Difference Makers

Thank you brother. Right, good morning everyone. How are you

doing today? Yes, very good? Exciting. Well, they was telling us,

I mean that we can't wait for Christmas and we

are in this season that is the Advent season. And

yes we can't wait. We are excited about it. And

guess what, Well, Christmas is very important, the most important. Well,

there are two really important events for us as Christians.

When the Lord Jesus Christ was born and of course

when he surrendered his life for us all but in

that case, something that I just want to make sure

that today we consider is exactly what is this Christmas

season for us? What does that really mean? And for

us as Christians it is not just Christmas all about

the trees and the lights and the bulbs and the

excitement the presence. For us as Christians, it is not

even all about a baby in the manger. Okay for

those as Christians. Is something that we need to consider.

That is God himself coming to earth to our messy, dark,

confused world to save us. So he had a mission

when he sent his only son to earth. So he himself,

being spirit, decided to send his son to earth for

us have hope and be saved. All right, So that

is the most important thing about Christians, about Christmas, and

for us as Christians, we know that there is something

for us, for each one of us. So the title

for today what I'm talking is you are called to

make a difference, all right. So that means that we

all it is not just Pastor Dave or brother Rob,

it is all of us. Okay, we had been called

to make a difference. And I just wanted to share

with you about things that you have heard. You are

very well aware about these things, but it's important in

this season to refresh our minds about how everything happened,

all right, and how the Lord has chosen people all

over the history to be difference makers, all right, difference makers.

And today he's also calling us to be a difference maker.

So the first one that I want to bring to

our mind is Mary. Okay, this young girl, very humble

in a small village, lost in Anywerland. Okay. So she

was just a young girl, beautiful, and the Lord had

her in her plans, right, and you know that Mary

was already commissioned to be the mother of the Son

of God. And she was there, I mean, being a

little girl, young lady, Okay. And then the Lord called her,

and when he called her, he could have said, no,

way over my dead body. I really don't want to

do this. This is going to put myself in a

really difficult position. I will be embarrassed, I will be

put on shame. Perhaps they are going even to stone me,

because in the culture of those times, I mean, that

was exactly what happened when they found that someone was

pregnant without being married. But Mary decided to say yes

to the Lord. The Lord called her, and Mary said, yes,

here I am. So let's go to our first burst

of today. When Mary responds to the Lord, and that's

what she said. And Mary said, my soul glorifies the Lord,

and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior, for he

has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.

From now on, all generations will call me blessed, for

the Mighty One has done great things for me. Holy

is his name. And guess what this young lady all

of a sudden became a revolutionary of love because of

her acceptance to the mission that the Lord has given

to her. By giving birth in her womb to the

Son of God, he allowed the whole world to be saved,

to have hope, to be in light. So for her

it was just like perhaps a simple not a simple thing,

and not a simple task even we could call it

like a mission impossible according to the films, when the

people says, if you wish to accept it, okay, in

this case, well, Mary was ready to accept it. So

she did and that was one of a big difference

maker because she did it. Perhaps she may have said no,

and what the Lord would have done, well, perhaps he

had someone else in mind. But the Lord knew her,

he knew her heart, he knew who she was, he

knew that she loved the Lord. So the Lord didn't

make a mistake selecting Mary for this impossible task. But

she did. And here we are twenty first century, the

same thing continues for us. All right. So that was

the first one that I just wanted to bring to

your attention. Then let's think about the shepherds, all right.

So these people that have been in the middle of

the night, out there in the gold of the night

with the sheep, and they were taking care of them,

and then all of the sudden In Luke chapter two,

verse from eight to twenty, it describes exactly what was happening.

They were already there. They were happy, just taking care

of their their lamps, their sheep, and then all of

the sudden, this huge light, this huge light came, the

Angel appeared, and the angel gave the shepherds a great news,

telling them that the Lord Messiah had been born, and

that he was promised before he had arrived, and that

they needed to go and worship him all right. So,

and it was not just one angel. The Bible says

in look in those verses eight to twenty piece read

it if you can tonight. It says that not only

that angel, it was hundreds, it was multitude. Multitudes or

heavenly entities came. So I reckon that it was just

like thousands of angels being there, and all of them

were shouting, Hallelujah, hallelujah, Holy is a Man. So all

sorts of things that they were doing to worship the Lord.

And the shepherds were Originally I think that they were

just scared. Imagine being in the middle of the night

and something like this happened. I think that the first

reaction was they were scared, But after they heard that

it was something really good, it was great news, and

they had promised with this coming, the Messiah coming towards

of course, they said, hallelujah, that was amazing things. But

let's read what the shepherds did. As soon as the

angel and all the rest of the angels left, Let's

go to look chapter two, verse seventeen. When they had

seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been

told them about this child. So the first reaction after

the angels left, the shepherd said, okay, let's go, let's

try to find the boy. Let's see what happened. Let's

see if what the angel said is true. So there

they go, all together with the sheep, they went to

find the baby in that man job, and they found him.

But after they have seen him that day, I could

say that with their own eyes. I mean, we're experiencing

what the angel had seen them, had told them. Then

they immediately took a response because their goal at that

point in time was to spread the news. There was

no Instagram, there was no wants up, there was no

social media to post hey you selfie with the baby,

No way, there was nothing like that. But they played

a critical point because they were the first ones that

had to spread the news and how they were going

to spread the news. Were going to village from village

to village to spread the news that they had seen

the Messiah, as the Angel said the same way that

it had prophesized over hundreds of years before. It was

true and they were there. So there we go another

round of people that they were difference makers because they

could have said, Okay, well we have seen a baby.

Yeah it could be. It could not be that it's

the Messiah. Just let's continue what we are doing. No,

they received this goal to be the first responders and

go and share the news. All right, So that is

kind of the second round of difference makers. All right,

let's go to the next one. Well, over the years

and when Jesus started his ministry about thirty years plus.

When he started, well, he wanted to have a gang okay,

the gang of disciples, we can say. And basically what

he did was to start calling people. How many did

he call? Do you know how many disciples did he call?

Come on? Twelve disciples? Right, And he was over the

village calling him calling them, okay, one by one, until

he had these group of people, these disciples that he

had in mind. I am going to make him make

them like a real difference makers. All right, I need

them to do this again. Impossible task. I think Mary

had perhaps the most difficult one at the beginning, But

now what was coming was even more critical because they

had to do exactly what the Lord came to do

to die for our scenes, but making sure that after

he left and would be resurrecting, the twelve disciples had

the commission to continue with the job that he came

to accomplish. Okay, because it was not going to end there.

He needed someone that being testifying of what happened or

what he had done. Now they had to go and

do exactly the same thing, I mean, performing miracles, sharing

the good news, sharing about their experiences, et cetera. So

there we go. Let's just go to Matthew chapter four,

verse nineteen. And the Lord with the simple friends said,

come follow me, Jesus said, and I will send you

out to fish for people. These guys were fishermen. Okay,

that's what they were doing. They had a boat. They

used to go to the sea, to the lakes just

to fish, Okay, to go fishing. And well they were

catting a fish. But the Lord came and just with

a simple words, follow me, follow me. Imagine the power

of his presence, of his words for these guys just

to all of the sudden listening follow me. And they

were following him. Okay. They didn't ask, they didn't say, okay,

what to do for? How much are you going to

pay for this? No, they just follow him because there

was a mission for them. There was something that they

needed to learn going with him through his ministry, but

they didn't know about it at that point in time.

They just heard the phrase follow me, and they did.

I mean, and we know what happened with these twelve men, Well,

perhaps it was only eleven. Then another was added later

when Judas did what he did. But the whole world

was transformed because of the obedience of these men, because

their willingness to share the gospel, because of their willingness

to travel to all that area and just share and

make more disciples. There was one commission that the Lord

gave them, and it was go and preach the gospel

to every nation, baptizing them in the name of the

Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. So they did, okay,

And again they didn't have a car, they didn't have planes,

they didn't have anything. So how did they do it.

They were just walking from town to town, from city

to city, traveling, doing all sorts of things. And that's

how the gospel started moving forward over the years. Okay,

have you noticed something in these cases that I have

shared with you, and it is that the Lord really

noticed nobody, okay, the nobodies of the world. Because when

he elected Mary, Mary, as I said, was a young

girl okay, in a lost village somewhere in that area.

The shepherds very humble people, hard workers, are right, and

then the disciples, they were fishermen. So the Lord really

notices those people. He didn't go and selected perhaps a

king from a very powerful country. He didn't select the

most rich or the richest people of the world to

do this commission. No, the Lord selected those that perhaps

no one noticed before that they were not prominent, that

they didn't have high profiles in any of the well

platforms at those part in time, not LinkedIn or anything

like that. But they were simple people. They were humble people.

But what they had in common was a heart that

loved the Lord and a willingness to do what he

wanted them to do. So here is the challenge for

you this morning, okay, because now the same call comes

to us, to each one of us. All right. And

perhaps you might have been thinking, Oh, Lord, but who

am I? I have no skills. I haven't been prepared

to be either or a pastor or a preacher, or

a evangelist or anything like that. But the Lord seeks

for hearts that are willing to do the mission, all right.

And we are here in this place for one reason

is because we are seeking for the Lord. We are

trying to be closer to him. We really want to

make a difference, and that's exactly what the Lord wants

us to do. So let's go with our last verse

of the day that is in Matthew chapter five, verse

fourteen to sixteen. And this is like the second part

because there is another one, but let's just focus on

this one. You are the light of the world. A

town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do

people light a lamp and put up sorry sorry. Neither

do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead,

they put it on instand and it gives light to

everyone in the house. In the same way, let your

light shine before others, that they may see your good

deeds and glorify your Father in Heaven. I mean, and

that is exactly what the Lord is calling us to do.

Where are we placed? Are we placed in a school?

Are we placing a job in an office? Are we

placing a community, the building where we live, the community,

the shops to where we go in by and by

store things. Where is our mission field? Okay? And we

don't need to be those evangelists that sometimes have to

travel far away to preach or do campaigns, et cetera.

Each one of us have a small mission field, and

we are there. As the Lord says, we are the

light of the world. A couple of verses before this,

one says that we are the soul of this earth,

those things that please flavor to our food. Well, we

are those people that place or give flavor to the

environment where we live. Okay, That we bring, joy, that

we bring, hope that we bring, help that we bring

what other people living in darkness need. I mean, So please,

today my encouragement to you is, please do not feel

that you are a nobody because perhaps someone has told you,

oh who you are, what do you have? You are

no one, but you know what you are precious before

the Lord, you are an amazing creation. Of his and

he has given you all sorts of gifts and talents

and a heart that loves the Lord. And that's all

what we need a mean to do this or to

accomplish this mission and the mission what is the mission

in twenty twenty five, Well, we said, well, the Lord

has already was born and died, resurrected, is in heaven. Yeah,

but there is still lots to be done, because you know,

the Prince of this world is working hard, just bringing

confusion in the world, bringing words, bringing despair, bringing anxiety,

bring mental health issues. And is so then what it

is for us? Well, we are here to transform, to touch,

to give hope to those around us, all right, and

we are empowered to do that because we are not

working on our own. The Holy Spirit dwells in us.

The Holy Spirit is with us, and he will speak

for us. Even when you touch someone who is seek

and you pray for them, it is not going to

be only your hand, I mean just laying on someone's

It is the Holy Spirit through you who will be

doing the job. And you need to believe that because

if you have allowed the Holy Spirit to dwell in you,

then you have the same power the Lord said, and

even greater things than this you will be able to

do if you believe and if you receive the Lord.

I mean, so this Christmas, please consider meditate on these words.

You know all of these stories, we have heard them before, Amen,

But it's just a refresher how the Lord, being the

Almighty One, creator of everything visible and invisible, he himself

is giving him in a son coming to earth to

transform the earth and our world. We can do the

same in our small community, in our family, in our

areas of influence. Amen. But let me ask you something,

because I know that for some of us we had

been Christians for ages, Amen, perhaps I mean in my

case more than thirty or forty years a man, thank God.

But for some of you, perhaps you have very recently

heard about the Lord Jesus, and you have initiated your journey,

and perhaps you have some doubts in terms of okay,

is it really worth following the Lord? Am I doing

the right thing? Am I just living a part things

that I enjoy doing or that perhaps are not convenient

to me to follow him? And I can tell you yes,

it is worth it. I mean, because a life that

has the Lord in it is full of love and

peace and hope. I mean so, I just want to

ask you today, do you need the Lord to come

into your world? Your own world, because perhaps your world

is a bit messy, it's a bit dark, has been

in confusion. Perhaps there is no clarity about what the

future holds, and you still do not