David Hughes - Como romper un ciclo negativo.

Oh, you already had coffee this morning. You're ready. If you're a guest, I'm going to come in directly. You're smart and you'll realize what's going on. We're talking about how to break bad habits, toxic cycles. If you struggle with this, which has brought you pain, shame, pain in your life for a long time and you can't understand how to break that cycle, you're in the right place. Maybe the first thing you have to understand is that our God, the God of Heaven, is exciting. He doesn't get tired. He is fixed and determined. He is so committed to your freedom. God wants to see you free. He wants you to live an emancipated holistic life. Not just free from the power of sin and death. He wants to see you free from any rupture or any slavery that you're tied to. And you'll be happy that God is part of your freedom. I'm going to share a couple of stories. We're going to go to the second of Chronicles. But before that, I'm going to show you an example of someone who breaks those cycles and generations of problems in history. I love history. A historical figure, especially Sandy Cornish of the Floridian history. She was born in the late 1700s. But she was born a slave. It doesn't mean that they were free if they were caught. It doesn't mean that their parents were slaves. Probably their grandparents too. They were cycles of humanitarian disaster. But he was hired and sold to a company to build the railroad in Florida. He was so good that the railroad company decided to pay him. Even though he was a slave, they didn't have to do it. But they decided to pay him. They decided to pay him $600. Of course, they thought that people wouldn't survive much.

Florida was a jungle with dysentery, malaria. But he worked nine years and earned enough money to save $3,000. He bought his freedom and his wife's freedom. He broke that generational cycle of slavery. And not only did he become free, but he became rich. He cultivated. Because in Florida, in the Cayo Hueso, the land is horrible. It's pure rock and dirt. There's no place to grow anything. He was an innovator. He developed an agricultural technique to use horse manure together with other things that he mixed. He managed to grow his vegetables and fruits. He made a lot of money and was very respected in Cayo Hueso. He prospered at a great height, at a great time. In fact, there's a monument in Cayo Hueso for him to this day. He worked hard, he innovated, and he broke a generational cycle of slavery. God wants that to be repeated in the lives of his servants and the people who are in this church right now. If you're struggling with something, we all have something to struggle with. We all have that habit. Something in your life that you can't fight against. Maybe the bottle, or they give you credit, or they praise you, or they put you... How can we free ourselves? So we're going to read from 2 Kings, or 2 Chronicles, in the book. It's a story about people of God who, for a certain period of time, the kings are going to recognize some of the kings. Saul, King David, the one who killed the giant, the best of all the kings, the one who measured everything in history. And then the son of David, who was Solomon. It's like watching a two season Netflix series. In season 1, Solomon is incredible.

He's wise, he's discerning, he knows how to do everything. In season 2, he's a disaster. He gets lost, he gets confused. Promises spiritually their relationships, their lives, their sexual lives brings chaos to the nation and when it is about to die and the division of the life of the civil war is about to come out and then came Rehoboam, a terrible king, a terrible king the kingdom falls between the north and the south and all the kings of the north are horrible, one bad after the other we studied last week the four lepers, that was in the north, ok? and the kingdom, the kingdom of the south is called Judah and from there comes the descendants of King David most of those kings, almost bad too because everything went wrong, because leadership in a nation matters there were a few examples that shone like Josiah Josiah is remarkable He is a person who breaks the chain, the cycles of dysfunctionality another good, they are difficult to get maybe Hezekiah Many people have called him Hezekiah, he is a great name, a great king God reformed the nation, but in the middle of these two like Josiah, before there was Ammon, horrible even his own followers assassinated him after two years, because he was horrible, terrible we are talking about Josiah, that is his father, his father was an animal he was a pagan king and twisted but his father was called Manasseh, everything is bad bad to the bone, he is so good being bad, that he is the best bad the worst of kings in the history of Judah is a sinner, profanity pagan, he does these horrible things, I say bad, bad, you can read his story

he sacrificed his own son to the fire for a pagan king and the worst, he reigned for 55 years, he was the longest of the reigns that is like me being a fan of the dolphins perennial, but you know what, we also have hard things in our division, like the patriots I'm not saying anything of the patriots, as if they were evil, but imagine 20 years they had Tom Brady, the best, horrible, that was the worst thing that could happen to us the Dolphin fans, but hey, here is Manasseh, a terrible king 60 years of dysfunctionality, they had in this town, six decades and here comes Hosea let's go to 2nd Chronicles chapter 34, see what it says here Hosea was 8 years old when he became king and reigned in Judah and this is a simple title of today's sermon How to break a negative cycle it's simple, it's clear I want to give you three steps to apply this whatever you are dealing with you can write a line in the sand today to seek the freedom that God wants you to have the first step is your identity you have to know who you are you have to know who you are he is 8 he is 8 here they say in this verse that he is 8 years old he is very young at 8 he is like in 2nd grade he probably doesn't have teeth he has freckles

his favorite show is Barney he is 8 years old maybe he even puts his fingers in his nose and eats his mucus but hey, he is the king he is real the book of Colossians is the king of Israel of David's lineage and he knows who he is you have to know who you are so you have to look at yourself in the mirror, and if you see someone who is not, if you are seeing yourself based on your past, and you start to say, there is the loser, there is the failure, there is the one who is of no use, who should be more like your sister. Are you a Christian? Shake that off. It's the devil who wants to attack your future. He wants to have you slip into temptation and failure, so you don't know who you are. For example, in the New Testament, Matthew chapter 4, after 40 days of hunger, the Bible says he's hungry, which is obviously redundant, but the devil comes to him with temptation. But how? When the devil tempts him, what does he say first? He says, if you are the Son of God, if you are, like a question, like a challenge, like, did you just say, if I am? What's wrong with you? You don't know what chapter immediately precedes the devil. Before chapter 4 comes Matthew 3, where Jesus is baptized. And why is he baptized? It's not to atone for his sins. Because he had no sin. It's because he's about to start his mission. And we baptize, oh, it's amazing, the rally meetings, the Friday nights, when we do it at First Baptist, we baptize so many people. All these cars passing through Broward Boulevard, thinking of downtown, what is this?

What is this? What kind of party? Wow, a baptism party. Wow, that's how it happened. In temptation, it happens in chapter 4, the devil asks him, if you are the Son of God. What do you mean, if I am? Like you missed chapter 3. Didn't you hear that, devil, in my baptism in chapter 3? When they baptized me, how a voice came out of heaven, great, that said, this is my beloved Son, with whom I am pleased. Aha, that if I am, no, no, no, no, go read the previous verses, I am the Son of God. I know who I am and I'm not going to fall into your trap and your temptation. You have to know who you are, Christian. You have been saved, be it 30 years, 30 days, or 30 minutes. The Bible says so many things about who you are in Christ. This is your biblical definition, dozens and dozens of great things. The Bible pronounces who you are. The Bible says that you are part of a chosen generation, a holy nation. You are possession of God. You are the Son of God. You are a descendant of God. You are the Son and Daughter of God. It says that you are a new creation in Christ. What are old circles and old cycles to a new creation? That you have no failures. That you are free. That there is no condemnation. That you are alive in Christ, redeemed, forgiven, blessed. It says that you are a friend of God. That you are His co-worker. That you are His sheep, a member of His flock. That you have been called. That you have been given a crown of beauty. That you are a precious possession of Christ. That you are the light of the sky, the salt of the earth. That you are a son of God, without failings and without failings. That you are a son of light. That you participate in His glory. The first fruit of His creation. That you are the temple of God.

It says in one verse, you are a living rock. You are beautiful by His grace. You are people who call by His name. You are His beautiful bride. You are never forgotten. Precious and without failings. More than conquerors. It says that you are members of a royal family. You sit down. I'm just reading the Bible to you. It's the word of God. This is not a spiritual pep talk to cheer you up. This is your identity. You wrap your brain around this. Next time the devil says you're a loser. You wrap your brain around this. Next time the devil says you're a loser. You wrap your brain around this. Next time the devil says you're a loser. You wrap your brain around this. Wow, did you understand? I'm a royal member of a royal family. Royal priests. Son of God. And God is the great king. Does that mean I'm a prince or princess? He's a little boy. He's 18 years old, he's wearing his footie pyjamas. He doesn't look like a king, but he is. You're a royal family man. When you think about that, about the Western mind,

you think about a king, like his coronation, right? It's a big deal, it's always public, pompous. When you're a king in the Western tradition, you get a crown, and it's all about your privileges and your power, but that's not the idea of the kings in the Bible. The kings were not about the coronation. It was about being anointed in the Bible. They were anointed because they were called by God to serve God, and a priest would put oil on their heads. It was not about privileges, it was about service. It was not about their reign, it was about calling, about responsibility, not their authority. They had been called to serve others, and to serve God, not themselves. And they would bathe your head with oil. What does that mean? You're anointed. All right, I'll tell you in just a moment, because it's really kind of complicated, but I'll tell you in just a moment, and then I'll explain that to you. If you want to end these cycles of dysfunctionality, you have to do construction and destruction. You've got to break certain things to build others. We'll read, for example, in chapter 34, when they're renovating the temple. It's been falling apart for almost 60 years. Just like we did in First Baptists in Fort Lauderdale for 35 years, they didn't repair anything.

Imagine an old building that hasn't been repaired for many, many years, because it gets to be cleaned, because his grandfather has desecrated the temple for decades. So there's going to be a celebration, but before there's a celebration, there's a renovation. Before you do the party, you have to clean the house. He's going to come and clean. He's a young person. If you're here and you're a young person, elementary, middle, or high school student, look at what it says here. He had been king for eight years. He's 16 years old at this point. He's a teenager. He began to seek the God of David, his ancestor. Four years later, in the twelfth year of his reign, so he's 20 years old, he set out to clean the region of sanctuaries dedicated to sex and religion, and to get rid of the sacred forests of Asherah. There he's going to tell you, it's something weird, the first ones, where there were signs of pagan fertility, and things like that.

But well, he says, he wrecked the Baal Shrines, he demolished the associated altars, and he cleaned the place in pictures. Look at the language that's used. He breaks, he tears apart, he throws it out, then verse six, in the campaign of Lippentzia, he went outside, to the cities of Manasseh. So not only did he clean Judah from idolatry, and pagan praise, but he went to Israel, in the north, and he started to clean that area, which is not even his kingdom. It's like, sometimes, you're cleaning your garden, and you get the bad bushes out of your garden, but you also start to get the ones that are close to your garden, in the neighbor's garden, so they don't invade you, right? This kid is 16, 20 years old, and he knows all these idols, and he has to break them, and he tears them apart, huh?

But if there's no, you'll say, well, but if there's no pagan statues in my neighborhood, what can I do? Do you want to break those signs? Maybe the word for you is mute, block, erase, put a silencer, stop following anyone who fights against your faith. If you weren't here, you'd say, I hate iPhones. No, no, no, I love my iPhone, but there's a lot of negativity and hate on my phone. There are bad temptations. I have to protect myself from my iPhone. I have to be careful who I choose as an influencer in my life, okay? So, the limits are beautiful. Sometimes, we fight against our faith. Libertad porque lo que mantenemos a nuestro alcance nos esclaviza Okay, como la ya fue llamado a ser un profeta y cuando lo llamó dios estaba ocupado es un agricultor con plata tiene

bueyes amarrados cuando está Sembrando saben que eso es un gran aparato y eso no era un agricultor pequeño pero saben que apenas dios lo llama el rompe todos los bueyes saca todos los rascados y quema la madera y cocina la toda la carne saben que ya el así salió de su estrategia tiene que ir a servir a dios porque ya acabó con lo único que podía hacer y eso es lo que tienes que hacer a erradicar esa segunda opción que está guardando ahí por si acaso Porque esto todavía es aplicación en tu teléfono porque esta sustancia todavía está en tu casa Cortez Incendió en fuego los barcos para no poder regresar eso es radical pero si era quiere ser libre tú crees que el diablo te va a dejar la libertad sin luchar por tu alma no tienes que tomar pasos radicales Como este hombre nacido en la esclavitud va a calle hueso se convierte en rico influenciado Saben que cuando hay compra su su libertad eso pasó antes de la guerra civil Pero su casa se quemó y en esta casa estaba todo incluyendo los documentos de su libertad sobre hubo gente Que quiso venir a llevárselo para venderlo como esclavo otra vez en el norte Cuando vinieron a llevárselo como un esclavo el sacó un cuchillo Dicen cuentan los cuentos pero no atacó se cortó el tendón detrás de su rodilla Y les dijo a quieren todavía me quieren todavía me quieren así manco Cuando todavía venían a buscarlo se cortó su dedo pequeño y se lo metió en la boca como un habano y dijo que Todavía me quieren saben que estaba loco no si estaba loco pero sobre su libertad No iba el sacrificaría su salud cortaría partes de su cuerpo con tal de seguir siendo libre no se lo iban a llevar Y tú no cortará esa relación esa mala experiencia eso que estás mirando eso que estás haciendo quiere ser libre Así que quiero romper cosas en mi vida que me están aguantando hacia atrás quiero erradicar esas estrategias de salidas secundarias Pero quiero construir quiero construir donde dios sea dominante porque yo guarde que soy de familia real Soy un sacerdote real en la familia de dios Así que esto es lo que había les dije que compartiría con ustedes que es lo que era ser ungido es ser llamado dado una responsabilidad tu propósito ante dios pero lo más

Importante en el nuevo en el viejo testamento es simbólico del espíritu santo cuando era sonido Dios el padre dios el hijo y dios el espíritu en el viejo testamento el espíritu santo viene desde afuera hacia adentro no a todo el mundo para los profetas los sacerdotes y reyes pero siempre que llega ese espíritu hay Transformación por ejemplo cuando saúl fue ungido Por samuel dice aquí Dice el espíritu de dios vendrá sobre ti y tú serás convertido en otra persona serás cambiado cuando él es ungido saúl que era grande impresionante pero muy tímido se convirtió en poderoso intrépido Porque el espíritu santo entró en él y lo cambió nuevo testamento en el momento en que tú y yo somos salvados así sea años semanas o hace o pasa dentro de siete minutos el momento en que tú ores esa oración de salvación dios te califica para el cielo tú te conviertes en su hijo Perdona todos tus pecados erradica tu pena y el espíritu santo de dios viene a vivir en el centro de cada uno de los creyentes en el momento de tu salvación y puedes ir a efesios capítulo 1 como que sucede eso para diferent persona he sido gente donde el espíritu santo los ha cambiado en un instante como día y noche Mucha gente que ha estado muchos líos grandes sucede así dios los transforma inmediatamente About 10 years ago, I interviewed a pastor from Chicago, Pastor Jolinda Wade, in her church. And one of those times, her son, one of the things I interviewed her for was her son, Dwayne, Dwayne Wade. Dwayne Wade, well, they took him away from her when she was little because she had an addiction to heroin. And she said that when she was saved, God eradicated that addiction in a second. She didn't even have symptoms of having quit that drug. The Holy Spirit comes to live in your life.

Many of the people, the Holy Spirit takes away some of your sins immediately. But there are others that you have to work on. You know what? You have to stay firm. He's going to work. He's going to do his job. He's going to make a change in your life. He's going to bring transformation. But you can't overcome yourself. You have to be there. You have to do the housework. Eradicate those exit tragedies. Burn those bridges that take you back to sin. And allow Him time and effort. The Holy Spirit is going to change your situation. What's His first name? It's the word of sanctification, of God. Transformation is happening. It's going to keep happening. But you can't give up. If you have a bad week. For example, you keep making a bad decision. You know that you can't give up. You turn around and go back to church. Come when you're angry, when you're in a bad mood, when you're down. Whatever it is. You have to come. That's how you close the church. I'm running out of time. I'm running out of time. But those are the two great goodbyes. You're a son of God.

You've been forgiven. You've been redeemed. You've been bought at a great price. Take a picture of those things I put on the screen. You have to know who you are. You have to do something about the rupture and something about the construction. Before the party, you have to clean the house. Then, for example, the story of Josiah. This man was so strong in God. I'm going to tell you. When he first dies at the age of 39 in battle. I think that's young. I've been through that age, even. People were really starting to take the series at 40. You know what? He died at 39. So I tell you, don't wait. Do it now. If you're here and you're young. But David, when I'm older, when I get married and I'm an adult, I want to have fun. I'm young, David. No. Do it now. Don't waste another day. You never know when it's going to be your turn. I hope you live to be 103 years old. But the only thing you have for sure is today. So God's decision today is that the Holy Spirit wants to set you free. I hope you live a long time.

We had the sad honor of hosting a funeral at Coral Springs. Nancy Matea. Some of you know her. She was a city councilwoman. She died of violence at 38. The funeral was full of people. A lot of families. It had a big impact. In my opinion, it was a beautiful funeral. All of the people who spoke, especially her sister. A pastor came and preached. He preached to Jesus, to our community on that day. A big message. Pastor Stan, who started with me. I said, we are very sad because Nancy was taken so young. It was tragic and horrible. But don't use the expression, what a waste. No. From what I can say, Nancy didn't waste a single second of her life. She took the good out of every second. She was 38 years old. Most of us would be 98. Nancy was part of our family. It's not about politics right now. Lisa and I met her when she was sworn in for her political career. I know we all want to live a long time. We want to live a long life. My mom lived until she was 94 years old. There is a great speech that you may recognize. It was by someone very famous. And like everything, I would like to live a long life.

Because old age has its place. Do you know who said that? Dr. King. The night before he was assassinated. That is part of the speech. I have been at the top of the mountain. I would like to see my children grow up. I would like to meet my grandchildren. But your life can be brief and beautiful. Brief and brilliant. But you have to maximize today. JFK never reached his 50s. Dr. King his 40s. Joan of Arc, one of the greatest liberating women. She never reached her 20s. You have to count for God today. Do what you have to do today. What is that heavenly decision that you have to make today? Baptism? Salvation? What are you waiting for? We can baptize you today. Here is warm water. We give you clothes and everything. What is your next step? What is your next step? Let's see what it is. Where can I read to you? 2 Corinthians 6, verse 2. And I tell you, now is the time of God's favor. Today is the day of salvation. One of the devil's strategies to stay with you.

I would not tell you. Wait a little longer. He does not tell you that there is no heaven or hell. He always tells you to wait for now. Do not worry. Hold on. Do not rush. Your freedom is at stake. Cut those things that you should not be tied to. Break those things that you can return to that are not convenient for you. You have to protect your freedom. You have to protect your family and your future. Because my king says, when the Son has set you free, you are free. God, thank you, Lord, for the gospel that emancipates people. For taking our plate. And today people are going to choose Jesus. They are going to choose salvation. Some prodigal son is going to return home today. I need a second chance. I want you to forgive me, my God. Whoever it is, bring it, Father, to you today. We pray in the name of Jesus.