In this episode Cliff interviews Hernan Sierra, pastor of Iglesia Bíblica La Roca in Tegucigalpa, Honduras and translator for Evangelicode las Americas (MEDA, Evangelical Ministry of the Americas).
Transcript
Derek: Welcome to With All Wisdom, where we are applying biblical truth to everyday life. My name is Derek Brown. I’m a pastor and elder at Creekside Bible Church in Cupertino, California, and an academic dean at the Cornerstone Bible College and Seminary in Vallejo, California. I’m here today with Cliff McManis. He is pastor teacher at Creekside Bible Church, and he is also professor of theology at Cornerstone. And today we have a special guest with us, but before we get to that, I want to encourage you to check out WithAllWisdom.org, where you will find a large and growing collection of resources that will help you grow in your walk with the Lord Jesus. And now I want to hand things over to Cliff so we can meet our special guest.
Cliff: Thank you, Derek. It is my privilege to introduce a good brother in the Lord, and we have a treat for our KFAX listening audience today as we are about to embark, or actually in the midst of our series, in the Book of Acts. And as believers know, the theme of the Book of Acts is the mandate of Jesus Christ that He gave to His Church to fulfill the Great Commission, to take His saving message to the uttermost parts of the earth. So we’re all called to be missionaries representing Christ wherever we are in the backyard and also around the world. So it’s my joy to have a brief interview here with a dear brother who is a missionary himself and also a faithful pastor, a church planter, and does much, much more in the goal of fulfilling the Great Commission. So I thought it would be appropriate to get to know Brother Pastor Hernan Sierra, and I just want to run some questions by him and allow him to share what God is doing in his life and also his part of the world as he represents the Lord Jesus Christ. So God allowed us to meet about almost 10 years ago, Brother Pastor Hernan Sierra. And so Hernan, thank you for being here with us today.
Hernan: Brother, thank you for inviting me to be here. And first of all, I just want to say happy birthday, Cliff.
Cliff: Thank you.
Hernan: It’s your birthday, and it’s just one year less on this earth.
Cliff: That’s right.
Hernan: So we’re pretty close to that.
Cliff: One year closer to Jesus.
Hernan: Yes, sir.
Cliff: Well, let’s get to know you a little bit, Hernan, and then you can tell us particularly about a specific area of ministry that I’m interested in, that God’s opened the door for you. So just briefly, currently, where do you live? And then tell us what kind of home you grew up in, if it was a Christian home or not, and when you got saved.
Hernan: Well, I live in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Tegucigalpa is the capital city of Honduras, Honduras is in Central America.
Cliff: Say the name of that city one more time, a little slower.
Hernan: Tegucigalpa.
Cliff: Which is actually, isn’t that the largest city in Honduras?
Hernan: Yes, sir. Yes, it is the largest city. It’s around two million people, over two million people.
Cliff: Wow.
Hernan: Oh, yes. So it’s a capital city, Tegucigalpa, Tegucigalpa is in Central America. So some people think that everything under the border in the U.S. is Mexico. No, no, no. There’s also some other countries. Honduras is one of those countries. So we’re in Central America. Actually, if you go to the map, we are right in the middle of the continent. So that’s Honduras, our city is Tegucigalpa, born and raised there, and living in the city.
Cliff: What was the religion of your home growing up?
Hernan: As for our country, our country, we would have a Roman Catholic background, the whole country. In my case, my mom, she came to the Lord, and as we were born and we grew up, she would take us to church, she would take us to a Baptist church. So I grew up going to Baptist church.
Cliff: Oh, okay.
Hernan: Yeah.
Cliff: Yeah. And then about how old were you when you got saved?
Hernan: Oh, that’s a great question. Because at the age of eight, I prayed a prayer, eight. I prayed a prayer, I walked down the aisle, I thought I was saved. At the age of 12, just to be part of the band, I got baptized, and at the age of 18, 19, my mom went to the Lord. So that really struck me. And after that, I met Gavi, my wife. She was a Roman Catholic, and I started going to mass with her. So before, I was just a perfect Pharisee, thinking I was saved, doing everything, just appearing to be a believer, but I was just a pagan. And what happened with my mom, and then meeting my wife, that just proved it, because I had to, now I was involved in Catholic church, I had to renounce my faith, I even got baptized there, and after some time that we dated, we ended up getting married, the biggest Catholic church in town. So the Lord was using all that, just to show me that I was lost. As we got married, our first year, it was a really terrible year for both of us. We were hurting each other a lot. And the Lord, it’s amazing how the Lord works. She left me two or three times, but I would go and bring her back. But we had no hope, and she got invited to church. She didn’t like evangelicals, she didn’t like Christians. And she actually said, Christians are just a bunch of hypocrites, because why would they have joy if they lose their jobs, or they get cancer, or they lose a loved one? That’s faking. They’re just faking it. That’s pure hypocrisy. It can’t be. They can’t have joy. I don’t have joy. I don’t know joy. So as we were in our first year, she got invited to this church, and once she went there and she got back, I just remember that day. And she was a totally different person, a totally different person. So from that day on, things started changing in my house, and now she was being respectful, being submissive, and the Lord in His grace, He used her to let me see my own depravity and how I was lost. I thought I was saved, but…
Cliff: So about how old do you think you were?
Hernan: Oh, I was 25, 26.
Cliff: So when God actually got ahold of you for real, and you were born again, even though you weren’t saved, you were religious on the outside, and you even professed to be a Christian.
Hernan: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. That’s right. And you know what? It’s funny, because she came to me and she said, you know what? The Lord has saved me. After months of… I was mocking her as she was going to church and she was persevering and she was growing in godliness and love for the Lord. I was mocking her. And this former Catholic, now she was teaching me with her testimony, and she came to me and said, you know what? The Lord has changed me. He has saved me, but now the Lord wants to save you. And I thought to myself, what are you talking about? The Lord wants to save me? Who are you? You hypocrite. You’re faking the joy because I’m giving you such a hard time that you’ve got to be faking all this. You’re just a hypocrite. Who do you think you are trying to teach me? But those words just were torturing me. The Lord wants to save you. And you know what? Because of that and then the gospel she just proclaimed and then just seeing her testimony, I decided to visit the church she was visiting. And I remember the preacher that day, he started quoting the verses I once learned at Sunday School. And as I heard these verses and he was explaining these verses, I said, whoa, so this is what this verse means. And this is what this verse means. Oh, and he was like connecting the dots. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And the Lord saved me.
Cliff: And the Holy Spirit used the word of God through your wife in the proclamation of the gospel that changed her life.
Hernan: Isn’t that 1 Peter 3?
Cliff: Yeah, absolutely.
Hernan: Absolutely. So, yes, that’s how we got saved. The Lord did it all.
Cliff: Yep. Amen. 20 years from the time you got saved, I’ll just recount a little bit how God has used you, an unworthy vessel, by your own admission, and yet privileged with many opportunities to represent him there in the largest city in Honduras and also one of the largest cities in Central America. So what I’ve seen and observed over your ministry, so God allowed you to get formal training. So you got a Masters of Divinity down there at a wonderful ministry down in Honduras, which means you had to study Greek and Hebrew, which is wonderful. Also God allowed you to be a church planter, and you started a church. That’s your home, correct?
Hernan: Yep, that’s right. I was part of this large church, and as I started being exposed, because I got invited to do translation. So what we speak in Honduras is just Spanish, right? There’s no English. But the Lord blessed me, and you see God’s providence, right? It blessed me by going to a school where they would teach English there, and that’s how I got my English and TV, TV, yeah. So the Lord in His grace, He was just preparing me. I got invited to do some translation, and that’s how I got to be sitting or translating this amazing professors that came from seminaries and ministries, Christ-centered ministries and word-based ministries. So I was now translating to this man and doing written translation, and I was getting to study to open up scripture and learning, which I didn’t have at the church I was attending. So as the Lord was opening my eyes, and I remember the first conference I translated, it was the doctrines of grace, and the brother was teaching on how great salvation we have, and he started teaching on election. And I was amazed to see, oh, now this all makes sense, the gravity of man, and we would never look for God, we would never go after God. He’s the one that comes and rescues us. It’s not our will, it’s His will. He changes our hearts. So I was now being exposed to expository preaching.
Cliff: Yes, and that went on for 15 plus years where you were translating down there in Honduras, and then that opened up doors to translate here in California at the Shepherds Conference in other countries as well. So just a few of the names of some of the Bible teachers you were able to translate for us.
Hernan: God blessed me to be translating or have translated for Dr. Steve Lawson, even Dr. Henry Morris, the third, I think he’s now with the Lord, Dr. John MacArthur, Paul Washer, there’s a great brother, his name is Justin Peters, he has blessed me to translate for this.
Cliff: Those are some amazing, faithful men of God and Bible teachers and Bible expositors. And there’s actually a very long list of many other brothers that came and you were able to translate from, or just when you go down to the Shepherds Conference, and even the Exulting Christ Conference locally here, which is actually coming up next week at Community Bible Church in Vallejo.
Hernan: And there’s going to be translation there.
Cliff: Yeah, are you going to be doing it?
Hernan: I am going to be doing it.
Cliff: That’s awesome. Amen, thanks for doing that. You have translated for me several times when I came to Honduras, that’s how we met, and where God allowed us to develop a partnership and relationship together. As a result, for seven years or so, our church here in California has been partnering with you in your ministry and all that you do down there in Honduras. So with that, why don’t you tell us regarding one point of emphasis we have as a church that we like to support other churches around the world to give them resources is in pastoral training. So that’s how we’ve been involved. So tell us how God’s allowed you to train and provide resources for pastors down there in Central America, because they don’t have a lot of resources.
Hernan: That’s right. After the Lord saved me and I started learning, sitting under the teaching of these godly brothers, I felt the need for bringing this to pastors that I knew did not have any access, going to seminary or access even to a book, a good sound book. So it was a burden I had. And after church, we planted the church, which we planted our garage, and I realized, wow, if this is me, and I know there’s God people here in this city, in this country, there are faithful pastors, but sadly, they have no training, no chance for them to get a good, solid training, no good resources as you just mentioned. So what do we do with that? You can have a great heart, but your great heart is not going to save anyone. So it’s the word rightly divided that will save people. That’s what the Lord uses, the Spirit uses to bring forth life. So even though you have pastors there and you have pastors that have a great heart and great desire to be working, but if they don’t have the tools, it’s sometimes what you see is more harm than, so that’s what we, well, I thought that we needed as a city to train pastors. And you know what? Just knowing the impact of a trained pastor, because a trained pastor will train his people. So if we target the pastors and we train these pastors and the word is just being preached faithfully by these pastors, you know how much the churches in our city or in our country are going to be blessed by you.
Cliff: Yes. If you focus on the pastors and the leaders, then that’s going to maximize your ministry on an exponential level. So that is a right focus. And so the venues that I’ve seen you, hands-on training pastors, you had your Sunday night forum where you’re training local pastors in a local church there in Honduras at the Baptist Church where you had like 15 to 20 men there you’re training on a regular basis in person. Then you also had a training you were doing regularly via Zoom with pastors around Central America with dozens and dozens of pastors, correct?
Hernan: Yes, Brother, Central America and South America. We have pastors from, well, we even have Hispanic pastors from here, U.S., that they’re getting trained. U.S., we have pastors from Mexico, from Guatemala, we have pastors from Dominican Republic, we have pastors from Colombia, from Chile, Argentina, Brazil, that’s it.
Cliff: What about Cuba?
Hernan: Cuba, yes, sir. You met him, you met him, yes. So praise the Lord again for technology. It makes it easier for them to get some training. That’s what we wanted.
Cliff: Yes, absolutely. And another way we’re training pastors, or you are, that we’re able to be a part of is our annual pastors conference. So we’ve had two of those now that got us blessed. You started it just a couple of years ago. You had about 50 brothers who came for about three days. You invited us to be there to help teach those pastors. And then we did it a year later, and God blessed, and you had about 100 pastors with over 40 women, most of whom were wives of the pastors, recently just did that, and God blessed all the more. And now we’re planning another one this next year. It’s a delight to be a part of that. And these brothers, many of them that I’ve met, again, their resources and training is just limited. They’ve got a Spanish Bible that was translated in the 1850s or whatever, based on the King James Bible. They don’t have good commentaries. They don’t have good resources. They love the Lord. They know the word. That was impressive. They know their Spanish Bible from Genesis to Revelation and have a command of Scripture. So in terms of comprehensive knowledge base of the Bible, it is excellent. But in terms of the depth and the position by which they can teach it, they are limited, and that’s why they need those resources. So you’re doing a wonderful work. And then as we close it out, Brother Hernan, tell us how another open door God has given you, quite unique, is the various police departments there in Honduras have been inviting you, pleading with you to come and teach the police departments the Word of God.
Hernan: Yes, that’s just amazing. And you know what? This blessing has, this is how the Lord has worked. And it’s been through the conferences. I mean, you guys have been there. You have even been preaching at the headquarters of the national police. And it’s been just a blessing.
Cliff: The police chief. Yes. You got to preach to him and where he was at and also talk with him afterwards. And he had a commitment to Scripture and love for Christ.
Hernan: Brother, it’s just amazing. Again, just to see God has His people, His chosen people everywhere. And just, it’s interesting to see how His work, because our country, or it will be controlled by Roman Catholicism, or it will be controlled by prosperity gospel churches. So the Lord has opened with sound doctrine, sound doctrine. So I’m teaching now the police every Monday. I’m doing a three hour, I’m going through one.
Cliff: So do you go to the police headquarters?
Hernan: Yes. Which doesn’t make sense. Nobody understands how that came. And I was preaching three weeks ago to the top of the police there, the guys that would take the decisions for all the country. And then one of the commissioners came to me and said, you know what? Do you know who these people are? I guess you have no idea who these people are. These are the top of the top. And nobody, nobody has spoken to these people as you did today. And I told them, but it was not me. It was just the Bible. I was just reading Scripture. And just praise the Lord that they have the opportunity now to hear all this.
Cliff: So you’re going every Wednesday, I mean, every Monday, for about how many hours?
Hernan: From one through four.
Cliff: For three hours with the top elite level of the police leadership in Honduras.
Hernan: It doesn’t make sense. You know? Oh, it does. It does. Because the Lord is behind all that.
Cliff: Amen.
Hernan: So yes, that’s what the Lord’s doing. Praise him for, you know what? Sometimes when we think about revival, we think about, you know, just emotions and whenever you see revival in Scripture, whenever you see revival in church history, it’s going back to Scripture. It’s always connected to going back to Scripture. That’s what we want. We want to be men of the Word. We want to teach the Word. We want others to go to the Word and see what God has done through his Son, saving people and the history of redemption. That’s what we see there in Scripture. It points us all to Jesus. And he’s a hope we can give to those who are listening today. Whatever circumstances are, there’s hope. And the hope is found in a person, Jesus Christ. And we find him in Scripture.
Cliff: Amen. The Holy Spirit is the one who brings revival. But he always does it through his work, the Word of God. He doesn’t do it apart from his work. So Scripture has to be central. It has to be the priority. It has to be the foundation, for it’s the Scriptures that reveal Christ in his glory. And he’s the Savior. And what a privilege to serve him. So thank you, Brother Hernan. Glad to have you here in the studio, live here in California as our guest for just a little bit longer. It’s been a delight. And thank you for being with us and sharing your testimony. No doubt this is going to encourage many here in our KFAX listening audience here in Northern California.
Hernan: Thank you. Thank you, brothers, for having me. It’s an honor for me to be here. And again, it’s what the Lord is doing. It’s his plan of redemption. It was not my testimony. It’s God’s testimony, saving a wretch like me. So thank you, guys. Thank you.
Derek: Amen. And we just want to thank you all for listening and listening to our special guest. And we would just encourage you to pray for Hernan and his family and his ministry in Honduras. And I also want to encourage you to check out withallwisdom.org. We actually have an article there called “Why Local Churches Should Invest in Faithful Evangelical Seminaries.” Since Cliff has just talked about how effective that can be in terms of maximizing our reach to reach the lost. You get the pastors. That’s going to impact the congregation. And so I would encourage you to check out that article at withallwisdom.org. Continue to pray for our brother Hernan and his family. And we will see you again next time.
