Well, the time for preaching is here, and this is Horacio Brancatelli from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Él es el pastor Brancatelli, misionero en la República de Argentina, y él viene con su familia. He comes with his family, and he's going to introduce his family now for us. Muy buenos días a todos. Good morning to all of you. Okay. He venido acompañado de mi familia. I have come with my family. Mi esposa, Sara. My wife, Sara. Mi hija más grande, Rosalia. Rosalia, my older daughter. Micaela. Micaela. Y Eliana. Y Eliana. God bless you. Todas mujeres, así que soy muy afortunado. They're all women, but I'm very fortunate. Algunos dicen que no. Yo creo que soy muy afortunado. Some people say no, but I think it is. I am very fortunate to have them. La última vez que hemos venido fue en el 2017, donde presentamos el ministerio allí en Argentina a ustedes. Han pasado un par de años y estamos felices de estar con ustedes. La primera vez que vine traje a mi esposa Sara como traductora, ella tradujo. The first time that I came, I brought Sarah as my interpreter. And as I introduced myself, I said that I brought the most beautiful interpreter of the planet. I think this is not going to work. I cannot do that example right now. Well, it is the first time that I'm going to translate from Spanish into English, so bear with me, guys. What I want to share with you this morning, it is in the passage that our brother read a while back. But before we start, I would like to pray for us. Lord, we love you and we praise you. Thank you for the privilege of being in your house. Thank you, Lord, for bringing us safe. I pray that, Lord, You will keep all the distractions and You will work in our lives through Your Word. In the name of Jesus, amen. In the beginning of Jesus' ministry that we find this in Matthew 4, Specifically in verse 17, I want to share something with you which is very important for our Christian life. And it is the way that Jesus began His ministry here on earth. Jesus in his life and ministry, he did a lot of miracles, long teachings. Many people will follow him because of the miracles and the teachings. miracles that were prophecy fulfillments, and that demonstrate that He was God, He was the Messiah. Jesus could have started in the same manner, but let's note that Jesus begins His ministry saying this word, repent. This is very important. You know why, brothers? It is the main thing which is important in the Christian life. We spend much time doing things that may be good. At the church level, we do a lot of activities which are good too. In our daily life, we do good activities also. But what is urgent and need to come first is the preaching of the gospel. At the beginning, Christ began to say to repent because He came to seek and to save that which was lost. The main mission of Christ coming to earth was to rescue the lost. It wasn't only to come and heal people, His ministry, or to do good advice to the people. The urgent thing was that sinners need to repent, that to know that the kingdom of God has come near to them too. We need to understand that preaching the gospel has to be the priority of our lives. The evangelism need not to be an activity of once a week only. But it's good that the church will have an evangelism ministry. But the Christian could not say, okay, I'm just fulfilling my call going once a week with the minister of the church of evangelism. They are Christians that they invest their time and money, all their resources, in many other things that are good, in a sense, leaving the gospel behind. And the first question to us this morning is, Is winning the lost a priority in your life? Is that on the first point on your list? When you wake up in the morning, is it in your mind, am I going to speak to somebody about Christ or not? When we wake up, we plan our day, and many times, you know, the gospel sharing Christ is not in the agenda. We organize our work day. Maybe our family time, you know, a day. Maybe a church activity. We rub shoulders with many people during the day. And many times in our life, the gospel is not a priority. And you know what? People die and they go to hell. People die without Christ in every part of the world, in every world on earth. And there are Christians still that are wasting their time. That's why Christ said at the beginning, repent. There's a lot of things that happened in Christ's ministry. And at the end of His ministry, Christ closed. And He said that we need to go to all the world and preach the gospel. He started his ministry with the reason why he came to this planet and leave the commandment to those who had believed in him. So they have to continue what he has started. But because of a reason. The Christian believes that today things are different. People believe that that business of preaching the gospel is only for the leaders of the pastors. You think that that's a job only for the pastor or people that are around the pastor? The commandment to go and preach the gospel is for every one of us. I'm not going to do this, but I'm pretty much sure that if I ask any of you, If I would ask you if you can raise your hand if you have talked to somebody about Christ to three people in this week, I'm pretty sure I would say there would be very, very few hands up. But if I would ask, How many times did you speak about sports during the week? About the weather? Politics? How much time did you spend watching TV? We all can raise our hands. We need to realize that sometimes the gospel is not a priority in our life and need to be. This needs to change. People are dying and going to hell. And if Christ will come, He's the one to save the people. It is our God-given commandment that we should share the gospel. If we follow this passage, the second thing that we find, that will teach us a lot also, in verse 18, he said that Jesus was walking along the Sea of Galilee. He saw two brothers. Peter and Andrew, they were casting their net into the sea because they were fishermen. And Jesus, when they saw them, He said, come after me because I will make you fishers of men. Here we find a call not to faith, but to the ministry of the Word. This is not a call to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, because in John chapter 1 we find That Andrew, Peter, or John, they already have heard about Christ, about Jesus. They said, we have found the Messiah. At this point in time, they knew that Christ was the Messiah. They had faith in Jesus. They already knew him. But you need to notice that they were working still as fishermen. They were doing what they had been preparing themselves for a long life career. And this makes sense. This is like one person in our days that goes to university or college to study a career, and it's very logical that he needs to work in the matter that he studied at school. because he has invested time and money to study that career. These men, they were, you know, working in something, fishermen, that they knew, they have learned. in spite they knew Christ, they were, I mean, taking their time, you know, using their time to something that they were doing all their life, fishing. And here is Jesus changing their plans. Jesus Christ told this man, you know, well, you need to follow me and I will give you a different thing to do. For many people, this would be a craziness, you know, loco. You're going to leave what you've been doing most of the time and been successful at, to follow Christ? It's like telling somebody that has studied many years at the university. And after all the investment he or she had made, that he or she should leave everything to follow and serve Christ in a different place. Most of the people would say, that's nonsense. It's never nonsense to do the will of God. There's no better decision than to respond well to Christ. There's no better place to be than in the will of God. We plan our lives. We elect what we want to be, a career. We invest in that. Very few times we ask the Lord if that's what he wants for our lives. As fathers, we tell our kids, you need to study, you need to prepare. But a few times only we tell our kids, you need to pray to find out what is God's will for your life. I'm not saying that it's wrong to study a career. The thing that is wrong is that we do those things without really consulting or asking God to. The believer needs to consult to ask the Lord what He wants us to do for him. Because what happens is that we are investing time, money, and a lot of things in something that God does not want. Maybe a lot of us, we are spending time, money, and effort doing something that God doesn't want us to do or to be in. Have you asked the Lord what you're doing right now? It is the will of God. These men are hearing about Christ. And the answer that they give, it is tremendous. They knew that the person that was speaking to them was the Messiah. And they said that instantly they dropped the nets and followed him. And this word means that we need to abandon and we need to surrender. They abandoned that which they were doing for many years to follow Christ's call in their lives. And this is the key why many Christians are not following Christ the way they should. We are not, I mean, willing to abandon ourselves to Him. We are not willing to leave things behind. To leave things that we, I mean, believe that are ours. But the thing is, all we have does not belong to us. Everything belongs to the Lord. Sadly, I have seen that we just find a few workers in God's field. In Argentina, pastors are praying for leaders and the church. Each year that goes by, we'll see few missionary goings to other parts of the world. Are you believing that God is not calling us as He did in past times? I don't think so. I believe that God is still calling us. But the truth is the believer is not responding to God because he doesn't want to leave things behind. He doesn't want to surrender to the Lord. He doesn't want to leave behind things that he has acquired through the time. He doesn't want to leave the job because he has studied and spent much resources. Because the world will say that that's nonsense. But biblically, responding to Christ, it is the right thing to do. Because there's no better place than the will of God for us. That believer that has received mercy from God, Surrender his life to Him that has saved him. The person that has received mercy from the Lord, it is the only thing to do, respond to the Lord. But time goes by in Christian life and we forget often where he has called us from. We were on the road to condemnation without being able to do anything for ourselves. But the Lord Jesus had mercy on us. We are saved only by his grace. All we have is because of his grace. All we have in our life is just because of his grace. This life that we think is ours, it's not ours really. It's of God. And why we want to keep something that doesn't belong to us. These men understood clearly that it was the Messiah that was calling them. And without thinking, they left everything behind. In verse 21, we find a different group of people. We find James and John. And they were in the boat with his father. There's a difference between Peter and Andrew and John and James. Peter and Andrew, at the time Jesus called them, they were working. And these two, Jacobo and Juan, John and James, I'm sorry, they were with their father mending the nets. That means that they were ending their work day. In those days, you know, you fix and mend the nets after you have been fishing. So, we understand that they maybe were, you know, they were maybe more tired than Peter and Andrew. And they were with their father. in the boat, and the Lord Jesus made them the same call. It was a different situation than the other two, but the call is the same. And the reaction of these two men is the same reaction as the other two. Instantly, they left everything and followed Jesus. We see here different kinds of lives, different situations in life. Both, they have things to leave behind, different things to leave. But the call and the response of the people were the same. Today is the same thing. God calls different people. Life are different. There are different things that we are going to be leaving behind. We are missionaries in Argentina. Our family, it is in the same country. But there are people that have been called to go to other parts of the world and they need to leave their family behind. Some people were called when they were young. Otros fueron llamados con edad más avanzada, más cansados. Some other people at more advanced age, more tired. Las fuerzas a los 30 años, lo mismo que a los 50. The strength you have when you're 30 is not the same when you're 50. Are you going to tell me that too? No es lo mismo. It's not the same thing. Tengo 40 años y hay cosas que hacía a los 20 que ahora no puedo. I'm 40 years old and there are things that I cannot do that I did when I was 20. I'm a little bit more overweight. Life might be different, but the Lord Jesus is still calling us. The problem is not on how old are you. The problem is not the place that you live in, nor the people you have surrounding you or the responsibilities that you may have. The problem is, are you really willing to leave things behind or not? Some time ago, I read in a book a thing that very often happens in the Christian life. A little boy grows in the church, and the parents, they often say, he's too little to have responsibilities on the church. He becomes a young man and he belongs to the youth group. And their parents tell them, tell the kid, hey, you need to study a career. And now thinking more clearly, the young man may say, yeah, that may be right. I may be a lawyer or a doctor or whatever. So then this young man or young kid, he says, I'm not going to do anything for God. I will do it when I finish my career in the university. When I finish my studies, I'm going to be following the Lord. I'm going to serve him. There comes a moment of graduation. And he starts thinking, well, I have spent a lot of time and money in this career. I'm going to work for a while, I'm going to acquire the things I need to acquire, and then I'm going to think and follow in the Lord. Then comes the car he was, you know, the car of his dreams, or the home he wanted always. But he needs to keep working in order to pay the home and the car. And he says again, well, when I finish paying my home or my car, then I'm going to be following the Lord. Yeah, I need to pay all my debts and then I will follow Christ. Then the children come. Well, between work and raising kids, I don't have the time to do it. Then, when my kids will grow and will become grown people, then I will do it. And without him noticing, he became an older man. And when he listens that he needs to respond to the call of God, he says, I'm an old man. I have pain in my back, in my legs, and everywhere. I'm an old man now. I cannot do that. Those are for young people, not for me. And that believer went through his life not responding to the call of God for his life. And the devil was smiling happy because that believer wasted his life. And he was going to someday be in front facing Him that gave everything for him. And he will have nothing of eternal value to offer God. Because everything he's done will stay on earth. And I'm not saying, you know, that things that we do for the Lord will buy us salvation because we all know that that's not the case. We are saved only by grace, not by works. But the works demonstrate the faith that we have in the Lord. Our conduct in life really tells if we have belief or not in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because Christ changed lives. Christ changed lives. We find in Scripture that when Christ touches someone, that person is never the same. We find lives that are surrendered to the Lord. Brothers and sisters, God is still calling. There's a lot more to do now. Maybe not everybody is going to be called to be a missionary, but it would be nice if God would call some of us to go somewhere as a missionary. But there are so many things that people can do in the local church. But always, remember this, to serve the Lord we need to leave something behind. We are going to be finishing soon. You don't need to go to seminary or have 30 years as a believer to serve the Lord. When I became a Christian, when I was 18 years old, almost instantly I went to my pastor and said, I want to serve the Lord. I want to serve the Lord. And my pastor was very happy. With a big smile, he gave me one of the most important tasks in the church. Clean the bathrooms of the church. He said, you need to grab them very nice and embrace them because you need to clean behind them. But I did it very joyfully because I was doing something, lastly, for Him, for the Lord. I could have been, I mean, cleaning all these inodoros or whatever it is, you know, for all my life, but I will never be able to pay for what He's done for me. But I wanted to tell the Lord, here I am. Use me in whatever you want. Everything you have, get for money and time, doesn't have any sense. It doesn't make any sense, everything you have, if you don't respond to the call of God in your life. If you have studied and have a career and you believe this is what God has for your life, amen, there's no problem in that. But we need to search for the will of God in our lives. It says that God calls men and women that are brave. Because the brave men or women, they're willing to leave things behind, to renounce. To renounce to which is not of them, but receive the Lord's commands. Vamos a orar. This is done, now he's going to pray. Father, this morning, I want to ask and pray for everybody here in this auditorium. If someone has been called to serve, And he's not responding to that call. I pray, Lord, that you will break his heart. And, Lord, I pray that you will help each one of us to search and seek the will of God for our lives. Lord, we don't want to fall in the trap of the enemy that wants us to waste our lives. Father, we would like to be in your presence once our life is done on this earth with the things you have done in our lives. Que nos ayudes a entender. Father, I pray that you will help us understand. Que lo único que nos llevaremos a tu presencia. That everything, that only the things that we're going to be taking into your presence. Es lo que hayamos hecho para ti. these things that we have done for you. In the name of Jesus, Amen. This message has been brought to you by the Santa Rosa Bible Church. We are a gathering of sinners saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. We exist to glorify God by making, maturing, and multiplying followers of Jesus Christ who will know Him and make Him known. For more information visit us at srbible.org.