From Garbage to Grace: Transforming Lives Through Faith and Purpose, November 17, 2024

It is my privilege to invite you to today's sermon podcast.

I have made the Apostle Paul's prayer request my own.

When he states in Ephesians 6, 19, pray also for me, that whenever I open my

mouth, the words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

May today's sermon come alive to you and aid you in your understanding of God's plan for your life.

Well, I get the privilege today to introduce someone that I've prayed for for

a while, not knowing who he was, and just hearing about this exotic place called Cocal Gracias.

And man, I was thinking in my mind's eye, you talked about imagination this

morning in the Sunday school class, Brian.

The palm trees, the coconut trees, everything. I got the coconut part right,

but to find out this used to be a garbage dump, boy, that just kind of shattered my illusions.

But man, isn't it amazing what God can do with dumpster fires,

with garbage, with a garbage dump? It's fantastic.

I want you to be encouraged this morning as Brian comes and just praise the

Lord for what's going on.

There's an opportunity for you to be involved as well. And so I'm just so grateful.

Can we praise the Lord for Brian that he's made it here and that he's here this

morning? And come on up, brother.

Thank you appreciate it well good morning i wear a nice shirt for you guys but

it's cold in here so i hope you don't mind that i have my jacket on i've been

wearing three jackets all weekend,

and you may not like the snow but i do like the snow so because i'm flying home

tonight I won't have to drive in it. I won't have to plow it or anything.

The people who plowed your snow were a few little boys. They were out there

shoveling snow this morning.

I guess they left. They're not here. But my name is Brian, and I live in Honduras, Puerto Cortez.

If I was here just, I think, a year ago, right?

A little bit before. But I will show you, I think, the video I showed you last

time, just because it kind of tells a little bit of the story.

And then everybody will kind of know me. unless you're also in Sunday school.

I shared some of my story in Sunday school, too. But before we get started,

my family came with me last time.

And click. Oops. Now I went too far.

Thank you. There's our family. This was just two weeks ago.

Danny had his fifth birthday, and we celebrated Ninja Turtle style.

So Ninja Turtle keg, Ninja Turtle piñata. but you can see our whole family there.

Willem is two now, Danny's five, Nathaniel's nine, Angie's 12,

and Brian, who is our semi-adopted son, he's 23 and still working with us in the ministry.

And I won't tell you my age or Rina's, but old enough to have all those kids.

And I'll just show you the video really quick so you can kind of get oriented

about how the ministry started and then we'll talk about the ministry. Hey, my name is Brian.

My name is Joel, and we started Coca Gracias.

Our first time in Puerto Cortez, Coca Gracias was the city dump community where

people lived in the trash.

And they lived off the trash. They made homes out of the trash.

It was super sad. We thought, we need to change this.

We were fresh out of film school and decided to tell their story,

and we wanted to get them out of that situation.

Hey, do you even remember what you looked like back then?

Do you remember what you looked like? We called you Joel-sus.

But anyway, we started filming and realized the city also thought it was sad.

Shut the dump down, move the people out, and build them homes.

In the middle of nowhere...

But the church and the community had a vision for a trade school.

And we loved it and shared that vision in our documentary, Raising Money to Build It.

Well, you raised the money because I moved down to Honduras.

And I stayed in San Diego and screened the film. And a year later,

we had enough funds and had volunteers and we started the construction.

Music.

In 2008, we opened a trade school

without even having tools or even many supplies. And that didn't last.

Yeah, no, it closed three months later, but that's when God told me,

I don't need a trade school, he said.

I need a ministry where I can teach and I can reach people.

So in 2009, Minister de la Voz opened as a ministry trade school.

Everything on the outside was the same, but everything on the inside was different.

Our new focus was Jesus, and that was the key.

Now we've reached over 2,500 students and we're just celebrating 15 years in ministry.

Music.

And that's how we started. That's our story.

So that's how we got started. With Jolsys leading the way.

This is oops i guess i'm not doing the clicker anymore so that's good this is

what the ministry looks like now and i showed this slide i think a year ago

just so you could see a little bit of the buildings and and see the programs

that we run so we teach computers english welding,

mechanics sewing and circuitry was our new class last year and in in those classes

we're trying to create professionals that can get a job and a trade a lot of

our students only go to school through sixth grade,

maybe ninth grade, and they don't have plans to go into high school or the university,

but we want them to be able to provide for their families and contribute in

positive ways. So, that's part of the ministry.

Obviously, the main part of the ministry is the ministry and introducing them

to Jesus and allowing space and time so that these people that maybe don't go to a church,

maybe don't have another connecting point with God, at the ministry they do,

and they hear from Jesus every week.

We do Bible studies in every single class and we have the opportunity to come

alongside them with what's going on in their lives and see how God works and changes them.

So, this time I worked tirelessly for you guys to put a new video together to

try to experience the ministry because it's one thing to talk about it and hear

about it. It's another thing to see it.

And this is the closest we can get until you come down and visit us.

But this is a video about ministry levels.

Music.

But because it's a place where I really like to come.

Yeah, it's like your family. So it makes me feel really comfortable.

Like, it feels like I'm home.

Music.

So I really like that. So I think, yeah, this is one of the best places I've ever been before.

So I really love it and I appreciate it to be here again.

Hello, my name is Mario Ramirez, and I've been in the Ministerial of La Voz

for about a year, and it changed my life.

It's been inspirational for me and a good experience.

It helped me college my English and my computer skills. Hello, everyone.

My name is Camila, and I'm learning at Ministerial of La Voz,

and I don't have to play every month and the materials we use are completely free.

We have free transportation and we have fun classes and we have the best English teacher.

I received Bible study and that's very important to me because it has improved

my relationship with God.

I decided to follow Jesus here, and it was the best decision for my life.

Thank God for the ministry and all the people that helped, you know, in this ministry.

And thank you all.

I want to invite you to be a part of this great family. Thank you, M&B.

So I tapped all my English students to do this video, so I wouldn't have to do subtitles for you.

But they did a very good job. Many of them are quite fluent.

And Darwin, who ended that video, is about to apply for a cruise ship position.

He's been studying really hard to see if he can be a bartender on a cruise ship.

And we have maybe a half a dozen other students that already work on cruise

ships around the world and have drastically improved their lives with the new

job and being able to speak.

It's working. The vision's working. We celebrated 15 years of ministry this

year, which was really exciting.

We did a special party in Siwata Peque, which Brooke was able to come be a part

of since she started part of our board.

And we baptized four students at that party, which was amazing.

And there's another picture of Darwin there at his graduation,

which Darwin's testimony is really special.

He comes from a village that is about a two and a half-hour motorcycle ride

from our ministry, and we've had almost the whole village come through the ministry.

At some point, one of his neighbors was our first student, and then she brought

a cousin, and then she brought a son, and then two of his cousins are about

to graduate this next year.

He graduated, another cousin of his graduated about eight years ago and works

on the cruise ship, and it's been an amazing opportunity for us.

We visited the village last year and got to see where everyone lived and say

thank you to all of the students that made a sacrifice to come from there.

But for some people, it's a really big thing to come to the ministry.

There's not a lot of opportunities in other places, or maybe the opportunity

is there, but it's very expensive in Honduras.

And because we offer the opportunity at a low cost, they can be a part of it.

This is Michael, and I just show him. He graduated in December last year,

but he's back in my English class again. So he is now third level English.

And I asked him and one of his other friends to do a video for me because they

just to share some of their testimony and Michael blew it out of the water.

So this is his testimony. So you can hear from him.

Music.

To follow Jesus here, and it was the best decision for my life.

Before I followed Jesus, I was stressed, I had many problems at my home, at my job.

Music.

I was looking for a solution, but now that I follow Jesus, I feel great,

I feel peace, I feel tranquility.

Now I'm looking for a solution.

Jesus is my solution of my problems. And I want to say thanks to me,

thanks to God, for everything, and God bless you.

He should be in fifth-level English. He did a really good job.

This is another slide to show the other half of...

I'm sorry, I went past. But we have Ministerio de Voz, which is where my wife

and I spend most of our time in direct.

But we also have Children's Center up in the mountains. We're in the village

that we used to live in called Agua Caliente.

We're partnered with Pastor Juan Garza, who's a Nazarene pastor there.

And he's also planted four additional Nazarene churches further in the mountain

and in the jungle that we've partnered with as well with building materials

and construction to get them their church buildings. and the children from all

of those churches come to Timothy Center.

And we use Timothy Center as an after-school program in education.

We also do VBS Bible study type activities with the kids.

We have two soccer teams for the boys that they are getting trained,

and those carry Bible studies as well.

And we've just started also computer classes, and one of my students at Ministerio

LaVos is now teaching English to the students also.

So it's almost a full schedule now. They're meeting almost every day of the

week, I think five days a week.

And Pastor Juan and I are trying to head this up and get this going.

So we're in the third year with the Timothy Center.

I did not make a video of them this time for you.

I think I had one last year, but we are very much dedicated to this program

and this project as well, and looking forward to what the next year is going to bring.

And then this is our third site that we are in the process of purchasing and

we've purchased half of the property.

We'd like to purchase the other half, but we've already started developing it.

And this is where we'd like to, this would be a future site for Ministeri Lavois, our training center.

We'd like to move to this facility.

And this really, it's better in so many different ways because it's larger,

it gives us more space. It's more central.

It has better transportation to it. we literally eliminate one bus route that

most of our students have to take. It's also out of the flooding.

So this weekend, a tropical storm hit us and we had to cancel classes.

We should have had classes today and yesterday, but nobody could get there because

our whole neighborhood around the ministry was flooded.

And that happens regularly two or three times a year.

This property does not flood, but I found out that several trees fell.

We'll have to do something about that.

But I do have a video to show the vision property for you guys.

I don't know where I'm supposed to point this to click. Oh, I actually,

I guess I'm not showing the video yet.

But we did a dedication service at the vision property this last August.

We had a team from Gaithersburg Nazarene come down and they joined with us.

We did, we had the dedication and then a field day and we invited the whole

community to come out, had about a hundred people from the new community come and get to know us.

And we played field games with the slip and slide and tug of war and a jumping castle.

And everybody ate free ice cream until it melted.

And then we ate soup, cold soup. But it was really, really fun.

Music.

Vision property in Palermo. This property that we never thought we were going

to get, but God had put it as a seed in my heart many, many years ago. And I prayed for it.

And, you know, I hate to say it, but I did actually give it up and thought this

is too much. It'll never happen.

And then when I least expect it, here it is for us.

And we've been able to work on it and develop it this year. And I'm really excited

to share just some images so that you can see what's been accomplished.

We have built the retaining walls on the property in the back.

There's a retaining wall here in the front. And we are just weeks away from

starting the mechanic shop, which we hope to finish before next March.

And this mechanic shop is going to be an amazing place for our students.

We've not been able to develop this part of the program in our current location.

Music.

Because of the distance, because of our facilities. But this spot is dead center in Puerto Cortez.

And it's up out of the flooding in the mountains.

And we really do believe that God is leading us into this project to start this

ministry, this part of the ministry, to open the mechanic shop to the public,

be able to bring clients in, be able to love on them,

show them different customer service, what kingdom customer service looks like,

and also to have our students here to work and develop with us side by side.

As we show them what it is and what it means to follow Jesus as mechanics.

And so we're really excited. thank you so much for your support

these are really really big dreams we're really

looking forward to having the teams come in 2025 2026 thank you to everyone

who's already thinking of volunteering and if you haven't already signed up

for a team there's still time there are many teams coming down that you can

be a part of and we thank you for your support and thanks for being with us and be blessed.

Music.

Property is really exciting for us, and we're hoping to do the mechanic shop.

That'd be our first step.

We're actually going to do a small caretaker's home before that because we're

about to go into rainy season, and I don't want to lay off all the guys that I have.

So if we can get the house going, then hopefully we'll get the roof up and they'll

be able to work under a roof during the rainy season.

And interesting, one of the guys that was in the video doing the blocks for

the ministry 20 years ago, he's now our foreman. And he's the one that's heading

up all the construction at the Vision property, which is pretty excited. Orlando is his name.

This is Dennis. This is our mechanic teacher. And he will be the one that will

head up the mechanic shop when we open up.

He's currently working in San Pedro Sula, which is about an hour and 20 minutes south of us.

He takes a bus every morning at 5.30 a.m., gets to work at 7,

gets off work at 7, takes a bus back home, gets home at 8, and then gives us

his day off to teach classes.

And that's one of the things we want to correct is have Dennis have a more steady

schedule, not have to spend money on bus and transportation,

have more time with his family and obviously more time with us.

And it'll be a really good thing. But he received Jesus in the ministry,

I think, five years ago when he became one of our teachers.

And he's grown through the last five years, and it's been really good. Let's see.

So, that's all the ministry, but I did prepare a message for you guys,

and just thinking this is something that God has just had on my heart that I've

been going through the last couple weeks, and I talked at the ministry about

it a little while back, I guess last week.

This is part of Bible study. This is like the combination of maybe three Bible

studies thrown into one sermon for you guys, but I'm going to be reading out of Luke 11 for most of it.

There's also a verse in Revelations, but it says, when you pray,

say, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come,

your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

And it was this concept of God's will being done on earth that kind of grabbed

me and got me going on this rabbit hole of thoughts and on what it means to

follow God's will, maybe, and to be a part of God's will.

And we have this phrase in Honduras, we always say, you know,

if God wills it or something.

And it's kind of funny when I hear it from people, because I'll be like,

hey, I'll see you tomorrow, you know, something no big deal.

I'll see you tomorrow at class. And they're like, if God wills it.

And I'm like, well, I kind of think God wills it. I'm pretty sure he called

you to be in class and we're going to do Bible study. So yeah,

you should be there then.

And that's just me. I never actually say that.

But it always gets me thinking about how we throw these terms around if God wills it.

And sometimes we even, I think, apply it to things that probably weren't God's will.

And that's where I started going, just thinking about what happens when it's

not God's will, when God's will is overpowered by, say, another will.

And it feels a little funny to say that because we're like, well,

God knows everything and God has orchestrated everything and God has a purpose for everything.

And I do believe that because I live that out in my life every day.

But I also know that there's a verse that God says in Romans 8.

He says, I'll work all things together for your good.

And I go, well, if it's always perfect as all it is, you know,

and that's just interesting to me because there are things I think that happened

in our lives that maybe were not God's will, but he allowed it.

And then his will is that it will work out eventually. And we could see how God worked that out.

And we go, oh, that really was good when it was bad.

And so, I guess ultimately God's will does trump because he can turn anything

into his will, into his purpose and use it because he's that amazing.

But we do see glimpses in the Bible where God's will was not what happened.

And Revelation 12, 7, 9 is a good example. It shows that God's will was not

even followed in heaven, which is kind of crazy when you think of it because

we think we're going to heaven. Everything's perfect there.

There's no more tears. There's no more crying. but there was a moment where

there was rebellion in heaven, and Satan convinced a third of the angels to

rebel against God and not do God's will.

And it says that Michael had to battle against them, battle against the dragon of old.

And thankfully, they prevailed, but it says after that there was no place found

for him in heaven, and so he was cast down to earth.

And we obviously know what that is like, because we have all been slaves to Satan through sin.

And then when we pass into life and freedom with Christ, we see that,

we've experienced that.

But the world, you know, Jesus also came to earth, and Jesus came and he established his kingdom.

But we kind of live in this situation where there's two kingdoms that are going

on, and it's not always God's will of what is happening or what is going on.

And I put up some other verses that I believe talk to what God's will is,

and you actually have one on your wall right there, 2 Peter 3.9.

But it says that God is not slack concerning His promise.

He says He is long-suffering toward us because He is not willing that any should

perish, but that all should come to repentance. That's God's will.

You know, God, our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and come to the

knowledge of truth. That's God's will.

Matthew 7 says that there's two gates. God wants us all to enter to the narrow gate.

But Matthew 7 also says, but the other gate, which is not God's will,

it says is the big and wide gate that actually many go into.

And even though it's God's will that none should perish, we know from experience

that people are perishing every day outside of God's will, and they're perishing in their sin.

And that dichotomy of two kingdoms is very difficult sometimes to grapple with and to understand.

And I'm preaching about it, but I don't know if I understand all of it either.

I'm going to wrestle with something I probably say today after I say it to you.

But Revelations 12.12 says, this is right after Satan gets cast down to earth.

It says that there was rejoicing in heaven. Oh, rejoice, O heavens, you who dwell in them.

But woe, woe and warning and sadness for the inhabitants of the earth—.

Because the devil has come down to you having great wrath because he knows that his time is short.

So, we have the will of God, and that's the will that we are trying to seek

and that we're trying to learn and follow as Christians.

And then there's this other will, and these other wills maybe,

I should say, because it's not just Satan's will.

In fact, God gave free will to all of us.

And so, a lot of what happens in the world is the consequence of our free will

exercising in rebellion to God's free will.

And sometimes it's the exercise of Satan influencing everything through our free wills.

But there's a lot of wills going on, and there's a lot of consequences to wade

through and suffer through.

And the Word of God says even, I think it's Peter, and I didn't write this down

because it's just popping in my brain, but Peter wrote once,

And he said, you know, it's much better to suffer for the cause of Christ than

to suffer for your bad decisions,

you know, meaning that we can make decisions that are outside of God's will.

We will suffer those consequences too.

And he says, but we should try not to do that because that sucks.

We should really suffer because we are in God's will and we were making the

decisions with God's will.

And there will be suffering with that too, but that's a glorious suffering that we are called to.

So, the thought that came to me was really, you know, the church is the will of God on earth.

We know that Jesus came and He opened the door for us, but as we go through

this door of salvation, He has a call and He has a plan and He has a purpose

and He has good works that He predestined and laid out for us before the foundation of the world.

And God's hope is that our free will will then be used to express His will.

And that as the church, we are moving in His will and we are doing what God's purpose is on earth.

He says in one part, he says that we are His body and Paul describes the different

parts of the body and how they function and Christ is the head, it says.

2 Corinthians says that we are ambassadors for Christ.

We are His representation here on the earth. And of course, Matthew 28 is the

Great Commission where Jesus says, this is what I want you to go do.

Go and make the disciples of all the nations.

And so, we're in that. And that's where I got back to the model prayer in Luke

11. You can also find it in Matthew 6.

But it says, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread

and forgive our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

And, you know, we say it's the Lord's Prayer, but it's like our prayer,

you know, we recite it oftentimes.

And when I look at it, it's like God's telling me how I need to live in His will.

You know, it's a reminder of how we live in His will. And of course,

we have the whole Bible that teaches us His will, and we should be reading it and studying it.

And every time that we understand God's will in our life, that's how we can

live and how we can apply it.

But this prayer, if we go into our secret place and we're with our Father in

heaven, this prayer should remind us of the relationship with God and how we

live out that will every day.

So, when it says, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,

It's reminding us of the relationship with Him.

He is our Father in heaven, and His name is great and important.

It's the name that saved us. It's the name that cleanses us.

It's the name that provides for us. It's the name that heals us.

And we are under the banner of that name.

And then it says, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

That's our purpose. When God saves us and we are written with his name on our

hearts, our purpose and our will is now to bring God's will and bring God's

will to earth as it is in heaven.

And it gives us that direction every morning.

You know, this is what I'm about. This is what I'm supposed to be doing.

I'm following God's will. God, what do you have for me today?

And then it says, give us this day our daily bread. We do not sustain ourselves.

God sustains us, and He's made many promises of His provision to us.

And when we pray daily and we're in our prayers, we are reminded of how God

acts in our favor and how He will never leave us, He'll never forsake us.

And it says in that He forgives our sins. We are forgiven people.

Our past does not define us anymore. We have a future that's bright and ahead

of us. And God asks us that same thing.

Give that same freedom and forgiveness to others in your day and help them see

the path of brightness in their future as well.

Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil one.

You will be tempted to not do God's will.

And you will be tempted by your own personal desires, says James,

and you'll be tempted by the enemy.

But God, He wants us. He wants us to lean on Him and depend on Him in all of

that temptation, and He will deliver us.

James says it. He says, resist the devil.

No, sorry, I'm saying it all wrong. He says, submit yourself to God,

resist the devil, and he will flee from you. And we always like to resist the devil.

And we're not always good about submitting to God, but that was the first step.

You cannot resist the devil if you are not submitted to God.

You must submit to God, then resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

And that is the will of God, that we live out what we pray every day when we talk to our Father.

That the reminders of what he has done and who he is and who we are and the

call upon our lives, that those will orient our thoughts and our paths.

And Rick has a sticker in the bathroom that I want to steal,

but I'm not supposed to steal.

I can't do that. It's against God's will. But it says, what is it saying?

Yeah, it says, don't do what makes you.

Yeah, it says, do what makes you happy, but happy is crossed out,

and then the word is changed to holy.

Do what makes you holy, and that is the will of God.

When we live the will of God out every day as Christians, I believe that we

change the environment.

God changes the environment. He changes the circumstances.

He changes people around us. You know, your testimony, your personal testimony

of how God has changed you being shared is what can change someone else going

through a similar situation.

And I was thinking about Elijah, you know, in 2 Kings, not 2 Kings,

1 Kings, but Elijah of the prophet, he lived in a time similar to ours where

the king that was declared king.

A cab? I don't remember. Is it a cab in English? I always read it in Spanish.

But anyway, the king and Jezebel, his wife, they are in charge of Israel at this time.

And of course, they don't even respect God.

They are the worst offenders against God's will that Israel has had up until this point.

And they have false churches and idol worship all over the mountains.

They have it inside Jerusalem as well.

They have prostitution, they have child sacrifice, all sorts of things going

on, much similar to how we see the world going today. We also have child sacrifice with abortion.

We also have prostitution and all sorts of sexual deviant ideologies that are attacking us.

And at that time, they systematically went through trying to kill the prophets and the people of God.

And we find out in this chapter that some of them went into hiding.

We find out that others were killed, some of them fleed.

And then there's Elijah who thinks he's alone, and he declared that it wouldn't

rain for three years in Israel, and it didn't.

And he went into hiding. God asked him to go to a river.

God asked him to stay at the river during the drought, and he would be provided

for by ravens, and then he moved him over to a widow's house.

The widow took care of him, and all through that, God is showing Elijah his

provision, he's teaching him, he's growing him, because then he says, I need you to go back.

When he goes back, we see that he encounters the king.

And it's really funny. I love this encounter because the king says,

it's you who caused trouble for Israel and accuses Elijah of what he's been doing, right?

And Elijah doesn't take the blame. He turns right back around.

He goes, actually, it's you. And it's not only you, it's you. And it's your father.

And it's your father's father. You guys have made this dynasty of rebelling against God's will.

And Israel is just in this chaos because of it. He says, but let's do something.

We're going to go up to Mount Carmel, and I want you to bring all the prophets

of Baal, and you bring all the other prophets that you have,

and we're going to have a showdown, basically.

And we're going to see who's God is who and what's what.

And when he's up on the mountain, if you know the story, the whole country of

Israel, they're there, all the people are there, all the inhabitants,

to see this showdown. and he says, okay, we're going to make two altars, two sacrifices.

You know, you guys take your bull and you cut it up, but don't put fire to it.

You're going to pray to Baal and he's going to, if he's God,

he should light it on fire.

And I'm going to pray to the God of Israel.

And if he's God, then he'll put fire to my sacrifice.

And the priests of Baal, they're like, okay, you know, they do all everything.

They set up their altar, they put the wood on it, And then they're calling on

Baal to send the fire and they're cutting themselves.

They're doing rain dances or fire dances or something.

It's just a crazy thing. Every ritual that they can think of,

every incantation, but nothing's happening.

And Elijah, of course, is starting to get really maybe strengthened in the spirit

because he starts laughing at him.

He's like, maybe your God's on vacation. I think he's sleeping.

Maybe he needs—I would say, oh, he needs a translator. He speaks English, not Spanish.

And it doesn't happen. So, at the evening sacrifice, Elijah says,

okay, I'll do it. It's my turn now.

And he makes a prayer and he says, I'm praying this so that they know that I

do this at your word, God.

You have instructed me to live in this way.

And then he calls for the fire. He puts water on the altar first.

So, he douses everything and.

And all the wood is wet. It's just soaking wet. It shouldn't light on fire.

But when he asks, the column of fire comes out of the sky, burns the offering,

burns the wood, licks up the water, and makes ashes of the rocks, which is amazing.

And then, of course, he's really empowered. He says, Israel,

you know that it's God now.

Get those priests of all and slaughter them. They kill him and then it's good.

But then it's not really good because Elijah goes to the king and he says,

okay, king, now that Israel has decided that God is God, it's going to rain.

And then as soon as it starts raining, the king goes and tells Jezebel,

his wife, what's going on.

And Jezebel, instead of humbling herself and saying, wow, you're right,

a fireball from heaven, oh, God is the God and I'm going to repent,

she actually doubles down and says,

far be it from me that But if I don't kill Elijah before, you know,

the end of the day and Elijah gets spooked and he runs away and he hides in

this cave, which is so interesting.

But it really is. Our lives are like that, right? We can have a mountaintop experience with God.

And then the next thing just just shatters our confidence. We're like,

ah, I got to go hide. And then we're hiding in this cave again.

And and he wants to die in the cave. He's like, I'm done.

I got to die because Jezebel is going to kill me. You should just take me,

God. You know, I don't want to go through that.

And God finally meets him and he says, what are you doing here?

Like, didn't we just have this mountaintop experience? Don't you know me?

Aren't we doing this? And he gently and carefully shows, Elijah, you still have purpose.

You know, I still need you to anoint two more kings.

I need you to find your successor.

Elijah, Elisha, Elisha in English. And he goes to find him as well.

But it's just interesting. It's so interesting because at the end of that conversation,

God, you know, Elijah tells God two times, he says, I'm alone, I'm the only one left.

And then at the finally, at the end of the conversation, God reveals something to him.

He says, actually, there's 7,000 in Israel that have remained true and have

not bowed to Baal that I have reserved for me.

And that got me thinking too, because I was like, man, I mean,

Elijah, he was told at the beginning of this whole experience that at least 50 that were in hiding.

And he still said, no, I think I'm the only one.

And it just made me think of the tactics the enemy uses.

The enemy wants the church silent, and the enemy wants the church to hide,

and he doesn't want the church to get up and live the will of God.

He doesn't want the church talking about the will of God. He doesn't want the

church discipling the will of God, because a church like that would be unstoppable.

It's unstoppable. That church would literally change the world.

And so, his tactics are always against us in a personal level just to keep us

silent, keep us afraid, keep us out of the public arena, keep us out of politics,

keep us out of schools, keep us out of sports.

I mean, he's pretty much attacked Christianity in every facet of the culture.

And that's where he wants it. And we keep getting trapped and corrouted into

these things and thinking, and sometimes we even believe what the world says.

Oh, maybe we shouldn't be talking about Jesus at school or work or on the soccer

field or whatever. What?

Yeah, you should, because that

was God's will. Are we doing God's will are we doing the world's will?

And the enemy has these tactics. And I wrote just three of them that I think

are very powerful where he gets us. He wants us to think that we're alone.

Wants you to think, oh, I must be the only one. And I remember going through

high school and college, and you think that.

You think, oh, I think I'm the only Christian in this class,

you know, because the professor will say something, or the teacher says something.

You know it's against the Word of God. You know it's against what you know is truth.

But you're afraid to stand up. You're afraid to say something.

And you look around. Nobody else stands up.

Nobody else says something. And then the lie is, I must be the only one.

When the reality is probably at least half of everybody in that room is thinking

the same thing, but we're all afraid and we all feel alone.

And the enemy loves that isolation because isolation kills our power.

There's strength in numbers. There's strength knowing that I'm not alone.

And that's what Elijah was complaining about.

I don't know if I can go on because I'm I'm the only one left.

There's nobody else. And God says, really, there's 7,000.

And it made me think, what would have been the scenario or the culture or what

would have happened if those 7,000 weren't silent?

We went through all of this three years of drought, three years of this with

this evil king, the child sacrifices and all these things.

No one is rallying against them. Only Elijah was brave enough to speak up and say, don't do this.

And then he goes in hiding because 7,000 were already in hiding.

They were already silent and secret.

And I just wonder, man, 7,000 against, it was Elijah against 450.

If it had been 7,000 against 450, it might've been different.

It might've looked a lot different.

Satan also likes to use the present circumstances. He wants us to see the present

circumstances rather than see God.

He wants us to see what the enemy is doing and just think, man,

the enemy is too big. The enemy is too powerful.

This is overwhelming. And he wants

discouragement. He wants you to see his tactics and feel discouraged.

But there's a verse that I keep going back to personally in my life over and over and over.

It says, though it may be dark for the night, joy comes in the morning.

And if we think of what happened with Jesus, Satan thought he was winning.

I got him trapped. I got him falsely accused. The disciples have scattered.

And it was the darkest hour. And Jesus, he already had the plan.

It's dark for this night, just for this hour. But trust me, Sunday morning,

joy is coming. It's going to change everything.

It says that when Elijah saw that he arose and he ran for his life when Jezebel

accused him, he saw the circumstance, the queen, her accusation,

I'm going to kill you. I'm going to take your life.

And he got afraid about that right after God just sent a fireball.

And I'm like, would if God like send a fireball on Jezebel if you try to touch

him or something? I don't know.

But it just seems like counter logical for the experience that he had with God

that he would suddenly run from just one person.

But oftentimes, I think that's what I do. That's probably what many of us do

too. We run from the circumstance or from the person because it just scares us.

But fear is not of God. God said, fear not like 300 something times in the Bible.

I do not give you a spirit of fear, he says. And then, of course,

the devil also wants us to wrongly believe in failure.

And I see that often. It's just like, it's almost like, well,

if I can't, then why should I even try?

Why should I even start? He wants us to believe that there is failure destined

for the church, but that's not what the Word of God says.

The Word of God says, I have overcome the world. And it says that my kingdom

will be established. I think I have those verses, actually.

It says, my kingdom will be established. He shall reign over the house of Jacob

forever, and his kingdom shall have no end.

And the word of God talks of the victory of the church over and over and over

again, but yet somehow we seem to get caught up in some kind of nihilistic thought

of what the church is going to be.

And it's counter to what scripture says.

Christ has guaranteed us the victory. He says that he has overcome the world

and his authority he has given to us, and he wants us to go out and make disciples,

He wants us to go and move culture and rail against the things that do not line up with His will.

And we could think of many, many Christians in history who have done just that.

They believed in the victory of God rather than the circumstances,

rather than feeling alone, rather than failure.

And they rallied and they railed for God's will to be done on earth.

William Wilberforce, who was instrumental in changing slavery,

40 years, he fought for 40 years for slavery to be abolished in the United Kingdom,

and it finally happened at the end.

And if he was the Christian that would have said, oh, I should just be silent,

Christians shouldn't even be in politics, or Christians shouldn't share their

opinion, or if he just said it's too great.

I mean, changing slavery, the world had slavery for 5,500 years,

6,000 years up until the 1800s. That was normal.

We, of course, can't even fathom it because we don't live in that normal,

but that was normal then. And he was changing normal because he believed in

the Word of God, and he believed in the will of God prevailing over it.

You know, and there's missionaries, any missionary that you can think of has

probably done the will of God and changed things.

There's a missionary, and I just watched it with my kids.

We watched a program called Torchlighters, where they animate the story of missionaries.

So if you have kids and you want a really good program, Torchlighters,

it's on YouTube, and they don't pay me to promote them, but I am in love with these programs.

So, check them out. But there was one missionary that stopped,

he stopped widow burning in India.

People would die, men would die, and then because of the belief system,

and it was a religious belief system, they would burn the widows with them.

And he went against the culture in the name of Jesus and said,

this has to stop. He changed it.

Martin Luther King Jr. opened the way for civil rights, and we could just name

hundreds of Christians who have done it.

So, it is possible. We have the testimonies that we can point to and say,

wow, they stood up, culture changed, the will of God was revealed and happened.

Just feel like that's what God is calling us to do. God wants a generation,

I believe, that will understand His will and rather than adhere to fear,

will face the fear and implement it.

Christ does a really good illustration about His second coming,

and He calls the church the bride of Christ.

And He says, I'm coming for the bride of Christ. I'm going to prepare a place

for you and I will come to bring you to where I am.

And in the Jewish culture, when a man got betrothed to a woman,

he would go to his home, his father's house, and he would prepare this place for his bride.

Well, the bride is also preparing because she doesn't know the day or the hour

that he's going to come because only the father, the Jewish father decides when

the son can go and get his bride.

And Jesus says, I don't know the day or the hour. My father knows,

but I'm preparing and you should prepare church.

And when the church is prepared and the son is prepared, the father says, go get your bride.

And he goes and he takes her.

And God is waiting for the bride to be prepared.

And I believe that part of that is the church that just says,

we have the power, we have the authority, we're going to get up,

we're going to use our lives in alignment and direction with God's will.

And we're not going to take no for an answer. We're not going to skirt around the subjects or hide.

We're going to face the enemy. We're going to tear down the walls.

We're going to stand in prayer and power.

And we believe that these changes are possible.

And I don't know if that is our generation. I don't know if it's the next generation.

It's whatever generation believes it and will stand on it.

And God is patient and He will wait for that generation that's willing to align with His will.

And so that's just my encouragement because every day things are happening around

and every day, you know, the enemy is attacking and the enemy for a while has

seemed like he's growing strong.

But the only reason the enemy can grow strong is because the people who know

truth are quiet and we should be able to stand up and talk about it.

And of course, I'm like you, there's times where I'm afraid.

I'm like, ah, should I talk about that in ministerial levels?

I don't know. But then I go, I have

to talk about it in ministerial levels because maybe nobody else will.

That might be the only spot or the only opportunity where they get to hear that truth.

And we need to be faithful to Jesus. It's a funny thing because free will,

it's like God is all-powerful.

God can do anything. He's omniscient. He reads your brain, your mind.

He knows your thoughts before you even know your thoughts.

He has incredible capacity.

And yet, and yet, He is limited by our free will and what we decide that we're going to do.

And of course, He wants us to align our free will with Him, but.

God will not force it, and He will not violate what He has decided with His

will that He will respect our will.

And for some of my students in Ministerio de la Voza, maybe for somebody here, that's been the case.

God has a fantastic will for your life.

He has a purpose and a plan and paths that you can go down, and He's been inviting

you, but so far, you keep using your free will to rebel against him and keep him over there.

And I think all of us have experienced that too at some point.

Before you come to Christ, you have the power.

You exercise power keeping him away. But Christ is so patient and he's so good

and he just keeps showing his faithfulness, showing his goodness.

And hopefully we break down and we realize and we fall in love with him and we go with him.

But if you are here today and you have not decided to use your free will to

follow Jesus, that door is open.

And He is patiently and with all goodness and love towards you,

He is asking you, will you decide to follow me?

Will you be a part of my purpose on earth? Will you disciple the nations?

Will you make a difference in your school, in your work, in your community?

And that's an invitation I really don't think anybody should pass up.

So, if you have passed it up, if you have exercised will against that I just

invite you to maybe make that decision and say, no, today I'm going to choose different.

Today I'm going to see what this other side looks like. And God will be with

you forever. He will never leave you or forsake you. He will walk you through that will.

He will teach you that will. He will use this church and Pastor Mike to disciple

you and many others to disciple you and show you what that life can look like.

And you will be amazed what God does in you.

And you will be amazed what God does in your community and in your family.

Wherever the gospel is preached and wherever people follow Jesus, there is prosperity.

My life has prospered because God saved me from sin and He gave me a new way to live.

And your life will prosper because God will do the same for you.

So that is my message today.

And I'd like to pray for us.

And if you would like to give a vote to Christ, you may do that at this time.

But Heavenly Father, thank you so much.

Thank you that you are a big, big God and you have big plans for this earth.

You love this earth. You sent your son to this earth.

You cherish every inhabitant. It is not your will that anyone,

that anyone should perish, but that everyone should come to repentance.

And Father, I pray that as Christians, we align our lives every single day with

your will, that our will would decide that we wanna do your will.

We wanna be your hands. We want to be your feet, and we want to spread your

will across a land that sometimes is rebelling against it.

Because we know the power, because we know what happens when we submit to your

will, Father, that we would be the example and we would sacrifice so that others

can see it and others may follow too.

And if there's someone here, Father, who has not aligned with your will,

I pray for them, God, that in this beautiful house that you have placed here

in Idaho, that they would find their salvation, God.

God, that they would be free from sin, free from slavery, and choose every day

to follow you, to pray in your spirit, God, and to move forward.

I know you have great things planned for this church. Thank you for the great

things you have planned for this community, God.

And I pray that you continue to give them vision and power for every step and

everything that you have for them to do.

Father, thank you for the lives that are being changed. Thank you for the ministries

they support, the ministries that they head up.

And Father, we pray for that harvest, Lord, that as they put energy and faith

into what you have called them to do, that they will see fruit and fruit abundance for God.

And we thank you for all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

I want to thank you for joining today's sermon podcast. You can find a copy

of today's sermon, as well as other sermons, and the sermon outline from today

on our church's website,

www.mvcnaz.org.

It is my prayer also that you will seek out a church home that recognizes the authority of the Bible.