Los Ciegos Verán || Victory Church

Muy bien, buenas tardes a todos. Este es el grupo de la UNA. Ustedes están bastante animados. Me gusta. Veo muchos jóvenes aquí esta mañana. Me gusta eso. O esta tarde. Tiene sentido. Son jóvenes, se acuestan tarde. Y es la UNA. Tiene lógica. Amén. Oigan, si tienen una Biblia, abran en Juan capítulo 9. Estamos en una serie llamada El Libro de Juan. Y para aquellos de ustedes que son nuevos, visitándonos, viéndonos en línea, estamos recorriendo El Libro de Juan. Durante todo el año 2026, el Pastor Johnson ha estado liderando el camino y él está ya en D'Acula predicando, o en realidad acaba de predicar. El último servicio allí en D'Acula tuvieron dos servicios, y este es realmente una especie de punto medio de Juan. Estamos un poco más allá de la mitad del año. Terminaremos El Libro de Juan para finales de año, créanme. Y solo vamos a cubrir este capítulo. ¡Háganlo! Me encantaría que tuvieran la Biblia a mano para que puedan consultarla un poco. Pero mientras preparábamos este mensaje, el Señor comenzó a hablarnos a todos los pastores de los campus sobre esto. Realmente este es un punto de inflexión clave en la Biblia. Este es un capítulo de punto de inflexión donde sucede algo dramático. Ocurre una sanidad, un milagro. Por cierto, ¿cuántos de ustedes todavía creen en los milagros? ¿Ustedes creen en los milagros? Sí. Si son nuevos en nuestra iglesia, creemos en los milagros. Creemos en lo sobrenatural. Creemos que el Espíritu Santo actúa como en los días de Jesús. Él dijo, las obras que hice, ustedes también las harán, y mayores, porque voy al Padre. No podemos hacer las obras de Jesús sin lo sobrenatural. Amén. Y por eso creemos en eso. Y todos nosotros, en algún momento u otro, tenemos un encuentro con Jesús. Y muchas veces, después de ese encuentro, determina lo que vamos a hacer por el resto de nuestras vidas. Y el capítulo 9 de Juan es este punto de inflexión donde Dios hace un milagro. Había estado haciendo milagros hasta ese momento. Había convertido el agua en vino. Había multiplicado los panes y los peces. Había sanado a un hombre que era cojo de nacimiento.

Había hecho muchas cosas. Y ahora está a punto de sanar a un hombre ciego que nació ciego. ¿Y va a usar esto como un momento de enseñanza para la iglesia? Porque la iglesia no necesariamente se ve a sí misma como ciega. Pero todos nosotros, por cierto, en caso de que no lo supieran, todos en esta sala, todos los que nos ven en línea, todos en todos nuestros servicios, cada uno de nosotros nació ciego. No sé si lo saben o no, pero nacimos ciegos. No ciegos físicamente necesariamente, sino ciegos espiritualmente. No conocíamos a Dios. No habíamos tenido un encuentro con Dios todavía. Muchos de nosotros vivimos parte de nuestra vida caminando en la oscuridad. A ver, ¿cuántos de ustedes han caminado en la oscuridad en alguna etapa de su vida? Y los que no levanten la mano todavía están en la oscuridad. Así que aún no han visto. Van a ver hoy. Amén. Está bien. Amor, no nos importa. Lo que queremos saber es, lo que queremos que sepan es que todos nacemos ciegos. Y al darte cuenta de que estabas ciego, sabes que necesitas un sanador. Necesitas a Jesús. Y muchas personas nunca salen realmente de la ceguera. Permanecen ciegos toda su vida y Jesús usa esto como un momento de enseñanza. Retomemos en el primer versículo de Juan capítulo 9, donde Jesús comienza a hablar. Él dice que iba pasando. Vio a un hombre ciego de nacimiento. Sus discípulos le preguntaron, ¿Rabí, quién pecó este hombre o sus padres para que naciera ciego?

En el mundo religioso de aquella época, a cualquiera que estuviera enfermo se le asociaba con que tenía que ser un pecador. ¿Algo andaba mal en su vida o no estarían enfermos? Ni este hombre ni sus padres pecaron, dijo Jesús. Pero esto sucedió para que las obras de Dios se manifestaran en él. Mientras sea de día, debemos hacer las obras del que me envió. La noche viene cuando nadie puede trabajar. ¿Cuándo viene eso? ¿Cuándo está sucediendo eso? ¿Ya viene eso o está sucediendo ahora? No, está por venir. Aún no ha sucedido, pero viene el momento en que nadie podrá hacer el trabajo, donde ya no va a suceder más. Y por eso dice, mientras haya luz, es tiempo de trabajar. Todos digan trabajo. Trabajo no es una palabra que asociemos con venir a la iglesia un domingo por la mañana. Es un día en el que pensamos que estamos libres. Pero la realidad es que si miras la Biblia, verás bíblica e históricamente que el domingo no era el día de reposo. No era un día en el que adoraban a Dios. De hecho, si vas a Israel ahora mismo, he estado allí muchas, muchas veces. El domingo es el primer día de la semana laboral en Israel. En la tradición judía, ¿te imaginas que el domingo sea el primer día de trabajo? O sea, nosotros pensamos en el lunes, ellos piensan en el domingo. Así que el cristianismo tuvo que tener una influencia tremenda en ese día. Because eventually they changed the worship on Sunday, it would be as if we worshiped on Monday. And he is saying that the first day, basically, you work for the Lord. You work for the Lord, and here he is saying, we have this time to work, and you have to work while I am in the world, because I am the light of the world. Now, here are the good news. Jesus is still on earth.

He resurrected physically and ascended to heaven. But this is what you have to understand about Jesus. And if you are blind to this, I hope that today you can see that Jesus is still on earth. Where is he? He lives within the people who receive him. Not everyone receives him. Many people remain blind all their lives, but those who receive Jesus, receive the light of Jesus within them. That is why Jesus would say in Matthew, in the great sermon of the mountain, he says, you are the light of the world. You are the light, because I live within you. Now you are a light. Let your light shine while you are still on this earth. In other words, we must live a life as Christians, where our light shines, where people see Jesus within us, so that we can be witnesses of him. Amen. In John 9, verse 6 it says, After saying this, he spat on the ground. He made mud with saliva and put it in the eyes of the man. It was a radical act, something never seen before. He said to him, Go, wash yourself in the pond of Siloam. The man went, washed himself, and returned seeing. His neighbors, who had seen him begging before, asked, Is this not the one who sat down to ask for alms? Some said it was Siloam. Others said, No, it only looks like him. But then he himself insisted, I am the man. I am the one who has just been healed. How is it that your eyes were opened then? They asked him. And he replied, This man named Jesus made a little mud and put it in my eyes.

Without a religious garland, he did not say, Praised be the Lord. Hallelujah. I was healed today. He did not know anything about God. He only knew that there was a man named Jesus. He did not know that he was God made flesh. He did not know that he was the Lord of lords, the King of kings. All he knew was that he was a man. And he said that he simply put a little mud in my eyes. And he told me to go to Siloam and wash myself. So I went and washed myself. And then I could see. Where is this man? They asked him, and he said, I do not know. I do not know where he is. So the first thing you see is Jesus as a man. Then it says in verse 13, That they brought before the Pharisees the man who had been blind. Now this is where the meeting begins to take a different direction. This man has been healed of his blindness. One would think that everyone would be celebrating his healing because he was healed supernaturally. But there was a group of people in the world called the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the religious people of that time. They were the religious people. How many of you know that we still have Pharisees today? We still have people today who are religious, but do not know Jesus. They talk about Jesus, but they put Jesus in a box. In their religious box.

I could not tell you how many seminaries and how many pastors have been taught and trained to believe that Jesus no longer heals people. Today they have taught and trained that Jesus no longer does miracles. Today they have taught and trained that the Holy Spirit does not grant his gifts to his people. Today they are. There are entire religious institutions made up of Pharisees who believe in Jesus. They believe in Jesus, but they do not believe that the works of Jesus continue to work today. They have closed them. I could not tell you how many people are like this in Christianity today. So they took the man to Jesus. They took the man to the Pharisees. And it turns out that the day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes was Saturday. Therefore, the Pharisees also asked him how he had received the sight. And he put mud in my eyes, the man replied, and I washed it, and now I see. Some of the Pharisees said, this man who just did this, this miracle, is not from God. Why is it not from God? Because he does not keep the day of rest. It does not align with our religious teachings. It does not align with our way of thinking. And they turned again. Others asked, but how can a sinner make signs? And they were divided. And they turned to the blind man.

What do you have to say about him? It was your eyes that he opened. And then the man made a statement that enraged the religious. He said, he is a prophet. Now he is elevating him from being a man to a religious figure, a prophet. Which was really frustrating for the Pharisees, because now he is saying, this man, this prophet, has come and has done something that you have not done. You can't do that. He just healed someone, and you can't do that. And so these people were getting angry. They got really angry, and then they started insulting him. They started accusing him of blaspheming against God and all that kind of stuff. And this is what the man said. Without biblical studies or seminaries, he knew everything he knew. He never went or learned anything from the seminary. He never learned anything about the Bible. But all he knew was one thing. Here's the only important thing we need to remember. He said, all I know is this. I was blind, but now I see. Yes, I was blind, but now I see with total clarity. You can't argue with that. You can't argue with that testimony. That's the only thing people can't argue with you about. They can't argue about what God has done in your life. They can't argue about theology. They can't argue about Greek and Hebrew. They can't argue about things that don't align with their ministry philosophy. But they can't argue about your testimony.

And this man shared this with a lot of people. Let me explain something that happens here. Because it's something that happens today. It's always happened throughout history. People never gave it a name until recently. But now we're starting to see it. There's a lot of talk about it. It's called cognitive dissonance. I don't know if you've ever looked up the word cognitive dissonance. But what it basically means is that it is. You have a molded way of thinking. A way of thinking that has developed through your personal experiences. The teachers who taught you. The parents who raised you. The friends you made. All of these things have formed a certain way of thinking in your mind that you think is correct. We all have it. And then sometimes you come into contact with something that happens in your life that doesn't make sense to you. That doesn't align with what they've taught you. That doesn't align with what you've always believed. With how you've always thought. And now you have cognitive dissonance. You have something that happens psychologically in your mind where you feel annoyed because now you're facing something that seems to be a fact. But it doesn't agree with the way you've always believed. And what happens to people, so many people do this, is that they reaffirm what they believe and reject the truth.

You reject the truth of what you see with your own eyes because it doesn't align with your way of thinking. That's what was happening with the Pharisees. That's what happens with religious people. Religious people have often been taught, trained, and equipped theologically to believe in a certain way. And then Jesus appears and does things that don't make sense to their natural mind. So we take the supernatural and simplify it to the natural and create theologies about it saying that all of that disappeared in the time of Jesus and the disciples. Unfortunately, it's not for today. That particular philosophy is called cessationism. And there are literally millions of people in the world who believe it. They don't believe in miracles. And when a miracle happens, they discard it with explanations. They discard it with explanations. Somehow that happened. But that's not God doing that. That's not Jesus doing that. That doesn't make sense because that already happened. I was taught to think that way. Can I tell you something? You're not in one of those churches. You're not in one of those churches. We still believe. We still believe that God continues to heal people today as much as he did 2,000 years ago. I don't know about you, but I still need healing from time to time. Do you need healing? I still need God to do miracles in my life.

And so this is the great conflict. It's starting to get really frustrating. He said, this is the only thing I do. I know I was blind, but now I see. Once you start to know, everything changes. Once you start to know God and see what he does, how he operates, how he works, and how he thinks, your whole life is transformed. And this is what was starting to happen. He is sharing his testimony. And people started to consider if maybe they were religious. The path they were following was wrong. What enraged the religious. That's why he continues. This is what he says. They asked him, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? These are religious people. He replied, I've already told you and you didn't listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples? He knew what the trigger was. He knew how to provoke these Pharisees. He got enraged. Then they insulted him and said, you are a disciple of this man, and this man was born blind. Now he can see, and now they are throwing insults at him. We are disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this man, we do not even know where he comes from.

The man replied, this is remarkable. You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the pious person who does his will. No one has ever heard the eyes of someone who was born blind. If this man did not come from God, he could not do any of this. They replied, you were born in sin. How dare you give us lessons? And they threw him out. I could not tell you how many people have been expelled from churches who did not agree with their systems of pharisaical beliefs. Because they believe that God is still the same today as yesterday, and that he will be forever. I believe that. Do you believe that God continues to do miracles? From that moment, religion began to expand throughout the world, and now we have 10,000, more than 10,000 different religions in the world. In Christianity, we have more than 45,000 denominations in the world. 45,000. This means that each denomination has a slightly different belief from the other denomination. The wonderful thing about this, I mean, the amazing thing about this, is that you can read the Bible from beginning to end, especially the New Testament, and you cannot find denominations in the Bible. However, we have created them. Denominations are different systems of beliefs within the same framework of Christianity.

Literally, thousands and thousands of people affirm that their theology is the correct one, and that their denomination is the true one, and that of all the others is wrong. And what happens is that it causes a great division in the church, and makes the church discuss theology and philosophy instead of bringing people to Jesus. It creates pharisees today. And the reality, brothers and sisters, is that in every church, listen to me carefully, please, including Victory Church, unfortunately, there are also pharisees. In fact, I can go one step further and tell you that each one of us has a little pharisee inside. We all have some cognitive dissonance and a system of beliefs that we believe to be true. Even in the face of facts and truths, we will sometimes deny it because we don't agree with what we always knew. So this encounter continues in John 9, verse 35. Jesus heard that he had been expelled. And when he found him, he said, Do you believe in the Son of Man? Who is He, Lord? The man asked, Tell me so that I may believe in Him. And Jesus said, Have you seen Him? In fact, it is He who is speaking to you. Then the man said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped Him. Jesus said, For judgment's sake, I have come to this world so that the blind may see

and those who see may become blind. There was a great separation that took place after that, from now on. We are living in that season now where there is a great separation between those who see and those who do not see, those who are blind and those who are, those who are able to see. You could be a person who has been healed of blindness and you didn't even know it. You have been healed of spiritual blindness and now you can see God in a new way because you have a relationship with Him. You have gone from religion to relationship. But what we are finding in this scripture is that there are some challenges that are taking place that not everyone in the church is aware of at that moment. But it would occur during the next 2,000 years. It would be the battle between the relationship with Jesus and a religion with Jesus. It is very possible, no matter if you come to victory or not, that we can have a little religion instead of a relationship. So let's talk a little about this. There are a couple of lessons here. Let me give you the first lesson of this verse. Write it down if you are taking notes. People who have changed, change people. Think about this. If you have not yet given your life to Jesus, today is your day of salvation.

It is the moment. Today is your day. If you allow the Lord to speak to you, He will open your blind eyes and allow you to see Him. But if you have already seen Jesus and you already know Jesus, listen, He is telling you, when you have been changed, transformed, This is the sign that you have been transformed. Listen to me. You change people. You change the environment. and you have not yet given your life to Him, He will open your eyes and allow you to see Him. And if you have not yet given your life to Him, listen, He is telling you, You change the people around you. Your relationship with Jesus affects others. You are light in the middle of the darkness. when you have been changed, transformed, That's why when you enter a room, go to work, to the neighborhood, or be with your family, you make a difference in front of those who don't know Jesus. There is a difference between the people who see and the people who are blind. Change people. Change people. I will tell you a little story. So I was saved in 1982. Miraculously, I didn't do it. A guide testified to me, he shared Jesus with me, and I was rejecting him. I already had everything solved. I wanted to know more. I know I don't need Jesus. Jesus. I had been to church. The reason I didn't go to church was because I had been to church and I didn't like the people I saw in church. It was too religious for me. It simply wasn't. I didn't see anything about a relationship with Jesus. I wasn't experimenting. It was just religion, and I didn't want that. Do you want religion? I don't want religion. So I left church, and I was pretty convinced that I was right about it. And this guy started sharing Jesus with me in a supernatural way. He had done some things that somehow got into my life, and while he was sharing Jesus with me, this is what happened. This is something supernatural that happened. He was sitting at the table, and I was on the couch, and he was sharing Jesus with me. Suddenly, a light appeared around him. Just a light. An aura. I know that some of you are sitting there thinking, What is this? That's because you're a pharisee. This is how pharisees act in the face of supernatural things. I'm serious. You don't have to be religious to be a pharisee. You can be a pharisee in the world.

You just don't believe in Jesus. You don't believe in the supernatural. But I saw this. You can't argue like this with my testimony. The truth is that I saw it, and I also experienced it. There was no theology. There was no biblical school that taught me this. No seminary taught me this. I was experiencing it. And while I was experiencing it, I heard it, and it started having an impact on me. And I'm getting a little worried because it's starting to deal with things in my life called sin. Back then, it was. How would we call it? The Bible calls it pagan. How many of you have experienced it? Do you know what I mean? And I was the leader of the pagans. I lived that life as a pagan for 22 years. So I rejected it. I argued with it. I fought with it. Even though I saw a miracle, I kept arguing with it because I had cognitive dissonance. I had already made a decision. I knew what I believed, and I wasn't willing to change what I believed for a miracle, just like these people. So I left it for the next day, and I drove all the way to Atlanta, where my parents were to visit him for a couple of days. And I visited a friend of mine who was a stand-up comedian, and I went out with him that night to see his show. And then we had a night of restlessness. Do you know what the word restlessness means? I think you know what it means. Probably everyone has had a night of restlessness at some point in their lives. And I had a night of restlessness. I came back the next morning, and I was driving back to New York, where I lived for just a couple of days before returning to Richmond. And I was driving through Interstate 85, and I got to the outskirts of Charlotte, North Carolina,

and I had another supernatural experience. At this moment, I have a visitation in the van that I'm driving. A visitation of Jesus. Now I don't see him physically, but I really feel him here with me. I hear him talking to me in a supernatural way. And then he starts talking to me in detail about my life. And for about ten minutes, I just stay there. I start listening very attentively. And then I just can't resist anymore. I can't resist. I knew, without a doubt, that God was real, and I gave my life to Jesus. Driving only through Interstate 85, I stopped in Richmond, Virginia, to see the man who testified to me, and to tell him that I was already a Christian. Immediately, the first thing he said was, I have a word from the Lord for you. A prophecy for you. I didn't know what a prophecy was. I have a prophecy for you. The Lord has his hand on you. He says, one day you will be a pastor of a great church. But I'm only 22 years old and I'm a businessman. One day you will be a pastor of a great church. He said, it's going to be a very unique church, with some very unique things. He says you will face trials at the beginning, but God will equip you and strengthen you, giving you the resilience to overcome the obstacles of planting this church. And you will be a pastor of this church. iglesia. Y sabes, uno pensaría que yo diría, oh eso es increíble. ¿Sabes lo que dije? De ninguna manera. ¿Estás bromeando? No voy a pastorear una iglesia. Los pastores

tienen que hablarle a la gente. Y tengo miedo de hablarle a la gente en público. Una vez tomé una clase de oratoria en la Universidad de Georgia y casi me caigo, me desmayé. Estaba tan nervioso, toda mi voz estaba temblando así, y salí de ahí después de hablar y dije, nunca volveré a hacer eso. Nunca le digas a Dios, nunca volveré a hacer eso, porque esa es la primera cosa que Dios te hará hacer. Así que me fui de allí. Regresé a casa, no sabía nada sobre Dios. Solo sabía que había recibido a Jesús. Todavía no tenía mucha teología bíblica en mí. No conocía la Biblia. Así que todo lo que sabía era que Dios me había salvado. Yo era ciego. Y ahora al observar, lo primero que veo es esto. Y esto es lo que noté sobre las personas que deciden cambiar. Cuando realmente cambian, quieren compartir lo que les sucedió. Así que comencé a compartir con la gente lo que me había pasado. Con extraños, con personas musulmanas, con homosexuales, con gente de otras religiones, con personas que tenían problemas y con personas de todos los niveles educativos, tanto altos como bajos. Y simplemente compartía mi historia con ellos. Y noté que compartía mi historia periódicamente. No todos, pero algunas de estas personas empezaban a escuchar y tenían un momento como el que yo tuve con Dios, donde Dios empezaba a hablarles y ellos se salvaban. Y empecé a ver a muchas personas salvarse. Realmente no sabía cómo hacer la oración de salvación. Solo sabía que necesitaba decirles que necesitaban rendirse ante Jesús. Y eso fue lo que hicieron. Oraba con ellos para que se rindieran ante Jesús. Era todo lo que sabía entonces, pero los guiaba hacia él. Y entonces un día estaba en Pittsburgh, Pensilvania, en un centro comercial y conocí a una chica totalmente desconocida. Ella se acercó a mí. Estaba haciendo negocios allí. Se acercó a mí y fingió mucho interés en lo que estaba vendiendo, pero en realidad solo le interesaba Y la verdad es que estaba coqueteando un poco conmigo y bueno me pareció bastante atractiva. Así que le seguí el juego. Ten en cuenta que no sé nada sobre citas cristianas. No sé nada al respecto. No está bien estar con alguien que sabía que no era yugo desigual. No sabía nada sobre eso. Conocí a esta chica. Se veía bonita, así que le hablé y la invité a almorzar. Esa noche la llevé al cine con

un amigo. Al salir los tres nos quedamos conversando porque la película tenía una temática cristiana y simplemente estábamos hablando de eso y este tipo era ateo y empezó a criticar la película y a decir lo estúpida que era y que el cristianismo esto y aquello y empecé a defender el cristianismo frente a esta chica a la que apenas conocía. Se sintió incómoda y dijo tengo que irme. Se levantó, salió y subió a su coche. La seguía afuera pensando bueno esto se acabó. Se acabó para ella. Ya no está interesada en mí. Ya ha enterado de que soy un cristiano agente secreto. Nos subimos al coche y ella dice soy católica. Dice soy católica y no estoy acostumbrada a tener conversaciones religiosas como esta. Y le dije bueno no sé mucho sobre los católicos. Realmente no sé qué es lo que crees pero esto es lo que yo sé. Esto es lo que pasó y entonces compartí mi testimonio. Mi testimonio con ella y cerca de una hora después tras hablar de esto le dije todo lo que sé es que yo estaba ciego y ahora veo y le di una oportunidad. Le dije ¿Crees que deberías recibir a Jesús como tu Señor y Salvador? Esta es nuestra primera cita, un momento inolvidable y ella dijo sí, sí quiero y en ese instante ella se salvó, realmente se salvó. 45 años después sigo casado con esa mujer. Es la misma mujer con la que estoy casado. La lleve al Señor en nuestra primera cita. Así que me mudé de regreso a Richmond. Dios me mandó vender mi negocio y ayudar a esta iglesia por eso me mudé a Richmond. Ella decidió bajar finalmente a visitarme y empezamos a ir a la iglesia juntos y noté que algo realmente me pasó después de que llegué a Richmond. Dejé de guiar a la gente hacia Jesús. Hubo una temporada en la que todo se secó, en la que no lograba que nadie se salvara y no sabía por qué. ¿Sabes por qué? ¿Sabes por qué dejé de guiar a la gente hacia Jesús? Eso te va a sorprender. Viniendo de un pastor, me uní a una iglesia, me uní a una iglesia y cuando entré en la iglesia empecé a involucrarme y a participar tanto en ella. Grupos pequeños, estudios bíblicos, ir al servicio. Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, all my friends became Christians.

And in a short time, I lost contact with the lost people. Do you know that this can happen to anyone? This can happen to you. You can become so consumed by the Church that you start adopting the Church instead of Christianity. And that's what happens. That's what happens to so many people. They come to the Church. Now, the Church is not designed for that. But the reality is that there is a tension when we go to the Church. There is a tension that begins to occur between the internal ministry of the Church and the external mission of the Church. This is a tension that every pastor carries with them. Everyone who understands the calling of God in their life carries that with them. We have to make sure that the Church is balanced between the internal ministry and the external mission. On the contrary, if you make everything revolve around the internal ministry, listen to me, what you will get is mainly other people from the Church leaving their churches to come to yours. And you will be recycling Christians. Do you know that some of you are recycled? You left another church. You came to Victory because it was a better church. As soon as another better one arises, you will leave Victory for it. We jump from church to church,

as if we were shopping. This is how Christianity works. There are so many churches built on recycled Christians instead of lost people who come to Christ. When you build a church on recycled Christians, you stop gaining people for Jesus. You focus only on the interior and you completely forget about the exterior. Are you okay with me? Do you forget that God changed you? Remember that we are singing that song, I am so grateful, that song of gratitude, and it is a great song. I mean, when you sing it, it resonates. Man, you give me opportunity after opportunity. I am so grateful. How do you show your gratitude? You see, we think that our demonstration is going to the church. The church is our demonstration, but the true demonstration of your gratitude is to share what God has done for you with those who have not had that experience. Now, while you applaud, let me ask you a question. When was the last time you shared your faith with someone who was not a Christian? When was the last time you spoke about your faith with a partner, a neighbor, a family member,

or someone God put in your life? When was the last time you shared your faith? You know, a study has been done in the United States that indicates that less than 2% of the church shares their faith. Less than 1% has ever guided a person to Christ. How do we achieve such a large and mostly recycled church? Now, we determined a long time ago, okay, we cannot be a church of recycled Christians. We must be a church, an army that leads people to Christ. Amen. That is why, from time to time, we have to purge our religion. We cannot allow ourselves to become religious. We do not want to be Pharisees. And sometimes it just happens to us slowly when we enter the church, and especially in large churches like Victory. You can enter a large church and say, well, look, they have a lot of people. We do not need to bring anyone here. They have a lot of people. This is, unfortunately, the service with the least assistance from everyone. So the point is that you have to go back, remember what God did in your life, and start sharing it with other people. Remember, changed people change other people.

Second, religious people repel people. Religious people repel people. The Pharisees of that time were religious people and they did not attract, they repelled. And as soon as Jesus, the true Jesus, the Jesus who gives life, appears on stage and heals a blind man, instead of celebrating what God was doing, they rejected him because he did not align with their cognitive dissonance of religion. They had become so religious that they could not see what God was doing right in front of their own eyes. Religious people usually repel people instead of attracting them. This is what happens a lot of times when we go to church for too long and we do not share our faith, we begin to become religious. How many of you have heard of the comedian Jeff Foxworthy? Let me see your hands. Have you heard of him? All the white people raised their hands. El es un paleto blanco, oíde él, gente negra, ¿quién? Jeff Foxworthy, ¿quién es ese? En fin, es un comediante redneck blanco, es famoso en Atlanta, creció aquí, lo conozco personalmente, es un buen tipo.

Se le ocurrió un tema de comedia una vez, tal vez recuerden esto, podría ser un redneck, sí. Y luego, de repente, hace todas estas bromas sobre los rednecks, y me encanta porque, bueno, yo era un redneck. Crecí siendo un redneck, así que sé lo que es eso. Y entonces empecé a pensar, por alguna razón, cuando estaba preparando este mensaje, el señor me recordó eso. Y él dijo, ¿por qué no haces algo sobre, podría ser una persona religiosa, sí, o un fariseo? ¿Podría ser un fariseo, sí? Muy bien, así que déjenme darles algunas ideas, y luego voy a meterme un poco con ustedes, porque algunos de ustedes hacen estas cosas. Pero está bien, ¿no quieres ser liberado de la religión? Muy bien, no queremos venir aquí con religión, queremos que sea purgada de nosotros. Muy bien, podría serlo. Podría ser religioso, si cuando hablas con la gente, dices cosas como, gloria a Dios, aleluya, bendito sea el Señor. Soy altamente favorecido. Bendecido y altamente favorecido. ¿De dónde sacaste eso? ¿No sacaste eso de la Biblia? Eso lo sacaste de algún predicador religioso, bajo el cual solías sentarte, que se paboneaba por el escenario diciendo cosas así. Y cada dos palabras eran, gloria a Dios, aleluya, amén, amén. Oye, vamos, amén, amén. Sabes de lo que estoy hablando, ¿verdad? El único problema es que eso queda bien en la iglesia,

pero no queda tan bien allá afuera, en el mundo perdido. Y si no entiendes eso, podrías pensar que realmente estás testificando cuando haces eso. Quizás podrías ser considerado una persona religiosa si tus vecinos solo te conocen cuando te ven caminando por el vecindario, extendiendo tu mano hacia su casa, hablando en lenguas. Algunos de ustedes se están riendo de sí mismos. Acabas de hacer eso ayer. Podrías ser religioso si... Ahora, esto se va a poner un poco personal, así que prepárate. Podrías ser religioso si piensas que hablar de política es mucho más importante que hablar de Jesús. Y eso es algo que realmente deberíamos cuestionar, que de alguna manera tienes que defender tu postura política porque se alinea con tu sistema de creencias cristianas. Y no reconoces que cuando empiezas a hacer eso y a defenderlo como dogma, comienzas a separarte de las personas perdidas. Las personas perdidas están bastante frustradas con los cristianos en este momento porque se han vuelto tan políticos que la política se ha convertido en su religión. Hay dos religiones básicas que están circulando en el mundo en este momento que mantienen a la gente en esclavitud. Una es la justicia social y la otra es la política. Ahora, esto no quiere decir que no tengamos una opinión sobre los políticos,

pero cuando te vuelves tan político y luego te aferras al punto en el que vi a predicadores haciendo esto, especialmente durante los últimos ciclos electorales. Si no dices esto sobre aquello y no dices esto sobre aquello desde tu púlpito, deberías dejar esa iglesia e ir a otra que sí lo diga. Definiendo a una iglesia, ya sea que se base en los republicanos o en los demócratas, la Biblia dice que él construye su trono sobre la rectitud y la justicia. Es decir, el trono de Dios está construido sobre esos dos principios. Los principios demócratas suelen estar más enfocados en la justicia e ignoran la rectitud. Y los republicanos están más enfocados en la rectitud y muchas veces ignoran la justicia. Y el diablo tomó los dos pilares sobre los que Dios construye su trono y los convirtió en partidos políticos que se oponen, dividiendo a la gente en toda nuestra nación porque sabe que una nación dividida contra sí misma no puede mantenerse en pie. ¿Qué pasaría si vivieras tu vida con rectitud y justicia? ¿Qué pasaría si ambas fueran importantes para ti? En lugar de ser político, sé bíblico. Amén. Lo sé, lo sé, lo sé. Sé lo que algunos de ustedes están pensando.

Eso es porque eres un fariseo y ni siquiera lo sabes. Ni siquiera lo sabes. Algunos piensan que la política es cómo vamos a cambiar nuestra nación. No cambias una nación mediante la política. Cambias la nación llevando a las personas a Cristo. En lugar de orar para que la política cambie, ora para que Dios... He sends his fire upon the earth and abounds the United States. He awakens the United States to Christ and lets the Church awaken to win people for Christ. If the Church did its job, if it mobilized, it is a sleeping giant. But it spends most of its time discussing politics or social justice instead of preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost and dying world. Are you okay out there? Religious people repel people. And finally, people who are truly pious always share with others. If you are a pious person, everything God has done in your life, listen carefully, you share everything with others. He did it for you to share it. He did it for you to share it. Every Gospel ends with a declaration of Jesus. Go. Everyone say go. Go. Get out of the church. Go.

Go to the world and preach the Gospel, the good news of Jesus. Preach to people. Do not preach like a preacher, but live a life that preaches the Gospel to them. Live like Jesus. Shine like Jesus. Touch people like Jesus. Get involved in people's lives. Share the Gospel. People ask me all the time after each service, how do you do it? How do you share the Gospel? I say it is not so complicated. But here, every time I meet someone in my life who is not saved, and I have to make an effort for it because I am a pastor, and I spend a lot, too much time with you, and not enough time with the lost people. So I have to go out forcefully and intentionally to meet the lost people. So every time I do it, one of the first things I do instead of trying to preach to them is to ask them questions. I try to find out where they are, what their needs are, what they believe in. They say, well, I am a Muslim. But I don't say, well, you are just a believer. Are you the devil or are you a Muslim? You try to bring those people and change our country. I ask, what do Muslims believe? What do you believe? They begin to tell me their beliefs and I just keep asking questions. What do you think of eternal life? What do you believe? Who is the Savior?

How do you go to heaven? All these kinds of things. What do you think about all these things? And they love it when I give them free rein. Evangelize me. I am pretty sure of what I believe, but go ahead, evangelize me. And after they have said everything they had to say, they realize that this is not, frankly, a typical Christian. Most Christians try to convince me that I don't believe what I believe. And then I tell them, do you want to know what I believe? Half of the time they will say yes. The other half just stays quiet. And if they shut up, I don't try to force it. If they accept, I will tell them what I think and I will enter into a conversation. It's not always like that, but most of the time I show interest and try to bring them value. I am trying to do something to open their hearts before trying to put something in them. Many Christians try to reach people's hearts when this one is not open. It opens up by loving and serving others, by being a servant to your neighbors and co-workers. What would happen if tomorrow, instead of your biblical study or your podcast, you invited someone to have lunch away from God and you paid the bill? Pay for it. Pay for it. I have a friend who is very, very rich, so he can do this. He does it. Every day he asks his assistant to give him five hundred dollar bills. Every day, every day of his life. And every day he looks for people to give him a hundred dollar bill. He gives it to them simply to bless them, as if they had helped him do something or anything that they could have done.

It is in addition to any tip that he may be giving. He likes to give it to him because he found out. He considers that it is more blessed to give than to receive. And he? And he told me, he says, I am trying to be the richest person in heaven, not on earth. And it is not achieved by accumulating things, clinging to them or letting others pay. It is achieved by being constantly generous and giving to others. And the more generous you are, you would be surprised at how open the hearts are when you do something for them instead of asking them for something. Very well. The Lord gave me an illustration and we are going to conclude with this illustration. This is what the Lord told me. He told all of us, the shepherds, that we should do. So I have brought something that I want to share with you. ¿Ven esto? ¿Pueden verlo? ¿Les gusta Krispy Kreme? ¿Quién quiere un Krispy Kreme? Vamos. ¿Quién quiere una dona Krispy Kreme? Sé que es por la tarde. Les va a arruinar el almuerzo. Muy bien, déjenme bajar aquí y compartir un poco con la congregación. Esto es sólo una ilustración, así que ténganme paciencia, porque tomará sólo un minuto hacerlo. Pero compartamos con... ¿Quiero? Quiero usar este Krispy Kreme para comenzar mi grupo pequeño. Muy bien, veamos aquí. Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis. ¿Podrías moverte un poco hacia acá, sólo por un momento, para que pueda tener mi... Este es mi grupo pequeño aquí, chicos. Todos. Joven, ustedes comen Krispy Kreme, ¿verdad? Muy bien, muy bien, déjenme ver. Muy bien, todos, tomen una, sólo una. Este es mi grupo pequeño. Venga, tomen una Krispy Kreme. Pueden tomarla y pueden comerla si quieren. Sí, adelante, adelante. Verán, en otros servicios, la gente mayor no quería tomarla. No puedo. Eso no está en mi dieta. Ustedes pueden permitirse esto. Coman esto todo el día. No les hará subir ni una libra. Muy bien, así que ahora me quedan algunas. Me quedan algunas, chicos. Todas. Ustedes sigan adelante y empiecen a comer. Déjenme ir a compartir esto con alguien más. No, cambié de opinión. Sólo tengo espacio para cinco. Para las seis personas de mi vida, en realidad, sólo tengo uno, dos, tres, cuatro. Ahora sólo me quedan cinco. Alguien robó una dona de aquí.

Lo siento. Ahora voy a empezar contigo. Que los últimos sean los primeros. Toma otra. Déjame dar en mi pequeño grupo. Sólo quiero mantenerlos en mi pequeño grupo aquí mismo. Así que no puedes tomarla. Muy bien, aquí, tómala ahí. Ese es un buen chico. Gracias por hacer eso. Entonces, todos reciben dos, dos, dos en este pequeño grupo mío. Muy bien, entonces, les quiero contar que este es mi grupo. Ya no tengo espacio para nadie más. Así que yo, yo, pero espera un minuto. ¿Hay algo por aquí? Oh, Dios mío. ¿Qué es esto? ¿Qué es esto? Oh, Dios mío, no puede ser. Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis. Oh, ¿ustedes quieren Krispy Kreme? Lo siento. Sólo tengo espacio para estas seis personas en mi vida. Aquí tienes. Toma una caja entera. Simplemente toma la caja tú mismo. Una caja para ti, una caja para ti. Vamos, vamos, caja. Sí, hombre. Sí, sí, ahí tienes. Estoy bendiciendo a mi pequeño grupo. Vamos a tener reuniones. Vamos a tener estudios bíblicos. Vamos a tener podcasts. Voy a ser tu mentor. Vamos a acercarnos. Olviden a estas personas de aquí, a toda esta otra gente que está perdida y se va al infierno. Vamos a ir al cielo con estas donas Krispy Kreme. Pero, ¿qué pasaría si de repente tuvieras la revelación de lo que he estado hablando hoy? ¿Y tú qué harías con todas esas donas Krispy Kreme? ¿Quién quiere una dona Krispy Kreme? Vamos, salgan y compártanlas. Compártanlas con todos los demás. Levanten la mano si quieren una dona. Ahora, todos ustedes que están sentados atrás, lo siento. Eso es lo que se ganan por sentarse atrás. Vale la pena estar cerca. Amén. ¿Ven lo que está pasando aquí mismo? Escuchen. ¿Ven lo que está pasando aquí mismo? Escuchen. Esto es lo que quiero que hagan. Esto es lo que Dios quiere que hagamos. Esto es lo que Dios quiere que hagamos. Si Dios te ha bendecido con algo que ha cambiado tu vida, ¿por qué te lo guardarías solo para unas pocas personas? ¿No lo compartirías con todos los que pudieras hasta que se te acabara, hasta que ya no te quedara nada? ¿Qué pasaría al final? ¿Qué pasaría si el pueblo de Dios compartiera el Evangelio de esa manera? ¿Qué pasaría si dedicáramos nuestras vidas a compartir el Evangelio en lugar de un microcosmos del Evangelio solo con nosotros, unos pocos? La iglesia, la gente que va a la iglesia, nuestro estudio bíblico, nuestro grupo pequeño, cosas así.

No hay nada de malo en tener un grupo pequeño. Está bien, pero no sean un grupo pequeño que se mantiene pequeño. Recuerdo hablar con un pastor al que ayudaba a hacer crecer su iglesia de unas 700 u 800 personas. Y estábamos sentados cenando y su esposa me mira y dice, ella dice, ¿por qué querríamos hacer crecer nuestra iglesia? Y yo me quedé como, digo, vaya. We are such a good community. We have so much closeness. Everyone knows everyone. That is exactly what the Pharisees did. We don't want to reach people. We want to expel people. We want to keep it to ourselves. What would happen if the Church shared the Gospel outside of its walls? What would happen if tomorrow at work you invited someone to lunch or you started to get to know them? What would happen if you approached a neighbor, brought him a cake, cut the grass, or served him? What would happen if you called a family member with whom you have been angry all your life and said, I don't have time to be angry with you. I don't have time to be offended with you. I forgive you or forgive me, please. And let's move on with life. Inside you are thinking, because you need Jesus. I do. How many of you have family members who need Jesus? They are in your family because they are waiting for you. How many of you have neighbors who need Jesus? You have neighbors in your apartment complex, in your neighborhood,

who need Jesus. They don't need another decal in their car or another sign in their garden about Jesus. They need to know you. They need to know you. Now, this is where the rubber touches the asphalt. And let's conclude with this final thought. This is exactly where the rubber touches the asphalt. If you are here today, and you are listening to this message, and then you go home, and you just leave it aside and do nothing with it, listen to me carefully, you are slowly becoming a pharisee, and you don't even realize what is happening. God wants to free our church from a pharisaical religious spirit. We have to purge it from time to time. We have to keep it that way, because many times when we are in the church, we simply focus on the church, on the speaker, on the message, on the music, and on all those kinds of things. And we forget that the main purpose of our life is not to go to church, but to be the church. That is the main purpose. Jesus spent very little time in the church. He spent most of his time with lost people,

and the religious criticized him. He said to them, Listen, I don't have time to minister to you. You are already saved. I am out here with the sick, those who suffer, those who are broken, those who really need me. This is Jesus. And by the way, when you receive Jesus in your heart, He lives inside of you, and He really wants to do the same through you. You have to break that religious spirit that is over you. You have to break it. You have to break that self-centered egoism that everything is about me and my four, my six, and my eight, and get to that place where whoever you are, wherever you go, you are representing Jesus. You are the light of the world. You are the light. So I want to pray for you. I want to pray for you. Could you bow your heads for a moment? Let this fall on us. Let this fall deeply on our hearts. Because these are the kinds of teachings that when you encounter them, you rarely see them in the church today. Today, many only seek to build the church,

to make it bigger and more powerful. But the power of the church is not measured by how many attend, but by how many go out to preach Jesus to a lost world. That is the true strength of the church. Thank you, Lord, for freeing us from religion and pharisaical thoughts. Free us from the things we have raised above the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Break that spirit. Break that in us, God, and show us how to be bolder in our faith, how to be more open to sharing the gospel. Give us more courage than we have had in the past. Break the spirit of fear and intimidation in us. Free us from fear of man and help us to be witnesses of Jesus to people, to the world in which we live and in which we develop. Every day brings an unction about our lives, Lord, to share the gospel even today and tomorrow, every day, Lord. Just think of opportunities to share the gospel, Lord. I am praying for that, and I am also praying for those of us who are here. We are listening to this message, but we cannot fully connect with it because we are still blind. We have not seen Jesus as we need to. We have not experienced Jesus. Maybe you are here today and you recognize that your life is not yet fully surrendered to Jesus.

Maybe you have never really given all your heart to Him. And I want to tell you that that in this moment, God is speaking directly to your soul He is speaking to you you can reject it or you can accept it and when God speaks to us, we have the option to choose to follow Him live for Him, or choose to follow our own path that is your choice we cannot make that decision for you but I just want to tell you that if God is ministering to you this afternoon and you say God is speaking to me right now He is speaking to me about changing my life changing the direction of my life regretting my sins and the things I have done in the past and letting God forgive me if that is you today, in this whole building and even those of you who are watching us online I want to pray for you what I would like you to do is simply to recognize it, raising your hand saying, that is me, Jesus that is me thank you, many of you can lower your hands let us do this prayer this is a prayer that everyone does it is a starting point, not the end but let us say it together Jesus, in this moment I repent of my sins

everything in my life where I have chosen to follow my own path I ask you to forgive me I firmly believe that you are Jesus the Son of the Living God who died on a cross for my sins and rose again gloriously from among the dead and today, Jesus I take the conscious and sincere decision to give you completely my whole life so that you may be the one who guides it from now on come now, enter my heart change me from inside to outside to be a new person from now on in the name of Jesus now let us take our hands and raise them above our heads Lord, we simply surrender to you this is an act of surrender we surrender to you, Lord Lord, I give you thanks because as we surrender you put your hand on us you anoint us to do good and heal all who have been oppressed by the enemy anointing us as winners of souls

people who win others for Christ who take people from darkness to light thank you for changing us and helping us to change others in the name of Jesus and everyone said Amen and Amen let's celebrate with all the people who gave their hearts to Christ We just want you to know that we see you you are important to us and we would love to continue creating things in the future that bless you so send us a letter and we look forward to seeing you soon