No Lo Vi Venir | Por Qué Importa la Escritura | Kyle Rodgers

Amen. Hello. It's a very good day to be in the Lord's house. Amen. In all our localities. I have to take a moment and stop and say that it's important to see how people and their lives change when they publicly teach their faith. Let's give God the biggest praise. Hallelujah. God, you are good. Your mercy is forever. Amen. Well, last week, Pastor Jeremy told us about this series that we were talking about. We didn't see it coming. We were in the book of Jaime, the half-brother of Jesus, who initially didn't believe that his brother was who he said he was. But after the resurrection, well, when someone comes back from death and talks about this, you start to believe it, right? They're quiet. They're not talking. Well, let's talk about the book of Jaime. If you're new, there's a barcode here on the screen. I hope you can download the reading plan of the book of Jaime so you can see everything that's going on. Whether you're looking to see if City First is your home or not, or if you want to follow Jesus or not, if you're in the right place or not. Well, that's a good place to start. Jaime chapter one, verse 22 and 25. We're going to read the following. It says, Sam, let's say this word. I'm going to say, say it. Say it as if you really care. It says, you have to be... You don't just have to hear the word.

You have to put it into practice. Otherwise, they'll fool themselves. Well, if you hear the word but you don't see it, it would be like seeing your face in a mirror. You see yourself. Then you move away and you forget who you are. But if you look attentively into the perfect law that sets you free and you put it into practice and you don't forget what you heard and you do, then God will bless you for your obedience and for what you do. I love what Jaime says in this scripture. This word is to do. And in the original language, the original word was the one who obeys or understands the law. James is pointing to the half-brother of Jesus. Some theologians say that Jaime was like a combination of the sermon in the mountain or in the hill as if the two brothers were sitting there in a blender without a filter, they tell us. The underlying theme, spiritual maturity. In this, well, what does it do? Hopefully, we say, well, it challenges them, right? It challenges them. And you know what? You don't just listen, you do. This principle is not new to us because those of us who are married, someone I've seen says, don't tell me you love me. Show me, there's only five people. Well, that's enough to keep evangelizing, right? If you're married, you know this. Parents, you know that we love our children. We are the Uber drivers, the drivers that take them everywhere to play sports, right?

We do this because we love them. The expression of a relationship with Jesus is that we don't just listen to the word, we do the word. One of the rhythms that I've been teaching as I've been following Jesus for three decades is to learn to live the word. And it's important for me personally. As I was praying and asking God, how do I communicate this to you? This is what he said. This is it. This is the rhythm. Memorize the scriptures. Memorize the scriptures. It's like having spiritual reflections at any time, in any circumstance. When pressure comes into your life, you have to be there prepared, at an important level of preparation with scriptures. My coach would say, in the last quarter, don't go up to the level of your talent. Go down to the level of your practice. If this is the case, then as we walk biblically, I bring five reasons why it's important to learn the scriptures to move in the direction of maturing as believers. And Jaime says, not only do we have to listen to the word, but we have to do it, we have to live it.

Memorizing the scriptures is not just... to learn information, but to really form reflections for any circumstance that throws us into life. You have to have knowledge. Knowledge makes us arrogant, right? But it can't just be that we put something in our head, it has to be in our heart as well. Because it's important to memorize the scripture, because the scripture protects your heart. Psalm 119 says, I have kept your word in my heart so that I will not sin against you. In Psalm 119 verse 111. And Father, we understand this because before breakfast, we have given 5,800 commandments to our children and we have repeated them another 500 times, right? We understand what this is. And we do it, and we repeat the things to our children with the hope that one day our children will operate without our voice being there, because they've heard it many times. This is what he's saying here in Psalm 119. He says, I put your word not only in my brain, but in my heart. And well, for me to hurt the relationship between you and your creator is significantly lower when his word is in your heart and it's repeated. When the scripture lives in you, it interrupts any impulse.

Talk to me. Talk to me today. When the scripture is in your heart, it interrupts impulses. Sometimes I have impulses. And when I'm on Instagram, you've done it too, so don't judge me so hard. I realize that sometimes you end up buying sheets that you didn't want to buy. You get home and you bring things to clean. You don't even clean your house, and your kids do it, but you buy things to clean the house that you saw. You know what? I also like sneakers a lot, sneakers, and I bought these sneakers. And well, when I was little, I couldn't. And then imagine my inner self, little, healing from trauma, buying a lot of sneakers. This happens. But if I'm living my life based upon these impulses, who knows that what I'm doing with my finances, my wife, well, she's not going to be very happy. And what the scripture does is it helps us so we don't go out of our budget, right? And you have to know how to put limits. Limits are new. You see limits in this football field, right? Out of balance, out of line. And the best part of the game is inside the line, these messages that come into your phone.

You've seen all the messages that pop up on your phone, and maybe you've already deleted the app. And there's this thing that asks you, are you sure that you want to delete this? Who knows, that sometimes you laugh, or well, sometimes what do you have to do? You have to delete them, and sometimes you laugh. And sometimes you have to delete them. Let's be clear, in this place, in all the places, wherever you're listening to us, I hate this. Interrupt this one that's here on the screen. Mm-hmm, yeah, that's the devil right there. Why? Because you can see the devil right there. That's just the devil. My son says, hey, are you driving at the speed limit? I said, yeah, yeah, close. And what does that stop you? Well, in the schools, in the school areas, and in the neighborhoods, they make us slow down, and it helps people to be safe. The same with the scriptures. It helps us to stay safe. There's an indicator that says, oh, be careful. There's a little indicator that goes on. It says the following, after four in verse 12, be careful of your heart. I'm seeing above all, be careful of your head.

Ah, I'm seeing if they're awake. No, be careful of your heart, because everything you do flows from this. When the scripture is what guards your heart, before you move forward, right? You can't guard it with positivity, nothing more. You cannot just guard your heart only with something that feels good. If every time you read the scripture and you walk away feeling good, you read it wrong. If every time you read the scripture, you walk away feeling good, you read it wrong. You're feeling that you want to feel good. It's something that helps you to motivate you. You're reading the word incorrectly. It's a mirror. And in the mirror, I don't want to look at myself. I want to look at him. When Jaime, in chapter 1, verse 22, talks about this mirror, well, he didn't have mirrors like we had before where they had reflection. They used, what can you say, silver, and they had to shine a light on it to see if there was reflection. They also used brass. And you say, well, Kyle, what are you saying? You have to intentionally and intentionally

look for the reflection, not the one you want to see, but the one God wants you to see so that you can see how you look in the mirror of the word of God. What do you look like in the mirror of God's word? If not, you and I will see each other in places where we take care of our hearts with emotions. And who knows that emotions are fragile. They're going to lie to you. Oh, one day you're in love, one day, and the next day, breaking the glass of that same person. Emotions lie. Take care of your heart with the philosophy of the culture of the day. And that philosophy changes over time. But taking care of our hearts, and the scripture says, above all, requires us to have that limit, that correct filter, where we filter the things we see and the things we think. And when we run and we teach and we learn the scriptures, the word of God teaches us to have limits for our words, for our decisions, but not just for our soul. I'm from that generation of hip hop, and there are some things that I have in my mind, hip hop, and the moment someone starts talking

and I start rapping this, because it's not appropriate to say it out loud sometimes, but I start to say it out loud. Imagine, if this is not always the way the songs go, how should the word of God be when we put it in our heart? Amen. The second reason, why does it matter? Well, because it redirects us. Right? It says, don't conform to this world, but it's been transformed by renewing your mind, so that by renewing your mind, you can see by the renewal of your mind, what is good and what is acceptable before the eyes of God and perfect. Your mind is constantly being manipulated by the culture, by the news, by what we see on social media, by the conversations. And none of that asks for permission to impact what you think. And if this is true, we should not live in a defensive place, then we must not be offended, but be on the offensive. And what do we do? Well, having the scriptures memorized, because it gives language to the Holy Spirit to be able to change our way of thinking in life. I feel like I'm going to say this at home. Having the scriptures memorized,

I feel like we can help you not to say rudeness to people who maybe, well, there are seven people who are honest here who laughed enough to continue. Memorize the scriptures, and that's going to help you not to be offended by someone's posts on Facebook. Oh, they're quiet now. I better come talk to you. When you memorize the scripture or the word of God, you start to be the solution to your community and not a part of the problem. And someone says, yes, yes, yes, write it down, write it down, write it down. I like the word that Paul uses in Romans 12. He says the word transform in the original language is called anachronosis and it means a total renovation. Similar to what you would see with a building, a house, a vehicle, a total renovation. Similar to what you would see with a household. Sometimes it's a totally different thing. And sometimes it looks like it's something better. And maybe not completely something. It's a case of something what? The number one question is how much is it going to cost to renovate? The number one question that you should ask when it comes to your questions is how much is it going to cost? and the scripture, how much is it going to cost? Maybe we should ask ourselves, how much is it going to cost if we don't renew our minds and our thoughts?

Maybe we should ask ourselves, how much is it going to cost? God can transform a whole family through his word. God can change the trajectory of someone's future through his word. God can change the trajectory of someone's future through his word. Where are we? God can change what you think of yourself and where you are as you move forward in life if you keep your heart and your head in his word. If you will keep your heart and your head in his word. The word is, are we willing to do what my pastor says, to do deep, internal work and get what we don't need? The third reason is that the scriptures strengthen us under pressure. I know it's not a hip hop song. It's like a song, under pressure, under pressure. If you know it, it's a song. Well, well, well. The half brother of Jesus knew what it was like to have pressure, especially in Matthew, Mark and Luke. He's navigating the temptation. And I love to say this at the beginning. If Jesus had to go through the temptation, we have to go through the temptation. And when Satan came to tempt him, he comes with the same thing today. He tries to take away the identity of Jesus,

the hunger for Jesus and the influence of Jesus. He comes to us. And he says, well, Jesus says, what are we hungry for? Who are we? The identity. If Satan can come to stumble on us on this walk with Jesus, imagine, right? And well, Jesus answers the three temptations, these moments of writing, with writing that had already been memorized for this moment. I want to stop here because this example in Matthew 4, 1, this teaches us that Jesus did not respond with emotion. He did not fight with the devil. He only brought the truth. And you know, Jesus did not respond with emotion. He did not debate the devil. He said, I don't know, I don't know, I don't remember. I have to check in the book. I don't remember. I don't know. I don't know if you need to Google it or look it up. I want you to know that the level I'm not hating on you if you've got to use JavaScript, but you Google it and you'll know what I'm talking about. I just want you to know that when we memorize the word of God, we can respond like Jesus.

And it's written like that. He didn't say, oh, how I feel. He didn't say, how I feel. He didn't say, what I think, no. He didn't say, what I think, no. He said, Deuteronomy, he said, I, he said, I, and he puts it in front of the enemy and he says, I'm not going to fall into that temptation or the pressure that you're bringing me because it's already written. Students would not know how to respond to the temptation of your day. Let me be abundant, of course. Just because you're 15, 17, or 22, doesn't mean you have to make stupid decisions. No, we're going to make them when we grow up. Just because you are 15, 17, 22, doesn't mean you have to always make dumb decisions. No, we're going to make them when we grow up. Stupid decisions. Do you know how you change your growth trajectory? In wisdom, as you grow up, you feed on the word of God. You memorize what he says about your identity. You memorize what he says about who you were created to be. And how you are made in his likeness. You memorize what he says about God. Even if it's not from God, submit it to God. You memorize what he says about your future.

Run from the devil, resist him, and he's going to leave you. You memorize what he says about your future. We don't have to make stupid decisions. And sometimes we do because we don't memorize the scripture. We don't have to make dumb decisions. Most of the time, we make dumb decisions. And to be clear, maybe you're seeing someone here who's between 17 and 23. I personally, I said, boy, a lot of really bad things or stupid decisions. Because I knew the word in my head, but I didn't have it in my heart. Where because I knew the word in my mind, Jesus did not react with emotion or try to fight. He responded with, this is how it is written, because you do not challenge temptation, you do not win over temptation with good intentions, you win over it with the truth memorized and you can not take it out on an account that never had money to put it that way. The scripture fills you with this inner fire. You can not do a retreat without a deposit so to speak. In John, the half brother of Jesus says, if you are in me, you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask what you want and it will be done for you. Now, that interpretation of that scripture is that Jesus is our genius because we already raised our hands and said, we are here to serve you and here we are. And who says that? That is not the case. What Jesus is pointing to here is that we are in alignment with Jesus. Jesus is pointing to here is that we are in alignment with Jesus. When we are in the space where we start asking things, they are already things that he says yes, because we do not ask things out of the parameter of his word. If you remain in me and my words remain in you and you are aligned, when the scriptures fill you, you will start to pray with the relationship that we have, not about the circumstances in which you find yourself. The word of God starts to be your vocabulary with God. When we are discouraged or we feel bad, no, we have to go with him all the time. There is a scripture that told us, hey, well, imagine, and here is Joshua, right? In this book of, well, Jaime, or also known as Santiago in Spanish, right? But in this case, Joshua, Joshua says, what did I not tell you? Be strong and have courage. Do not be afraid because God will be with you wherever you are. And that was very important to me because I put this scripture in my heart and it hit me so hard that I had to put a little blue card and I put it in the mirror in my house because I could see myself, but I was not just looking at myself, but the word of God. So, the next three and a half years when my friend sent me those scriptures that I could, in those three years I had to make decisions, right? I had to bury loved ones. I had to have friendships and relationships that would end and we could never be together again. You know, I'd have to bury loved ones. I'd rather, I don't know, I don't know where I was in those three years, but I matured in my person. We would never be close again. And every time, sometimes I would cry, sometimes I would get angry, sometimes I would be frustrated. It happens to you that sometimes you have an emotion and you want to say, Oh! What are you? Oh! My son would say, What is it? What is it? And he would say, I don't know, I don't know what I have. And I would say, I understand that sometimes I don't even know. And I say, Oh! I'm going to say, Hey, I'm going to say, Hey, I was wrong. And he said, I don't know! And I was like, Oh! When you were angry, I was there. When you asked for control, I was there. When your expectations were broken, I was there.

You lost control. And he started to fill up as he was praying, because he was no longer praying to say, Oh, maybe God will receive it, you don't receive it through email. And he started to pray and say, God, I know you're with me. And when I enter this meeting and I have to sit here and understand that they're not going to understand me for an hour and a half, I enter with strength, with courage, not for me, but for you. When you tell me to shut up, I'm going to shut up. When you tell me to speak, I'm going to speak with the words that you give me. Trust comes with the word of God. And look, it also starts with this trust that I grew up with two parents who taught the word, modeled the word, but prayed the word. I have two little brothers. And almost every night I remember when my son, my dad would put us to sleep and he would pray. From Luke chapter two, it was the last thing we heard at night before silence, right? Before 18 years of silence, he says, Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature in the favor of God. When my father would put us to sleep,

he would pray, he would say, I hope Kyle grows in wisdom, in position and in favor with God and all people. And he would put us to bed, he would lay hands on each of us. So the last decade with his dad, when I would put my kids to sleep, I would put my hands and I would say, God, you are gold. May you help Savannah and Deacon in favor with God, in wisdom with all people. And I say, God, I pray that you would raise Savannah. God, I pray that you would raise DK in wisdom and in stature. If you are a mom or a dad and you want to pray for your kids, sometimes we pray. Jesus, reach them before I reach them. Your dad, your mom, you've been looking for a scripture for your kids. You know, something important is like, Jesus, you better get on with it. So I do. You have to give me something to say because I don't know what to say in my own understanding. And Jesus is going to let you run out of words so that you can start speaking his words. You got to give me something to say. The fifth reason why we have to memorize the scriptures

and the word of God is because it anchors your leadership. To be abundantly clear, here in Spring Creek, Cape Coral, God behind the bars, city person in all parts. Dr. Maswell says that leadership is having influence. I think there is at least one person in your life, at least one, that you have a level of influence, who describes leadership in all parts. I bet there's at least one person in your life that describes leadership in all parts, in Proverbs, which was written by the wisest man in the Scriptures, chapter two, verse one. It says, my son, receive my word, and how I will treasure my commandments. Make your ear to have attention to wisdom, to lean your heart to understanding. And if you speak to give you advice and to understand, if you seek it like silver, like a secret treasure, you're going to understand the fear of the Lord, but you're going to find the true wisdom of God. If you seek it like the culture that we're part of, or in the system that we're in, of the Lord's people, of the people that we make life, the coaches, the educators, the teachers, the CEOs, the supervisors, or the systems who influence us daily, I want to motivate you is that the Scripture gives us the wisdom for the interaction that we need. Something that I didn't understand in my twenties or in my thirties,

I didn't understand how powerful the words can be. That if a word can change the trajectory of someone's future, a word can send them to something negative or change their life. When we have influence, God gives us that leadership to speak life to people. The coaches, sometimes you're the only person that that little boy or girl sees daily. That every word that you say, even when you correct them, you can correct them. I can correct your behavior, or your technique, or your fundamentals, or your basics, but I care, you care. In ultimate correction, the teachers, I'm correcting each student and I'm correcting the kid I'm trying to teach and I'm trying to teach them the same thing I care about going to school. What's in our family at every single moment pops up in your mind, and it just goes, Lord, help me. Maybe God's going to give you a treasure, maybe God's going to give you a silver, maybe God's going to give you a gold. And when you speak, and you speak to that person who's failing, search for wisdom like you would in God. You don't see that person as a problem, you see that person as a purpose. God has planted you in his life to speak, not what you feel, but what his word says. You don't see that person as a problem, you see that person as a purpose. You say, where else do you have influence in your daily life? Let's be honest, sometimes we don't have time to prepare an answer for the circumstances in which we find ourselves. But if you memorize the word of God, you're going to be able to speak life at the moment. The challenge as leaders is to live in a place where we have abundance, not a reserve.

Do we know what a reserve is? Well, we drive until it's two miles until we run out of gas. Who knows? It's not wise when you're driving to drive the car like that. Nor is it wise when it comes to our spiritual life. God wants us to be totally abundant and full and full. I mean, no. It's not wise. And have you ever been around someone who is full of complaints? God is calling us to live from a place that's full and overflowing. Do you ever been around somebody before? Don't let them be the type of person that when you see them in the store, you go, you go to the other place, to the other aisle so you don't have to talk to them. Full of negativity. I'm not judging them. I'm motivating you. How is it that we don't do this or we don't go out and do this? We have to invite the word of God to call us. How do we do it? We have to memorize the scripture. We have to repeat it. What we're most encouraging you, one of the ways that we don't book a car, or how do we do it? We don't memorize it. We repeat it. What we rehearse is what we repeat. What we repeat is what we remember. What we remember, it becomes a reflex. Not only are you reading it, but you're memorizing it. If you're like me, sometimes there are words that I don't know how to say, or sometimes I say, oh, sometimes I don't feel like I know what to pray. And to prepare myself for this message, you have to write a prayer that you can pray daily for 15 seconds. It doesn't matter if it's very long.

It's just that you have the intention. And you say, God, prepare me for this message, just for writing a prayer daily. What I'm living, what I'm hearing, and what I'm experiencing. Put a test on this. Tell me what I'm doing, what I'm hearing, but I'm not doing. And how am I experiencing it? And give me your courage to act quickly on what you've already taught me. To the test, let's read it together. God, please teach me what I'm, that space between what I heard and what I'm doing. Give me your courage to react quickly on what you're teaching me to do. In the name of Jesus, amen. Put it there, put it on your phone, whatever you have to do. If you want to pray, here's that daily prayer. And when you do it, God, through his spirit, he's going to take you on his journey. He's going to move us away from being people who hear, to being people who do his word. You have to close your eyes and bow your head. In all the localities, I don't want to leave a moment like this, where, without giving the opportunity, without giving the opportunity to know God, this word. You say, today I want to start a relationship with him, this God who asks us to memorize this. Let's pray. And the only thing that matters is that you believe in your heart what you're going to say,

and you're going to have that relationship quickly with Jesus, today and every day of your life. City First, I'm going to tell you that we all pray this together so that no one feels strong. Jesus, today I give you my sins, I receive your forgiveness. I receive your forgiveness, I hand you my life. I receive your leadership, I'm the lord of my life. You're the lord of my life, today and every day in the name of Jesus. In Jesus' name, Amen, Amen. A very very big round of applause.