Dios se luce — Tu (dios) es demasiado pequeño — Rich Wilkerson Jr

We continue this collection of talks that I started last week, this collection is going to take us to Vukon, which we are also excited about, that's why I can't encourage you enough for you to register. But while we get there, I started this collection called Your God is Very Small. And I want to say it quite hard for you to hear it. We are not saying that God is small, what we are saying is that our view or perspective of him is. And sometimes, if we are not careful, we believe that we can control or manage God, that we can put God in our pockets, take him wherever we go and do what we want him to do, which is as if he were a cosmic coach. And today we come to break those boxes and remember in this season that God is much bigger, that he is better, that he is bigger than you can imagine. Come on, clap if you believe that today. We serve a great God, we serve a great God. We are looking at Exodus chapter 17, we started there last week. Paul goes to Athens and looks around Athens and sees idols everywhere. And a historian said that it was easier to find a God in Athens than it was to find a man. There are statues wherever he goes. And while he looks around, he begins to preach a message. And the message he presents is one, not to introduce oneself to a small God, but to a God who created heaven and earth, a great God. And today I have an assignment and it is to praise this God. It is a simple message, but if it is in your heart, it will transform your life. Let's see again Exodus 17, I will start in verse 22. Paul stood in the middle of the airport and took the word. Citizens of Athens, I say citizens of Miami, I observe that you are extremely religious in everything you do. When I passed and looked at your sacred places, I found even an altar with this inscription, to an unknown God. Well, what you worship as something unknown is what I announce to you. This is what I am going to preach to you. The God who made the world and everything that is in it is Lord of heaven and earth.

He does not live in temples built by men. Nor does he allow himself to be served by human hands as if he needed something. On the contrary, he is the one who gives everyone life, breath and all things. From a single man, he made all the nations to inhabit the whole earth. And he determined the periods of his history and the borders of his territories. He did this so that everyone looks for him and even if they are in tents, they find him. In truth, he is not far from any of us. I want to take the next few moments, if I can today, in part 2 of this collection that we are, I titled today's message, God is shining. God is shining. And I need, perhaps, some signs today. God is shining. I am here, the other day I am with my older children, Wyatt and Wyatt, who are 7 and 5, and they are, I see that they stand in front of the mirror and they like to flex or show their muscles or shine. They are there shining, hitting their chest, and from time to time they tell me, Dad, show us your muscles. To which I tell them, you are not ready for this. They are obsessed with me flexing, showing the rocks, you know, I have a rock here. But, perhaps, it makes me laugh because my children are obsessed with how strong their father is, how strong I am. So, they stand in front of the mirror and flex, contract and make their muscles tense. And this is the interesting thing we talk about when we flex. Flexing or shining is not building your strength, it is revealing your strength. When you shine or look at yourself in the mirror, when you flex your muscles, you are not suddenly going to gain muscles, the only thing you do is show that you have muscles. And I think we live in a world where everyone is trying to flex, in the comments, on social media, we are praising ourselves, impressing people on how we look. But I came to remind some people that it is not about you, but there is a God who not only builds his strength when he shines, but when he shines, he shows his strength over and over again.

You see, when God shines, things change. The universe trembles when God shines. The demons tremble when God shines. And today I want to teach you something simple, a simple principle, that when you go in life and you feel the anxiety of the day, when you feel the fear of tomorrow or the pressure of the hour, there is nothing like being in a situation that reminds you how small you are, when you are remembered how small you are, you need how big our God is. You don't need to show off today, but to see that when he shines, things change. I love that story of the two spies when they go to the promised land for the first time, they come back with a report to the people, 10 of them come back and say, we can't take the land, we look like crickets, there are giants on the land. But there were two that were a little different. And when they came back, their name was Josue and Caleb. When they came back, they said, there are giants on the land, but those giants are going to be like bread eaten for us. I love the image of what we see, because a group decided to maximize and magnify the problem. And with this, it became bigger. But there were two who decided, we are going to magnify our God. The psalmist says it this way,

magnify the Lord with me. What you magnify in your life, what you exalt will become bigger. That's why we get together in the church. We come as a group of believers collectively to magnify the Lord. While I exalt him, I remember how big he is. And while I see how big he is, the giants in my life, the problems in my life, the fears of my life begin to be minimized in my eyes. What are you magnifying today? Because I have learned this simple truth, that where my energy goes, my energy begins to flow to that side. Where your attention flows, your energy flows. But focusing on God, not just the perspective of God, magnifying God. Many times we say goodbye to our problems, but we should tell our problems how big God is. That problem, that giant is like bread eaten for you if you recognize how big your God is. Your God is bigger. But let God magnify you for a moment. When I moved to Miami, my second year of high school, it's always a new school. It's a little difficult when you don't know anyone. They didn't choose me, but there were some, they didn't mess with me, but there were some irritable voices in my life. And there are people who said things

that were a little irritating. And after a month in that school, I met a guy named Nate. And Nate became one of my closest friends. And Nate was one of the biggest guys in our class. Maybe he was one of the biggest guys in our school. And it was a little funny because Nate, when he became my friend, those voices began to be minimized. Because from time to time, when someone started messing with me, I would say, do you want me to call Nate? I hope you know that you have someone better than Nate in your life. I want you to know that when the pressure of this life hits you, you can say, do you want me to call my God? Do you want my God to burn in front of you? Your God is great. And today, if I can put this in your heart, when you begin to know how great your God is, begin to change your way of living, what are you exalting? Are you exalting fear? Because if you exalt fear in your life, listen to this, the energy of your life will go that way. Anxiety will go. You will go where anxiety goes, but if you begin to magnify and exalt faith and God, you will begin to find strength and courage.

You will be able to face the day, not because you are great and strong, but because He is great and strong. While Paul appears in Athens, he gets there and the statues and the gods are everywhere and sees all these things and has a God for everything, God of war, God of love, God of harvest, he sees a statue and an idol, an inscription that says, to the unknown God. Paul is like, hey, I see that they are spiritual, I see that they have a desire and a hunger and that they are religious, but they are blind, they are ignorant of who they are, who they are trying to worship. So Paul wants to introduce them to a great God, and the way he does it is quite simple. The first thing he's going to let them know is that God has a name. This is important today, because if you want God to alert you in your life, there are people who come to Woodchurch from different paths, from different people. God has a name. And names are something interesting, because they talk about who that person is, they create an identity for me. When you talk to someone who doesn't know their name, and you say, hey friend, how are you doing? God, man of God, man of God, how are you? My new favorite phrase is, son of God, I don't know your name, so I'm trying to fight, because I don't have a relationship with you, so I'm trying to see how I do.

I remember once I had written a book, and I was doing a book signing, and someone came up to me, and I knew his face, but I didn't remember his name. Pastor Rich, I bought your book, and I was like, oh yes, thank you for buying my book. Oh yes, yes, you can sign it, yes, sign it for me, yes, I'll sign it for you. Yes, yes, yes, how do I spell your name? It's like, it's Hank. Yes, yes, yes, yes. It's like, with an N, two N's. Not knowing a name removes the relationship. Names are powerful. My children, their last name is Wilkerson, and they haven't deserved anything, but by having my last name, there are certain doors that will open for them, because they are my children, and they are walking with my authority. When I got married to Don Cherry, she took my name. That gave her access to my life. Now she has access to my resources, access to my heart. Now she has an ability and an authority, because we share the same name. You need to understand this, because so many people go through life, and they are talking to God, like, hey you, big guy, land, sky, wind, vibes. All of this is an indication that we don't have a relationship, and that maybe we have a hunger, but we are blind and ignorant. The apostle Paul says it this way, if you want to know how great God is, you need to start by knowing that he has a name, and he says in verse 26, of a single man he made all the nations to inhabit all the earth, and he determined the periods of their history and the borders of their territories. Paul is doing something that we see him doing in the book of Romans. He starts at the beginning, and he talks about Adam, but we know in Romans chapter 5, that later he talks about the second Adam, his name is Jesus, and this is Romans 5.17. Because if by the sin of a single man, death reigned,

with greater reason those who receive in abundance grace and the gift of justice will reign in life by means of a single man, Jesus Christ. And he does this clearly later in Athens, in verse 31 of Acts. He has set a day when he will judge the world with justice, by means of the man he has designated. Of this he has given proof to all by raising him from among the dead. Who did he raise from among the dead? He raised Jesus from among the dead. Paul is saying, letting them know in Athens, that they are worshiping, and they are calling, and they need something greater than you, but they do not even know the name of this God. This God has a name, his name is Jesus, and that in the name of Jesus each knee will be bent, and each tongue will confess. If you ask yourself how to call God, he has a name, it is Jesus. It is Jesus. And if you are new to Woodchurch, we are happy that you are here. Everyone is welcome in this community, but we have a fundamental value. Jesus is our message. It is because he has a name. That is why when you pray and you finish your prayer and you say, in the name of Jesus, Amen. Why am I praying in the name of Jesus? It is because his name gives me access. His name gives me authority. I am not appealing to God based on my merit, based on how much I come to the church, or based on my goodness, based on my value, based on my justice. No, my justice is like a rag of filth. If I have to go to God in the name of Rich Wilkerson Jr., we are not going to get anything. But when I go to God in the name of his only son.

Let's go, there is power in the name of Jesus. There are those who believe that there is health in the name of Jesus, that there is victory in the name of Jesus. If you want to impress, pray in the name of Jesus. Let's go, give praises today. God has a name. God has a name. And if you want to start impressing in front of the enemy, or anything you face, don't go through mysticism, or new era, or your good work, or your efforts. No, go through, I know this God, and He has a name. And knowing His name has given me access and authority, so I come in the name of Jesus Christ. I don't have silver and gold, but one thing I do give you, in the name of Jesus, get up and walk. It is a praise of God. God already has the strength. I am accessing the strength through the name of Jesus, and Paul is trying to teach them, he is trying to show them that He has a name, but not only that He has a name, write this down, you need to know that God is in charge. And I don't know how your week looks like, I don't know how your Sunday morning looks like, but this is something that as a Judeo-Christian you need to fight. God, you are in charge. Sometimes you need to give it back to God. I know what to do, but God, you are in charge. And this, look at what it says, Exodus 17, 24. The God who made the world, and everything that is in it, is Lord of heaven, and look at this, of earth. They don't live in temples built by men,

nor do they allow themselves to be served by human hands, as if they needed something. I preached that last week, as if they needed something. On the contrary, He is the one who gives life and breath to all things. From a single man He made all the nations, so that they may live on earth, and determined the periods of their history, and the borders of their territories. There is a lot to see there, but it is describing that God is in charge, that He is great. How great is He? One of the things you should know about God is that He is omnipresent. And that is why God does not fit in your limits, in your box. If you put Jesus in a box, how did that happen? It lasted three days. God broke the box every time. He is everywhere, all the time. He is not only in this place, or in Miami Gardens, or in the city. No, He will also be in your car when you leave. He will go to work with you tomorrow. He will be there. He will be in that stressful meeting, in that challenge. He is everywhere. In fact, the Psalms say this, If I make my bed in heaven, and if I make it in the depths, you are also there. That God does not go anywhere. Wherever you turn, He is there. God is omnipresent, but He is not only omnipresent, but He is omnipotent. I love that word. He is omnipotent. That means that He is powerful, omnipotent. Scripture says, in Acts chapter 17, He is the one who gives life and breath to all things.

This God created everything. This God is great. This God is powerful. He is the one who created all the heavens. He is the God who created the earth. If you want to discover how great God is, look at the universe for a moment. Because according to Acts 17, and the preaching of God created all this. One scripture says in the Psalms that He, with His breath, created the stars and brought them into existence. That is a great breath, I can tell you. My God. Stars, galaxies. God is so strong. Look at a mountain. The other day I asked Chayipiti, give me some things about how big the universe is. Because we live in a big universe. And these are things that he told me. And they were fascinating. Look at this. Look at what it says. Look at one. One teaspoon of neutron star. A neutron star is a part of a star that has been broken. One teaspoon of neutron star. It weighs more than the entire human population. Oh, okay. Chayipiti tells me, Venus rotates backwards.

And I say, oh, that's the other way around. Okay, I love that. A million earths could fit in the sun. Okay. Driving at 112 kilometers per hour to the nearest star, that would take... Más de 356 mil millones de años. El asteroide Vesta tiene una montaña tres veces más alta que el Everest. Ni siquiera sabemos todo lo que hay allá afuera. Y todo eso fue hecho por este Dios todopoderoso. Y estoy tratando de mantener a mis hijos vivos. Y este Dios es como que está haciendo montañas. Este Dios es tan grande. Él pone estrellas como que si fuesen lucecitas. Él hace tus pulmones y los océanos como si no fuera nada. Tú no sostienes nada. Él no necesita a ti o a mí. Él es un gran y poderoso, fuerte Dios. Él puede hacer cualquier cosa. Y de vez en cuando necesita salir de tu casa, ver a las estrellas y decir, alguien creó eso. Alguien hizo esto. ¿Sabes qué? Conozco su nombre. Y su nombre es Jesucristo. Y Él está a cargo. Él está a cargo. Me encanta esto. No es solo que es omnipresente y omnipotente, sino que es omnisciente.

Él dice que Él le da vida y aliento a todas las cosas. Por un hombre, Él creó todas las naciones y marcó su tiempo y sus fronteras. Lo que Dios nos está diciendo es que Dios no es solo grande, sino que es preciso. Él sabe todo pasado, presente, futuro. Dios conoce todas las cosas. Él es más grande que este momento. Él es más grande que tus problemas. Él es más grande que tu presión. Este es un Dios que sabe todo, que es preciso y específico con tu vida. Dime que tienes 40 sin decirme que tienes 40. La semana pasada tuve una colonoscopia. Mucha información. Pensé que éramos familia. ¿Usted está bien? ¿Está bien? ¿Te entiendo? Y estaba en Dallas para este procedimiento. Y estaba en el teléfono con mi hijo de cinco años, Wild. Estamos hablando en el teléfono. Igual me dice, papá, ¿qué haces en Dallas? Y yo le digo, como que, hijo, tengo una colonoscopia mañana. Y me dice, papá, ¿qué es una colonoscopia? Y yo le digo, bueno, hijo, los doctores van a poner una cámara en mi colon. ¿Por qué van a hacer esto? Hijo, están buscando podops. ¿Y qué son podops? Son estas cosas que si no lidias con ellas, pueden convertirse como en un precáncer.

Y yo le digo, papá, ¿cómo van a poner tu cámara en tu colon? Le dijo, hijo, pregúntale a tu mamá. No es que las preguntas son incorrectas, es que es muy pequeño para las respuestas. Y me pregunto, ¿cuántas veces venimos a Dios con nuestras preguntas y nos olvidamos que Él es un Dios que lo sabe todo y es un Dios grande que tiene respuestas que muchos de nosotros somos muy pequeños para manejarlas? Y esto es genuinamente lo que pasa en el libro de Job, cuando Job está atravesando dolor y sufrimiento y fricción y viene a Dios y se está quejando con Dios. ¿Y sabes lo que le responde Dios a Job? Oye, Job, ¿dónde estabas tú cuando lancé las fundaciones de la tierra? Hay tantos estudios de nuestro cerebro y descubren cosas todo el tiempo, pero colectivamente están de acuerdo que ese cerebro que fue creado y dado a nosotros por Dios, que no estamos usándolo todo. ¿No es un poco gracioso que nos sentemos acá y nuestra situación limitada y le preguntemos a un Dios omnipotente, presente, omnisciente, a un cerebro que Él nos dio, con un cerebro que Él ni siquiera lo puede usar completamente, a este cerebro que Él me dio? Hoy tenemos que descansar en el hecho que mi Dios está a cargo y quizás no entienda hoy, pero voy a confiar de que Él está trabajando. Pablo dice, Dios tiene un nombre y su nombre es Jesús. Y no tienes que buscar a los desconocidos. No, you can call him by name and when you call him by name, you have access to his authority and you have to remember that he is in charge, omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient.

But look at what it says here, because this is encouraging for me, it's not just that God has a name or that he is in charge, the last thing is that God can, that you can reach God. God can be reached, and this is the last thing they tell us, the final part of the passage. This was done by God so that everyone can look for him, even if they are tents, they can find him. In truth, he is not far from us, look, he is not far from us, sometimes we are calling and the service drops, and if you are like me, I always say, it's like it's never my phone. If I'm on a call with you and it drops, I say, what's wrong with your phone? Are you not paying your bills or what's going on? It's never you, it's always them. The connection is not lost on your side, but on your side. How many times do we treat God in the same way? Oh, I can't hear God, I don't feel God right now. If you can't feel it or hear it, do you think it's because of God? If God is far away, who do you think moved? God? No, my friend, many times it's us, we are distant, we are moving away, we are going in the other direction. Paul says the deepest thing, next week we are going to see this, because it is the Sunday of Pentecost, but God is great, and sometimes we say, God is so great, and he is so high, and he created the moon, the stars, and the planets, and we see the investigations, and he is so great, but he is so powerful, that Paul is reminding us, yes, he is great, but he is also close, he is close enough that you can touch him, that you can reach him, that you have access to him right now, this great God, in some way, is small enough to be intimate with you, with your story, with your pain, with what you are facing. Many times we hear this, and maybe we have this attitude that we say, look, I don't know, I read the Bible, those people in the Bible know a God that I don't know, and they were super heroes, they look like Marvel heroes, but I love this verse that they say in Santiago

5.17, Elias, the great prophet Elias, was a man with weaknesses like ours, Elias was a man just like us, do you know what that tells me, that tells me that if Elias could see God flaring up in situations, you can see God flaring up in your situation, there is this word with which I struggle to say it, but since January it is something that I have returned and we wrote some songs last week based on this word, and it is that God is immutable, God is immutable, it means God does not change, I can show you throughout the Bible that God does not change, He is the same yesterday, He is the same today and always, and what encourages me is that if God met those men and women at that moment, He can appear in your circumstance now, today, the people of the Bible are not better, greater than you, they were men and women like us, but they believed, I am small but He is great, I have problems and I have giants, but I am not going to magnify what is in front of me, I am going to turn and pay attention upwards, I am going to put my eyes on that one, the one who is powerful, the one who is in charge, the one who is close, and I am going to see how these giants become smaller because my God can flare up. Do you want me to call my God? No, no, no, don't call God, I know Him, I love the apostle Paul because he is a man like us, and here he is in Athens and he is preaching, but look at what the apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12, 9, he says, while he cries with God and fights with God, he says three times, have you been praying for something repeatedly? Have you asked God for something over and over again? The apostle Paul says that he asked God three times to remove that thorn from his flesh, and that is the answer that God tells him, enough with my grace, because my power is perfected in weakness. Let that come in for a moment, the apostle Paul is now Take this pain, take this situation, take this struggle, and God says, no, no, my grace is enough for you. Where you are weak, I am strong. Where you are small, that's where I'm going to show how big I am. God did not burn her by taking the pain, but by showing her power in the pain. Showing the power in the pain. So much so that the apostle Paul receives this revelation, and look at what he writes. In 2 Corinthians 12 and 9 it says, Therefore, I will gladly boast of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may remain upon me. And that's where we get to today. And that's what we carry in our week.

The apostle Paul had such a revelation that God has a name, and his name is Jesus. He is in charge. If I go through this, God will use him for his glory. And God is always close, and He is close to me. So I stop boasting and showing off. I stop boasting and trying to impress others. That's what I'm going to do. If I'm going to be impressive, if I'm going to let fear diminish, and I'm going to let go of anxiety, and I'm going to walk on purpose, and my call, I stop putting the focus and that lens on me. But I'm going to start boasting of my God. Because wherever I am weak, God is strong. Where I feel like I want to give up, that's where God appears. And He boasts. And if I can bring something to your life today, it doesn't matter what you face. Something practical today. Anything you face this week, whatever it is. Maybe it's problems at home, in your marriage, maybe it's your job, maybe it's your children, maybe it's your health. I don't know what the problem is, or the thing that is threatening you, or scaring you. Today remind you that you are small. It's in those moments where you can boast of God. You don't have to boast of yourself. You don't have to talk about how religious you are, how great you are. You don't have to live in this world where you put that spotlight on you. You can change the narrative, and you can start boasting of God. And when you boast of God, God appears. It's something that changes the game completely. It's something that changes the game completely. Because while I remember how weak I am, I boast of God. My God is not weak.

My God is strong. And every time I have insecurities, my God is not insecure. My God is confident. My God is with me. Every time I fail, my God is victorious. My God conquered death, hell, and the grave. Every time I feel alone, my God is with me. Let me boast of Him. He never abandons me. He never fails me. Friends, people betray me, but I come to testify and boast of God. My God is always there. Look. That's called boasting of God. Let God shine. My favorite thing is when people come to church and say, Hey, what are you doing in Miami? A tomb for churches? It's crazy. You are the best leaders. And I say, no. It's called God is shining. In our weakness, He appears. And He is strong. His grace has been enough. Do not let me boast of me. Do not let me boast of my person. There is not the true power. The true power is when I call my God. He comes there and appears shining. And when He shines, things begin to change.

Demons tremble. The earth begins to tremble. Things begin to change. Let's praise God right now. God is shining. God is shining.