Tu (dios) es demasiado pequeño — Rich Wilkerson Jr

Echos capítulo 17, voy a leer 16 versos porque son maduros y lo pueden hacer. Hoy tenemos una noche de adoración, así que pueden venir dos veces. Vamos a cantar al menos una canción nueva, pero está con nosotros esta noche, 6 p.m., para nuestra noche de adoración. Echos capítulo 17, versículo 16, y eso es lo que dice la Escritura. Mientras Pablo los esperaba en Atenas, le dolió en el alma ver que la ciudad estaba llena de ídolos. Así que discutía en la sinagoga con los judíos y con los no judíos que adoraban a Dios. Y a diario hablaba en la plaza con los que se encontraban por allí. Algunos filósofos epicureos y estoicos entablaron conversación con él. Unos decían, ¿qué querrá decir este charlatán? Otros comentaban, parece que es un predicador de dioses extranjeros. Decía esto porque Pablo anunciaba las buenas noticias de Jesús y la resurrección. Entonces lo sujetaron y llevaron a una reunión del areopago. ¿Se puede saber qué nueva enseñanza es esta que usted presenta? Preguntaron. Porque nos presenta unas ideas que son extrañas y queremos saber qué significan. Es que todos los atenienses y los extranjeros que vivían allí se pasaban el tiempo sin hacer otra cosa más que escuchar y comentar las últimas novedades. Pablo se puso en medio del areopago y tomó la palabra. Ciudadanos atenienses, observo que son ustedes sumamente religiosos en todo lo que hacen. Al pasar y fijarme en sus lugares sagrados encontré incluso un altar con esta inscripción. A un Dios desconocido. Pues bien, eso que ustedes adoran como algo desconocido es lo que yo les anuncio. El Dios que hizo el mundo y todo lo que hay en el Señor del cielo y la tierra. No viven templos construidos por hombres. Ni se deja servir por manos humanas como si se sintiera necesitará de algo. Por el contrario, Él es quien da toda la vida, el aliento y todas las cosas. De un solo hombre hizo todas las naciones para que habitaran toda la tierra. Y determinó los periodos de su historia y las fronteras de sus territorios. Eso lo hizo Dios para que todos los que lo busquen y aunque sea a tientas lo encuentren.

En verdad, Él no existe lejos de ninguno de nosotros. Puesto que en Él vivimos, nos movemos y existimos. Como algunos de sus propios poetas han dicho, de Él somos descendientes. Por tanto, siendo descendientes de Dios no debemos pensar que la divinidad sea como el oro, la plata o la piedra. Es cultura hecha como resultado del ingenio y de la destreza del ser humano. Pues bien, Dios pasó por alto aquellos tiempos que tal ignorancia. Pero ahora manda a todos en todas partes que se arrepientan. Él ha fijado un día en el que juzgará al mundo con justicia por medio de un hombre que ha designado. De ello, ha dado pruebas a todos al levantarlo de entre los muertos. Pablo dio un mensaje en Atenas y hoy quiero hablarte desde este título que dice Tu Dios es demasiado pequeño. Tu Dios es demasiado pequeño. Si no te has fijado, yo he estado ausente por cuatro semanas porque mi esposa ha estado predicando y he estado tan bendecido por su mensaje. Pero mientras predicaba, encontré que me sentaba en la palabra de Dios. Él empezó a hablarme y hace unas semanas empecé a compartir esta semana que quiero traerte. Y quiero empezar con esta pregunta simple. ¿Qué tan grande es tu Dios? No qué tan grande dices que es. ¿Qué tan grande tú realmente crees que es? Porque si eres como yo, cuando la vida te golpea y te va a golpear, cuando la ansiedad se te aparece y las preocupaciones de este mundo empiezan a golpear tu alma, muchas veces lo que puede empezar a pasar mientras la vida empieza a golpearnos, empezamos a poner a Dios un poco más pequeño. Y mientras empezamos a encogerlo, Él se convierte más pequeño en nuestra vida. Y lo que nos damos cuenta es que nuestra paz es removida, nuestro poder es removido y nuestro miedo aumenta. Hoy titulo este mensaje y quiero usarlo. Que tu Dios es tan pequeño como diciendo,

no tomes ofensa de esto, sino que toma inventario. No estoy siendo herético diciendo que Dios es pequeño, sino que muchas veces tenemos la perspectiva incorrecta, muchas veces tenemos la vista de Dios que ha sido dañada. We have in a God, but many times we return this God to an image of us. 2025 is a moment in culture that is egocentric, that is about my order, my coffee, my playlist, my order of Uber Eats. Everything is customized for me. But the... The Holy Trinity, which is me, me and me, does not mean that this is the right thing to do. God does not adjust his preferences, nor does he bless you and agree with you, but we serve a God that is so much greater than that, and is much greater than that. And many of us need to have our minds and our hearts expanded. Let me illustrate this. Is there anyone who is watching the NBA finals? Or is there not a lot of people who watch sports? Or fans of hockey? Here you have a Panther jersey. Did we win last night? Oh, yes, we won 3-0. Oh, yes, that's how we do it in Florida. I'm going to start talking. No, but I love the NBA, and it's funny because I'm a fan of the Heats. If you come to this church, you have to be a fan of the Heats. Is there anyone who is a fan of the Knicks? Oh, yes. I can remember those days of the Heats, but at this moment, the Knicks have had a good season,

and I can find myself encouraging them and these incredible players. But in Indiana, they were playing, and they were in the conference finals, and I was watching the game, and it took me back to when the Heats were playing in Indiana in those finals when LeBron was here, when the King was here. Come on, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay. I know it's a trauma for me. But my dad, my dad got us tickets for the finals. He paid a lot of money, but when we got to the game, my brothers and my dad, we said, let's go. But those tickets... Have you heard of that section where your nose bleeds? That means those tickets where you don't have a seat, but you're standing up. We were so high that we could touch the ceiling. And I remember it was incredible. We were there, I didn't know these places existed. Literally, you're standing at the end, and you almost touch the ceiling. And what I learned is that from that perspective, the game feels a little casual. Up there, if you see that game, they look so small that you start thinking very crazy things. You say, I could play with these guys down there. But I also had the opportunity in my life, I didn't pay for this, it was a gift to sit next to the court, sit on the wood, sit on the floor. And let me tell you, it's a little different down there on the floor. You can hear them breathe. The sweat hits you. I remember once we were in a game, I was sitting on the floor and I shouted, foul!

And a player saw me, he crossed his eyes with me, and I sat down, I regretted it, and I almost didn't open my mouth again. I was afraid at that moment. I said, I don't belong to this place. This is what I want you to understand. I want to open your mind a little bit while we are on this trip in the next few weeks. Same game, different views. The same game, different point of view. And this is what I feel in my heart while we are walking to Foucault. Many of us here in this place believe and sing the songs, and we agree, but we keep God at a distance. We keep God in a place where we say, yes, yes, yes, I think you are there, but I put it at a distance that is not felt in that experience of his presence. I am not so close that I am made by his glory and his holiness. This collection is an invitation for all of us to get to the floor seats, that we can be so close to recognize that this God is great, this God is massive. Come on, someone who knows that God loves you, but he is not like you. He saved you, and he is not on your agenda. He is not your genius, he is not your piñata. He is great, he is magnificent, he is holy. He can do whatever he wants. Someone who praises him in this place. I'm going to read to you a passage from the book of Acts chapter 17. You don't need a new God. Many of us need a new point of view. And many of us, for God, have become very small.

That God has become small to us. And today, looking at Acts 17, there are so many things happening. The apostle Paul is on his second missionary journey. And he is waiting in Athens for Silas and Timothy, who join him. They were being persecuted in Urea and they had to leave. Silas and Timothy stayed. And he is waiting in Athens. And while he is waiting in Athens, it is interesting that the Scripture says that he saw around Athens. And he is stressed, worried, because he sees the idols and the amount of idols they have there in Athens. A little history for us. Athens at this time is called the birth of Western civilization. This is the home of Socrates and Plato and Aristotle. These people, these thinkers and ideas. But it is a place full of false gods and idols. A historian says that in Athens you could find a god before you saw a man. And while Paul sees this, he is a little worried about what he sees. Because there are so many idols everywhere. And sometimes we forget that here in America, in 2025, we have idols too. We have Oscars, American Idol, trophies. We worship idols too. And how many know? And sometimes not even idols are physical statues, but avarice and pleasure and power and status and followers. We also worship small gods. We get caught up in these small things that we carry. And honestly, not all things are evil in themselves. Sometimes they are good things. But this is what I have learned. An idol is anything, even something good, that becomes the maximum. An idol is not bad, but we make it a god for ourselves. And I wonder how many of us put confidence in these things.

We put our faith in it. We put our hope in it. It is when the gift becomes God. It is when the blessing becomes the source. An idol does not have to be bad to be dangerous. It just has to be first. It just has to be first. And many times we see our city here in Miami, and those of us who know that great God, we should be worried that there are so many people who have put their trust in idols. But I love Pablo because he does not start making fun of his idols. He does not start making fun of them, but he points to their hunger. And I say, I see that they are religious. I see that they are believers in something. But they are losing the truth. And from this place, an audacity and compassion begins to preach the gospel. And how does he do it? He preaches to them of his little gods. And he points them to a great God and confronts them. And I want to show you how he confronts them. Because I think that today we should be confronted in that category. He begins to confront first his beliefs. And every time we talk about change, transformation, we have to start in that place. Because what you believe is going to shape how you live. What you believe is going to shape how you live. Your behavior is based on your beliefs. We all believe in something. And whatever we believe, that is shaping how we behave. And how we live.

And I was thinking this week that we should start and get to the root of everything. As they say, as a man thinks, that is. Isaiah says that his thoughts are greater, that his ways are greater than ours. Not only do we want to have good thoughts, but the thoughts of God. It is not about positive thoughts, but thoughts of kingdom. But when you start to think the thoughts of God, you start to live the plan of God. How many know, if you think you are a victim, you are going to live as if you have no choice. If you live as if you have no power, you are not going to believe that there is change. If you believe that you are not worthy, you are not going to believe that you can deserve. If you do not believe that you have value, you do not believe that others have it. If you believe that God is like you, you are going to... If you think you're alone, you're going to isolate yourself and you're going to reject the connection. If you think you're stuck, you're going to stop looking for a way out. But if you think you're a son of God, you'll walk in authority. If you think you're forgiven, you're going to stop carrying shame. If you think you're called, you're going to walk on purpose. If you think he's with you, you're going to face the storm with courage. If you think the cross is enough, you're going to try to stop proving yourself. If you think the Spirit lives in you, you're going to walk with power. And the scripture says that while he came to Athens and began to preach, there were two thoughts at that time, two beliefs. One is called the Epicureans and the Stoics. Two mentalities that were reigning over the Athenians. The Epicureans, you can describe them as if they feel good, it's God. That was the belief at that time. It was like hedonism, it's about pleasure. Now, it's something different from what we live in Miami today. How many people do we know that we don't call them Epicureans, but that's what it is. Look for the vibe, if it feels good, do it. Whatever you're looking for, if it makes you happy, go and do it.

That's the train of thought there in Athens. But how many know that pleasure can't be your purpose? Pleasure can bring moments of happiness, but it's not going to bring you a lasting pleasure. My children are addicted to ice cream, I don't know if yours are too. By the way, how was your day? It was good. What did you learn? No, I can't remember. You can't remember? Good. But my children can ask me for ice cream on Monday. But I say, I'm going to give you ice cream on Thursday. And they don't forget that. They can remind me. It's like the second coming of Christ. Every day, ice cream on Thursday. Ice cream on Thursday, dad. Yes, I didn't forget. Certainly, neither did you. Last week, I gave ice cream to my children. And my second son, he's eating ice cream. And he says, dad, when can we have ice cream again? You're addicted, brother. But this is an image of pleasure. Pleasure can't satisfy you. It not only doesn't satisfy you, it stimulates you. So we keep chasing what our flesh wants. Waiting for our appetite to curve. Sleep with whoever you want. Try to pacify the pain.

Do what you want. Drink whatever you want. And do whatever you want. But it doesn't satisfy you. It only stimulates you. Even while you're getting it, you can think, when can I get it again? And Paul is preaching against this. But not only the Epicureans, but there's another train of thought called the Stoics. And the Stoics, that thought they had was, dominate yourself. You don't need God. These Stoics are those who suppress their emotions. In fact, they thought that emotions were for amateurs. We know people who we ask, how are you? And they say, fine. I'm fine. And then their eyes are like, you know those people. And we think we can only suppress it. It's called depression, friends. It's called that you think you can control everything and that you can be the master of yourself. And with this, what begins to happen is that Paul begins to preach the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus. And Scripture says that both of these camps begin to call him a charlatan. They don't call him a charlatan.

Not because he's not intelligent. They call him a charlatan because the Gospel is offensive to another system of beliefs. That when you preach the Good News, as Paul says in his letters to the Corinthians, that God's wisdom is man's need. That when we speak, he uses needy things to bring down those who believe themselves wise. Why? Because the Gospel is offensive to your thinking and your system of beliefs. And everything that deals with God's transformation begins with the Good News. It's with what you believe. For the Epicureans, it was like letting go of pleasure. It was something very hard. And for the stoics, receiving grace was too easy. And both of them confronted us, and as they confront us, what is that which you believe? Listen to me, what you believe today is creating a box around God. We don't want to admit it, but our beliefs are molding a thought in how we see God and how we see Him. Pablo not only confronts his beliefs, but confronts the boxes in which they have placed God. And what happens is that while he begins to preach, they bring him to this place called Aerópago, also called the Field of Mars.

And this was a place where they came to think, think like a TED Talk or like a TikTok, like Google offices, those Ivy League offices where they created ideas, where they talked to each other. And while Pablo arrives there, he doesn't spend time praising them or arguing, but confronts his little view of God. And this is what is said in chapter 17, verse 24. The God who made the world and all 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. Pablo is saying, you have put God in a box. To give you an image, this week I want, this was only done in Athens, this was only done in 2025 in America, but sometimes, sometimes, sometimes, we put God in a box. Sometimes, the way we think of God, we believe that we can carry God and put him as part of our life. And I put here, fragile, a God who is inside. Handle it carefully. Pablo is saying, God does not live in a house that you built with human hands. God is too big for this. But many of us, this is our image, that we have this belief, and this belief begins to create a pattern.

And that pattern of God is that it is small and it is restricted, and that I can take it wherever I want, and that I can handle it, that I can control it, careful. God is in here. But notice what Pablo says, because Pablo is preaching something great to them. Like God doesn't need anything. Maybe it's my favorite verse in 17. He doesn't need anything. Can I remind people here at Wood Church? Your God is bigger. You can't handle it, or control it, or manipulate it. You can't vote for him to agree. You can't reject it. He is bigger than that. Have you ever thought that nothing has happened to God? Have you ever wondered? God has never wondered anything. There has never been a thought that he has not had. There has never been a problem that he could not have solved. God does not get old. God does not get tired. God is not weak. God does not stumble. He does not stop. God is not in a box. God is big. God is great.

He can do anything. He doesn't need anything. He is not something small like we have made him look. We forget how great our God is. But what I know about this box is that this box is not about God. It's about us. It's not that God is small, but we make him small in our minds and in our beliefs. And with this, we pray small prayers and live small lives. We accept where we are. We don't believe for more. We don't declare for more. We fill ourselves with anxiety and fear of this world. And we look like everyone else. Not because he is small, but because our sight contains him in a box. And we don't believe anything more than what we are seeing today. I love what Adolphe Betoza says. What comes to mind when I think about it. Pensamos en Dios es lo más importante acerca de nosotros. ¿Qué pensamiento? Lo que piensas de Dios. Porque lo que piensas de Dios es lo más importante de ti. Y muchas personas tienen una caja pequeña. Oh, es el mago de Oz. Él está detrás de la cortina y él está lejos. Así es como ves a Dios. Él es el que quiere la renta, es el arrendatario. Oh, voy a estar en problemas si no hago lo que él hace. Es un policía. No sé qué imagen tienes. Pero mientras descubro tu imagen de Dios,

siempre es un indicativo. Oh, por eso es que te alejas de Dios. Por eso es que no estás cerca de Dios. Por eso es que no dejas que Él entre a tu corazón y sea el Señor de tu vida. Tienes la imagen incorrecta. Eso es lo más importante que escuchemos hoy. Tu imagen sobre Dios debe venir de Dios. No tu trauma, no de la cultura, no de TikTok. Dios bendiga TikTok. No, la Biblia es la imagen. Si quieres saber cómo luce Dios, mira a Jesús. Si quieres saber cómo se siente Dios, lee los evangelios. Si quieres ver lo que Dios dice, abre su palabra. Y Jesús nos enseñó a ver a Dios. Lucas capítulo 11. Cuando oren, digan, padre nuestro que estás en el cielo. La mejor imagen que puedes tener de Dios es de un buen padre que te ama. Mi hija Waylon tiene tres años y medio y hace unos tres meses. Ella no era la hijita de papá. Era siempre su mamá, pero los últimos meses cambió su corazón y vemos como que sí hemos entrado en una nueva gracia rápidamente. Creo que me he vuelto ahora su favorito. Waylon, te voy a sacar una cita. ¿Quieres ir a una cita? Porque los niños ya han ido a muchos sitios, pero tú nunca he estado solo en un carro contigo. ¿Quieres ir a una cita y así?

Y fuimos a este hotel rosado en West Palm. Y le digo, vamos a ir a una noche a un hotel juntos. Y mi hijita se emocionó. Por una semana dijo, papá, ¿te gusta esto para mis uñas? Y salió un vestido. Me encanta ese vestido. Sí, me encanta. ¿Cómo lucen mis uñas? Yo no sé cómo hacen las niñas, hacen este movimiento, pero era como que, ¿cómo lucen mis niñas? Y yo, como que, lucen increíbles. Fuimos a West Palm Beach y fue hermoso. Fue hermoso realmente. Llegamos a ese lugar, estaba emocionado. Todo el hotel es rosado y todo es rosado. Era como que Barbie y Peppa Pig se juntaron y diseñaron un hotel. Es verdad, no les miento. Y tuvimos un momento divertido. Fuimos a cenar, caminamos, comimos helado juntos, fuimos a nadar, caminamos a la playa. Esa noche fuimos al cuarto, pusimos una película. Me quedé dormido y ella todavía estaba viendo la película. Y tuvimos el mejor momento de siempre. Y mientras nos estábamos listos para irnos, Waylon me hizo, me dice algo que nunca voy a olvidar como papá. Le digo, Waylon, tenemos que irnos a casa. Y dice, no, papi. Quiero quedarme aquí por siempre. Y yo, OK, nos vamos a mudar aquí, ya está bien.

Papá va a comprar ese hotel. Pero eso me golpeó. Porque como papá escuchara a mi hija decir, solo quiero estar aquí contigo por siempre. Ese es el corazón de Dios. Él dice, yo solo quiero una relación contigo que tú me veas como tu padre. Yo soy tu papá. Yo soy tu papá. No se trata de las cosas. Y lo que puede estar es una relación con Él. Y lo que no notamos es que Pablo está confrontándolos. Veo que son religiosos. Veo que están hambrientos por algo. Pero debo confrontar tus creencias. Tienes un montón de dioses pequeños e ídolos. Estás buscando, pero no has encontrado la verdad. Y con esto, has puesto a Dios en una caja. Tienes algo, una escritura ahí que dice, para el Dios desconocido. Y lo que no nos damos cuenta es que nuestras creencias. They turn into boxes, and our boxes create barriers. They create barriers. It's not that you don't believe in God, it's that you don't really know Him. So Paul says this in Acts 17, 22, he says, people from Athens, people from Miami, from Butchurch, I see that they are very religious in every way. They come on a Sunday and they are watching the stream right now. But while I was passing by and looking at their sacred places, I found an inscription that said, to an unknown God.

Well, it's that you worship something unknown. That's what I'm telling you. They weren't atheists, they were religious. They had altars in every corner. One for the unknown God, but God, Paul calls them ignorant. Spiritual, but blind. Worshipping shadows, losing what is real in front of them. And that's how I heard the Holy Spirit this week. Ignorance is not an incapacity, it's unconsciousness. Let me explain this to you. We believe that ignorance is like, you couldn't know. But Paul is saying, you could have known, but you didn't see enough. That's what they say in verse 29. Therefore, being descendants of God, we should not think that divinity is like gold, silver, or stone. It is a culture made as a result of the ingenuity and skill of the human being. In the past, God went over that ignorance, but now he sends everyone, everywhere, to repent. God doesn't change, listen to this. But your sight of Him can limit your awareness of what He is doing. Not because He is not moving, but because you are distracted to see Him. God is moving. We are weeks away from people who are traveling from London and all over the world, but He may be passing in front of your noses and you may miss Him. Not because He is not moving, but because you are busy looking at your phone, because you are distracted, because you are not paying attention. And this is what the enemy is, sometimes the enemy does not have to destroy you, it just has to distract you. If the enemy cannot stop you, do you know what He will do? He will speed you up.

Sometimes you see things so fast that you are running and you are trying so hard, managing your emotions, pursuing pleasure, believing in all these things, that we lose ourselves in the fact that God is close and He is here right now. It's interesting, Don Cherry and I met when we were 17 years old, and I think it was the perfect time for God. We love our love story, Nashville, Tennessee, 17 years old, in a church like this, I saw her, I said, this is the woman, I knew, she didn't know, it's okay. I've always heard about God before her. But something I've never shared with you is that Don Cherry and I grew up quite similar, but in different places. She grew up in a home of pastors, I also, we are six months apart in age, one of many brothers, both of our parents are from the Assemblies of God, we both went to the ministry and became pastors. So similar, so much so that when we go back, there are events that we see in our lives, our denominations, events, that as children, we were in the same place. We were in church services at the same time, but we didn't know it. And I'm not suggesting that we should have known each other, or that we missed an opportunity. No, I think God's time was perfect, and it was as God planned it. But it makes me wonder, how could I have been in the same place as Don Cherry, that person who has changed my life more than anyone else,

and not even know it. How many times do I say, God is in this place, and we totally lose sight of Him being there. We are distracted, we are obsessed with those little things, those insignificant things, and we put God in a box, in a part of our lives, and we are handling it. It's something of the Sundays, we say, it's an event, it's something I can control, but what we don't realize is that we are creating a barrier. It's not that God is small, it's that our sight is incorrect. He is greater and He is more magnificent. And what does Paul say? That all of us must listen today, including me. He says, you have been ignorant, you have been distracted. It is not that you have an inability to know, but that you are not paying attention. So you have to repent. Repentance is not remorse, it is a change of mind. I have been seeing you incorrectly, God. I have been behind, in that section, treating you casually. But I tell you, the more I get closer, I am amazed. You are great, you are great, you are powerful. You deserve everything from me. I cannot control you, I cannot manage you. I repent, I have made you so small.

I made you like other gods. I gave you back an idea. I gave you back a thought. I gave you back in a conversation, in a podcast. I gave you back in a TikTok. A small statue, one of so many gods. A small god. God, I repent. I remember Isaiah's words. Speaking on behalf of God, that is Isaiah 46, verse 6. God mocks the small gods of Babylon. Isaiah 46, verse 6 says, Some throw gold out of their pockets and weigh money on the scale. They hire a jeweler to make them a god. They lift him up on their shoulders and carry him. He cannot move from his place. No matter how much they cry out to him, he will not have to answer them. He will not be able to save them from their afflictions. Isaiah is making fun of the idea that we can carry this and carry our God. By the way, look at this image because this spoke to me. Your God is very small if you think you can carry him. How are you? Am I carrying God? Yes. Are you carrying God? Yes. You need a bigger God. How many of you know? My job is not to carry God. Your job is to carry me.

The problem is that if I do not recognize that repentance is the moment that I am weak, the moment that I am a sinner, the moment that I reduce God to my image, my sight, my preference and what I want. If I do not admit this, then I walk with a small God. And with this small God, I do not have faith to believe the impossible. I do not have faith to believe more for my family, for my friends, for my health, for my church, for my city. So I live small because I am carrying God. But if I can really repent and change my mind, and the way I do that is that God I need you to carry me. The way I need you to carry me is that while I try to get into this box that I have, while God carries me, even this box is too small to carry me. While I try to get in, God carries me. What happens is that all of a sudden, the box breaks. And I sometimes wonder if this is what God wants. That if you let me carry you, I will break every box that you have put around me. I'm bigger than that box, I'm going to break that box. You have no idea how big I am. You have no idea how strong I am. I am a powerful God. I am a great God. You have not seen a God like me. You cannot carry me. I am going to carry you. And I think that for the next month we are going to have to break some boxes. We are going to break some perspectives and points of view. And this does not take much, but it takes admitting that I am small, you are big. And God, I repent for trying to reduce you to this small thing. So God, help me. I need you. For many of us today, our God is small, but you don't need a new God. You need a new view of Him. God, we thank you for your word.

We thank you that you are speaking to us right now, on every occasion. God, we open our hearts to where you want to take us in the coming weeks. Here in Miami, God, and around the world, God. In so many ways, we see ourselves as Athens. We have small gods everywhere and we want to make you one of them. But God, we regret our ignorance and we open our minds and hearts. Who are you for? For your size, your grandeur, your majesty, we cannot carry you. But we believe, God, today, that you can carry us. So God, as you begin to carry us, our paradigm grows. Our idea and our image of you expands. So God, today we see you, your word, and we discover who you are. You are a good father. You never abandon us, nor do you leave us. We put our trust in you today. Eyes closed, heads bowed, if it is you, and you are saying, I am ready to repent, I am ready to be awakened. I believe that in a moment, Jesus can change you. But I believe that it is a life of following Jesus, in which we become more like him. But today, I want to create an invitation, perhaps for the first time, or perhaps it is a re-commitment. You say, I am rich, I have been ignorant, I have been distracted. God is here in this place and I am not aware of it. And I have put it in a re-step. If it is you, with your eyes closed and your head bowed, I want to give you the opportunity to lift it up and say, yes, it is me. You are preaching to me, pastor. You are preaching to me here in the south of Miami, in the Miami Gardens. There on the line, if it is you, it says, if it is you, it is me.

I want Jesus to be the Lord of my life. I want to repent, I want to change my mind and change my path. The hands are already raising up for the count of three. The Bible says that today is day one. Do not see your, the one you have by your side is between you and Jesus. Ready, one, two, three, raise your hand and say, that's me, rich. Thank you, God. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Come on, we can stand up for a moment, all of us. Let's get up. And if you are comfortable, why don't we all raise our hands? Let's sing this song that says, Holy Jesus, Holy. He is not like anyone else. But before we sing that, can we pray this prayer together? Let's raise our hands to heaven. Let's pray this prayer of surrendering, of admitting that we are weak. That if it were for ourselves, sin would take advantage of us. But today we are going to admit that Jesus, Christ, died and rose again. And his name is grace, friends. And he is going to confront your system of beliefs. So stay with me. Dear Jesus, today I ask you to forgive me, to save me. Today I believe that you died, but I also believe that you rose again. Today I believe that you are who you say you are. And today I open my heart and I open my mind to worship the true God, who is great, who is great and who is powerful. Today I believe that you can save me. So I give you my complete life in the name of Jesus. And everyone says, Amen and Amen.

Come on, clap with me. Come on, let's sing.