Corre Una Nueva Carrera | Crossroads en Español

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ No hablamos de Paul Bunyan. No hablamos de Paul George.

No hablamos de portadores de ataúd. Hablamos de la persona de Pablo, que es responsable, más que nadie, de escribir más del Nuevo Testamento que cualquier otra persona. This was a guy who, if you look at any list, who is the most influential in the world? The number one will always be Jesus, because we date the time for him. He did more than anyone. He was close to number two. And the apostle Paul will be among the five or ten first, because he impacted both the Eastern and the Western culture. This was a man who was on a mission. In 1 Corinthians chapter 8, verse 24, he gives a metaphor in which we are going to go deeper during the next five weeks that I present to you today. He says this in 1 Corinthians 9, 24. Don't you know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? They run to get it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it for a prize that is thrown away. We, on the other hand, do it for one that lasts forever. We enter the competition as if we were going to beat it. Have you ever felt that something is wrong? Have you ever felt that the gears of life are not working well? Have you ever felt that you are skating and you are not sure why you are skating? Have you ever felt that there is a fog that does not go away from your eyes or perspective? It's just not how it seems it should be. Have you ever felt that you simply cannot overcome whatever the advance is? As if there is something. Do you know what I'm talking about? I'm with someone, you know?

As if you were missing something to be complete, you know? I think it's because this metaphor tries to communicate with us. We don't know if we are participating. Am I doing the right thing? Am I going in the right direction? There are three types of people, those who can count and those who cannot. And of those three types, all of us will be one of them. Some of us must change careers. We are in the wrong career. We are in the wrong direction. Some of us must run the current career with more intensity. We need to run harder. And some of us just need to know what is the goal of the career I am in. Is it just a constant routine? What is the goal? Let me talk about each one. We are all in a category. First, some of us must change careers. Paul, the apostle Paul, he had a career. His career was to be the most devoted and fanatical Jew on the planet. And he was. And he was running that career with a lot of intensity. What career are you in? Do you know your career? We are all in one. Whether you have identified it or not. What is it? The default career? Maybe you are in the...

Maybe you are young and you are in the career of getting a good job. When I say alone, that is an important career. Maybe yours is to find a good friend. Maybe you are in the career of finding a spouse. Maybe you are in the career of needing to have children. Maybe you are in the career of having less annoying children. Maybe you are in the career of having to maximize my potential and maximize my income. All these careers can be good and be good. Maybe God wants you to do all of them. They are good careers. But unless you are focused on the truth and the identity of God. And He has commissioned you to be in that career. And you know that He wants you to be in that career. And that career excites you to strive. Life will not be as full as it could be. You will not be as close to God as you could be. Apostle Paul was doing very well in his career. Before he was sent to the Gentiles to understand God. He was doing very well in his career. He stood out. He stood out as a Pharisee of the dominant religious class. Who invented laws for others to follow. And He was following them. And He is on the way. We have these sayings in our country that we forget. We don't even know what they mean. The way to Damascus. He is on the way to Damascus. Not the way of yellow bricks. He is on the way to Damascus to do His thing.

What is His thing? To get to that city where there are more Jews who are wrong. That Jesus is the Messiah. He was convinced that Jesus was not the Messiah. That the Savior would not look like that. And He was unloading His convictions on people with violence. Let's read what happens. is on his way to Damascus. That is the race he is running. It says this in verse 3. While he was on his way, he approached Damascus. Acts 9, excuse me. Now, while he was on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone over him. And when he fell to the ground, he heard a voice that said to him, Saul, Saul, which is a previous name before they changed it to Paul, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It's interesting. Pause there. Interesting. It's Jesus saying, why do you persecute me? Saul did not supervise the persecution and death of Christians until Jesus left. Why does he say, why do you persecute me? I don't know if you've ever heard before that if you're part of the body of Christ, part of the family of God, if you've made the decision to receive Jesus in your life,

you receive the Spirit of God, specifically the Holy Spirit. And when you receive the Holy Spirit, it does not reach the world until Jesus leaves the world. And the Holy Spirit comes only to those who have received it. And we unite and become the church that has been known as the body of Christ, or has also been known as the hand and feet of Christ, because many of the problems of the world are counteracted by us, because we are their hands and feet. Jesus asks, why do you persecute me? In other words, those people over there are me. They are me. Jesus takes it personally. When you have a difficult time, when things are not going well, you are Him if you follow Christ, if you received Him. Very good. Very interesting. So he continues and says this. But get up and enter the city and you will be told what you must do. The men who were traveling with him were speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one. God interrupts Pablo's career. He is going in one direction. He is very sure. And God interrupts. Has something ever happened to you

where your career changes? Where you think you are doing well, but suddenly something happens and your plans explode? Where you think God wants this, but suddenly something happens to you? Where you are sure of who you are and where you are going, and suddenly you realize, I have no idea where I am going? Has God ever caught your attention, however He does it, through some pain? Does He catch your attention through a word someone gives you? Does He catch your attention through a dream? Or just by noticing that your life is not moving forward, whatever it is? Pablo has this moment, and God catches his attention by hitting him with a lightning bolt. In reality, it is said that a light has come and enveloped him. It could have been a lightning bolt, it could have been something else, but Pablo only knows that suddenly he saw and now he is blind. He had a purpose and now he does not have it. He has an encounter with the living God and he is in the darkness. He cannot see. His way of life has ceased to exist. The things he could do before, he cannot do them anymore. And this happens, this happens, because God had to catch his attention because he was running the wrong race. God will catch your attention. When you run the wrong race, in some way, He will do it. While he is struggling in the darkness, God gives another person instructions. He says, Ananias, I have a race for you. It will only take you an afternoon, but you must enter and run this race.

He goes to Ananias, who is a Jew, who lives in Damascus, who believes that Jesus is the Messiah. And he says to Ananias, you are supposed to go to this guy, Saul, and you must make him understand who Jesus is. You must tell him the truth. And Ananias does not like this idea at all. I don't know if you have ever been in a race in which you don't want to be. I don't want that race. Well, that is Ananias here. Let's see what happens. It says in Acts 9, 10, Go to the house of Judas on the street called Right. the Lord said to him, and he asked a certain Saul of Tarsus, he is praying, he is praying. He has been in a vision, he is in a vision with a man, and he has seen, excuse me, he has seen in a vision a man called Ananias enter and put his hands on him, so that he may regain his sight. So Saul saw this, this will happen, but Ananias hears this. The Lord answered Ananias, I have heard many speak of this man and of all the evil that he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. In addition, he has come here with authority from the chief priests to take all those who invoke your name to prison. Go, the Lord said, because this man is my chosen instrument to make known my name to the nations and their kings as well as to the people of Israel. I will show you how much you will have to suffer for my name. Yes, yes, Ananias does not want to do it, it will be very uncomfortable. He thinks, this guy could kill me. I do not like this guy, I do not like anything. God says, no, this is what you have to do, and you have to tell him that he has a new career, and part of his career, part of his career is to suffer because of my name. Yes, yes, yes, yes, it is a career that we do not want,

and some of us have been deceived thinking that if we suffer, something is wrong. No, the bad thing is to think that we will not suffer, that is the bad thing. It is not called a natural walk, it is called a career. It is called a career, it is not an ecological walk to look at glaciers and simply enjoy things and pick flowers and smell things. No, it is a career, it is a career. Do you know someone who runs? Do you run? It is very difficult, isn't it? You do not want to do it, right? If you want to be good at this, you have to get used to feeling pain, to have a level of suffering. If you want to win a real career, and this is the reason why many of us feel anemic, this is the reason why many of us feel that we are not getting anywhere. It is because we have been deceived thinking that when God takes my life, it becomes easier. We have been deceived thinking that if I know God, He will fix everything in my life. World history shows that the great ones have something in common, suffering and difficulty, all of them. And the limit of your life and mine, the limit is always how much difficulty you can bear. If you can bear so much difficulty, that is the limit of your life. You can bear that amount, that is the limit. If you can bear this, that is the regulator. Maybe God did it, we do not know. I am just assuming that we do not know these things. Maybe, maybe God called Paul because Paul had a high level of suffering. In his previous life, he was willing to the difficult, he always did the hardest. And you are not rough if you have not learned to live with difficulty, tension, trials, contention and suffering. Maybe that is why God wanted him to do something new,

to go after the gentiles. Crazy. You are a Jew and you always focus on the Jews, but He will redirect you to go against the gentiles. Crazy. I just say, friends, I just say this. You and I must make peace with the pain. We must reconcile with adversity. We have to accept the hard things. And if you do not reconcile with that, you will not succeed. It is impossible for you to win. You cannot have a full life that fills you, maybe an easy life, but not a full and satisfying life. The apostle Paul becomes in the book of Galatians, chapter 1, verse 13. He talks about his impulse. He says the following, Well, you know about my past life in Judaism. How I persecuted the Church of God with zeal, and tried to annihilate it, and I advanced in Judaism. I am advancing. I surpassed many of my age among my people. I was so extremely jealous of my father's traditions. He is a very fanatic type. He says, action, action, action. Maybe we do not know this. Maybe God called him to this race because God saw the eleven remaining disciples and simply said, Well, none of them have what is needed. None of them are all Jews.

None of them can change. None of them can really change to accept the Gentiles. Ninguno tiene el fuego en el estomago que necesito. No lo sé. Solo estoy diciendo. Pero Dios dice que ese fuego, quiero redirigirlo. Es interesante. Cuando Dios entra en tu vida y se apodera de ella, Él no te da una personalidad nueva. Si eres tipo A ahora, cuando Dios se apodere de ti, serás tipo A después. Si eres tipo B ahora, cuando Él te tome, serás tipo B después. Si eres extrovertido ahora, probablemente siempre lo serás. A menos que seas un hombre que envejece y se vuelve más y más introvertido con la edad. No comprendo la razón. No sé si pasa con las mujeres, pero puedo hablar de eso. Si eres introvertido, extrovertido, si sean cuales sean tus dones espirituales, Dios canaliza y usa eso. Él tiende a no darte una renovación completa de la personalidad para hacer la carrera que Él quiere. Y Él quiere. Él quiere. La energía y el vigor de Pablo. Él lo quiere. Solo quiere ponerlo en la dirección correcta. Pablo se convierte. Ahora quiero mostrarles un video, una historia de otro hombre que experimenta esta palabra fea, esta palabra loca, esta palabra, simplemente la dije. Es como una palabra malsonante, la palabra convertido.

En nuestra cultura, nadie desea convertirse. No queremos convertir a nadie. Solo queremos vivir y dejar vivir. Sé quién eres. Identifícate como desees. Sé tu verdadero ser. Y lo que eso significa es, no, nunca cambias, nunca cambias. No, no desvías tu camino. Solo justificas por qué eres como eres ahora mismo. Porque cambiar tiene demasiada dificultad y demasiado sufrimiento. No quieres hacer eso. Solo quieres justificar la forma en que piensas ahora mismo. Solo tienes que justificar hacia dónde vas ahora mismo. Y cuando Dios se apodera de ti, te convierte. Convierte tus energías hacia una dirección diferente. Por eso el crecimiento espiritual es arduo. Muchos no crecemos espiritualmente. Tan pronto como Crossroads dice algo que no te gusta, te vas. Apenas lees algo en la Biblia que Dios quiere que hagas, dices, eh, no, tengo que buscar un lugar que ignore eso. Porque tú, no, no quieres, realmente no quieres esforzarte. Solo quieres una fácil afirmación. Y por eso algo siempre está desajustado. Porque no estás, no puedes ganar la carrera así. Nadie puede ganar nada de esa forma. Aquí hay un hombre que creció en un, como musulmán, en un país musulmán. Escucharemos más de él en las próximas cinco semanas cuando comencemos el viaje. Se llama Nerula y escuchemos su historia. He vivido toda mi vida en Turquía. De hecho, nací en una familia muy conservadora y conservador. Es un término muy común en Turquía.

Pero mi familia, sobre todo mi padre, no era solo un musulmán conservador que solo intentaba hacer sus cinco oraciones diarias y sus cosas religiosas, sino que también quería que nos educaran con suficiente conocimiento para entender por qué estábamos haciendo lo que hacíamos. De hecho, mi padre se oponía incluso a la televisión, así que no permitía televisión en casa, por lo que lo único que podía hacer era leer libros religiosos sobre los profetas, leer el Corán y aprender mi fe. Y yo era bastante devoto por eso. Incluso era un niño que intentaba impresionar a su padre memorizando como múltiples capítulos al día. Era tan devoto, por ejemplo, porque según el Islam tradicional, la música es haram y por eso no escuchaba música. Tenía un pequeño iPod, pero solo escuchaba recitaciones del Corán en árabe. O cuando jugaba baloncesto con mis amigos, yo era el único que dejaba de jugar al escuchar el llamado a la oración e iba a la mezquita a orar y volvía y seguía jugando. Porque en el Islam existe esta idea de hacer feliz a Dios o de hacer las cosas que Él quiere que hagas y como completar tus tareas cada día, así que es más como una forma ritualista

y de ganar tu salvación. ¿Verdad? Así que estaba tratando de ser un buen musulmán. Cuando llegué a la escuela secundaria es cuando mi horizonte se amplió, porque hasta entonces vivía en el mismo vecindario con los mismos amigos, con la misma gente a mi alrededor. Era como una burbuja. Pero en la escuela secundaria, aquí es donde muchas personas de diferentes orígenes se unen. Y aunque yo conocía, por ejemplo, el término ateo, nunca había conocido a alguien que realmente se identificara como ateo, ¿verdad? Que dijera que soy ateo, no creo en Dios. Así que para mí eso fue un shock. Yo pensé, espera, ¿estas personas realmente existen? Tengo mucha suerte, porque así es como se expresan los musulmanes cuando les preguntas en qué creen. Dicen que tienen suerte de haber nacido en un país y en una familia musulmana. ¿Pero qué ocurre con un niño cristiano que ha nacido en el seno de una familia cristiana creyendo que esa es la verdad absoluta para su familia? y vivirá con eso toda su vida, y luego irá al infierno por ello. Por eso quería comprender de qué forma era posible que ese niño también pudiera ser salvado de alguna manera. ¿No es así?

También trataba de imaginarme mentalmente a una persona, realmente alguien que jamás haya escuchado nada sobre el Islam o el cristianismo. Así que si esa persona decidiera mirar ambas religiones y las dos fuerzas y su evidencia, ¿a qué concluirían lo que descubrí? Que estaba a favor del cristianismo. Qué realmente me sacudió fue el Jesús histórico y cómo no es sólo algo basado en la fe, sino cómo se basa en evidencia de la historia y no sólo de fuentes cristianas también. No sólo de la Biblia, no es como que tienes que creer en la Biblia para creer que Jesús vivió y murió crucificado, pero hay fuentes externas que también han sido testigos de ello. A pesar de que fueron escritas por personas que no creían, por ejemplo, en la naturaleza divina de Jesús, el poder rastrear la Biblia, sabes, hasta los autores originales y todo eso, me hizo sentir feliz y emocionado pensando, de acuerdo, hay una manera de llegar a la verdad, objetiva e intelectualmente, y lo estoy logrando. Quedé convencido y era un adolescente, ¿verdad? Estaba en la escuela secundaria, así que tampoco sabía cómo revelar la noticia a mis padres y mis padres tampoco sabían cómo recibir una noticia tan grande y seria, ¿verdad? Así que mi padre tuvo una reacción muy agresiva, me echó de casa. En mi mente pienso,

¿estoy tan convencido de que esta es la verdad? Estoy tan, sabes, creo que lo he encontrado para mí, así que eso es muy importante para mí y voy a cómo mostrárselos en su cara y cómo abofetearlos con la verdad, algo así, ¿sabes? Y lo estaba haciendo también de manera muy agresiva, lo cual no fue sencillo, sobre todo para mi padre, quien tenía una visión distinta para mí. Ansiaba también encontrarme con cristianos de verdad y ni siquiera sabía si habría cristianos turcos como yo. Así que una tarde decidí buscar en Google una iglesia en Gaziantep y lo que yo al menos esperaba encontrar era una iglesia histórica, ¿verdad? A la que pudiera ir a visitar, tal vez ahora sea un museo y todo eso. Y entonces apareció un número de teléfono turco y decidí marcarlo. Y era este pastor estadounidense que había fundado una iglesia en Gaziantep. Fui y conocí al pastor. Y él y la iglesia, toda la iglesia fue increíble. Él fue quien, el pastor que más tarde me bautizó también y pues algo así es como comenzó mi conversión espiritual. Cuando vi una iglesia, puedes orar y adorar en tu propio idioma y eso como puedo hablar con Dios y Dios me habla de vuelta y como podemos tener esto, es como que ni siquiera necesitas a nadie más. Adoras como comunidad,

pero no necesitas a nadie más en ese instante. Puedes comunicarte directamente con Dios. Eso fue muy profundo para mí. En algún momento recibí un llamado de Dios de que ahora con mi experiencia creo que podría transmitir estos mensajes. Y así comencé a hacer videos para YouTube. Comparto sobre lo que los cristianos creemos y cuál es la esencia del cristianismo. Intento mostrar incluso como los argumentos para la existencia de Dios. Gente de occidente viene a Turquía para experimentar la historia cristiana. Yo, por supuesto, hablo sobre, por ejemplo, cómo en la Biblia las siete iglesias del apocalipsis están todas en Turquía. O, por ejemplo, la ruta que Pablo recorrió por Turquía. También aquí, como las chimeneas de hadas, los cristianos realmente excavaron algunas de ellas para usarlas como refugios y esconderse de la persecución. Debido a mi experiencia, yo creo que podría crear ese puente para que los demás crucen. Porque yo hago las mismas o preguntas parecidas que ellos están haciendo ahora. Mi padre hace poco estaba al teléfono conmigo y me dijo,

¿sabes? Viene gente a mí a veces y ven tus videos en línea y dicen, sí, tu hijo sigue siendo cristiano. ¿Qué piensas de eso? Les digo, mi hijo se ha convertido en un hombre, un hombre mejor, una persona mejor. Eso, para mí, fue muy, muy valioso. Cada cosa buena que recibimos al seguirlo y a través de él, creo que es simplemente asombrosa. Así que no lo cambiaría por nada más, ¿sabes? Eso. Subtitulado por Accesibilidad TVE But there are other conversions that we must experience when changing our career. One, a conversion or a career change that has occurred in me during the last few years, I have realized that envy had been infiltrating my life. When I saw other people with whom I identified, who were my peers, and I saw that they were getting opportunities or things that I was not getting, and I was measuring myself and comparing myself with them, and allowing my fulfillment, my joy, to be based on how I was going in relation to them. And I did not feel very good because they were doing better than me, better than me according to my own perspective. I realized, God, wait, I have to become, I have to become that. I am not going anywhere with that. Perhaps there is a conversion or a career change of being obsessed with what you save to be more focused on what you give. Perhaps it is an impulse from relational separation to relational integration. That we really start to invest time in the relationships that surround us.

So some of us have to change our career. Some, secondly, have to run harder. You are in the right career. You just have to run harder, like more intense. Warren Buffet said this, Intensity is the price of excellence. The Bible would say it this way, Discipline is the price of victory. Those are the words of the Bible. In Philippians chapter 3, the Apostle Paul talks about how his intensity was recharged. This is what he says, If anyone believes they have reasons for confidence in the flesh, I mean confidence in our own ability to do things by our own strength, that is the flesh. I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day, that was a Jewish law. Verified, I have it. Of the people of Israel, that is me. Of the tribe of Benjamin, a supreme tribe, that is me. A Jew of Jews, like saying I am American, I am American of Americans, that is what I am. A Jew of Jews, that is the law of the Pharisee. Not only did he know the law, he fulfilled it perfectly, and invented more extreme laws. As for the zeal, a persecutor of the church. As for the justice obtained by the law, irrepressible. He has an intensity, he has a zeal for himself. One of the most depressing things I have transmitted in the last year, I don't know if you saw it, it depressed me.

It was a two-part documentary about Charlie Sheen. It made me sad, you know? This guy has been very talented and very successful, but even so, he has fought against addiction and destructive behavior for decades. And I don't know, it was simply a nuisance, it really was. When he was in the middle of one of his addictions, one of his addictive periods, what pulled him out was his father, Martin Sheen, who was an alcoholic and has first-hand experience about the kind of intensity that is needed to run the race to sobriety. Martin Sheen said this, he said, Nothing is achieved unless a fanatic does it. People who are like, I need to be calm, let's be reasonable, let's be balanced, never achieve anything. They are those who say, this is my destiny, and I'm going to be intense, I'm going to run it for real. The word jealous is even a horrible word, another horrible word in our culture. As a jealous person, you really don't want to be that. You prefer to be a zombie than a fanatic. The Bible talks about sleeping, waking up, or sleeping bag, and the Bible talks about running. So let's contrast this for a moment. The life of a runner or fanatic, Pablo was a fanatic, only redirected, or the life of a sleeping bag and zombie. If you are a runner, if you are jealous, you are moving towards something. If you want to be a sleeping bag, to be a zombie,

you are moving away from something. Maybe you know the race, but I don't want to run it. If you run, focus on the future. If you sleep, focus on yourself. If you run, you fight against the darkness. If you are a sleeping zombie, you live in the darkness, and you are fine with that. If you are a runner, you move when it is difficult. And if you are a sleeping bag, you only move when it is easy. There are two worldviews, two states of being. Those of us who really want to win, let's go. Choose to fight. I have had several of these things in my life. I will share two with you. One of them was an early experience, where I had to use energy. I was slow in intensity. In high school, I had the intensity to train, to play. Fútbol y salir de fiesta, pero luego cuando llegué a conocer a Cristo, me fui a algo como la SFAR, quizás fue la gente con la que me juntaba que simplemente como que, simplemente me dije, cálmate, relájate, y terminé perdiendo el rumbo, lo cual es una gran parte de por qué fui tan malo en la escuela. Me tomó 7 años obtener mi título de 4 años, simplemente no tenía ninguna intensidad para estudiar, y mi padre estaba pagando por ello, así que me aproveché de eso. A los 24, casado 2 años, en el sexto año de estudios, estaba en esta iglesia como pastor de estudiantes. La iglesia tenía unos 400, podías pasar al frente, teníamos escalones en el escenario, y durante esta parte del servicio, si querías pasar al frente y llorar, ibas y llorabas. Y yo elegí ese día para subir y llorar, me arrodillé en los escalones. Estaba orando sobre, no sé por qué pasé, pero había una razón para orar allí, y Dios me habló. Digo que me habló, hubo una idea que llegó

a mi mente que estaba tan fuera de mi espacio mental, que no sé de dónde vino, no sé de dónde vino, y era el tipo de cosa que Dios aprobaría, y el pensamiento y la incitación de Dios fue, Brian, necesitas ir al seminario. Llegué a casa y se lo dije a Lib, ella se rió en mi cara, llevábamos dos años casados. Ella vio lo mal que era yo en la escuela, o en cualquier nivel de disciplina, cualquier nivel de intensidad, es como si ella pensara, ni siquiera puedes terminar tu título aquí, ahora vas a obtener un MDiv de tres años, ¿sabes? No, no, pero me puse más intenso. Hubo algo nuevo que sucedió, una nueva carrera, fui un late bloomer con eso en lo que a mí respecta, y eso siguió creciendo, mi intensidad comenzó a seguir creciendo y a reformarse. Y hubo otro momento crítico a los 35 años, teníamos, Crossroads había estado funcionando durante unos cinco años, habíamos alquilado instalaciones en una escuela pública, vinimos, compramos un viejo almacén de madera que está en esa dirección, edificio original, 1200 asientos, y nosotros encontramos nuestra iglesia al mudarnos, duplicamos en tres meses y triplicamos en seis, lo cual fue en cierto modo realmente asombroso, es algo que afirma como, oye, vamos por el camino correcto, y tal vez sentí que tenía un poco de seguridad laboral, ¿sabes? Sentías que estabas ganando, como si las cosas estuvieran sucediendo bien, pero al mismo tiempo no era bueno, me encontré en el atrio, este atrio de concreto que está ahí afuera, a mitad de semana, yo solo, procesando con Dios, y dije, Dios, este edificio está lleno ahora, está lleno, acabo de pasar, lideré a la iglesia a través de una campaña, lo cual te guía a través de algo, tienes que ser un líder en eso, así que Libby y yo tiramos todo lo que teníamos, regalamos todos los juguetes de los niños, e hicimos todo, e hicimos todo eso, y luego gastamos toda nuestra energía contratando arquitectos, construyendo la cosa, consiguiendo gente que la construyera, lograr que los bancos cubrieran el déficit con la hipoteca, y a través de todas esas cosas, literalmente había frito mis glándulas suprarrenales, estaban fritas, les pregunté a unos doctores que pasaba, frie mis glándulas suprarrenales, y aquí estoy a los 35 años, y dije, Dios, ¿se supone que debemos tener otra campaña? ¿Ganar dinero que no tengo? ¿Tener más arquitectos, más complejidad, y más gente construyendo cosas, y tener una hipoteca más alta? ¿Y ahora qué?

¿Vamos a llenar eso en otra campaña? Y le dije, Dios, si esta es mi vida, no deseo seguir con esto, no puedo hacerlo, y Dios redirige como, ¡zas, de la nada!, viene a mí, y siento este pensamiento, de nuevo, lo describo como Dios hablándome, es como que sale de la nada, que no es el tipo de pensamiento que yo generaría, pero es el tipo de pensamiento que Jesús aprobaría, sale de la nada, y Dios dice, ¿qué tal si en lugar de que intentes, qué tal si en lugar de construir crossroads, construyes el reino de Dios? Oh, quiero que crossroads crezca, trabajamos muy duro para que crossroads crezca, quiero que más gente sea bendecida y profunda en nuestra iglesia, quiero eso, pero es como, está bien, eso es diferente, como, está bien, entonces no es solo una cinta de correr interminable de construir más edificios y conseguir más gente, pero como, si podemos tomarnos a nosotros como equipo y lanzarlo al reino de Dios y hacer que el reino de Dios se parezca más a lo que está en el cielo, en las comunidades en las que estamos, sería increíble, y ese fue el día en que crossroads cambió, aportamos nuestra intensidad, obviamente todavía queremos crecer, todavía estamos haciendo todo eso, pero la intensidad para hacer cosas como enseñar y ser mentor de niños en riesgo, como poner decenas de millones de dólares en... At this moment in CityLink, a center that takes people out of generational poverty. And we started that, and we put it in, or as Compassion International that we take, we take the weekly weekly schedule, all the services at a certain time. And they make us aware of this organization called Compassion International, that takes children and educates them and feeds them throughout their childhood. And we have helped 17,344 of those children here in our church. $21 million, $21 million, that don't even go through our books, that you, that we all do. Girls rescued from sexual slavery, from prisons, hundreds of thousands of people being reached in prison. Everything, all these things were not in, it was, I can continue and continue and continue and continue. But these things were that moment of, okay, let's be intense with other things and use the energy for that. That was one, that was a different career. Same intensity, not like, okay, just go back and relax, enjoy your life. Give intensity to the things that matter.

And finally, the last thing I will say is this. Some of us, some of us need to know what the final goal is. There is a goal line, you know, you are in a race right now, and it ends. You are not in it forever. Perhaps part of the confusion you may be feeling is that you were in a race, and that concluded, and perhaps you won. And now, now, now, now, what am I doing, right? That is what the Apostle Paul is saying. He says, you do not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize. So run to get it. How do you get it? Because the race is over and you won it. The way you survive the routine, there is a routine in life, right? The way you survive the routine is by going. I am in the routine, but there is a goal line. I am in the routine, but it is happening. This is one of the things in which God has worked with me during the last year or something like that. Like, I want to finish well. And the pattern, the general pattern seems to be for people like me, who have my type of work. Eventually you make a mistake and you have a public scandal. So then, then, then I can start to feel, I can start to feel like, okay, that is the point. Just get to the end of how long I have been in Crossroads without having committed a scandalous sin. And I am totally in favor of getting to the end and not committing a scandalous sin. That is great, I do not want to be disqualified. But that does not mean that I am finishing well. That does not mean that I have run the race. Like, what is my final point here? So, when do I know that I finished?

And when did I finish? You have to know what your goal line is. There is a race in which God has you. But there are things that He wants you to do. But at some point you finish that, and another one follows. No. We also have to finish the race of our life. Get to the end of our life, crossing the ribbon, having served Christ. If you are a Christian, that is true, but there are others like mini sprints. You have to know where, where is the end. Look, these things that we are talking about now, this is really out of the ordinary of what many Americans want to live. That is why the mental health of the United States is as bad as it is. That is why the spiritual health of the United States is as bad as it is. These are things that Tony Robbins will not gain. These are things that are contrary to our culture, to the idea that your life should be easy and that your spirituality should only sharpen your life and give you good feelings. Yes, there are great feelings that come when you are connected to God, and you are sweating, and there is a point, and there is a purpose, and that is what makes it satisfactory. And that is why I am so excited that we can go deeper into this for five weeks. We can do it. We can put our best creativity into the services of the weekend for the next five weeks. Elite creativity. Spending a lot of resources. A large amount of money to bless all of us with a personal guide, doing everything we can to make it possible for you to be close to real people and be instructed.

That is why I need this for the next five weeks. I have deviated from my career. I have gotten too used to wasting too much time transmitting meaningless things that will never positively impact my life. It is good to see some content that is meaningless, but not as much as it is now. So I am excited. Good. Wednesday nights with my group, to which I have just been invited and formed. Yes, good. I have one less night in which I will be tempted to watch transmissions. That is good. I am talking to real people. I will be listening to real problems and having genuine celebrations instead of problems and scripted celebrations. I say all this for you. Please, please. We don't want anything. We don't need anything from you for the next five weeks. We want something for you. We don't need anything from you. We want something for you. Take advantage of this thing that has been created for you and for us. Your life, your future could be different if you make an effort for five weeks. Será bueno y divertido y significativo. Gracias, Dios, por quién eres y lo que hiciste. Y te rogamos que nos encuentres en la carrera. Algunos están en el vestuario, otros en la salida, otros jadeando por la carrera pasada. Dios, confiamos en que nos encuentres y nos des energía para la carrera que todavía tenemos que correr. Gracias por esto en el nombre de Jesús.