Baptists Preaching is a column from the Baptist Standard. It is not an effort to advance any one theology or style but to present what a collection of Baptists considers a word from God. Likewise, Baptists Preaching offers a repository of Baptist preaching for future study and research. To recommend a sermon to be featured in Baptists Preaching, please contact [email protected].
Israel Loachamin: The Voice of Power: The Power of our Voices (Luke 7:1-17)
Israel Loachamin, associate pastor of Spanish ministry at First Baptist Church in Waco and director of La Puerta Waco, invited his congregation to meditate on the power of their voices. Their voices can be shaped by deception to generate destruction. He exhorted his hearers to shape their language with a different lexicon—a language of recognition, compassion and restoration—in imitation of Jesus.
The Roman centurion who wanted Jesus to heal his servant was a recognized authority. He, in turn, recognized Jesus’ authority. Loachamin pointed to the outcome of the mutual recognition.
The power of Jesus’ voice also extends to forgotten people and places. In compassion, Jesus recognized the widow’s plight and raised her dead son—restored him—to life. Loachamin invited his congregation to “meditate on how we use our voices,” calling them to confess Christ at least as much as they profess Christ.
Loachamin—originally from Quito, Ecuador, and a graduate of Baptist University of the Américas—preached in Spanish. An English translation of his sermon manuscript is available here. El manuscrito en español de su sermón está disponible aquí.
This sermon was delivered March 13, 2022, for the morning worship service of FBC Waco en Español.
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