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| (PHOTO: SCREENSHOT/SADDLEBACK CHURCH) Pastor Sergio de la Mora speaking at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. |
Pastor Sergio de la Mora of the Cornerstone megachurch was a guest speaker at Pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in California on Sunday, and he preached the first sermon of a new series, "Best News I've Ever Heard," sharing four real benefits of knowing Christ.
"Serving Jesus Christ is not a boring journey… and there are corresponding benefits to serving God," the pastor of the multi-campus San Diego-based megachurch told the Saddleback congregation.
We live in a culture that makes Christianity look boring and irrelevant, "but the truth of the matter is that Christianity is what allows us to see the world through not only God's eyes, but through the eyes of love, compassion and hope for humanity," said the pastor, a second generation Mexican-American.
He read out Psalms 103:1-5, which states, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's."
It's a psalm of proclamation, but it was written at a time when nothing was going well for David, the psalmist who was going through a terrible pain, explained De la Mora, who is president of The Hispanic Mega Church Association.
We forget the benefits of knowing God, especially when we are going through hard times, he said.
There are four real benefits of knowing Christ, all of which are part of the package of being a Christian, he told the congregation.
One, I can believe the best when I see the worst.
This isn't just positive thinking, "this is a true biblical reality," the pastor stressed, quoting Mark 9:22-24: "'If You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us." Jesus said to him, 'If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.' Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, 'Lord, I believe …'"
Most people are driven by their emotions and feelings, but as Christians, we can see the best in all circumstances, the pastor said. It is God who has given us that right, according to Romans 8:28, he added.
"And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them," reads the verse.
Two, I can discover my true identity when I have lost my sense of destiny, Sergio de la Mora shared.
The number one crime in America today is identity theft, and the biggest theft in the church today is spiritual identity theft, he explained. "As long as you do not know who you are in Christ, somebody else can script your life."
The pastor said the two biggest questions everyone has to answer are: who am I, and what is the purpose of my life. Don't let others tell you who you are, he added.
Highlighting the importance of knowing who we are in Christ, the pastor quoted Acts 19:15-16: "And the evil spirit answered and said, 'Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?' Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded."
The third real benefit is, "I can forgive myself when I fail God and others," the pastor said.
You can actually forgive yourself.
The pastor quoted John 8:10-11: "Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, 'Where are your accusers? Didn't even one of them condemn you?' 'No, Lord,' she said. And Jesus said, 'Neither do I. Go and sin no more.'"
Jesus will stand up for you when you do something wrong in your weakness, the pastor told the audience.
Jesus is faithful even when we are not faithful; He will love you even when you cannot love yourself, he added.
Four, I can walk by faith when I'm tempted to walk in fear, the pastor said.
De la Mora shared how God worked in making the Tijuana Prison Project a reality for his ministry, despite his fears as he chose to believe that God could make things happen. He said the project, a satellite campus at the prison facility in the international San Diego–Tijuana metropolitan area which would minister to hundreds of dreaded criminals, will be launched in August.
He quoted 2 Timothy 1:7, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."
De la Mora began his church with merely seven people 17 years ago, and it has now grown to be the largest congregation led by a Latino pastor in the city's history.
The pastor then talked about three places God wants believers to speak with strong faith.
"Your faith is activated by what you say. If you want to see it, sometimes you need to say it before you see it. You don't have to see it but you do need to say it, and believe it before you see it," he said.
One, he told the congregation, God wants you to speak to your future, explaining, "What you say is exactly what you're going to receive. 'According to your faith it will be done unto you,' Jesus said."
He quoted 1 Chronicles 17:17: "For all the great things You have already done for me are nothing in comparison to what You have promised to do in the future! For now, O Lord God, You are speaking of future generations of my children being kings too! You speak as though I were someone very great."
When you speak to the future, you begin to change the atmosphere of your home, your office or wherever you are, the pastor explained.
Two, speak to your family, he said. Family is under attack in America, and if ever there was a time to speak to family, it's now, he added.
"The future of the United States of America is in the household of every single address. It's in the heart of every single parent," he stated.
He quoted Malachi 4:5-6: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their father …"
This is the last verse of the Old Testament, and it's about children and fathers, the pastor pointed out. "Youth are not the future of America. ... The future of America is in the minds and hearts of the parents," he said.
Three, De la Mora shared, speak to those desperate to be found.
"Every empty seat is an empty heart God wants to fill," he said, and quoted 1 Peter 2:9-10: "Speak out for Him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference He made for you — from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted. Now you are God's own. Once you knew very little of God's kindness; now your very lives have been changed by it."
BY ANUGRAH KUMAR , CHRISTIAN POST CONTRIBUTOR
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