NEW ORLEANS (BP)–It’s time for Hispanic Baptists to rise up and proclaim the gospel in America, said evangelist Alberto Mottesi of Anaheim, Calif.
Mottesi delivered a rousing message June 9 to a crowd of nearly 1,000 people gathered at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary for the annual meeting of the National Fellowship of Hispanic Southern Baptist Churches June 9-10.
“Let history judge me, but I have the conviction that God is going to use the Hispanic peoples to cause a revival and ask this nation to come home to God,” predicted Mottesi, who preaches throughout the United States and Latin America.
Drawing from Luke’s biblical account of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearance in chapter 24, verses 36-49, Mottesi pointed to three concerns Jesus expressed: If he will find faith in the land on his return, whether his people have a global vision, and if believers will act with the authority that comes from the kingdom of God.
Believers have to be careful to walk as wise men, redeeming the time and making sure that those in the churches are not getting “colored water instead of the wine of the gospel,” Mottesi said.
When the eyes of the people in the churches fail to see the greatness of God and focus instead on the problems of the world, the church will not have a spiritual vision, he said.
“When we evaluate the mission of reaching the 40 million Hispanics in the nation according to our resources, it might be a problem,” Mottesi said. “But our resources don’t come from dollars or computers; our resources come from God.”
Mottesi said one problem in the church is that people have lost their vision and have failed to remain separate from the world. In spite of large budgets and “well-oiled machinery” with showcased talent and dynamic programs, despite the “religious noise, Jesus is outside the church and knocking.”
“What this world needs today is men and women who know Jesus personally…. Let him be real in every detail of your character and finances,” Mottesi said.
In presenting a global vision, Mottesi said a revival is taking place in the Third World as evidenced by the more than 50,000 people he said have made decisions at recent revivals. “I cannot accept or think that the revival can be held back by the border — it must come into our country,” Mottesi said.
With peoples joining churches from a variety of cultural backgrounds, there is the chance to either be divided or to develop into a “gigantic army who will fight and win in the name of Jesus,” Mottesi said.
Urging the people to stir a revival and ask the nation to “come home to God,” Mottesi said the nation was founded on Christian principles. In the 1960s when prayer was kicked out of school, the “hippie revolution” caused the loss of thousands of young people to the drug culture that continues to give birth to today’s culture. “Unless a godly people is raised up, we are going to continue in that direction,” Mottesi predicted.
Telling stories about revivals in Nicaragua and Colombia, Mottesi said the world is opening their “eyes and ears and hearts to Jesus … in time and out of time” in the cities and in Latin American countries.
Authority that comes from the kingdom of God is the power that can cause revival like that of the Wesley brothers, Mottesi said. Their excitement was at first misunderstood, but despite an indifferent response from adults, “those two ordinary boys were used by God in a mighty way.”
“Like the Wesley brothers, we live in a time of decay…. I can thank God for the Internet and technology and strategy, but I can say there is nothing like the power of the Holy Spirit,” Mottesi said. “There is no gospel of Jesus without the cross. We need to go back to radical Christianity, we need to renew our covenant with God and to turn back to the deeds in our lives so God can use us in the redemption of a world that without him would be lost.”
In a June 10 evangelistic service, Mottesi used John 3:16 to describe the love of God for all people and to emphasize the need for a Savior to deliver individuals from sin.
“How unique is the God of the Bible to be thinking of the world,” Mottesi said. “God cannot be known by mere investigation under a microscope. The intellect cannot know God. He is only to be known spiritually as the sinner is dead to himself. Religion cannot save you, education cannot save you, money cannot save your — only Jesus can save you and raise up the dead to give life in abundance.”
Mottesi said an image of God should be that of a loving father and the creator who brings peace, love, reconciliation, hope, glory and miracles.
“[The] God of the Bible is the God who changes situations and transforms the impossible,” he said. “He takes your life as it is and gives you a new strength and new enthusiasm to live and to fight from glory and glory to victory and victory.
“God is gigantic and powerful,” Mottesi continued. “He will change your life. He is your Father.”
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Written with the help of translator Bob Sena. (BP) photo Posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Photo title: EVANGELISM LEADER CHALLENGES NATIONAL HISPANIC FELLOWSHIP.
