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[Background music]
God bless you all... (Amen)
Can you hear me well this way? (Yes)
It's better this way, without a microphone...
If you don't hear me well enough, we'll get the microphone back...
First of all, I wanted to thank everyone for being here, and having me here
I wanted to introduce myself before we started:
My name's Daniel Sanabria-Morales. I'm the Minister in Residence of the English-speaking church that meets here on Sunday...
The church's name is "Christian Life Church"
You can see the name on the banner, right over there.
Well...um...
Since we're all part of the Hispanic community,
Here, we're all part of the larger Christian church worldwide
Our desire is the same...our objective is the same:
To worship Christ, and to know more about Him
Brother Daniel (Castanares) kindly invited me to come,
and share something from God's word...
But we're going to do it all in a different manner.
I can only speak for myself.... I'm the type of person who...um...
enjoys learning through audio-visual methods.
Through "Powerpoint" (slideshows), as they call them
Because there is some information that I want you all to learn, at the same time,
something new, something you haven't perhaps learned before.
So we're all going to learn together...
and pay attention. You're welcome to takes notes, if you want.
So, well: Let's start.
The title of my message today is "The Moment of Decision"
It is based out of Luke, Chapter 4, verses 14-30
How many of you have waited anxiously for a particular moment?
It can be a date, or an event, in your lives, that you have anxiously been waiting for?
It can perhaps be the wedding day...
Perhaps it all started with courtship... then the engagement...
I don't know about you, but when I was engaged...
When I got engaged to Jackie, my wife,
That was such a moment... that took... Well, it was very exciting
And then came the moment: wedding day.
We've only been married for 10 months
Only 10 months! We're still in our "honeymoon" period, as they say
But, God willing, we'll remain "honeymooners" constantly
Simply getting to that stage was...
Or it took... well...
The excitement was growing as the date got closer, and then the day arrived.
That expectation was finally fulfilled.
Wow! How the excitement was growing! It was beautiful.
I'm sure it was the same for those of you who are married
Now, what about those who are graduating?
I don't know how many of you have studied,
perhaps you studied back in your native countries, who knows?
But this whole matter of reading books, burning the midnight oil...
Reading book after book...
Until you finally received a certificate, a diploma, etc.
That's a moment you await anxiously... you're waiting for this to happen
And how exciting is the moment when it finally arrives!
Now, I don't know how well you can see this, but...
How about the moment when you move into your first home?
Or moving into your first apartment?
This is also an exciting moment, especially while living in this country
Many of us Latinos consider this to be the "American Dream":
Owning a home of our own
So... the chore of obtaining a loan,
then closing on the whole mortgage procedures...
And, finally, moving in. This is also a very exciting moment.
Having a baby... The birth of your first baby...
This is also a very exciting moment...its arrival...
I'm not a father yet. God willing, perhaps in a few months, or later...
God will bless us in this manner.
Still, I can imagine it will be quite a wonderful moment.
In any case, these are some of life's wonderful moments. However...
Have you ever been anxious about seeing the end of...
all that's sad... all the sufferings existing in this life?
You will notice in these pictures several situations that occur in our countries.
For example, we have people suffering because of hunger,
people suffering due to poverty,
or maybe we... you may know of someone going through these things.
You may even know someone personally, back home, who lived through this.
People who have so little... who, in some parts of the world,
survive on $2 or $3 a week.
Imagine that! There are some places in Russia,
where people survive on about $20 per month.
20 bucks! That's what some of us would spend at Applebee's in one sitting.
Or at a Diner. Imagine that!
But let's come back to the local level.
The matter of oppression...anguish... what occurs when people come to this country ilegally.
This is a reality of this country.
When people are being oppressed and suffer because they don't have a "legal" status,
this "Green Card", which would allow them the opportunity to work here lawfully,
making them live in this constant fear of... not knowing "Whatever will happen to my status?"
The kind that makes the person hide underneath a bed,
so that if Immigration (officers) arrive,
he won't be deported back to his home country.
This is something that, unfortunately, will oppress and anguish people.
The point is: we'll be reading a passage about...
I had it written in my notes, but I forgot what I was going to say...
Something I wanted to mention was that...
Open your Bibles to this passage in Luke, Chapter 4. Keep your finger on this page; we'll read it in a bit
The point was that... my Brothers...
When Jesus walked the Earth,
there were also people who suffered by the same trials
that we suffer in our days. There were also oppressed, afflicted people back then.
People who didn't have enough to eat.
People who suffered under the rule of the political system, the religious system
And these people asked, "God, when will you fulfill those promises you made to us for so many years?"
"Those promises of giving us a Messiah, bringing us a Liberator, and finally fulfilling your promises?"
Well, as you can see...
Perhaps there wasn't the issue of ilegal immigration into different countries
Maybe there was; if so, it wasn't like in our days
These were completely different times. This happened 2,000 years ago.
The point is that Jesus went back to his home town, where he grew up, it's called Nazareth,
And he went to the synagogue, which was the equivalent of a church, more or less, for Jews of the time.
And he told them, "The time has come!"
"The time of your Liberation has finally arrived!
But what happened with the people?
They sort of looked at Jesus...
They were marvelled,
And they said to each other, "Is this the Chosen One?"
"Could it be that the end of our suffering has arrived?"... They doubted, too.
These people doubted.
What Jesus told his listeners brought them to a true Moment of Decision.
Some of them stumbled over Jesus' words.
Others felt moved by his words, and instead, believed.
But the majority of them, as we will see in the narrative, stumbled over Jesus' words.
We need to consider this: If Jesus came in person, today,
or appeared here on stage, or came to this place of worship,
and would tell us, "All of the promises in Scripture will be fulfilled"
"Even all the promises written in the Old Testament",
Will we let Jesus touch our hearts?
Or will we allow his words, any of his words, to make us stumble?
That is the question I want to place in your hearts.
We'll start reading this Bible passage
Which is Luke, Chapter 4, verses 14 to 17
The font is, perhaps, a bit small, so please excuse me.
It reads, "Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit,
"and news about him spread through the whole countryside.
"He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
"He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up,
"and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.
"And he stood up to read.
"The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him.
"Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
" 'The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
'because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
'He has sent me to proclaim freedom to the prisoners
'and recovery of sight for the blind.
'To release the oppressed,
'To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.'
"Then he rolled up the scroll,
"gave it back to the attendant, and sat down.
"The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him,
"and he began by saying to them, 'Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.'
"All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips,
" 'Isn't this Joseph's son?' they asked.
"Jesus said to them, 'Surely you will quote this proverb to me, 'Physician, heal yourself!