The Second Violin (North OC)

Marcel: We're excited today because we are going to have a guest

speaker, uh, for our service.

And so some of you might have seen it on the newsletter, but I want to introduce

here our guest speaker Osvaldo Castro will be preaching God's word here today.

And so Osvaldo was converted, uh, into Christ in the campus

ministry in Mexico city in 1996.

That's a long time ago.

Some of y'all weren't born.

Some of y'all, you were veterans in 1996.

And so he's been married to Isabel in 2000 and they have two

twin girls who are 11 years old.

They moved to Los Angeles in 2006.

They've led different ministries here in the Los Angeles

church as well in Mexico City.

They actually started the Spanish ministry in the west region of

the Los Angeles church in 2009.

And recently Osvaldo is an author and he wrote the book The Second Violin in 2021.

It's available not only in English but in Spanish and in French.

Yeah, that's big time right there when you get to French, you know what I'm saying?

And so it also has the audio version available as well.

He'll be able to talk about that.

And they currently lead a portion of the Spanish ministry over in our Lifeway

region of our Los Angeles churches.

So we're in for a real treat today to hear from Oswaldo.

He's become a friend of mine over the last couple of years and really

appreciate his heart, his faith, and not only his heart for God and his faith,

but it's hard for all of God's people.

And so that's one thing that comes across is that he has a love for

all of God's people, whether they're local, whether he knows them or not,

he has a deep love for all of you.

And as I mentioned even to me before, uh, how much he praises

also for us here in Orange County.

And so right now we're going to have a little quick video that's

going to segue into Osvaldo.

Please, as soon as he gets up, please give Osvaldo a huge round of

applause to welcome him here to OC.

Amen.

Hey, man, let's go ahead and play the video.

Good morning, good morning, everyone.

Uh, well, my name is Osvaldo Castro.

Thank you so much, Marcel.

It's a pleasure.

And what you saw is, uh, one of the amazing pieces in classical music.

I am not a musician, so this is not about music.

I I cannot distinguish, uh, Do from a Fa.

I have no idea.

I don't know.

But I just know that I love music.

And that portion is, uh, for all of you who know a little bit about classical

music, that's, uh, a portion of the, uh, Four Seasons from Antonio Vivaldi.

And it's the piece called Summer, the third movement, and it's amazing.

And that gentleman is Nigel Kennedy.

It's a great, great, great violinist and musician, and it's with a small orchestra.

But I don't know if you noticed something, uh, but the energy,

the passion, the coordination.

Every time, I've seen that video, and I have preached this lesson dozens of

times, and I've seen that video hundreds of times, and every time when I, when he

goes like, I want to jump, and I want to go like this, and, uh, the guy who's You

know, playing and then goes like this, uh, like everybody masters whatever they are

doing and it's something called harmony.

Harmony refers to the positive inner state of peace, calmness, and balance, as well

as the feeling of being in tune with the world, in this case with the orchestra.

And, uh, my name is Osvaldo.

I wrote this little book based on many, many, many frustrations, many experiences.

And in this world, in this society that we live, uh, there is something that is

very particular, especially in the U.

S.

You know, we just had the Olympics.

And the U.

S.

won pretty much everything.

A lot.

A lot.

So, have you heard the phrase, Altius, Fultius, Siltius?

Yeah.

It's what they use in the Olympics to describe the highest, the

strongest, and the fastest.

And in the U.

S., that's what they want to do.

Have you ever heard the phrase, or the end of the phrase, win is everything?

That's something that for most of the mentality of the

people, and it also translates.

When we talk about church, it comes to our minds.

You have to be the first.

You have to be the, the, the one in charge.

You have to be the person that everybody's looking after.

And many years ago, this idea of the second violin came with an interview

that they made to one of the great, uh, conductors, uh, Leonhard Bernstein,

who recently, they did a movie, but I thought about this in probably, probably,

2005, that's how long this idea had been incubating in my heart, in my mind.

And then in an interview, they asked to, uh, the maestro, Bernstein, what is

the most difficult instrument to feel in a symphony, or in your symphony?

And the immediate response was the second violin.

I can always find formidable first violins, but finding

someone who is willing to play second is the most difficult.

And if nobody plays second, there is simply no harmony.

And it talks about the importance of understanding our role and

the place where we are at.

Many times, I don't know if that's, uh, the same feeling that you have had,

but many times I have felt left out.

This is my beautiful family, Isabel, my twin daughters, Ariadna and

Liliana, 11 years old, But for five years, before they came to this

world, we were battling infertility.

And, you know, in the Mexican culture, not having kids is not easy.

It's like, what?

You know, you just see a Latina and she gets pregnant.

So what's wrong with you?

And it was hard.

It was so difficult.

And after many, many, many, many, uh, nights praying and crying, um, you

know, God, uh, gave me the wonderful and incredible miracle of, uh, now having my

daughters 11 years old, going to 6th grade and, um, having, you know, So many things

that I never dreamed about, and that inspired me to, uh, you know, continue

writing and continue expressing my feelings, my emotions in a different way.

I've always, uh, I'm the second one of six.

Three brothers, well, we're three brothers, three sisters.

And, um, you know, it's not always easy when you're the second one.

Who's the middle child here?

Raise your hand.

Okay, who's the oldest child?

You have to be the example.

Isn't that the, the, the thing that they tell you all the time?

You have to be the example!

Because everybody's told me.

You know, the middle one kind of get a pass.

And the little one is who?

The favorite.

Somebody say he's the favorite.

Probably.

Well, what I want to talk about this, uh, this morning, and again, thank you so

much, is about, uh, what is in this book.

This book is not about me.

This book is about a lot of characters, uh, to be specific, uh, nine chapters,

eight specific characters that, um, you know, talk about, uh, situations and

characters that are not exactly the main.

Um, characters in the Bible.

So I'm going to do this experiment that I do every time.

Just think about your favorite character in the Bible.

Who's your favorite character in the Bible?

Who's the one that inspires you the most?

And, and, and just say it loud.

I want to hear you.

David.

David.

Paul.

Paul.

Paul.

Jesus.

Jesus.

Of course.

Who else?

Deborah.

Deborah.

Who else?

Esther.

Esther.

You know, rude.

Amazing.

Fantastic.

You see, all these main characters, uh, and you can talk about David,

Paul, Timothy, and I have done this experiment a lot, and everybody

talks about these main characters.

You know, when you hear a preacher talking about Moses, talking about

Elijah, talking about, um, you know, Paul, Peter, even, even many of my

friends sometimes they feel, oh, you know what, somebody told me that I

probably have the convictions or the character of Peter, you know, so strong.

Emotional sometimes, but you know, I feel like Peter.

Well, have you ever heard, uh, about the things that these guys did?

And I'm gonna talk just really, really, really fast about these

guys, but the book is based on the life of these, these characters.

That, normally, you hear them, but they are not the main focus of,

for example, a sermon like today.

You talk about Aaron.

Who was Aaron?

He was the older brother of?

Moses.

But, in the ancient culture, the older brother had the responsibility to

guide, to lead, and he was overseen.

And he was passed by his brother Moses, who, by the way, was living like a prince.

Run away.

He never had to suffer anything.

He never had to go through anything.

And God decided that Moses was the one who was going to

lead the exodus of his people.

And Aaron, according to God, he was well spoken, pretty much he was

strong, but he was not the chosen one.

Talking about Leah, do you know who Leah was?

He was the second wife, but was the first sister of Rachel.

And she was overseen.

And she was given, uh, in a deceitful way by Laban.

Because, you know.

We say it in Mexico, hermana saltada, hermana quedada.

So we say if you, you know, kind of pass the oldest, she's going to stay

there, so we need to give her away.

And that's what Levan did.

So can you imagine in her heart?

Feeling the sadness of not being loved, but being, just giving

away because otherwise she's not going to be the chosen one.

Caleb.

Caleb was the, the second in command with Joshua, but he was the only one

of all the other twelve, along with Joshua, who, you know, were strong,

and God made a promise to Caleb.

We are going to receive all this land in inheritance, and he had to wait

years and years and years, and you don't hear anything else about Caleb.

Rahab.

Do you know who Rahab was?

He was a prostitute.

Have you ever heard a sermon about Rahab being inspiring?

Have you ever, has anyone told you, hey, you have a fate like Rahab?

You don't hear those things.

Oh, you know what?

Your life reminds me, or your fate reminds me, uh, the fate of Rahab.

What?

Probably you're feeling insulted.

Maybe.

Hannah, you know, the mother of Samuel, a woman who was destined to

be infertile, not having kids, and that crying, and her crying was so

deep, So, so, so painful that, uh, even Eli thought that she was drunk.

Jonathan.

Jonathan.

We see Jonathan as the friend of David.

But you know, Jonathan was the prince.

Jonathan was the second in command of the whole kingdom.

Lawfully, he was the righteous, uh, successor of the king.

He could have fought for, for, for his, uh, right to be

the, the second, the prince.

But he decided to give that up.

John the Baptist, the one who knew Jesus since they were babies in the

womb, and he died in a way that, you know, pretty much started the ministry.

He was famous, and then he was decapitated.

And many of us just see John like, ah, yeah, the Christ in the desert.

John Mark.

Who?

Who's this guy?

Who's this guy, John Mark?

Well, according to many, many, many guys, he was one of the many

who went on the first missionary trip with Paul and Barnabas.

And he was a relative of Barnabas, but he abandoned the mission.

And you don't hear a lot of things about him, but we're going to

hear a lot about what he did.

So, uh, What is this book about?

Why am I presenting this to you?

And I'm very, very, again, very thankful.

You know, as an orchestra, each member, each one of you, you have a very

unique and a very, uh, important role, and you're indispensable to create,

uh, rhythm, harmony, and melody.

Without you, we don't have an orchestra.

Without you, we don't have a church.

Without you, we don't have this ministry.

So, each one of us plays a unique and essential role, whether you decide to

be, uh, you know, a greeter, or, or, uh, usher, or someone who comes here.

The guys in the sound are pretty much, many times are the forgotten ones,

but when anything goes wrong here, the first ones to be blamed, probably.

Um, but everybody and everything is essential for your role.

Even you as a father, as a mother, you're so essential for your family.

The things you do, the things you provide.

So the second violin in my book, it's a call to renewal of the spirit

of surrender, love and selfless service, only for the glory of God.

Sounds good, huh?

However, however, many times, it's not easy to accept either the

place or the role where we have to serve or play in the orchestra.

Have you ever felt like you're underappreciated?

Raise your hand with me.

I have felt that.

And if I could do this.

Have you felt like, oh man, I'm wasting my talent?

All these years, I became a disciple in 1996.

I was 20 years old.

So you can guess how many, how many years I'm now.

So, 1996, 20 years old.

I've been married for 24 years.

I'm going to 25.

And sometimes, even with all those blessings, I feel like,

uh, Why has God forsaken me?

Why I'm not in a different place?

Why I'm not shining?

Why I'm not doing better financially?

Why I'm not doing better spiritually?

Why I'm not in charge of this or that?

Why I'm not more important?

And that, for many years, caused a lot of pain in my heart.

And I don't know where you are at right now, but I'm pretty sure that at one

point everybody has felt the same.

Like, are you feeling underappreciated, disrespected?

Like, uh, nobody, uh, takes you seriously?

Like, they are wasting your talent?

Everything we do here, our relationships, the interactions, have a profound impact

in the short, medium, and long term.

The way we react when, um, we are not the main actors affects

completely the way we serve others.

Have you ever been in the position where you say something, Hey, hello, how

are you, and the other person probably didn't see you, didn't respond, didn't

greet you the way you were expecting?

What's the feeling?

You know, in the Latino culture, it's like, What do you think?

I'll talk to you later.

And that's, that's pretty common.

So those feelings are there.

How to maintain the desire to give ourselves wholeheartedly and keep the

confidence that God is in control of everything when things don't go on,

don't, do not turn out as we hope.

How do you do that?

How do you do that?

Probably many of you have dreams.

Maybe, uh, you know, uh, what, what, uh, Jean was sharing was fantastic.

I felt like, uh, you know, we need to close this, what she did in the

communion was fantastic surrendering.

She, she, she was surrendered to God's will, uh, hopes, dreams, and coming

from a, probably a destroyed background and now having hope and now sharing

her feelings probably without God.

I'm probably, I'm sure without God, she wouldn't be here.

She wouldn't have what she has.

And you are a miracle.

You are special.

God chose you for a reason.

Whether you're a visitor, whether you've been a long

time member, God has a purpose.

But sometimes, it's not easy to find our purpose.

Now, by my accent, you can tell I am not, I was not born in the USA.

I was nuts.

I learned English when I was 18 years old.

So that's why it's so thick sometimes.

That's why I have problems with words.

And that's why many, many, many years ago I felt so insecure.

Like, they're laughing at me because I couldn't distinguish the

Y from the J, because I couldn't pronounce this or that word.

Made me so insecure.

And many times thinking about coming to the English ministry and do something

like this or writing was a crazy dream.

But you know what?

I found that God is a God that never forgets.

He's an amazing God, and in Hebrews chapter 6, verse 10 to

Hebrews 6:10–11

11, it says, God is not unjust.

He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him, as you have helped

His people and continue to help them.

We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end,

in order to make your hope sure.

Do you feel like nobody thinks about you?

That no one cares about you?

Guess what?

God cares about you.

And God never and will never forget what you're doing and

what you have done for others.

Just for His glory.

That's the power of God.

And He's hoping that we can understand that, embrace it,

go and fight for His glory.

Amen.

But what happens when there's no harmony?

You know, our churches all around the world have gone

through a lot of transitions.

A lot of problems.

Sometimes it's not easy to be in a ministry.

Sometimes it's not easy to be a minister.

I am not a full time minister, but I'm a full time disciple.

And what I decided many years ago is, I don't care.

I'm just gonna serve, I'm gonna love, I'm gonna give my best.

And I'm gonna hope that one day I can see Jesus face to face.

And he will say, well done.

That's all I want.

But what happened when there's no harmony?

What happened when the musician, can you imagine for a moment, Dallas?

I saw Dallas and I met Dallas in life way.

He was so small and now he has this deep voice.

So it gets scared.

Like, wow, what happened?

We changed.

I didn't recognize him, but can you imagine if in this beautiful

setting, there was no harmony.

A brother from the, from the drums just decided to go, I don't know,

Ringo Starr and doing his thing.

And then the other one on the bass, he goes all Foo

Fighters and that, that, that.

I don't know.

It will be crazy.

He decides to be Mr.

Paul McCartney just out of nowhere.

It will be crazy.

And, you know, what do you do when the orchestra, this beautiful Orange County

Ministry, and Which you are part of is not what you expected or what you dream of.

Oh man, I remember those years, wow.

Have you ever said that?

Oh, I remember when we were.

Oh, man, the old school, the OGs, oh man.

I remember.

What is your attitude when you face differences of opinion?

Something that I love about our churches, even with their imperfections,

is that it doesn't matter if you are black, if you are white, if you are

yellow, if you are red, if you are brown, if you are blue, if you are

red, if you vote this, you vote that.

What matters is Christ.

And that's the center of everything.

But what do you do in your heart?

What decisions do you make when you feel undervalued,

overshadowed, or just ignored?

That's the point.

How do you react when those who are supposed to take care of you, help

you, and guide you to Christ, hurt you?

Oh, that brother, that sister, that thing he or she said.

Even in the family.

You know one of the most difficult places to be at peace many times is the family.

The resentfulness.

Being bitter like he or she did that.

And many of us carry that all over the way, all over these years.

Let me show you something that I'm pretty sure you're going to find funny.

Look at the back.

And the orchestra continues playing.

Do you see what happened?

Poor guy, he doesn't know what to do.

Do I, do I say sorry?

Do, do, do, do.

And you know what?

Many times, life and this orchestra is like that.

The guys in the front, they didn't even notice.

They were watching who?

They were looking at the, at the, uh, director.

And the director saw that, but they have a piece to complete.

So that made me understand something.

The world is not gonna stop for our pain.

The world moves.

But God does.

And many times, we can come to this place and be all smiles, but sad inner.

An inner sad that maybe you have a bad morning, you have

a bad week, you feel resentful towards someone, you feel bitter.

You feel underappreciated, but you come to church, open the door, brother.

How are you?

You are probably, you come late and you leave early because you

don't want to be seen by anyone.

You're just fulfilling your duty of becoming here a presence, a person who's

sitting here, but you can be so bitter and so detached from everyone else.

Many times I've been like that.

My worst scene probably being radioactive.

And it's not the Imagine Dragons song.

It's being radioactive.

You know that radioactivity is good, under control.

That's why we have x rays.

That's why we can see and doctors can detect cancer and some other

diseases because of x rays.

So, under control, radioactivity is revealing.

It's wonderful.

It's very helpful.

But, when it's out of control, it becomes Chernobyl.

A Hiroshima.

A place of devastation.

And many times, I cannot tell you how many I was like that.

And I've been like that.

I want to tell the truth.

I don't care.

I'm going to tell that person exactly what I think.

And he's going to have a piece of my mind.

Because I say what I think.

And sometimes we don't have filters.

And I cannot tell you how many times I have.

hurt people just thinking that way.

And I think this is one of my biggest and most terrible sins.

You know, I grew up in Mexico City.

I became a disciple there.

From the first moment I thought when I became a Christian, I'm gonna be a leader.

I'm gonna be the man in charge.

And I think that many of the mistakes of the church at that time is that

they made you believe that you have to be in a top position to be someone.

Oh, he's the leader of so so so.

Oh, wow.

Welcome.

Who are you?

What do you lead?

Was the first thing that they used to ask.

And I thought, well, I need to be a man of conviction.

Tell everyone what I feel.

What wrong they're doing.

And if they tell me something, I'm going to tell them, your faith is weak.

And I became like, uh, this, uh, horrible figure of someone

who could not understand them.

And I realized, you know, how I grew up in my house?

You know?

With a figure like that.

My father used to say, you do it because I said so.

And it's not wrong to say that.

But I didn't have the opportunity to appeal.

Because immediately, PAPA!

And spiritually speaking, I was like that.

Someone was trying to tell me something with the Bible, oh yeah?

Let me show you another one.

BOOM!

Take that, huh?

How do you like me now?

And it was horrible.

BOOM!

And many of the dreams that I apparently was not fulfilling in my

view made me someone radioactive.

And it wasn't until I decided I need to surrender and to

find healing and to be open.

Whether accidentally, intentionally I hurt someone, I have had the

opportunity to make peace, to apologize.

I have twin daughters, and they have been an amazing gift from God,

because they put me in my place.

Like, Daddy, don't yell at me.

Don't raise your voice.

Just tell me what you need and I'll do it.

Oh my gosh.

And they do a lot of things that I never thought I would

be able to react in a way I do.

Just for love, for care.

Somebody the other day asked me, um, How are you doing with your book?

And I said, well, you know, now it's in English, Spanish, and French.

I had an interview with, uh, with the editor yesterday.

And he said, oh man, you must be selling thousands of books.

And I said, no.

I'm not a well known, I'm not a recognized voice or writer.

Nobody cares about me.

They don't know my name, and that's fine.

You know what?

Because if only one person reads a book and feels like it

makes a difference, that's fine.

And he told me, Are you sure?

I said, Yeah, I'm sure.

Oh, man, I don't know if I will be able to do that because, hey, it's time.

Time is money.

You know, when we have that mentality that we need to get something for

everything we do, I feel that we miss the spiritual perspective.

That's my feeling.

And you know what?

I have learned to be more is more important than to do.

To be is more important than just to do.

Philippians 2, 14, 15 says, Do everything without grumbling or arguing so that

you may become blameless and pure children of God without fault in a

world, in a world and croc generation.

Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky.

I used to think, oh, I need to do a lot of things.

If I do a lot of things, I'm in charge of this or that.

I was in charge of five, six, seven ministries.

Singing, greeting, a communion, preaching, uh, hope, bah, bah, bah.

And it's not that you don't have to be involved.

It's just that I was feeling like the more I do, the better I become.

The more I do, the more important, the more I'm going to shine.

And I was getting bitter.

Yeah.

Because I had no recognition.

Because it was a selfish desire.

And he says, do everything without grumbling and arguing.

That's how we do things.

What about home?

What do you tell your kids?

Go and wash the dishes.

Yes, father.

Yes, mother.

Clean your room.

Oh, father, thank you for reminding me that.

The first thing that you hear is what?

Why?

And now when God is telling you, forgive, forget, be unselfish.

Yes, father, that's what I'm going to do.

Why don't you see the preacher?

Don't you see that guy?

Don't you see this person?

And we try to shine with our own light instead of the light of the Holy Spirit.

Because we have a selfish ambition.

Be careful.

Matthew 6, 1 says, Be careful not to do acts of righteousness in

front of others, to be seen by them.

If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in Heaven.

Our true value is being one with God in private, rather than

in doing in the sight of all.

And I'm not saying that you don't have to do anything.

I'm saying that your expectation of receiving an applause, or your

satisfaction, personally, shouldn't come from the people, but from a God.

Whatever He gives you as an extra, is an extra.

But that's not the meaning of what we do.

But when you do things just because you want to be the man or the woman

in charge, that's really, really, really difficult and really hard.

And talking about hard, I have learned, and through these examples in the

book, that it's better to have a heart.

before a position.

And by that I mean, I mean the heart is very important for God.

Around 830 times, 830 times the word or the phrase heart

is mentioned in the Bible.

That tells you how important.

In the heart is the intellect, the will, the appetites, the senses, the

emotions, passions, and everything harmonized and blended together.

So if you don't have your heart in the right position, Everything around you

is going to be very, very messed up.

And the reminder of this is this beautiful, beautiful interaction

of Jesus with the disciples.

Yeah, because they also had problems understanding what was the heart

or what was the right heart.

It says in Mark 9, 33 35, they came to Capernaum when he was in the house.

He asked them, Jesus asked them, What are you arguing about on the road?

And you know, I can imagine them like kids,

but they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was

the greatest, sitting down, Jesus called the twelve and said, anyone

who wants to be the first must be the very last and servant of all.

What were you arguing about?

What are we arguing about?

Who's first?

Who's more important?

And these questions

were so revealing to me, and I hope that you can take the

time to think about those.

But, do you feel more important than others?

This is not just about Christianity, this is about our lives.

Do you see others with disdain?

Oh, these guys.

Oh, that guy drives like a lunatic.

And there's no better driver than you, when you're in your car.

Have you felt like that?

I have, and it's horrible.

It's horrible.

Do you only serve when it's convenient for you?

Now, I know Marcel talked about, uh, you know, being ushers.

I know this is a great region that serves.

But, oh, Friday, no, it's not that convenient, you know.

NFL is about to start, so I need to get ready.

Um, I don't know, La Vuelta a España is also, you know, cycling.

Are you a cyclist?

No, but I like to watch.

I don't know, so many things.

But do you serve when it's only convenient?

Do you leave?

I don't know.

With bitterness or resentment for not being acknowledged

by the things you do or did?

All this region, I have done so much and they don't even know my name.

They don't even recognize me.

Where is my recognition?

Have you felt like that?

I felt like that.

You know, Marcel talked a little bit, my wife and I, we helped to

build the El Mensaje, the Spanish ministry that now is El Mensaje.

And we did it.

And when it was, you know, growing and everything, they

decided, oh we, you know what?

This ministry needs a full-time couple, you know, we've been working.

Yeah, we're gonna bring someone from other region.

What I wish I could tell you, I took it so well, I took it so bad,

. But I was like, eh, okay.

And it was horrible.

Horrible.

I was like smoking the ice.

Like, really bad.

Like, he said something, oh, that's not the right word in Spanish.

Ah, I don't know why he pronounced that.

I don't know why he's teaching that.

I don't know.

I know that when we were there, we were growing.

So now what?

It was so horrible, horrible, horrible, that I have to apologize.

To ask for forgiveness.

So many times my wife told me, Hey, you need to give up.

You need to, you need to calm down.

You're so bitter.

And I remember a couple from Mexico that they love me so much.

We were there and it was like, you know what?

It's unfair.

We've been working.

Bam, bam, bam.

And this brother, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah.

And she told me, you know what?

Do you know the story of job?

When he comes and he's having all these issues and then God says, Oh, look, job.

He's, he's, he's amazing.

He's a fantastic man.

And then Satan pretty much comes and says, Oh yeah, he has everything

because you have given him everything.

Just take away that.

And then he's going to blame you.

He's going to curse you.

And she said, you have nothing good to say about others.

You're being like that serpent.

How dare you?

But that was true.

I was so bitter.

I was so bad.

And I have to understand, do I want to be useful or just being important?

What do I want to do?

What do you want to do in your house?

Do you want to be useful or do you want to be important?

I'm the man of the house, so just respect me!

Are you loving?

Are you caring?

Well, I'm providing for the food and everything else,

so they need to respect me.

I don't wash dishes.

Because I'm the man.

I don't know.

I'm the man.

Maybe it's not like that.

Who knows?

But are you giving your whole heart in kindness, in love,

in tenderness, communication?

When what we do may not seem, and this is very deep for me, because

right now, you might be thinking, what I'm doing, it doesn't matter.

No, what you do, it matters.

Because it might not seem to have an immediate impact, but you need

to remember that you are leaving a legacy for future generations.

For these little kids, for the teens that now are in another room receiving lessons.

You are setting the tone for them.

You are planting for them.

You are seeding for them.

You are doing everything for them because in 20 years probably

we are not going to be here.

I hope we are, but we might not.

I'm not getting any younger.

Probably 30 more years.

I hope 40.

I don't know.

But what type of church do I want to see?

Do I always want to be the man in charge?

No, what I'm doing right now makes a big impact.

One of my daughters told me the other day and made me cry.

She said, Oh, dad, your book.

I'm going to keep one copy in English, French, and Spanish.

They, they, they are fluent in three languages.

And she said, uh, because you know, one day when I have kids, I'm going

to show them what his grandpa did.

And I started crying, crying.

And I just give her a hug.

And I was thinking, what I'm doing right now, they see that.

And that's the type of man that they are gonna fall in

love, and that's what I pray.

The type of man that you are gonna build so he can marry someone else's daughter.

Mentoring, serving, loving, giving.

You're doing that for future generations.

It's not about you, it's not about me, it's about others.

And when we do that, we grow it as a church, we grow it as a

society, we do something different.

Every stumble, every setback, every problem is an opportunity

to learn, to grow, to mature.

Don't waste your pain!

This is an amazing phrase that our late Gloria Bird used to say.

You feel sad, you've been mistreated, you have this pain, you

have this issue, don't waste it!

Use it!

Because what you are going through, someone else is going

to go through in the future.

And you are going to be there to help them.

To show them how God helped you.

Don't waste your pain.

Don't waste it.

Embrace it.

Learn.

Forgive.

Forget.

Learn to enjoy being a second violin.

I know not many of you are going to be able to preach here ever.

And you know what?

That's okay.

I know I'm not going to be able to preach in all the regions.

And that's okay.

Because, when we do this, when we think, when we feel, or what we think,

what we feel, what we say, and what we do, is in total harmony with the

Word of God, it's gonna flourish.

You can think one thing and say other.

Have you ever done that?

You can think and say the right thing, but do the wrong.

So it has to be like a, like a, like an equilibrium, a perfect harmony.

So do you want to know what happened with those guys who were nowhere, or

sometimes are nowhere seen in the Bible?

Well Aaron became the first priest.

So the second brother in command became the first priest.

Leah became the mother of Judah, the tribe of the Messiah, the unloved one.

The one that, that, that was given as a, okay, consolation prize, because otherwise

she's not going to get married here.

She raised, uh, she gave birth to six kids, and one of them was

Judah, the tribe of the Messiah.

Caleb, do you feel like you have waited for, uh, rewards or to see things?

Caleb had to wait 40 years to see the promise, and he went and fought for that.

He didn't receive it just, Oh, here it is.

No, he went and he fought.

You're going to see in the book, if you, if you take the time to

read it, Rahab, she was the great, great, great grandmother of King

David, a prostitute, a woman with no future, a woman with no expectations.

Hannah became the mother of the prophet Samuel, the last judge.

Isn't that amazing?

Jonathan, he surrendered his royalty in favor of the chosen king.

Yeah.

He was the first one to give up his rights for someone else.

Are you willing to give up your rights for someone else's glory?

John the Baptist, he prepared the path for the Messiah.

And John Mark, John who?

John Mark, from quitter to writer of the first gospel, the gospel of

Mark, many, many, many of the scholars agreed that was written by Mark.

As inscribed for Peter.

And do you know what Peter and Mark have in common?

They both betrayed someone.

And that shows you how God acts.

In an amazing way, even when you feel empty, even when you feel

unworthy, even when you have failed, even when you have made mistakes,

even when you have sins that you feel like, oh, this is unforgiving.

God has the power to redeem you, to heal you, and to use you in a powerful way.

And that's the God we serve.

And finally, one of the chapters at the end is that the last will be first.

And it's an amazing example of how God sees you and sees me

and gives us opportunities that we never thought we could have.

So for all of you, my brothers and sisters, my friends, 1 says, Therefore,

my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm.

Let nothing move you.

Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor

is the law in the Lord is not in vain.

It's not in vain what you do.

God sees that.

God takes that into consideration and he values you more than you can think about.

As I said, you know, at the beginning, I have the privilege to have

these three versions of my book.

An audio book, it's an e book, a printed.

I'm going to have some copies on the outside if you want to take one.

If not, just take a look later.

If you have Hoopla, like it's a system for public libraries,

just sign in, look for it.

It's free for 21 days.

You don't have to wait.

I just want you to read it, and I'm pretty sure it's going to make an impact.

And finally, I want to close with this phrase, this quote

that says, Do not shine, or don't shine so others can see you.

Shine so that through you, others can see Him.

It's for the glory of God.

It's not for ourselves.

It's for Him.

And the more we understand that, the more we do.

The happier and, uh, the more alive that we are going to feel.

I want to just thank you so much for this opportunity.

Thank you, Marcella, and thank you for listening to me.

I hope you feel moving your heart, inspired to understand that God

has a purpose for you, and that you are amazing, and that God sees

everything you do for his glory.

Amen.