Well, I'm so blessed to be here with the church family. Soy muy bendecido para estar aquí con la familia de Dios. I know that this morning it will be somewhat unusual, but I pray that as we go to both languages that the Lord will give you something and help you spiritually this morning. Espero que cuando estoy en español o en inglés que va a recibir algo que va a ayudarle espiritualmente esta mañana. So just hang on. I promise that just because I'm speaking two languages that my message won't be twice as long. So hopefully it won't be that way, but yeah, amen. Of course, someone understood that. But thank you, preacher, for inviting me. I have been blessed by the example of your preacher. I was very blessed for the example of the pastor for many years. He has been here faithfully preaching the gospel. And since I was 14 or 15 years old, I met the pastor. Is he still here? For all those years, since the age of 14, 15, I heard that Pastor Townsley was starting a church in Southern Tennessee, and he's still here. And that really blesses me and encourages me that he's been faithful all these years, and I love that. I trusted Christ at the age of 12 years old. At that time, Pastor Alter was here. He started the church about the same time, preacher, and I think you remember him. Pastor Alter, comenzó una iglesia y yo recibí a Cristo a los 12 años de edad en Wallingford. And I just was so blessed to, at that point in time, to this point now, to be in a good Bible-preaching church that preaches the word of God. And I am thankful for this ministry and for the example of your pastor. Estoy muy bendecido y tengo mucho gozo para tener el privilegio, la oportunidad para estar en una iglesia que predica la palabra de Dios fielmente desde el momento que yo recibí a Cristo hasta el día de hoy. Entonces, qué bendición para estar aquí. Gracias a los que están visitando por la primera vez de Habla Español. Me alegro que estar aquí esta mañana. I'm thankful for those of those Spanish-speaking folks that came this morning to our Sunday school and to come and visit. And I'm glad that they're here visiting with us this morning. Let's go to the Book of Acts. Libro de Hechos, por favor. Book of Acts. We're going to chapter number two. We're going to hit some basic principles that you already know well, I'm sure. Pero déjeme decir, yo voy a decir algunas cosas a la iglesia de habla inglés. Entonces, eso es primeramente para los de habla inglés. I wanted to let the Spanish folks know that I'm really focusing what I'm going to say right now to the English speaking brothers and sisters in this room. I love the fact that in the front of your, on your platform you have, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. The truth is, we failed to do that. And I'm stopping because I want us to think on that. And I believe that God is challenging us here in the United States by bringing the world here. Okay? Now, please don't misunderstand. I don't want to get into the politics of what's going on in the southern border because that's not what this is about. God is in control, and God is bringing things to pass in our nation to wake us up spiritually. There's no doubt about that. But I also believe God's bringing the world here because we failed to bring the gospel there. And they're coming here, and we don't necessarily agree with the way they're coming here, but they're coming here. And we owe them the gospel. And that means not just Spanish demographics, but all demographics that are coming. And as we try to reach the world, remember, as we support missionaries and they go out, the world's coming here. And God has told us as local churches to go and preach the gospel to every creature. So I want to encourage you. I'm excited about the fact that you're having a Spanish outreach. I want to encourage you and challenge you to continue to do that. God has given a core folks here. And you say, well, Brother Pinto, there's not a lot of Spanish people in Southington. Granted, but I understand that in Bristol there's a lot of them. I was in Wallingford for almost 30 years, and we had a Spanish ministry there, and the Spanish demographic has grown just in the city, in the town of Wallingford. We haven't talked about Meriden, okay? They're coming. They're coming into the suburbs. They're getting the work, the jobs. They're working up the economic ladder. They're coming into your neighborhood. and we owe them the gospel. And what I tell pastors of English-speaking churches, I encourage them. I understand that as far as resources go, you don't have folks that speak Spanish, perhaps, but you do have tracts in Spanish that are available to hand out. And you can plant the seed of the word of God by giving a tract and not know one word of Spanish. But I believe God's word is not bound. And God can use you as an English speaker just by giving out a Spanish track to a Spanish speaker and let God do the work. Let's plant the seeds. And let's believe that God will work in the hearts of those people when we give them a track and pray that God will work in getting a lot of the Spanish folks are either bilingual or becoming bilingual. And we can reach Spanish or English-speaking people that know enough Spanish, or at least Spanish folks that have learned English, and I think you already have that here, so that we can, as English-speaking churches, reach the Spanish people through those folks that are coming, that are saved, that have matured in the faith that can go out and get the gospel out for English speaking people. So let me encourage you to do that. Pray about that. Pray for those Spanish folks that are coming. Encourage them. They need encouragement. They need prayer. And perhaps maybe that might be some way of kind of encouraging you to learn some Spanish. to greet them. So let me encourage you, church, to just do more of what you're doing. I'm glad that this is happening. By the way, I am an evangelist with Save New England. I do represent a ministry that Paul Chapman started several years ago. So at the back, you'll see a table with my prayer card. Welcome to take one. The magazines are free. Take one and hope that you're blessed by that. So I do represent that ministry and I do of course bring to that ministry the part of really reaching the Spanish that we need to do. So I'm trying to do my best to use the Spanish language that God's allowed me to learn and use so we can reach the Spanish folks as well. So just to encourage you in that. So hope that you'll pray about this and you'll do more. Get some Spanish tract. We'll try and help facilitate materials for preachers so that you'll have that available as far as Spanish tracts go. And let's see what God can do, and God will do, because he wants to reach all demographics. So thank you, church, for doing that, for starting something. That's great. We had, I think we had seven or eight this morning in our Spanish Sunday school. And so I'm encouraged about that. God can do great things. Vamos entonces al libro de hechos, hermanos. Ahí estamos nosotros. Vesiculo numero 42. Vamos, let's go to Racks. And we'll go to two, and we'll start verse 42. Actually, let's start at verse 41, cuarenta y uno. Vamos a comenzar ahí, cuarenta y uno. Okay, hermanos? Forty-one. We know the background here. Peter preaching the day of Pentecost. Three thousand came to know the Lord. God used him in a great way. And we see that God is doing what, of course, was seemingly impossible. It seemed impossible for the church to do what we are going to see in this chapter, but Christ has given the commandment to go and preach the gospel of the word of God. We see what Peter did. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, he preached the word of God. And remember now, this was not too long after, of course, the resurrection of Christ. Christ was crucified publicly, as far as the Jews were concerned. He was a false rabbi. We're looking for another Christ to come to deliver us. And of course, they did not understand God's greater plan to reach the world. And the disciples, of course, were getting it little by little. They thought, well, you know, Lord, why don't you come now and set up the kingdom? We're ready. And the Lord said, no, no, no. It is not for you to know the times or seasons, which the Father hath put his own power, but ye shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be what church? Witnesses. So that was what God wanted. Cristo tenía un plan para los discípulos. Ellos no entendían, pero poco a poco el Señor mostró a ellos que él quería llenarlos con poder para ir y hacer qué, hermanos? So we'll go ahead and read in verse 41. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto them about 3,000 souls. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together. I love that phrase. All that believed were together. That's what makes the church. This is what we're seeing today, this morning. We're all together because we trust that all of us that are here in this room have believed, have trusted Christ. And so this is what happened back in the book of Acts. They were together, verse 44, and had all things common. And they sold their possessions and goods and departed them to all men as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added unto the church daily, such as should be saved. cuarenta y uno hermanos, así que los que con gozo recibieron su palabra fueron bautizados, y aquel día fueron añadidas a ellos como tres mil personas, y perseveraban en la doctrina de los apóstoles, y en la comunión, y en el partimiento del pan, y en las oraciones, y vino temor sobre toda persona, y muchas maravillas y señales eran hechas por los apóstoles, y todos los que habían creído estaban juntos. Eso me da gozo. Me gusta esta frase porque ellos, los que recibieron a Cristo, estaban que? Juntos. Eso se llama la iglesia. Como esta mañana aquí estamos juntos porque hemos creído en Cristo como el solamente, el único que puede salvar. Y eso es la razón por la cual estamos aquí. Aquí dice, en el versículo 44, vamos a leer otra vez, todos los que habían creído estaban juntos y tenían en común todas las cosas, y vendían sus propiedades y sus bienes, y lo repartían a todos según cada uno tenía necesidad. y perseverando unánimes cada día en el templo, y partiendo el pan en las casas, comían juntos con alegría y sencillez de corazón, alabando a Dios y teniendo favor con todo el pueblo, y el Señor añadía cada día a la iglesia los que eran salvos. Let's pray. Vamos a orar. Father, we thank you for the passage that we read. Lord, help us. Holy Spirit of God, show us what you want us to see from these passages that we'll look at this morning. Speak to our hearts. Help us to have receptive hearts. Help us to be attentive. Father, that you might help us to mature and grow in faith. And Lord, help us to understand what you want us to do in these last days. Señor, ayúdanos a entender lo que tú quieres que nosotros vemos aquí en la palabra de Dios. Señor, ayúdanos a entender tu propósito y que tú quieres usar la palabra de Dios en nuestros corazones para madurar, para hacer la obra. Ayúdanos esta mañana a prestar atención y Señor, por favor, hable al corazón de cada creyente en nombre de Jesús. Amen. So this morning, we're going to look at the idea of being united in Christ as believers. I think a couple weeks ago, Preacher, you preached on the local church, the importance of the church. I'm a strong believer in the local church. I believe God teaches it. I believe the New Testament emphasizes it. And I believe that is the only hope we have for our nation. I believe, obviously, that we should take advantage of voting this Tuesday, but the hope for this nation is not going to be in the ballot box. It's not going to be in the White House. It's going to be in the church house. This is the hope of our country. I hope that you're understanding that's what's happening. That's what we're seeing. La esperanza de este mundo, hermanos, no está en votar. Yo no estoy contra de eso. Pero sabemos que la esperanza para este país, para este mundo, está en la iglesia local. No está en la Casa Blanca. Ahora, no me malentiendes. Yo estoy por votar por varones, por gente que van a apoyar y hacer lo que es bíblico. Pero sabemos que ahí no está la esperanza. Está en Cristo. The hope of our world, the hope of our country is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And we see the church that Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Satan is against the church. What Jesus said, it would be that way. He said the gates of hell shall not prevail. He's basically saying, look, you're going to be in enemy territory and the enemy is going to close, try to close the entryway to reaching people for Christ. The gates of hell. I think of, you know, I've been to Israel about eight years ago, and I realized that gates are not the little picket white fence that you see in front of houses. It's those big, big doors that close the entryway to get into the old city, the wall that surrounded the old city of Jerusalem. And so the only way to get into the city is you had to go through the Gate, right? So Jesus said, the gates of hell shall not prevail. Satan's gonna try and do everything he can to keep those doors closed as we are in his territory. He's gonna try to discourage, he's gonna try to do everything he can to distract us, but we need to keep going forward. With Jesus Christ leading us forward, we're gonna break those doors open by his power and by his spirit, and people are gonna be saved, and churches are gonna be planted, and churches are gonna be built. Brothers and sisters, we have a powerful Savior who sent us to go and win souls. And Satan, the enemy, will do everything he can to prevent us from going and becoming disciples. He will try to attack the churches because we already know that we are in the territory of the enemy here in this world. And the Lord said that I will build my church So we know that even in this example that we read in the Book of Acts, very, very obviously well known to most of us, Rome was in power. Rome was in power. Rome was the oppressing empire upon the nation of Israel at that time. There were no friendly emperors to the gospel. There was no local Roman officials that were making it possible for the apostles to go and preach the gospel. In fact, there was more opposition really coming at the beginning from the Jewish leadership than there was from the Roman Empire. And so the Roman Empire could care less. I mean, as far as they were concerned, as long as they got their money, their taxes, and they did not commit any kind of insurrection, they would leave believers in Christ alone. They could care less what pagan god you believed in. They just said, you know, whatever. As they went, we know that the Jewish opposition just increased. We know what happened when Paul went out to preach the gospel. In the end, much of the Jewish leadership trying to get after him to kill him. Sabemos que en ese tiempo hubo mucho de los enemigos de Cristo, los judíos, que estaban detrás de Pablo tratando de hacer todo lo que podían hacer para matarlo porque él estaba predicando el evangelio. Muchos de los enemigos eran judíos que no creían en Cristo, que estaban tratando de hacer todo lo que ellos podían hacer para parar lo que Cristo ya estaba haciendo. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one that's leading us, that he's the one that's going to build the church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail. And we see that's what's happening here. Notice that we see 3,000 souls getting saved. Remember that a couple of months earlier, what happened? What did Jerusalem see? They saw Jesus crucified by the Romans. The disciples were completely disillusioned. They didn't know what to think. They looked at that and they were going, whoa, this is not what we expected. Although they were told. But then when it was all said and done, as far as Jerusalem the city was concerned, That rabbi, that false rabbi, that crazy rabbi is gone. He's dead. Let's move on. But we know what happened. The Holy Spirit began to work. The Lord brought, of course, he rose from the dead, and he showed himself alive, and he got the disciples to realize that he had a work for them to do. But wait a minute. Look at what it says in the Book of Acts. Vamos al libro de hechos, otra vez, pero Acts 1. El libro de Hechos, ahí estamos todavía. Capítulo uno, hermanos, capítulo uno. Los discípulos vieron a Cristo crucificado. Y ellos estaban viendo todo eso. No esperaban eso, pero viendo todo eso, ¿qué? ¿Y qué ahora? Cristo está muerto y después sabemos que Él resucitó de los muertos. And when he heard about the dead, he spoke to them and told them this. Look with me, chapter 1, verse 8. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria, and even in the last of the earth. But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. But you know what brings the attention to me is notice that he said to the disciples, I want you to start in Jerusalem. Now think about this. Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem. Remember what the crowd said? Remember what the Jewish leadership got the crowd to do? Crucify him. Crucify him. Crucify him. And so as far, they got the crowd stirred up. They pretty much tried to convince the crowd that this messiah wasn't really the messiah. He's not the messiah he claims to be. He's saying he's the son of God. That's blasphemy. He deserves to be crucified. He deserves to be put to death. And that's, as far as the multitudes in Jerusalem were concerned, that's the last time they saw him. Jesus, when he rose from the dead, didn't show himself alive to everybody. And so, for the most part, we could say that biblically, Jerusalem as a city rejected Jesus Christ. The Jews of that city rejected him publicly. Podemos decir que toda la ciudad de Jerusalén no quería nada con Cristo. He was not the Son of God. He was not the Messiah. We don't want anything with Him. But when the Lord sent them to preach the Gospel, where did they begin to preach the Gospel? What city? Jerusalem. When Jesus said, you know, I want you to, you're gonna receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost is coming upon you and you shall be witnesses in Jerusalem. Jerusalem? Not that city. Lord, maybe some other city. Maybe a more friendly to the message of the gospel type city. Can we start somewhere else? But instead, Jesus tells them to go to the hardest city on the planet at the time to preach that Jesus indeed is the Messiah. He is more than that. He's the Son of God. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh under the Father but by me. I want you to start preaching that message in Jerusalem. Now, try to picture... Hello? Yes. Brother Peter from the First Baptist Church of Jerusalem, I have a message to preach to you that Jesus the Messiah, you know, the one that was crucified, oh, he rose from the dead and he offers salvation. Now, I don't know about you, but I would not be too excited about going door knocking or going into the public square in Jerusalem to preach about a savior who, as far as the city was concerned, was crucified and put to death and he's gone. He's not the Messiah, let alone the Son of God. Now that'd be pretty difficult, wouldn't it? But see, Jesus said, I will build my church. I will build my church. Jesus knew about the opposition that was coming. Jesus knew how the hearts of those people were gonna be. El Señor sabía la condición de la gente ahí en la ciudad de Jerusalén. El ya sabía. Cuando el dio el mandato, el dio el mandato a los discípulos para ir y comenzar en una ciudad que iba a ser muy difícil para alcanzar a la gente para Cristo. Pero tenemos que reconocer o recordar, hermanos, es que Cristo nos mandó y Cristo nos da el poder. See, two things we got to keep in mind is that Jesus gave us the commandment to go, but he also gave us the power to go and preach the gospel. But ye shall receive what, church? Power. Why? Because we need it. I don't know about you, but I'm not one for knocking on doors or talking to people one-on-one about Jesus, I'm not. It's just not part of me. I always ask people, how many of you are like people, you're a people person, you don't mind talking to strangers? Raise your hand. You don't mind talking to strangers. You can come converse with them, okay? Okay, we've got a few weird people around, okay? Okay. Okay. I'm not like that. I'm not like the kind of guy that likes to meet strangers and start a conversation. But brothers and sisters, wait a minute. It's not about our personality. Jesus didn't say, you know, those of you that are, you know, those of you disciples that love talking to strangers, I'm going to fill you with power. You go out. Right? He didn't say that. He said it to all the disciples. You know, Peter was always the one that talked a lot, right? You notice that? First to talk, right? And I wonder, you know, didn't hear much from the other disciples. But it didn't matter. He said, ye shall receive what? Power, and that's why we need it. We need that power so that we can overcome whatever our personal flaws are, whatever keeps us from getting that gospel out to our neighbor or to our relative or to that person. That's where we need the power. That's what we need. El poder que necesitamos, hermano, para ayudarnos, para ir y hablar con la gente que no conocemos. Porque no es parte de nuestro ser. Eso no importa. Porque el Señor ya dijo que yo le doy el poder para predicar. Si tiene miedo o no tiene la costumbre de hablar con gente que no conoce, no importa porque Cristo ya dijo, yo te doy poder. So if you don't have the ability to speak as far as your personality and you're not into talking to strangers, the Lord says, okay, lo, I am with you always. That's a special promise to those who go and preach the gospel. So we know this is exactly what we see happening here in the book of Acts. We see that Peter, the one who denied the Lord, the one who was afraid when he was warming his hands by the fire, remember that? And, you know, a little damsel comes up and says, hey, you're one of them. No, no, not me, remember that? Just, you know, fear gripped him, he didn't want to admit that he was a disciple of Christ, but now he was filled with the Holy Spirit of God, was he not? And what was he doing? He was standing publicly in that crowd of Jews. And guess who else was in the crowd? You think the Pharisees weren't in that crowd? You think the Jewish leadership that crucified Jesus was not in the crowd? You think that maybe Peter wasn't thinking that, oh man, if I stand up and preach, I'm going to end up probably being crucified. I think that Peter probably had those thoughts as he stood up there, but you know what? When you're filled with the Holy Spirit, and this is not some feeling or anything, I'm not talking about crazy stuff here. Saying the Holy Spirit will give us the grace and the power to speak if we speak, if we yield to his command. Tenemos un Espiritu Santo, hermano, que va a ayudarnos hablar No importa si tienen miedo o no importa, nada de eso importa, pero si estamos llenos del Espíritu Santo en ese momento, hermanos, si obedecemos el mandamiento de Dios, de Cristo, para hablar con otros de Cristo, ahí es donde el Señor nos da el poder. Él dijo que yo estaré contigo en ese momento, ayudarle. Entonces, eso es lo que estamos viendo. This is what we're seeing here. We're seeing people just like you and me, okay? Peter was a fisherman. We know that he all, he was, can we say that he was a blue-collar worker or that he was just a, you know, he worked every day as a fisherman. He had a successful fishing business. He wasn't a preacher. He wasn't, that wasn't his vocation. But he had a call that all of us have received, to go and preach the gospel to every creature. And so this is what we see here. We see how Jesus is actually building his church. He said he would do it, did he not? I will do it, and we're seeing him do it. Estamos viendo, Cristo dijo, yo edificaré mi iglesia, y aquí estamos viendo como él está haciendo eso. Él está usando a todos los creyentes. He's using believers. He's using all the believers who decide, OK, Lord, help me. I need your help to talk to my neighbor. I need your help to talk to that loved one that I'm concerned about. I need you to give me the grace, and I need you to give me the courage to speak to my coworker. And let's face it. We need that. I need that. And so the Lord already promised, I will do it. I will give you that power. And so as we see in Acts 2, and go back there, Acts 2, 42, when he preached, the Bible says, verse 41, they gladly received his word. They that gladly received his word were baptized. That wasn't Peter doing it, that was the Holy Spirit empowering his word. Do we believe that God can use us when we get out the gospel? First question that comes to my mind is, am I getting the gospel out? Am I proactively getting the gospel out consistently? Am I passing out a gospel tract? ¿Estoy yo dando el evangelio? ¿Estoy yo pasando un tratado? ¿Estoy yo hablando con la gente que me conoce? Los parientes, los vecinos, la gente que están alrededor de nosotros donde yo estoy trabajando, donde estamos trabajando. Estamos haciendo eso. Y segundo, si estamos haciendo eso, estamos haciendo con fe en su poder. Que el Señor sí puede darme el poder. Do we go with faith believing that God can use us as we give the gospel out? Instead of thinking, oh, I don't know. I'll give out this tract. And a lot of times when we do this, we kind of think, oh, they're probably going to throw it away. How many thought this? They're probably not going to read it. They're going to throw it away. OK? Yeah. That's the first thought that comes to me. So when I give out a gospel tract, you know how you do it, right? You give out a gospel tract. Maybe you're giving to someone on the street the gospel tract. Right? Let's see if, you know, they're gonna even read it. They're probably gonna throw it down on the sidewalk or on the ground. But, brothers and sisters, didn't Jesus say, I will build my church? Do we believe he said he would do that? Do we believe that his power can fill us and use us? And do we believe that the power is in the word of God? If we believe that as we go out, then Jesus will do his work because he said he would. And the problem with Brother Pinto is I don't really believe that when I go out. I'm struggling with my own personal, you know, fear. You know, I don't know if I'm gonna say this right. I don't know that my neighbor is gonna really be receptive. I don't wanna get that feeling of rejection. All of those feelings that kinda come to us at that moment, When the truth of the matter is, I should be thinking about this, and lo, I am with you always. And ye shall receive what? And I shall be with you. And you shall receive what? The power. But the problem is, brothers, that we do not believe. No estamos pensando en eso. Estamos pensando, yo no sé si ellos van a recibir el tratado. Muchas veces, ¿verdad? Damos un tratado a alguien y estamos haciendo eso, ¿verdad? A ver, a ver si ellos van a leer o tirar en el piso. No. Let's notice what the Lord did here. He used a man who struggled with fear. Peter was a man that struggled with fear. but not in this moment, because he was filled with the Holy Spirit and he preached the word, and he didn't know, perhaps he might get crucified, perhaps the Jewish leadership would say, okay, we thought we got rid of the problem by crucifying Jesus, we need to get rid of his disciples. And we know that. Obviously, as we read through the book of Acts, that that's what was happening. But at this moment, this was a day of Pentecost. Jews from all over the area were there to observe the day of Pentecost. So there were a lot of Jews coming from all over. And that was a great moment for the gospel to go out. And the Lord knew that. So he got his disciples ready. He said, you shall receive power. And you're going to start in Jerusalem, because all of these Jews are coming from everywhere. So go ahead and preach. And when he did, the Bible says they gladly received his word. Those that gladly received his word, not everybody is gonna get saved, but somebody will. Todos nos van a recibir a Cristo, pero alguien si va a recibir a Cristo. Si estamos fielmente yendo y dando la palabra de Dios y compartiendo el evangelio, hermanos, alguien va a recibir a Cristo, alguien va a recibir a Cristo. Vamos a ir con fe en lo que Cristo nos dijo ya. Yo te lleno con poder. Yo te ayudo. Yo estaré contigo. I'll be with you. Let's go believing that the Lord, not only did he give us that commandment to go, but to go believing. Give that track out, believing. That's what we need to do. I believe the disciples just went and they obeyed and the Holy Spirit used the power of the word of God and people trusted Christ. Verse 42 says, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and prayers. All this was a work of the Holy Spirit of God. When Jesus said, I will build my church, he also said this, I will send you another what? Comforter. And that comforter was to help us do the work that Jesus called us to do. Dios mando el Espiritu Santo, hermanos, para ayudarnos con la obra que Cristo nos mando a hacer. The power is in the Word. We know that, we know the scripture, all scripture is given by inspiration of God, it's profitable, right? And we know that it has the power. So we rely on that when we give out the word, when we give out the gospel. And what happens is, people get saved. And the more of the seed that we get out, the higher the probability that people will get saved. The lesser we do, the lower the probability that people will get saved. Do you see that, church family? What I think we need to do more of in our nation right now is to do more. So much the more as you see the day approaching, right? More church attendance, more faithful church attendance, more prayer, more Bible reading, more getting of the gospel out. But what I see, preacher, and I'm sure you see this, is that we're doing less, not more. Do we believe the day is approaching, church? Yes. Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? The sad thing is, as I go, and I haven't been in very many churches, really, been in New England area, obviously, in all six states, in different churches, and we're trying to help, obviously, encourage churches to save New England, and help pastors, and it's not an easy mission field, but I'm finding out that, wow, it seems like we're just kind of backing off, when we really should be doing more, not less. More Sunday night. More Wednesday night. More going out and knocking on doors and passing out tracks. More, more. Because our country is dying. Our country is dying around us. Not for lack of having conservatives in the state or our federal governments. And don't misunderstand me. I believe in that. But let's not kid ourselves. We know what the problem is. What is the problem? We're not getting the gospel out like we should. It starts. one-on-one, reaching people with the gospel. Jesus doing that work within. Comienza todo, hermanos, con una persona personalmente, ¿verdad? Dando el evangelio porque creemos que Cristo es la esperanza para este país, para todo el mundo, sí. Pero estamos viendo ahora que este país está muriendo. This country is dying because we are not giving the gospel firmly as we should. And so we see that even in the midst of a situation where the Roman Empire was in charge, the Jewish leadership was doing everything they can to squelch and to kill what Jesus said he was gonna do, it didn't stop him, did it? Jesus now is empowering his believers, they're preaching the gospel, and people are trusting Christ, and the Bible says that they not only received Christ, the Bible says that they were together, They continued steadfastly, verse 42, in the apostles' doctrines. And that all started with the disciples who were there, yes, with fear. Yes, they were thinking, what are we going to do? And if the Lord gave us the responsibility to go and be disciples, I don't know if I can. I don't know if the Lord is going to work, but they I don't know that these 120 believers really knew what the Lord was gonna do, but one of those things that we see happening in these two chapters is that they obeyed. They obeyed. When Jesus said, in Jerusalem, I could find myself preachers saying, I don't know about Jerusalem. I don't know, right? Maybe in Judea, more Gentile there, maybe, but not here. But the church was planted in Jerusalem, and the Lord saw to do the work that he said he would do, I will build my church. But what he's waiting for is he's waiting for believers like us to take seriously his commandment, to believe and to obey, trust and obey, and let's see what God can do. Vamos a lo que Cristo está buscando. Los creyentes son creyentes. Yo voy a obedecer y yo voy a ir Con fe que el Señor va a darme el poder. Cuando yo doy un tratado, yo voy a dar con fe que el Señor va a obrar en el corazón de esa persona. Que su palabra es una palabra poderosa, que sí puede hacer la obra. Y hacerlo constantemente. And that's the key, doing it consistently. Not every once in a while, but consistently looking for opportunities during the week in our circle, in our sphere of influence. Pastor has his circle, all of you have a circle that none of us can reach those people within your circle. And he has put you there to reach that world that you're in. El Señor ha puesto a usted creyente para alcanzar el mundo donde usted está. Hay gente que usted puede alcanzar para Cristo que él pasó no puede alcanzar. Y él quiere usar a usted. Si usted es un creyente, el Señor le dio ya el mensaje de la salvación que usted puede compartir con otra gente. Usted sí puede hablar con su vecino. Si, puede hablar con los obreros alrededor de usted. Y la verdad es, los hermanos esta mañana que están aquí, que ya usted conoce a Cristo, el Señor quiere usar a usted para alcanzar a los hispanos alrededor de esta iglesia. Él quiere usar a ustedes. Él no puede usar la mayoría aquí, pero quiere usar a usted. Who can you reach? Who in your sphere of influence can you reach for Christ? He wants to use you, though. He wants to empower you. Think of all the things, all the things that kind of hinder you. Inside, you know, is your personality, whatever it is that kind of gets in the way. Do you ever have that argument with the Lord when he tells you to talk to somebody about Jesus? How many have ever had that? Okay, how many are honest enough they want to raise your hand, right? Yeah, I mean. I've got tracks in my glove compartment. If I put them in my pocket, they'll not survive very well. So I put them in my glove compartment. And there are times when I'm at a gas station or I'm in a situation where the Lord, the Holy Spirit, he doesn't yell, does he? He's not like us preachers, right? No, what he does is he says, hey, give that man a track. Everybody hear that voice? Give that lady a track. And then I start saying, well, yeah, no, not right now. It's not a good time. I don't think he'll take it. Give that man a track. No, I don't think, he doesn't look like a friendly guy. I don't think I'll give it to him. No, give him. Give him that track. Now, if you think that that was by accident, then we, I think, have to kind of press the reset button about God and how he works. When he moves upon us to give a track, it's because he has already been working in the heart of that individual. Do you ever think about that? Instead of thinking, oh, he's gonna throw, oh, she's gonna throw, she's not gonna, let's think of it this way. God so loved the world. Dios amo tanto al mundo. Si Dios le tocó para dar un tratado a alguien, en ese momento debemos creer que el Señor ya está obrando en el corazón de esa persona, ya. And that's the way the Lord does it. So I have to believe in that moment that if the Lord wants me to give a tract to somebody or speak to somebody, it's because the Holy Spirit is working in that person's heart already. and he has me there to take advantage of that moment, and if I don't take advantage of that moment, what happens? I don't know if that person's ever gonna be in that position to get the gospel again, maybe not, right? I don't know, but God knows. So I need to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit so that when the moment comes and I know I need to talk to somebody verbally or give that person a track, I wanna be sensitive to the Holy Spirit of God. The disciples in the book of Acts were sensitive to the moving and the power of the Holy Spirit of God and they were obedient. We see that they were obedient and we see that by faith they gave out the gospel and God did the rest. Let's do it again. Let's see it again in our lives. When was the last time you gave out a tract? When was the last time you spoke to somebody about Jesus? ¿Cuándo fue la última vez que usted ha dado un tratado a alguien? ¿Cuándo fue la última vez que usted habló con alguien de Cristo? Yo tenía la oportunidad de ir a Minnesota, y yo estaba de vuelo a ir, ¿verdad? Y cuando yo me senté y alguien estaba a mi lado, El Espíritu Santo, de un tratado a ese varón. De un tratado. Yo no sé, yo estoy viendo y parece que está dormido. No, no, no. Espere. Cuando despierta, de un tratado. Y el Espíritu Santo, detrás de mí, todo ese tiempo del vuelo, de un tratado, de un tratado. I was on my way to Minnesota, and I was flying out there. No sooner I sit down, of course, you know, a person sits next to me, and the Holy Spirit begins to say, hey, give that guy a track. And I look over, I said, it looks like he's dozing off over there. I don't know if he, give that guy a track. Wait for him to get, you know, when he gets up, you know, when he's not, when he's awake, give him a track, right? And for that whole time, through the whole flight, the Holy Spirit is saying, give that man a track, give that man a track. And guess what I'm saying? I don't know. I don't know if he'll really take it. He's probably not gonna take it, right? There is Brother Pinto getting in the way. Brother Pinto needs to get out of the way and just obey the prompting of the Holy Spirit and give that man a track. I flew, I had to change planes, going to Minnesota and coming back. And out of the four people, one person said, I'm not interested. One person. But you know what that means, brothers and sisters? That lady will have no excuse at judgment time. What we owe the world is an opportunity to be saved. opportunity for them to receive Christ. Whether or not they do that is between them and God, but my responsibility is to give them that opportunity. La oportunidad, hermanos, ellos van a tener cuando estamos dando el tratado, pero debemos darle la oportunidad. It is not in our power to save them. They already have the opportunity to receive Christ or not receive Christ, but it is our responsibility to give them the opportunity. And they are not worried if they are going to receive or not receive. Let's go with faith. So if they don't receive Christ, if they say no, well, okay, we've done our part. But I think the problem is we're not giving a lot of people the opportunity. And that's where I think we're failing. We owe them that. That's why I say we owe the Spanish community that. We owe all the demographics around us. We owe our neighbors. We owe our coworkers. We owe them that. And that's what we see here. And that's why Jesus, I believe, did great things. Why? Because these disciples went, they obeyed. They didn't depend upon themselves. They were filled with the Holy Spirit. And they went and they faithfully gave out the word. Let's do more of that. Let's do more of that. Vamos a hacer más, hermanos. Con el poder del Espíritu Santo, vamos a compartir el Evangelio, vamos a ser testigos en el trabajo, en la casa, con los vecinos, donde estamos yendo en la semana, durante la semana, durante el día, porque estamos en los últimos días. Y la oportunidad para alcanzar este mundo está poco a poco acabando. Entonces, vamos a aprovechar. Hermanos de habla español, ya ustedes saben, hay muchos hispanos por aquí. Ellos necesitan la oportunidad. Y él quiere usar a ustedes para alcanzar a ellos, como los de habla inglés. And I challenge, y hermanos, Los de habla inglés necesitan el evangelio también, okay? Entonces, ten los tratados de inglés para dar el evangelio a los de habla inglés. It kind of works both ways, okay? I tell our Spanish believers that they're responsible to get the gospel to the English-speaking people too. Just because they don't speak Spanish doesn't mean, oh, okay, they don't speak Spanish, so I don't need to give them a track. Oh, no, it works both ways. Remember, the world, going to all the world. The question is, what are we doing in our world? ¿Qué estamos haciendo en nuestro mundo donde estamos nosotros? Sabemos ya que Cristo quiere edificar a su iglesia. He said, I will build my church. How's he gonna do it? Well, he's doing it through believers like you and I. And he said, the gates of hell shall not prevail. We're in enemy territory, there's no doubt about that. Let's be faithful. Let's trust God. Let's obey and let's trust and let's go. Let's pray, Father.