ENGLISH Dante Gebel #837 | The tear earing clowns

There are times when the most important thing we the ones who are called to serve can do is to share people’s suffering and pain. It is not to advise them. It is not to fill them with verses. Much less to tell them the awful phrase: “You must have done something.” We just have to “cry with those who cry.” ‘Eating’ the tears of another not only benefits the person who receives the help, but also the one who serves from the heart. That is the only feature that identifies the true church… The ability to love and serve others!

[Music]

foreign

I once heard the story and if I’m not

mistaken I think I’ve shared it with you

about a church

who was made up of a a band of

domesticated geese and every each week

the geese would arrive and they would

hear the preacher speak about the Marvel

of flying or being able to fly and so

the the goose Pastor said we don’t need

to walk on the ground and always stay in

the same place that’s how he challenged

them encouraged them he said we can rise

into the air and fly to distant regions

and we can even go to more benign

climates we can go wherever we want we

can fly and the geese would squawk amen

and then they would line up to this to

the doors well don’t say Amen because

then you’ll feel like geese

and then they would go to the door

and they would squawk and walk back home

all they needed to do was flap their

wings

they were living hearing about what it

was like to fly but in the end nobody

tried it and what this metaphor shows

are what this hyperbole shows

is that during the last years that has

worried me and I’ve tried to avoid it

even though foolishly I’ve tried to

avoid it I’ve always had the fear

in a subtle way in an unconscious way

the church not just our church but the

church in general that it can become

an elitist private club

designed to satisfy its own members and

you don’t realize when that happens

you begin to hear that people want this

the people are asking for this the

people like this and we forget that it’s

a service to God not a service for the

people not a service for the client

yeah we come here we’re comfortable we

have AC during the summer we have the

heater on during the winter comfortable

seats in this in these times there are

churches that don’t even have this

however we’re not here to satisfy the

people but

as a leader as a pastor you can cross

that line

when you go to the Neo testamentary

vision from the Primitive church we

realize that the church existed for the

benefit of the people on the outside in

any case to exalt God but also to bless

the people on the outside not those

inside so my recurring question each

year I ask myself the question what do

we do

so that each day we can look more and

more like the church that God had in

mind

what do we do to get closer each day to

what the essence of the Primitive church

was

The Logical cultural distances obviously

we’re not going to be wearing tunics and

sandals I’m talking about the essence

and in all these years of Ministry of of

my calling I’ve realized that there’s a

pattern that is repeated Through The

Years every Church begins with a noble

Vision always no one ever found a church

generally speaking with the wrong Vision

the noble mission is always saving Souls

preaching to the world

but as the years go by

a frenzy of activities is generated so

that the members can feel more

comfortable and so people start to ask

oh the youth or the single people want

to gather and it’s not wrong

the children want a group The

pre-adolescents don’t want to gather

with The Adolescents

the single people that are 20 want to

gather with themselves now with the 40

year olds mother-in-laws wanna gather

and so we give them the basement

whatever you know

and like the geese in our story

maybe we end up preaching that we’re

going to fly and preach the world but

the whole world everyone

used to walk nothing changes so the

explanation for this of this tendency of

becoming a club I’ve lived it a lot as

an evangelist going through many many

churches through the years

is that at a certain point in this

Christian pilgrimage we forget that we

were called to serve the world

it seems like something childish we

forget it but we forget that we were

called to serve

and that’s

where we convert

or become a simple Human Institution we

forget service

we end up becoming just another

Foundation another Institution

and so the essence of what God wanted

for the church begins to fade away so

Through The Years two things can happen

both of them are very serious they’re

both very serious pathology is one is

either

we become hypersensitive

not insensitive we become hypersensitive

to other people’s pain or we develop

emotional calluses and we don’t care

about anything I said both are serious

because those that are hypersensitive to

others suffering they sometimes succumb

to the pain and they can’t be a blessing

to anyone because they’re affected by

everything they take all the burdens

home and they end up carrying a cross

that doesn’t belong to them others in

their defects develop a callousness

that makes it that their calling looks

like just another job they come to

church to serve like any other job in

the best of cases others come here just

to spend two hours here

and they’re not a blessing to anyone

because etymologically they’re religious

They don’t serve they don’t affect

they don’t add salt where flavor is

needed they don’t illuminate in darkness

so either of these two groups the

hypersensitive and those that are

calloused neither remain in Ministry for

a long time nor can they

remain throughout time with that being

said I’m going to give you a practical

example I have a deformity

yeah at this point it’s it’s in my bones

and my muscles on the fingers on my

right hand

it’s a hand that I always try to hide if

I’m interviewing

I always try to show my hand

a little less

well here where I trust you guys so I’m

sharing this with you I wouldn’t share

if I had hemorrhoids but

the thing about the handouts whatever I

had an accident when I was 17.

with a machine at my father’s carpentry

it was

a saw I shouldn’t have been using that

machine at that age but that’s a

different topic

I cut my fingers off and then they

operated me they put the fingers back on

and I began to develop a callus there

was a liquid

a temporary liquid patch liquid pad

and throughout time my fingers produced

a more permanent

alteration

harder keratin what we know as a callus

that’s what keratin is like a callus and

these calluses on my right hand

made it so that the pain would go away

it also took part of my

sensitivity so it’s more difficult for

me to draw I say this because I was

always an artist it’s more difficult for

me to draw after that accident I had to

do a lot of therapy with the small ball

I thought I would I thought I would

never be able to hold a a pencil again

I’m right-handed so I almost had to

learn to draw again I discovered that

knowing how to draw was in my brain not

my hand so I had to teach my hand how to

draw again

it’s the same for

typing I had to redevelop elasticity

but I actually lost most of it I can’t

manage my hand the way most people can

because of this there’s a famous surgeon

Paul brand he’s the pioneer

of treatment with Leprosy he was the

Pioneer and he was saying that while he

was going through medical school he

spent the summer

navigating on a small boat and during

the first week

as he pulled heavy ropes to Hoist the

sails his hands were so wounded they

were bleeding during the night he

couldn’t sleep because of the pain

but after the end of the second week

thick calluses began to develop just as

it happened with me and he didn’t have

any more pain because the calluses were

protecting him but two months later when

he went back to medical school

he realized that he had lost the ability

to carry out dissections

so the callousness callousness had made

his fingers less sensitive and he could

barely feel the surgical instruments

he was a medical student

he thought he had ruined his career as a

surgeon

because of two weeks on a small boat

however he shares that the calluses

gradually began to disappear and his

sensitivity began to come back and he

concluded

by saying the human body has that

particularity that strange power of

adaptation to the changing needs of each

season

we adapt I never thought that my fingers

would redevelop their sensitivity I

thought I couldn’t

hold up a fist but the muscles the bones

re-adapt and what brand says to us gives

us a very useful perspective and respect

to our ministry our calling at our

church because many times we need to

have the ability of a surgeon to be able

to restore The Souls of men and that

requires much more sensitivity than

repairing human bodies I always say that

if they were to take humor away from me

God knows I don’t come here with jokes

I’ve learned I’m not a comedian

but whatever occurs to me I do it

on purpose as a speaker because to me

that means it’s it’s anesthesia if what

I

said if I took away all those moments of

laughter where you can relax it would be

very rough that the message would be

tough it’s like extracting a

tools without anesthesia it’s like

saying

oh God bless you I’m I’m a sinner so you

laugh and the word comes in Faster The

Good the Bad and and the the what’s

tough so being a surgeon of souls

treating people speaking to our

neighbors speaking to our manager our

schoolmates it requires

a surgical Precision where we’re dealing

with Souls but on other occasions those

of us that serve sometimes we also need

a layer of calluses so that the burdens

don’t overwhelm us

so that the burdens aren’t greater than

what we can carry

there’s a marvelous book that I once

mentioned it’s called

cry

salty tears and it’s written by a

British man named Paul Gorman

and he details the experience of serving

in children’s Wards children with

terminal illnesses and among other

things the author shares at first the

idea was to encourage them a little bit

but without wanting to I became a clown

because first someone said to me so that

the kids pay attention put on this red

nose this big red nose then I began to

put on basic makeup then I found a

yellow red and green clown suit

and finally a clown who was retiring

gifted me

some big white clown shoes

with green heels

and the author says

but you see terrible things in those

Wards with those little ones that are in

their final stations of life

finding dying children is something that

many of us are not prepared to do

an adult person an elderly person

it’s something that the unconscious

prepares us for but nobody teaches us

how to deal with this type of suffering

when we find little children that have

leukemia they’re bald heads

the author says what can we do

because the child himself and their

parents

and those of us that foolishly try to

help sometimes we’re aware that the

child is dying

there are some that are in therapy and

might have hopes that the metastasis

will stop but others are just awaiting

death and so the author says even

dressed up as a clown

I was serving with a broken heart and

the author added something that impacted

me he said I had the idea of going

from bed to bed with a bucket of popcorn

so when a child cries what I do is I

touch their tears with a a little kernel

of popcorn and I put it in my mouth or

their mouth

and so we sit down together and we eat

away our tears and so amongst tears the

child begins to laugh and all the

children began to know me as the clown

who eats tears

when I was reading the story it impacted

me because when Gorman shares this story

I was thinking that

those of us that have the call to serve

and we all have it there’s no one here

that says I don’t serve no we all do

sometimes we also have to eat other

people’s tears I have a niece my oldest

niece her name is Andrea she’s a nurse

and during the pandemic she shared that

she couldn’t work hard enough to tend to

all the patients that were alone that

were afraid coveted was was at its peak

and she did what she could during the

day but when night came he

her along with other nurses and and

doctors would begin to cry helplessly

they would lay in the hospital corridors

the hospital hallways they would

describe because people were dying every

day and she got frustrated she got to

know them

and then the next day they would be dead

and during 2020 she wrote something on

her profile that said we do what we can

but sometimes I consider

resigning because it’s tough for me to

manage so much pain I’m crying a lot

she’s a nurse

maybe at a certain moment she felt that

she wasn’t professional enough I don’t

know but I remember as I read her words

I thought

it’s strangely marvelous that a hospital

servant

still has the sensitivity of shedding

tears for strangers

I said

who could treat them better

than hers she’s willing to cry for them

what would we prefer a doctor or a nurse

that would cry with us or a cold

professional that says hey you’re gonna

die but

leave the bed because we need it for

someone else

sometimes they’re so professional that

we literally feel alone in the middle of

a crowd and I said it’s good

it’s good that in this case this woman

can cry

for strangers what a gift she gives to

these people but the question is this

about eating other people’s tears does

it do any good the question is does it

do any good

is it any good to expose yourself to

other people’s pain and my answer is

categorical of course of course it’s

good

it’ll never stop being something

extravagantly marvelous

metaphorically speaking putting a red

nose on yourself wearing some big clown

shoes to take laughter to a ward filled

with children with leukemia

and what’s more astonishing

is that that clown stays around to eat

popcorn drenched in tears

I’m sure that the those children’s

parents will be grateful

I recently read a book well a couple

years back I read a book called

the wounded healer it’s a small it’s a

short book that describes the lives of

people who are abandoned

they’re alone and they have no one to

love them

so the author tells the story of a young

Pastor that didn’t have anything to

offer an old man that was going to face

a surgery the only thing he could offer

was his authentic worry

because the old man was alone he didn’t

have children he didn’t have

grandchildren

and the old man was willing to die he

had given up and the author said no man

can keep himself alive when he knows

that no one is waiting for him why live

anyone that returns from a difficult

trip

looks for the person waiting for them at

the station or at the terminal to tell

them about their Misfortune or what

happened

we all need to share our sad stories

with someone everyone

we all need someone to be waiting for us

at home

if we had a sad Journey like one of my

friends says I have a a priest friend

his name is

a Benedictine Monk

and he tends to say

when you share Joy it expands who

watches a soccer game on his own and

screams for a goal on his own maybe a

fan but as argentinians we love saying

wow we lost 6-0 but we’re moral

champions

we like that because Joy is shared and

it grows bigger but when shame is shared

they become smaller

when you hear

what happens to someone else you say oh

it’s not that serious you say oh don’t

worry and sometimes all we need is a hug

that’s why I go back to the beginning of

the message sometimes those of us that

are called to serve the most important

thing we can do and this is so that no

one says I’m not a pastor I’m not an

evangelist I’m not an apostle the most

important thing we can do is share

the suffering the tears and pain with

someone share

not not cancel them

and that’s the The Habit that us

evangelicals have

we immediately give advice that no one’s

asking for look on social media you

should do you should show the praise you

shouldn’t dress in Black so much it’s a

diabolical color you shouldn’t talk

about mother-in-laws because I’m a

mother-in-law and I’m good now that’s a

lie all mother-in-laws say that

and I say why are they giving advice

what makes them wake up in the morning

and say today from nine to ten I’m going

to go through other people’s profiles

and give advice no one’s asking for who

who asked but it’s a habit that we all

have giving advice that no one is asking

for

keep your advice until someone asks for

it that advice will be

appreciated sometimes we think that the

Bible is osmosis that if we say repeat

repair say this say say I can do all

things in Christ who gives me strength

we think it’s a suppository

we have to fit it in wherever we can I

don’t know if you understood the

metaphor right

much less should we say the nefarious

phrase of oh well you must have done

something a hidden sin that illness

doesn’t just come around just because

you must have done something wrong think

about it because on top of the suffering

we add guilt

that’s why sometimes we scare people

away because we go out

and we give guilt and when you go out

and give off guilt instead of Grace to

people

become adverse to us

and we forget the importance of crying

with who with those who cry

if you’re weeping weep with them

when the Lord says laugh with those that

laugh and cry with those that cry don’t

try to comfort them just cry with them

there’s nothing better than sharing

tears sometimes that’s all that’s needed

someone who just got divorced all they

need is a hug someone who just confessed

that they’re addicted to alcohol oh

they need to heal their heart first and

you need to embrace them don’t give them

advice on how to leave alcohol or

and when you do that when you share the

tears and share the pain I know the

helplessness that we can feel

what comes to mind is a man with

Alzheimer’s my mother had it

and his daughter trying to fulfill his

needs but each day

her heart is broken seeing the shell of

the man her father once was it’s

frightening I had to visit my mother and

see an empty shell

see a woman

saying phrases that don’t mean anything

looking out into nothing it’s terrible

when the body outlives the mind

I remember a severely disabled child

with

a very low IQ and the doctors said the

boy can live a long life laying in a bed

no movement no ability to speak

not able to go to the bathroom on his

own having to feed him

and his mother spends all day

to take care of him and we ask what good

is there in eating these types of Tears

the hardest question is why help and

suffer when these people don’t even

realize that we’re there

because it’s one thing when you give

something to someone that can give

thanks

but what about those that are confined

to a bed

or sitting next to a bed

will someone confined to the bed in a

coma and they don’t even realize we’re

there

that question was formulated by a German

doctor

and every time he recruited aspiring

doctors or Physicians

he would give them a year long

trial period And then after a year

he would make them complete a survey

before he definitively hired them

and amongst the questions in the survey

you would find

what has changed in your life since you

began to work with disabled people and

the answers were of this tenor they

would say

for the first time in my life I feel

that I’m doing something truly

significant

others would say

now I have a better answer for human

suffering

and that makes me want to help others

something I didn’t know was within me

someone else said it makes me question

the important things in life I don’t

worry about stupidity anymore I always

say show me someone

who’s living yes

creating scandals and making scenes over

stupidity and foolishness and I’ll show

you someone that has never truly had a

serious problem show me a woman or a man

who has gone through cancer

who has gone through metastasis or or

diabetes I don’t know chronic diabetes

and I’ll show you someone

who finds a way to rejoice in the Lord

the resilience in that person and then

there’s also their hysterical person who

creates problems over a broken glass or

a traffic jam or because his

mother-in-law wanted to kiss him in any

one of these things the last one is

understandable but any of these things

speaks about the lack of true problems

another one of the aspiring

applicants said I become more tolerant

everything I used to worry about now

seems insignificant after spending an

entire day helping someone

with a disability

and so these children’s limitations

taught these volunteers life lessons

priorities

The Secret of wisdom Solomon would say

is to realize what’s important and

what’s not priorities

there are people here that must be older

than 50 or 60 and since there are women

I won’t wound your sensibility because

you’re all younger than 30 but try to

remember what changes through age are

priorities

there are things that we didn’t do when

we were 20. we didn’t do when we were 30

we didn’t value them

but when you’re at a certain age you

value other types of rest other pauses

you begin to live life a little slower

the closer you get to the tomb and the

further you get from the crib

the further you get from the uterus and

the closer you get to the Grave because

you’re always living fast

leave the crib and you’re running you’re

running and you’re running and then the

closer you get to the Grave you say oh

I’m not in such a rush

and we live a little slower taking life

slower right

we used to see our parents drinking a

glass of wine or seeing the sun watching

the sunset we would say what a waste of

time

and from then to now

we catch ourselves staring into nothing

and we ask what happened what changed

our priorities changed when you change

your priorities it’s not something that

a university can teach you

what changes your priorities is a season

in the hospital

if it’s not us in the iron bed the metal

bed

well then it’s us visiting someone a

loved one

or a cemetery

I would recommend that we all go to a

cemetery once a week

is to look at the graves at least it

shocks me

the last time I went to a cemetery I

went to the cemetery at the Crystal

Cathedral and I saw a bunch of graves

Asian Hispanics judging by the names of

course Americans

and amongst all the other Graves I found

Robert Schuler’s

who built the Empire of the Crystal

Cathedral and he was there

the same grave as the Asian who would

crash his car every day

the same hyphen separating the date of

birth and the date of death

he didn’t have a special tomb he didn’t

have a mausoleum or a divine presence no

it’s all the same and when you see that

you say wow and I’m really worrying

that’s why a walk through suffering can

order up our ducks

many of us have our ducks out of order

but this reorders him and I go back to

what happens to the Church of Christ we

have the tendency of wanting to change

people but we forget the effect that it

produces us to serve people

because eating tears my beloved

not only benefits though those that

receive the help but also those that are

serving with their heart this happens

with the servers at River those that

have never gone out as volunteers to

give out food here in Los Angeles those

that haven’t had the fortune of going to

Chiapas or Africa or Cuba or Venezuela

you’ve missed out on what this team

volunteers say what they feel when they

come back whether it’s Furnishing a home

nearby or working in Tijuana crossing

the border here or in Cuba or like I

said Uganda they come back richer why

because they come back with a new

perspective on life

moved by the stories of resilience

and let me not even talk about us taking

our adolescent children who are brought

up here in the U.S

because we’re the guilty parents the

majority of us came from scarcity or Pro

or poverty we even had to make toilet

paper last and so we want our children

here to not suffer in the same way and

it’s Noble but these are the same

children who believe that life owes them

something

and they become depressed they become

frustrated because there’s no Wi-fi I

can’t eat that restaurant because

there’s no Wi-fi there’s no password

they can’t eat a burger for two minutes

because there’s no Wi-Fi

because they can’t look at the stupidity

on Instagram

and so they become frustrated and so so

that they don’t get upset we take the

kid where there’s Wi-Fi so that they

aren’t disconnected because then they

can’t breathe and they breathe through a

bag because they don’t have their phone

on them

and so their threshold of resistance is

like this

try to remember

who of us here would get bored who could

ever say I’m bored what would our

parents say oh you’re bored today

oh come over here I’ll give you

something to do

go cut the grass go clean the bathroom

clean your room

we would never say we were bored how

could we be bored we were living life no

let me go out into the street I’ll climb

a tree I’ll never say I’m bored and

what’s our children’s favorite phrase

I’m bored

they have a big flattering with Netflix

Hulu HBO Amazon Prime Disney Plus

and don’t they tell you there’s nothing

to watch

we’re from the time

where a TV would begin and end

s

there would be one show in the afternoon

and then the news at five and then Tom

and Jerry after and then TV was done for

the day

and there was one TV it was my dad’s TV

after 8pm it was his

and who died who’s traumatized now just

kidding

while our children lack the experience

the healthy experience of sharing tears

and when a church stops doing that

they become stagnant they stop growing

that’s where the internal activities

begin let’s do something fun so that the

singles come

we need youth group every Friday with

karaoke music and coffee so that they

come

because since we’re not focused on

others suffering we have to entertain

them on the inside and that’s where you

cross the line and of course

when all the strength and energy

should be used on the outside when it’s

used internally instead of exploding we

implode and that’s where gossip begins

that’s where all the gossip begins and

this girl said this to me and she looks

look how she dresses well of course

like Luis Palawan said the church is

like done like manure spread out

it makes fruit grow upon all the land

but together it’s a frightening smell

and Jesus provided a model for the

church’s mission

so while the disciples

debated who was the best who was the

greatest Jesus grabbed some water and

began to wash feet John 13 15 says I

have set you an example that you should

do as I have done for you

I’m doing this as an example

I know where I’ve come from I know where

I’m going my rings don’t fall off

because I do this that’s the only sign

that identifies a true church the

capacity to love and to serve your

neighbor because a church nowadays can

function

quickly

with a Savvy businessman at the at the

wheel a bit of marketing some good music

some coaching phrases that he learned

tell the person next to you repeat after

me say this how many are happy glory to

God

now tell the person next to you now turn

behind you and say you’re happy you’re

happy and the church goes on

and on top of it all they give money

but the deeper question is what’s their

end result

so if we don’t develop an empathy with

pain

the only thing we’ll do is come to

church on Sundays but from Monday to

Saturday

we turn the other way

when someone’s begging for money and we

say nah they’re going to go buy drugs or

buy alcohol

and we’ll step right over them

over our neighbor that’s laying on the

ground and instead of being the Good

Samaritan where the others that just

walk by but we can’t turn our back to

others suffering because the people

without a roof are those that suffer in

hospitals they were made in God’s image

so we should serve them as if they were

Jesus and we say it doesn’t matter if

Jesus is in the hospital

I don’t care that Jesus is in jail I

don’t care I come to church to have a

great time but

Paul told the Church of Philippians

your attitude should be like you should

have the same mindset as Christ Jesus

who being in very nature God

made himself nothing

by taking the very nature of a servant I

want to dedicate this moment to all the

Beloved leaders all the pastors

that I know watch us every week

there are occasions

in which you’re very sensitive

to others other people’s pain and

suffering all of a sudden we might find

people this happens to many leaders

people that we have fed for many years

and all of a sudden they begin to

spread rumors or defamation and it’s

it’s fine

blessed are you when they speak against

you with false testimony but man does it

hurt we’re made of Bones and flesh

nobody is just a spirit here or people

that used to admire us or said they

loved us they ate by our side and one

day they leave the church

trying to divide it a beloved Pastor who

was here last week

for many years he had a church in

canarias now he has one in Chile he said

in my congregation suffered nine

divisions

and each one tried to recruit people and

they all had the same pattern they would

call

all the people they could and said

Escape run for your lives I’m going to

open up a church that preaches true

Holiness but this Pastor said to me no

in reality the basis of of a division is

never seeking Holiness but jealousy ego

Envy the people don’t see it if the

basis was

seeking Holiness no one would ever wound

the Church of Christ and they would

never speak against men of God even if

that man of God is creating a mess

so right

if the motivation came from God nobody

would try to compete

or found a church taking someone else’s

fruit

no one says

unless it’s somewhere where no one’s

preaching

but I was speaking with this pastor the

sensitivity that was once our greatest

strength now Becomes Her enemy because

it hurts us

and those of us that serve all of a

sudden we enter a dangerous Zone pay

attention to this because I’ve never

spoken about this before

that’s where many of us that serve

because we’ve eaten two

having salt poisoning

there are times where we serve and the

people are ungrateful why do I know

they’re ungrateful because you’re

ungrateful and I’m ungrateful

I can’t just say oh people are

ungrateful as if I came from Neptune no

we’re ungrateful and that ungratefulness

hurts us videos that’s the Odyssey of

the Wounded servants so how can we avoid

those of us that serve to not end up

mortally wounded

there are people that come here to the

cafe to mistreat the the workers or at

the bookstore as well and they’re

Believers I understand them this is a

hospital for the soul so there are

people that all week they have a boss

that yells at them a husband that

mistreats them and then they come here

and they say oh sheep to mistreat

and they do it

it happens like with immigrant officials

I always say

who is a hispanic’s worst enemy well a

Hispanic immigration officer

because all their anger all their hate

their visceral hate

they let it out with their uniform

it’s terrible when someone with power is

hurt

let’s not even talk about presidents or

government officials or police officers

public servants that just because they

have a badge and a gun they mistreat

if they’re not emotionally uh healthy

they’re going to hurt others

said in another way how can we dedicate

Our Lives to alleviate alleviating other

people’s pain without hurting ourselves

or to follow the same line of thought

with the calluses

sometimes you need a good callous to

continue on

the same way sensitivity is sometimes a

gift a callous can be a gift because in

order to light a candle

you need a callus

operate surgically you need sensitivity

and the body knows how to respond

if we give it time and the same thing

goes for Ministry

sometimes there will be people that

won’t give thanks no matter what you do

the only person that’ll see it is God

but it hurts

during the last few years I’ve learned

to discern alarms or symptoms that warn

us warn us of the dangers of becoming

wounded people on the altar during

service we can’t serve when we’re

wounded because we’re going to be we’re

going to sprinkle others with blood

and one of the alarms I checked often is

am I worrying more about

the suffering of others

because sometimes what ends up

exhausting us or breaks the health of a

beloved servant or pastor

is the overwhelming sense of

responsibility of a cross that they

shouldn’t carry the church isn’t mine

it’s not anybody’s it’s not yours the

church is Christ’s

now a few foolish captains think that

the boat is ours but it’s not but

sometimes we feel the city the the

nation the universe rests upon our

shoulders I know there are servants that

wake up in the morning and say what are

we going to do today pinky we’re going

to conquer the world

when the Lord said love your neighbor as

you love yourself

he’s also saying love yourself in the

same way that you love your neighbor

and that love yourself doesn’t have an

egocentric meaning

but it means that

in the attempt to help others

don’t forget about yourself you have to

learn this at the right time to avoid

illnesses

ulcers

there’s no way that there are so many

pastors that are sick

worried because an old a sister in

Christ

is going around spreading gossip in in

the lines so I love myself I get along

with Dante

Dante is one of the best guys that I

know

I get along with myself

I don’t say oh no I’m filth I’m mutted

no I know all of my miseries but I get

along with myself

if I didn’t love myself I wouldn’t be

able to love anyone else

so if we don’t love ourselves through

time we end up more defective more

defenseless than the people we’re trying

to help and that’s when we can’t do

anything for anyone imagine

your son or your daughter is fighting

for their lives

they’re drowning

in a strong River and we’re not going to

throw ourselves into that River because

we die together it’s very Noble very

epic but that won’t save them so what do

we do we stay firm on the edge and from

that Solid Ground we extend a hand to

help

that’s called worrying about ourselves

so that we can worry about others they

stayed on planes in the case of a t

depressurization masks will fall in

front of you before you help someone

else before you help a minor help

yourself because if you lose

Consciousness you can’t help anyone

you’ll die your child will die so a

bleeding heart can’t help anyone else

while it’s bleeding out

and that unhealthy syndrome of

sacrificing yourself for others I call

it the Messianic complex people that

want to feel like the Messiah

my mom said those that want to act like

Christ end up crucified

I always say that none of us

are willing to go up on the cross for

anyone

I’m not I’m not thinking about going on

the cross for any of you I love you a

lot but

don’t they go up on the crossroad or

I’ll kill them

kill him kill him their life is done

course

now ironically the true Messiah

different to us was free of that complex

he got on the boat to avoid a a crowd

he decided to spend a lot of time alone

he accepted a gift of

a perfume that Judah Judas considered a

waste of money he said it could have

been sold to help the poor Jesus healed

all those that asked but not all those

that He encountered he never went into a

hospital to heal people

he had the astonishing capacity

of letting people decide what they

wanted what he wanted to do he told the

blind man what do you want me to do for

you it was almost an insulting question

but there are people out there that

prefer to keep their their illness I’ve

met people that don’t want a job they

want the government to send them a check

every month there are people that don’t

want to have their immigration status in

order

they just want to make

money and cash they don’t want to pay

taxes

and Jesus would ask that person what do

you want me to do for you

you want your papers or do you want to

prefer to live this way so Jesus asked

he’d announced the Pharisees he didn’t

impose his point of view

so to synthesize Jesus showed a great

respect for human freedom and liberty he

wasn’t obsessed with converting the

entire world

and try to heal the whole world

he didn’t try to heal anyone that was

when he didn’t find faith in Jerusalem

he didn’t force a campaign of Miracles

to convince the incredulous he didn’t

say oh woman you couldn’t bend over

right you couldn’t jump now run run the

way you couldn’t before not so pilate

can believe no he didn’t do this and

those of us that serve need to learn

that

there’s nothing no worse blind man than

the one that doesn’t want to see

so the sensitivity before pain can be a

gift

but if it controls us it destroys us

and carry burdens that we can’t carry

we’re going to be paying Eternal

mortgages that we shouldn’t be

feel that you’re exhausted that your

well is drying up that are Reservoir is

losing its water what should we do well

like the Lord separate ourselves for a

time and excavate further because at

some point we’ll run out of water

remember when I told you the story of

the farmer that every day he would sell

fresh eggs

and homemade food and milk and

everything that the form produced

but the man that came at 5 pm

said give me give me eggs and the farmer

would say sorry I can’t come back

tomorrow morning we’ll give me at least

two eggs and

he would say well what do you want me to

do with threaten the chickens and I

learned

that phrase I don’t have any more eggs

until tomorrow

take it however you want

there are days where I say I can’t

threaten the chicken

the second alarm that alerts us

about becoming wounded servantes who am

I working for well our immediate answers

well I work for the church I work for

River I work for that I work for this

pastor I work for this mission trip

there were in the danger zone

no volunteer here works for Dante

because if not we’d be done

because I’m cold

and you’re all called that you report to

the Lord you’re under authority of

course but what motivates you is serving

the lord every time I read about

Calcutta in India

it’s a place where death

suffering exists in majority we send

resources there

but there there are nuns under the order

of Mother Teresa who continue to serve

the people in most need

and the world has left astounded by

these nuns dedication

but they have something that impresses

people and it’s their Serenity their

calm

if I were to face such projects

I would put out press releases asking

for donors asking for money taking

Valium taking tranquilizers not for the

sake but for myself

and these nuns Serenity begins from very

early in the morning before the sun

comes up they wake up at four in the

morning without fail

dressed in their white garments they

walked to the chapel and they pray and

sing together much before they encounter

their first patient they submerge

themselves in worship and in God’s love

and within them of course there’s worry

and compassion but not an obsession that

doesn’t allow them to sleep because

they’re not working

to resolve cases they work for God they

don’t work for Facebook they didn’t work

for social media they begin their days

with God they end their days with God

and what happens in the middle is an

offering to the Lord so God and Only God

determines the value of their work and

the success they reach

that’s what it is to have clear who we

work for what’s the way to not break to

know who we work for you guys don’t work

for the pastor and I don’t work for the

people

we do Serve the People

but we report to the person who called

us we report to God and if there’s a

server at River who is growing tired

each Sunday

they say oh not again I have to put on

my my Usher suit or my security suit or

I have to go take care of the kids well

it’s time to dig deeper take a break no

one’s going to judge you I need some

time and search deeper in my reservoir

because if you continue

that way you’re going to hurt others and

here we deal with people with souls and

under no point of view will we allow a

doctor who mistreats patients or a nurse

who mystery to patients when you find

that your love is decreasing it’s time

for you to go and spend time with God to

remember who you were working for why

you did it and why you’re serving

that’s one of the main things that we

have to keep clear yes or no

and finally

the third alarm that alerts us that

we’re becoming wounded servants is am I

confusing god with life

I’m going to tell you a true story

very real

April 26 1986.

a nuclear reactor exploded

in the Soviet Union

it’s now the north of Ukraine and that

explosion

propagated

a radioactive

contamination

the Soviet Union and Belarus were

exposed to radiation there was a cloud

of uranium dioxide Boron carbide

europium oxide

over 150

000 square kilometers

it was the tragedy of Chernobyl in

Russian it means black life it became

famous black life

so this catastrophe was still for debate

as to how many lives it took but it was

between thirty thousand and a hundred

thousand deaths per year

so in 1992 an Argentinian family

a family from Cordoba Argentina the Sosa

family

move to Minsk

35 350 kilometers away from the

point of tragedy

but Mr Eduardo his wife

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and their children

they all moved there

Eduardo a pastor

as well as a

doctor went to be a missionary in in

Russia he went to a radioactive place

with his wife and his children and his

children were 13 16 and 17.

they had to serve they had to sign

documents saying that they weren’t going

there against their will

they would take food and resources the

sauces were in Belarus to do the same

thing they were doing in their own

country

because they didn’t start serving in

Belarus they started serving in

Argentina

and they were visiting orphanages they

would go to hospitals where there were

warts filled with people with with

thyroid cancer illnesses in in their

blood and so what they could do I insist

like I shared about this the pastor

earlier they would dress up as clowns

they would sing songs they would give

out treats puppets toys

they did spiritual functions as well as

clinical functions

the sauces

eight tears for five years

they cried with those that were crying

because what could you do

with the radiation that would slowly

kill the people and they shared that the

most difficult part

having a healthy diet

and to not eat the food contaminated

with the radiation

sometimes they had to bring food from

Germany or Poland sometimes they

couldn’t so they ate whatever

and so the Sosa’s health

began to deteriorate the whole family

suffered consequences due to the

radiation Eduardo became sick

got skin cancer

Eduardo

had duodenal cancer

their youngest child died in 2014

because of multiple polyposis and the

father said it’s possible that that

illness

was motivated by the radiation we’ll

never know

their granddaughter L was also diagnosed

with multiple polyposis there’s a

surgery program for 2025 for them to

remove her liver

in just a few days or a few years

the other children were diagnosed with

thyroid thyroid cancer as well but none

of the sources regret what they did they

would do it all over again if they could

they’re not complaining

says maybe it was an unconscious

decision but we had to be there in that

moment

they’re the living testimony of not

confusing life with God

how many of us lose a child in battle on

a mission

we would abandon everything but they

continue serving God

but we receive messages

where it says we trust God we continue

with God you’re here with us Pastor

Eduardo Sosa get up on your feet please

stay on your feet we want to greet you

with the grand Applause

well I just want to say

God is everything all we do is obey the

Lord

we’ve gone where he opens doors at the

time he wants us to go and we also know

that as you said no one dies

without God’s permission

Federico died because God wanted him to

as a father I understand

that Our obligation

is to take our children to heaven

and Federico is in heaven right I would

have loved for him to get married and

have children but he’s in heaven

Hallelujah

that Applause has to be

and you know we tend to think that life

should be fair because God is fair

but if we develop a life with God like

Lalo like Eduardo

based

on God and separated from the

circumstances of life

then we put God above the circumstances

that are harsh

you learn to trust God despite

the unjust

truths of life

Jeremiah

Elijah they all went through challenges

just like Eduardo but they all learn to

submit to God

despite the crises so they went through

that season of the faith of a contract

of Faith well I’ll serve God while

things go well for me while I he takes

care of me no you have to serve God no

matter how things go because sometimes

those of us that serve God we’re so

foolish that we commit the mistake we

believe that we’re assigning a

unilateral contract with God we sign it

but God doesn’t but we believe it’s

valid that because I’m serving you have

to give me a special treatment I’ve seen

Believers get mad with God because they

parked their car

to visit a hospital and on the way back

they find a ticket on the windshield how

can God

a ticket I’m serving him whoa whoa not

and I’ve met missionaries who have

gotten sick or have even died because

they’ve served God

what can explain these types of

situations

let’s not confuse god with life

in life

in the world you will have

anguish you all have burdens

and when the doubts come we have to

remember

Paul’s famous

the passage and we know that in all

things God works for the good of those

who love him

but my eyes always jump

to the later verses in the chapter

who shall separate us from the love of

Christ shall trouble or hardship or

persecution or famine or nakedness or

dangerous sword

the Apostle had learned

to look beyond the difficulties of life

knowing that God would Prevail and then

he says

I’m convinced in all these things

neither death nor life neither the

angels nor the demons neither the

present or the future nor any powers

neither heightened or Devon or anything

else in all creation will be able to

separate us from the love of God that is

in Christ Jesus our lord Hallelujah

that helps us

to defeat

discouragement life will get worse of

course it’s a promise from God

lift your head when these things happen

I know that the end is near but it’s not

here yet but it comes close so I pray so

that each day we can visualize our work

like the sisters from Mother Teresa’s

order and give our service as an

offering to God Only God can take us

to walk through that path between

hypersensitivity and calluses no one is

saying that those of us that serve are

perfect or that the church is perfect we

try to fulfill what God delegated to us

and every parent knows the risks of

delegating

the sadness and the happiness that comes

with delegating but you want a healthy

child delegate

a child was giving it who’s taking its

first steps has to fall a few times

nobody has ever discovered another way

to learn to walk falling on your face

many times if not they won’t walk

and if the church lets us down

you know why the church lets us down so

much because it’s made up of human

beings

because we’re a living organism

that’s the risk that God decided to risk

when he delegated to us the message of

Christ

and there are still people that come

into churches looking for Perfection but

really

they either don’t understand the nature

of the risk that God Ran or they don’t

understand the nature of humanity

because what God had in mind when he

thought about the church was a group of

broken people

trying to love and serve clowns

eating other people’s tears that’s all

that God imagined he said instead of

allowing the Angels I’ll let them do it

I remember a pastor and I’ll finish with

this I remember a pastor who lived in a

community very well known due to his

lack of cultural sophistication

and the high school orchestra were his

son attended

every year attempted to play the ninth

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and that was

the most complex Symphony of them all

and the pastor would say look every time

these children play I think they make

Beethoven’s tomb or I think Beethoven

rolls over in his grave even though he’s

deaf and so one day tired of hearing the

foolish attempts of the high school

students to execute the Ninth Symphony

he faces the professor and says well why

are you

putting this burden on their shoulders

why are you making them interpret

something

that no human being can interpret not

even the London Symphony can accomplish

Perfection with this piece and the

professor’s answer left them stunned he

said I don’t do it for the students

these kids these children

God not even in their dreams will they

be able to perfectly Play Beethoven’s

Fifth Symphony

but with this High School orchestra is

playing allows some of the farmers some

of the villagers

the only encounter they’ll ever have

with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony they’ll

never experience it anywhere else in

their lives these Farmers these field

workers that didn’t even finish

Elementary School people with no culture

many that didn’t even study they come

here to listen to their children

and it’s far from perfect but it’s the

only thing that they’ll hear of

Beethoven in all their lives these

people won’t go to an opera house in

their lives they’ll never go to a

theater they’ll never visit Broadway

maybe they’ll never have access to the

musical culture

and so I give them the opportunity to

get as close as possible to what

Beethoven had in mind and us as a church

we never ever will accomplish what the

author had in mind

but we’re the only ones

who play Heaven’s music on Earth

however way Me Maybe as soloists we’re a

disaster

none of the preachers that you criticize

or that I criticize were chosen due to

their capacity or their Holiness or

Talent

were instruments sometimes Out Of Tune

that God uses

and each one in our own way we make the

attempt

to play The Melody that God had in mind

the church its preachers its servers

were the foolish musicians trying to

interpret what Christ wrote

with blood on the sheet music

and these imperfect churches including

even more imperfect pastors it’s the

noble attempt of the professor

to play the

perfect melody

were treasures and Clay cups could he

have given the sheet music to Angels

yeah of course but that reminds us that

the perfect Church doesn’t exist

because the pastor just like his people

composed of people just like you and as

I always say don’t demand Perfection

anywhere if you can’t offer it

or is there someone that came here in a

chariot of fire instead of uber if you

can’t offer Perfection then don’t go

through life demanding it

so we never let’s never be ashamed of

being extravagantly marvelous

even if we sometimes have to wear a big

red clown nose and clown shoes because

while many geese who have never flown in

life they only hear about flying they

criticize from the comfort of their cell

phones here at River we cry with those

that cry and we dedicate Our Lives to

eating popcorn drenched in tears

the grand Applause to the King of Kings

come on celebrate celebrate the king of

kings and Lord of lords

not that Applause be heard in Los

Angeles in Argentina

God has spoken this morning wow

Hallelujah someone needs to celebrate

more than that

that is our congregation broken but

we’re going to serve and cry with those

that cry laugh with those that laugh

blessed be God

lift up your hands to heaven

father

lift up your hands follow this morning

Lord I’ve spoken with I believe you told

me to share with your people with your

army

I’ve tried to not remove or add to what

I believe was your Revelation and now

Lord I would love for you to repeat this

short prayer with me say Lord Jesus and

here at home as well

Lord Jesus Come into my life forgive my

sins write my name in The Book of Life

thank you Lord now everyone everyone

Lift Your Hands to Heaven and begin to

cry out those that know how to pray

those that have the gift of the Spirit

open up your mouth so that the spirit

can fill it as he should

father thank you for this morning thank

you for this Glory thank you for this

anointing Lord you know who to give

callouses in certain moments and who to

make more sensitive blessed are you Lord

you have called us thank you Lord for

having placed Us in the business of

souls thank you for placing us as nurses

as doctors of the Soul lift your hands

and say Lord I Wanna Cry with those that

cry I want to

follow the example of the saucers like

him and so many other missionaries

who fight for the souls in the middle of

radiation in the middle of so many

cowards who are asking for Prudence

during covid and they were asking for

tides from from their homes

lift up men who aren’t scared of being

contaminated

and they say

my goal is to send my children to Heaven

that’s what it is to serve that’s what

we’re made of that’s what we have to be

made of lift your hands up and say Lord

thank you for this morning thank you

because you challenge us thank you

because you place purpose in us thank

you because you place within us the

desire and the will I ask you Holy

Spirit to Seal Seal these words

in their minds and their souls and their

hearts

those that are hurt I pray for the

bleeding servants

there are so many wounded servants

trying to rescue other people that are

wounded it’s an impossible mission and

the Lord tells me

fellow servant it’s time for you to

recharge your batteries it’s time for to

search fresh for fresh water in your

Reservoir

it’s time

to not refry with the same oil

it’s time to go back to the bases

and say I need a fresh anointing I need

to know

why I’m in this business with the souls

those that have forgotten

forgotten because of the crisis God

doesn’t want you to have a bigger church

or a more fruitful congregation he

doesn’t want you to travel through the

world he wants you to cry with those

that cry

and all the rest if he wants he’ll give

to you and it’ll come if you want if not

it won’t others will remain in Anonymous

anonymity for years

and you will have no reward on this side

of the Sun but blessed be God because

each night he approves of you and when

you bend your knees next to your bed he

says

well done good and faithful servant

yeah another day faithful servant what

good is man’s approval if we lose God’s

approval

and God calls us again in secret and he

calls us to seek the fresh water he

calls us to go back up to the mountain

to the hill

no more cheap wood

no more contaminated water I’m calling

you

to stop bleeding out because the burdens

will break you and you will grow old

before your time my fellow servants my

fellow colleagues this goes for everyone

my yoke is easy my burden is light if

you leave the church to God if you leave

the cross to Christ the cross is for

Christ we’re not anyone’s Redeemer we

can’t help those that don’t want help

ask the people do you want to change

because if they don’t there’s no prayer

that can make them change

it will make other people’s theology

uncomfortable but I’m convinced that

more and more each day there’s no prayer

that can change someone that doesn’t

want to change unless they’re possessed

and they can’t control themselves

but there’s no one that can change

others that don’t want to change and God

says I need you to understand that

there’s a burden that doesn’t belong to

you

for my yoke is easy and my burden is

light and if it’s breaking your back if

you’re getting sick

emotionally it’s because there’s a

burden that doesn’t belong to you

but the Lord says to others to others

careful because there are calluses that

have remained there and that’s why you

haven’t been able to operate surgically

because you’re stubborn to speak

stubborn to touch because your fingers

are blistered

and the storms in the middle of the

ocean made you foolish

for surgery that’s why you wound during

your sermons that’s why you wound the

people instead of blessing them and it’s

not a healthy Doctrine it’s not the

power of God it’s not that you’re a

prophet it’s because you hurt people

because you have calluses and if you

don’t recover the sensitivity God will

take you away from there just as he

placed you no one owns anything God can

shut off the oxygen he can shut off your

lungs and our time here on the sun on

this side of the sun is over so God is

saying today it’s time to walk

on that ledge with the Lord Lord Make Me

wise father thank you for this morning

thank you for your people thank you for

your for your people I’ve spoken what

you told me to share bless them

multiply them may God bless your

entrance your exit when you go to bed

when you wake up

may the Lord bless you in this month of

September I declare these last four

months of the year a blessing in your

body in your soul and in your spirit

amen amen and amen to the people on the

other side of the world bye thank you

God bless you I’ll see you soon and the

people here bye bye bye until next

Sunday blessings people blessing

soldiers bye

[Applause]

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Yaki

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menu

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it is

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thank you

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soon

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everything

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it is

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