than you. My God has more power than you."

But we have to cultivate that desire to glorify the Lord, through our trial. Not that he takes us out of everything we are going through, but that we know that our God in the midst of plus or minus, he is going to glorify himself because he is sovereign. He is a sovereign God. And he is also a just God, but also merciful to his children.

And there are many things that can be done in this. I had here two or three things to share with you. Let's not live in spiritual kindergarten anymore, who says no more kindergarten? No more spiritual kindergarten. At least move to primary. And if you're in elementary school, well, move on to high school, because we're going to go from glory to glory as it says here in Corinthians, Second Corinthians 3:18 says:

"... Therefore we all looking with unveiled face as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, we are transformed from glory to glory, in the same image as by the spirit..."

You are a sacred vessel of God's glory. We have to assume our identity, not because we have an ego the size of Texas. No no. but because we are redeemed, because we have been taken out of the dust to reflect the glory of the most excellent being in life, the most excellent in the universe.

Imagine, think about it, brothers. Where did you get it from? What has he given you? What has he freed you from? And what has the Lord promised him? He has promised you health. He has promised provision. He has promised him that his offspring will not undergo any type of work because he has said that the righteous and his offspring will not suffer.

And if the Lord is just, if the Lord is not a man to lie, if he does not repent of his promises, why then do we not assume our identity in the Lord? knowing that we are dust, knowing that we are nothing but that he makes us and we reflect the glory of God.

And we can reflect the glory of God to our neighbor when we get stepped on a callus or push the garbage with the car. But at the same time we can reflect the glory of God to the people who are there, homeless, who are drug addicts, who need to hear about Jesus, who need to hear that they too were created in the image and likeness of that God that we also reflect.

And that is what we have to do, brothers. We have to pay that price, for us to get out of our comfort, out of our comfort zone. I'm not comfortable here, but what's up? If the Lord, for some reason or another, a week ago gave me this image of how we come on Wednesdays loaded down, how we come looking for refuge, how we come looking for a word from the Lord, and then two weeks later I heard something else that I know is from the Lord , and then Pastor Roberto without talking to him comes and tells me this, I say, "This is from the Lord, I can't, even though I feel uncomfortable saying no." because? Because I have to pay the price. And because I am called to reflect the glory of God. As? Killing the meat that tells me, no, and telling it, you know what? Yes, because God has told me yes. And if he tells me yes, there is no one to tell me no, or no?

The verse says that the creation itself awaits the manifestation of the sons of God. Not only those who are there in the corner of [inaudible] await the manifestation of the sons of God, it says that the entire universe awaits the manifestation of the sons of God and that they await their redemption. How much more we who have already been redeemed. Already spiritually we are redeemed. Now that our body is kind of slow and has to get to where we are, it's different. But the same universe waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. The whole world is waiting, the planets, the stars, the animals, the trees, for you to manifest yourself, for you to say, I am a child of God and I am going to reflect the glory of God.

Reflect the glory of God in your walk, in your speaking, in your praying, in how you intercede for someone, in how you speak to an unbeliever, in how you speak to your Christian brother, reflect the glory of God. Let us reflect the glory of God, whether it has been in the Gospel for 30 years or 30 days, or 30 hours, it does not matter, reflect the glory of God.

Because we have been called to manifest that to the entire universe. We have called to give the light that we have, to be salt and that cannot be hidden, brothers, it cannot be hidden because it is the greatest thing that we have. The greatest privilege that we have is to call ourselves children of God, to reflect the glory of God.

Not just sing here, Lord, we give you glory, you are all the glory, you have all the glory, no. reflect it at 2:30 in the afternoon on Tuesday, reflect it on Thursday at 8:30 in the morning when you leave the house, with your wife, with your husband, with your brother, with your co-worker. Let us reflect the glory of God. Let's reflect the glory because there is no greater gift than being that, than being children of God and reflecting his glory, brothers.

Amen or no amen? My call and my challenge is that like my beloved sister in this story, when you say, in the middle of a test, no, no, I'm not going to stay in kindergarten, I'm going to move, I'm going to reflect the glory of God. Because you are a receptacle of the glory of God and you are a recipient of the glory of God and that is the most important thing. It is not being a mother, it is not being a father, it is not being a pastor, it is not being nothing, it is being a son of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, of the God of the universe. That is what we are called to be.

So, when you have a test, when you have a moment where you say, no, no, I'm giving up, I can't take it anymore, remember the coming glory that the Lord has for you, which is increasing from glory to glory and say , I don't stay in kindergarten anymore. Don't stay in kindergarten anymore and reflect the glory of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Assume your identity. Let's assume our identity. There is no one who is equal to a child of God, no one, because we are privileged to be nothing and to be taken to the glory of the most glorious of all Gods.

Don't stay in kindergarten. Reflect the glory of God. God bless you.