Mensaje a las iglesias 12 Mayo 2024 (Monterrey C Mitras Sur)

A group of five brothers from Mexico City are visiting and discussing their progress in fellowship. They mention a verse from 2 Timothy 4 about finishing the race and receiving a crown of righteousness. They emphasize the importance of loving God's appearing over worldly things. They talk about the four major pillars of the Lord's recovery: truth, life, the church, and the gospel. They discuss the need to run the race with endurance and put away distractions and sins. They mention Paul's pursuit of Christ and building up the church. They encourage older saints to continue pursuing truth, praying, and preaching the gospel even in retirement. There is a lot. There is a lot. We are here. Five of us from Mexico City. One, two, three, four. Where is Naum? Five brothers. Our brother Naum is over there in the back. It is good to visit you every time. And we hope that you can progress. Sometimes we fellowship something and nothing happens. Johnny was telling me yesterday, oh, we hear things and we don't progress. I told him, well, God has been working for six thousand years. It is not finished. If we can finish, that would be a great thing. Amen. In the national conference, the main verse was 2 Timothy 4, 7 and 8, right? 4, 7 and 8. That was the last word of Apostle Paul. He said, he fought a good fight. He finished the course and he kept the faith. And then there is a crown of righteousness reserved for him. Not only for him, but all those who love his appearing. Do we love his appearing or do we love money? Love shopping. Love eating. Love a nice car, a nice house. Well, we have to choose. If we love him and his appearing, then we get the same crown. If we love something else, well, the Lord will deal with that. Either in this age or in the next age. So, we read the Bible here. We don't say nice things, we just read the Bible. Actually, the Bible is the nicest thing to say. Or I can say, we are not political. We are truthful. Ok. There is a hymn. Don't sing it now. Sing it later. We already sang too many hymns. Ok. This hymn is 302. Can you read just the first two lines? It says, there is a race today. Hallelujah! And the way to win. Amen. This morning I want to talk about that. So, on the break home you can sing this song. So, there is a race. There were three things in the national conference. The Bible, the race and the faith. So, today I am only covering the race. Ok. Before I talk about the race, I want to talk about the four major pillars of the Lord's recovery. But before I talk about the race, I want to mention the four major pillars of the Lord's recovery. Some people ask, what is the difference between the recovery and the denominations? Well, there are four major points. Number one is the truth. Number two is the life. Number three is the church. Number four is the gospel. Concerning the truth, the truth is in the Bible. So, from the beginning we have the truth. But, because of the degradation, the truth was lost. So bad that people did not even know how to get saved by about the 15th century. So, it was Martin Luther used by the Lord to tell us, all you need to do is to believe. That's the first item of the truth. And then after that, the Lord opened up the Bible more and more until we have the recovery version, the life studies and hundreds of books. So, the whole Bible is open to us now. If anyone of us here does not know the Bible, it's not because the Bible is not understandable. If anyone of us here does not know the Bible, it's not because the Bible is not understandable. It is because we are lazy. You agree? Yes. We are lazy. We don't read. We don't study. So, we don't know. A hundred years ago, if you say you don't know, we understand that. Because the Bible was not fully open. Now it's fully open. Every verse is described, explained in the life studies. Praise the Lord for the truth. But the truth is not only for teaching. Or doctrine. Or letters. The truth is for us to experience the Lord as life. What happens when you believe the Gospel? You get saved. You get regenerated. You have life. So, life is the second item close to the first. Actually, both are Christ. Actually, both are Christ. Because Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. Okay, the third pillar is the church. And the church part is very important. Without truth, without life, we don't have the church. And the church must be full of Christ. Because Christ is one. So, there is one head, there should be only one body. There is one head, therefore there should be only one body. The problem with denominations is that they are divided based on certain names or denominations. That denomination refers to a name. When you say denomination, it means that you are separated based on a certain name. But what is the name? Jesus. Christ. Christ. There is only one name. Given among men by which we can be saved. There is only one name. Given among men by which we can be saved. When we take another name, then we are divided. So, the recovery of the church not only refers to the unity, but also to the function. You asked me to say something. I know this, just now. All the songs were called by you brothers. You brothers still don't have a song in your heart? See, this is the problem. See, this is the problem. Some brothers over function, and some brothers function less. In the denomination, in general, only one pastor speaks to everyone. But in the recovery, we can all function or prophesy. Next time, don't let them ask for the hymns. You ask for the hymns. But they have the microphone. It was difficult to compete against them. But if you get up before them, they will let you function. The function of the members. But the function is not only to ask for the hymns, but to preach the gospel, to pastor, to perfect the function, to prophesy. All these are important functions. But many of us don't practice them. So, we are still being recovered. And the fourth pillar is the preaching of the gospel. So, when you recover the function of the saints, then the saints preach the gospel. Feed the lambs, feed the sheep, perfect the saints, build the church, and spread out to raise up more churches. That's the gospel. That's part of the four major pillars. But you need two first. Then you have the life. Then you have the church. And the church preaches the gospel. I give you these four pillars because they are related to running the race. So, Hebrews 12.1 tells us that we need to run with endurance the race which is set before us. Run with endurance. Why endurance? Because this race is until the end of the age. Or until the end of our lives. It's a long distance running. Longer than marathon. Longer than Ironman. Longer than any race. We have to run with endurance until the end. He who endures to the end shall be saved. Then 1 Corinthians 9.24 tells us those who run on a race course all run. Run in this way that you may lay hold of the prize. So, are you saying running? OK. You don't have to answer me. If you say yes, I don't believe it. If you say no, I also don't believe it. Every one of us runs somewhat. We don't run fast. Because we are distracted by many things. In Hebrews 12.1 it says put away every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us. Many things. Entangles. So, be careful. Put them away. OK. Philippians 3. I told you earlier we are talking about the Bible. So, in the beginning I told you we are going to talk about the Bible. I don't care what others say. I am interested in what the Bible says. It says Paul. In 1 Corinthians it says there is a race. And after running for many years in Philippians it says I have already obtained or am already perfected. He admits. Not yet. If he says that, how about us? Are you perfected? None of us. You know, some of us older people think that I've been in the recovery for many years. I should be somebody in the church. Don't worry about to be somebody. Worry about being perfected. Is that right? Amen. Amen. You know, somebody in Chimalhuacan was boasting I was under witness lead training. Then I found out it was for two months. He was boasting. I said I've been under witness lead training for 35 years. But I'm ashamed. I'm not perfected yet. What is there to boast? The only boast is when we get raptured. But the boast is in Christ. Our glory will be in Christ. It is by the mercy of God that we can persevere. Then he says, forgetting what is left behind and extending myself to what is before. Then verse 14 says I pursue towards the goal for the prize to which God in Christ Jesus has called me. Then another verse later, earlier, it says that he would count all things large that he may gain Christ. So what is the prize? Christ. Okay, now another some other verses this race is to gain Christ. And to build up the church. We must build up the church. And how can we build up the church without Christ? So we must gain Christ. Number one. Brother Javier told me some of the older saints that some of the older saints are withdrawing from their functions or from functioning. I told him, yes. Because they are lacking of Christ. Look at brother Lee. He did not stop functioning until he had to die. Look at brother Ron Kangas. He had bypass heart surgery. Then he got up and continued. Then he fell. Then he broke something. I don't know what. So now he is using a crutch. And now he is using a crutch. And he continues. When do Christians retire? In the Millennial Kingdom. That's called a Sabbath rest. In Christianity the pastors retire. In the Lord's recovery God's men don't retire. We just keep running. Now when you finish the course then you can retire. Why do those brothers he mentioned step back? When they were young they had energy. So they served. But not necessarily with Christ. So when they get old no more energy. They cannot serve. Let me make a proposal to all older saints. How about pursue the truth. Pursue the life. How about pray for all the younger ones. Pray for the church. Amen. That's good. When you retire what do you do every morning? Pray. Study the truth. And visit the neighbors. Preach the gospel. That's what old people should do. Then if you are dying in your bed you cannot move. You know you still can pray. My doctor asked me please give me a pink card. And you give the instruction in case you are in a coma. Should we pull the plug or should we leave it on? He gave it to me five years ago. And I didn't know how to fill that out. Until I saw a brother in Juárez he had to amputate his leg. I visited him before, right before amputation. I quoted the verse in Matthew, right? Even if you don't have a leg, a leg or without eyes you still can enter into the kingdom. So I told him, don't worry. No legs you can still enter. Then I got clear. I can be praying. So nobody can stop our race. Don't say, oh I'm sick, I'm tired. No eyes, cannot see. When you cannot see at least you can listen to the messages. There are two thousand life study messages. Don't stop. That's the key. Keep running. So this race is to gain Christ. Then in Matthew 18 the Lord told the disciples I will build my church. And in Matthew 18 the Lord told his disciples I will build my church. To gain Christ is to build the church. So the race is to gain Christ and build the church. Very good. And to build the church involves many things. But basically is to minister Christ to all the saints. And also to preach the gospel. Many things. But without Christ whatever you do is nothing. When you are full of Christ but when you have Christ everything you do has an eternal value. In John 14, verse 6 I am the way and the reality and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. What is the race? Ok, here is the way. Christ is the way. He is the way. I walk on the way. So as long as I keep walking I'll get to the Father one day. But the problem is our physical life will end soon. We don't know how long we stay alive. But what if I die before I get to the Father? Then I lose. So I have to run. This way I get to the Father. But that's not fast enough. This way I get to the Father. You understand. Run. When you look around through it will take a while. Some of us don't even... Some of us fail and then we lie there. Some of us are completely distracted by the world and get not on the way. So how about you? You understand? Run the race. Then we stay on Christ forevermore. Let's make an illustration. Let's say if you read the Bible with the praying spirit you gain Christ. So you read for one minute you gain another bit of Christ. With the praying spirit. You got to add that in. Reading the Bible is not sufficient. Because the Lord said in John 5 39 and 40 He said you search the Scripture but you don't come to me. When we read the Bible study the Bible be in praying spirit. So let's say you do one minute a day so you get a little bit of Christ. But if you do it one hour a day you get 60 times more. Right? You got it? So you all saints you are retired. Read. Study. With a praying spirit. Alone. And with a few companions. You will run faster. Sorry brother Javier still has to work. You retired brothers don't have to work. And you can run faster than him. How about praying? Same thing. Let's say you pray in the spirit. For one minute you get a little Christ. You pray one hour you get 60 times more Christ. The brothers in Copilco team we told them spend four hours a day. Two hours alone two hours together. How much is that? 240 times more than one minute. Now let's run it. That's right. I hope that you brothers here are doing the same thing. We propose to all the team to do the same thing. But the older saints can do the same thing. Is that right? You may say I have to do this, I have to do that. But that's what everyone in the whole world says. There was a testimony in Australia yesterday. One brother went to visit a friend. The friend said I don't have time to go to church. Don't talk to me. Then the brother said Can I talk to you about something of the Lord for five minutes? He said OK, five minutes OK. Everyone has five minutes. If they say I don't have five minutes how about one minute? At least you get a little bit. So we have a lot of time to run the race. Apostle Paul said pray unceasingly. If praying is running the race one minute we have sixteen hours a week. Each hour has three thousand six hundred seconds. So we have at least maybe seven hundred thousand seconds. Is that right? Seventy thousand seconds. So you can pray. Pray unceasingly. Don't worry. You can go to work and pray. When you are driving there you pray. When you are walking from your car to the office you pray. When you are in the office talking to anyone you can pray. You can pray for the saints. You can pray for the children. You can pray for the churches. Right? You can pray to King Christ. So saints, run the race. OK. So the Lord says I am the way. You gain Christ you are running. The more Christ you gain per day the more you are running. Then how do you gain Christ? He said I am the reality. Thank you brothers. The reality is the truth. The truth is in the Bible. So when you read the Bible you study the truth in the Bible with the help of the footnotes and the life studies Brother Alberto Junior and Daniel. Here is Brother Alberto and Daniel. They developed a calendar to study 1st of Thessalonians. Are you studying this? If you don't know how to study the Bible follow that guide. You can run by learning the truth. OK. How about pre-reading? Every morning we have some verses, right? We can pre-read the verses. And then we have a message every morning, two pages. We can read the messages with a praying spirit. Wow, so simple. It's easy to run the race. But we have to pay the price. Time. That's all. Time. You students You know how to get the top mark? It's so simple. Don't do anything else but study. Forget about Facebook. Forget about Instagram. Forget about YouTube. Forget about TikTok. Don't forget about calling your friend to help answer. Forget about going to the mall and look around. Just take all your time to study. Guaranteed. How about Christian life? The race? Same thing. Somebody studied time management in USA. Average people in America waste two hours by not knowing what they are doing. Two hours a day just without knowing what they are doing. Plus four hours they waste watching TV. Well, that was in the old days. Well, today they waste four hours on YouTube. On average, Americans waste six hours a day. Including watching football. They watch American football. You watch football. So, don't say we have no time. If you capture those two hours that is if you take advantage of those two hours that you waste without knowing what you are doing. And take advantage of those four hours. There was a young sister. She spent seven hours a day using her phone. One day she woke up. What am I doing? She gave her phone to her mother. Keep it for me. She went to study. Now she is in a medical school. Ok. Same thing. Christian life. Reserve your time for the Lord. Now we can pray with the Word. We can sing with the Word. We get views on the Word. Joshua 1.8 is very interesting. I hope you are writing down all the references. Lazy people don't take notes. The ones who want to learn they take notes. Oh yeah. When I am lazy I don't want to take notes. I don't like to take notes. When Brother Ronnie came I want to take all the notes using my computer. When you want to learn you take notes. These are good verses. Joshua 1.8 The Book of the Law means the Bible. But you shall muse upon it day and night. Muse is to think about it, consider it, reconsider it. Talk to the Lord about it. Pray about it. That's musing. Praising the Lord about it. Okay. So that you may be certain to do according to all that is written in it. Many of us complain that we are weak. How about try musing the word? The more you muse the stronger you get. Then the last sentence. For then you will make your way prosperous. And then you will have success. What's prosperous? What's success? Not making more money to buy a bigger house. Not gaining more Christ. Getting close to maturity. Okay? You got it? Okay. Now Christ's life is the eternal life He is the eternal life. Uncreated life. Indestructible life. And resurrection life. How do you grow in that life? Simple. Come to communion with God. Let's say He works in a repair shop. His whole body is full of grease. His hand, His hair, everywhere. Then He comes home. Then His daughter says, Daddy, Daddy! Then what happens? She gets all the grease from Him. Our Lord is the anointing oil from the head to the toes. Then you talk to Him. Praise the Lord, brother! He's our older brother, right? Elder brother. Praise the Lord, elder brother! He's got more anointing oil. Talk to Him. And He is even better than that. In 2 Corinthians 3.18 says, you behold Him and you get transformed. No, He says, you don't have to touch Him like this. You look at Him with a male face and you get transformed. That's part of the growth. What else? What do you have to do? Well, you have to confess your sins. Confess your shortcomings. Confess anything that you eat, you purchase, you own that is not by the Spirit. Is that right? Do we eat breakfast by the Spirit? We may pray before eating. But usually after we pray, we stop praying. We stop praying. We start eating whatever we want. We don't have communion with the Lord. We buy things. Sometimes you buy and buy and your closet is full. And then you have a guest room. And you buy more things until there is no more room to put anything. Is that right? Is that a Christian life? That's a worldly life. Christian life is we buy everything according to the Spirit. Galatians 5 says, walk by the Spirit. Ok, you understand. Part of the race is to do everything in the Spirit. Ok. How about you pray alone. You pray with your companions. You pray with the church. How about that? That's for sure. That's a running. I was in Saltillo. I asked the saints, How many university students do you have? They said about 27. I think they said about 27. How many of them come to the prayer meeting? Two. What happened? Are they Christians? Are they Christians? Are they believers? Are they God men? Why don't they go to the prayer meeting? Why don't they go to the prayer meeting? When I was in university, nearly all of us went to the prayer meeting. Every Tuesday. We are Christians. We are prayer meeting. Then I asked, How about the young people? Those who are saved. How many? Also 20 some. Three or four. Nine. The young people are better. What happened? You go to the prayer meeting? You two over there? You three over there? You go to the prayer meeting? Yes. Yes? The Lord bless you. What about her? No. She is hiding. She is not baptized yet. OK. As soon as you get baptized, the next Tuesday prayer meeting, you must be baptized. Why? As soon as you get baptized, when you get baptized, your career begins. Once there was a conference with Brother Lee. It was November 1969. I remember that date because I regret that I didn't go. Because after the conference was the finals, because after the conference was the finals, and I told them, Brother, I can't go to the meeting because I have to study. While they were enjoying the Lord, what was I doing? I wasn't even studying much. I only used my studies as an excuse to go to the meeting and not to run the race. So I remember that until today. I was twenty. Twenty-one. Now I'm seventy-six. Fifty-five years later I still remember the time I missed. Some of us miss so many times it doesn't matter anymore. Never miss a feast. After Brother Lee left us, we have had about 196 feasts. That's it. We have had about 196 feasts or conferences. It has been twenty-seven years. Twenty-seven times seven. About 189 feasts. I have missed only three. One, because my wife had a surgery. And the second was because she was sick. And the third was because my wife had a fracture of her wrist. How many feasts have you missed? Why do we go to the feasts? That's when we learn to run That's when we learn to run. I hope you repent and from now on go to all the seven feasts. Is there one going to be in Dallas? Not recently. There was one in Dallas. A few years ago. Thank you. You are so close to Dallas. All those who have a visa If you don't have one, start to apply. Get there. The Lord will bless you. The higher the price you pay, the more you get blessed. The higher the price you pay, the more you get blessed. Do you know how many days it takes me to go to the seven feasts? Including the fellowship before and after. 60 days. Do you know how much money I don't even know. The flight, the hotel, the extra food, doesn't matter. Just go. The Lord will provide. Okay. I still have six minutes. So the next thing is the church. Well, the next thing is Christ, the church, the truth, and the church. Now, the church is signified by Jerusalem. Jerusalem, some places is high, some places is low. There is a gate in Jerusalem called the gate of waste. Are you in Jerusalem? Yes. Where are you? In the gate of waste. What is the gate of waste? Where the garbage, where the dung goes out. I hang around the gate of waste. I hang around the gate of waste. And I see the garbage in the church. All the garbage. The negative things. There is a gate called the gate of salvation. Where is the temple? Salvation. What is salvation? God. You see God. You get God. You become God. Not in the Godhead, but in the life and in nature. So, the more you go to Zion, the more you stay in Zion, the faster you are running. Right? Right. That's the top part of the church life. Some of us in the church life. Are you in the church? Yes. This much in the church. My whole heart is somewhere else doing something else. I come to meeting late. I go to only one meeting. I don't prophesy. I don't pray. I don't pray. I just keep the chair warm. Then I go. Am I in the church? Yes. There are 168 hours a week. How about pray every day with the saints? How about pray every day with the saints? How about having meetings from house to house? How about fellowship with your children? How about having neighborhood children's meetings? Church life can be rich. It can be extensive. Not just one meeting. The church life. Life. The more you are into the church life, the more you build up the church. But the prerequisite is that you need to have Christ as truth and as life. And when you come to the church, when you come see the saints, you don't talk nonsense. You know, earlier, before the meeting, about 5 minutes to 10, many saints were here. They were all talking. I wonder, what were you talking about? Were you talking about how you enjoyed the Lord yesterday? She said, yes. Wonderful. That's the way to do it. But I only saw one head. How about the rest? So we have to repent. You don't come early to talk nonsense. You come early to start the meeting by talking Christ. By praying. Right? Amen? That is to build up the church. Okay. Then, what should be the result? When you take Christ as the truth, when you take Christ as the truth, and enjoy Christ as the life, and build up with the saints, with Christ, like some companions, you pray together every day, you study together every day, you fellowship about Christ, we call those vital groups. Then you go out together to visit the neighbors, to visit the friends, to preach the gospel. What will be the result? Huh? What? The growth. Growth. Increase in numbers. When you increase in Christ as life, you increase in numbers. That's the proof of your running. If you don't bear fruit, you are a dead ranch, according to John 15. If you enjoy Christ running the race, you will bear fruit. And not only you, your group, you have new ones. Wow. The church will increase. The church will increase. Okay. Are we clear? How to run the race? How to run the race? No. There is a race, and we must run the race, and now you are learning how to run the race. And you know you are running when the church is increasing. Got it? And when there are more churches in this area, that means you are running. Let's pray a little bit, and then the brothers will tell you what to do.