Rich Wilkerson Jr. — BC/AD: Before I Forget

I have been really away for the last three weeks from the pulpit from from preaching the word and so because I've been away for three weeks we've been talking about all sorts of stuff from relationships we had Mike Todd was here then Chris Hodges was here last week but but I feel like with five weeks leading towards Eastern we're gonna get into some deep theology for all the deep spiritual people at vu we're coming right back for you today and so I thought we would start today in Exodus the Old Testament we still believe the whole book Exodus Exodus chapter 12 is where I want you to turn and I want to read 14 verses for you and then I want to put it into context today and hope you apply it to your life says starting in verse 1 of the 12th chapter of Exodus the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt this month is to be for you the first month the first month of your year tell your whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family one for each household if any household is too small for a whole lamb they must share one with their nearest neighbor having taken into account the number of people there are you are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat the animals you choose must be year old males without defect and you may take them from the sheep or the goats take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at Twilight once again this is the Old Testament then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the Lambs that same night they're to eat the meat roasted over the fire along with bitter herbs and bread may without yeast do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water but roasted over a fire with the head legs and in internal organs do not leave any of it to morning if some of its left till morning you must burn it this is how you to eat it with your cloak tucked into your belt your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand eat it in haste it is the Lord's Passover on that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals and I will bring judgment on the gods of Egypt I am the Lord the blood will be assigned for you on the houses where you are and when I see the Blood I will pass over you no destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt this is a day you are to commemorate for generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord a lasting ordinance now I want to take a few moments today as we kick off a brand-new collection of talks entitled BC ad and I've titled today's message before I forget before I forget and would you pray with me as we study God's word either law we thank you so much for bringing us here god we thank you that you're moving in our community we don't take it for granted lord I pray for everyone that's in this room everyone watching online everyone listening by way of podcasts Lord speak to our hearts help us today to see Jesus in a fresh intimate real way we want to look more like him we want to act more like and we want to be more like him today Jesus do a work inside of us all we pray all these things in Jesus name and if you believe it today come on all of God's people said all of God's people said now I love a loud church so can we go ahead and to celebrate God in advance anybody show of hands anybody out there grow up with a Polaroid camera in your house those are all the 80s babies right there when I was a kid I loved I loved cameras but I loved Polaroid cameras I mean the idea right that you could take a photo and instantly you could see your photo talk about technology my mom used to take pictures and then she would she would at the bottom of the photograph she'd put the date and so that we could remember that day I remember hear to quote when I was a little kid that someone said life's like a camera focus it and capture the important and good things develop from the negatives I like that whenever you fall down well just take another take another shot you know I mean just hold it out there and take another photo over and over again I like that premise because I think that cameras and photos they are powerful because over and over again what you discover and what you see about pictures and the reason why we love them is that pictures they have the power to slow time down that we can capture a moment and that we can commemorate we can remember we can jog our memory I don't know about you but sometimes I I go back to my parents house and my parents always have these crazy pictures of us all of our family anyone do family photos growing up you know you ever like what was I wearing you know the funny thing about that is that all the photos you have over yourself today look back at yourself in 20 years and you know what was I thinking but aside from the crazy haircuts and the wild outfits that we were wearing every time I look at these pictures of my mom's house I can like go right back to those memories in those moments and those seasons and those feelings I had a picture can take me back into time and it can recall my memory maybe you're not really into photos and maybe you don't have an Instagram account maybe you don't have an iPhone maybe you're not photographing everything but if you have kids you like pictures because you feel the kid like you don't want to miss one moment my son's only 14 months old but Don sure we will look back over the last year the pictures are like where has the time gone oh we miss him so much he's getting so big you know I every picture has a story attached to it I was thinking about my life our faith kind of works this way but I have these vivid memories I don't I don't necessary have like polaroid pictures but I had these memories of being like a young man like laying at the front of a stage after the worship was over and I would be laying in tears crying saying God if you can use anything use me and in many ways it's like I've got a photograph of that moment right there and at times I look back on that photograph I don't have a real Polaroid but it's like this spiritual picture that I have I've got I've got these images like in my mind as a young man teenager like out in the worship service and as I'm worshiping God I don't know what it is it's like we didn't have all this stuff we didn't have like a really great band we have really great lights and it wasn't all like program but it didn't matter God's presence would show up and I'd be out there in the audience and literally it's like a photograph is in my mind where God's peace would come upon me and God's confidence would come upon me and God would give me a vision of where it was that I was going and over and over again for me I'm telling you it's like my life it gets better the more I'm able to remember like I've learned that remembrance leads to rejoicing I've learned that when I can look back on the things that God has done it helps me face the future in fact if you're taking notes that you should write this down your faith suffers when you forget when we forget our faith begins to suffer I know we don't have polaroid pictures of our entire journey in life but before I forget I'm trying to do something to capture the moment that I might remember when I needed so that when I'm in it I can rejoice through it come on does anybody know what I'm talking about just before I forget let me let me capture it I want to I want to remember it I want to not forget all that God has brought me through and all that God has done in my life today we're kicking off this collection of talks entitled bc-ad the rest is history a guy came up to me this week and said yo what does Jesus had to do with ac/dc that was like well aside from silencing hells bells a whole lot actually no this isn't a collection of talks around an 80s band bcat bc-ad are our labels for time periods in fact BC it actually stands for before Christ so the way that history is recorded is that anything that happened before the birth of Jesus Christ it's recorded with the time stamp that says BC so for instance Alexander the Great an incredible historical figure who had a superpower known as the Greece Empire the Greek Empire his reign began in 336 BC so everything before Christ is counting down but but the opposite of it is this thing known as ad now a lot of people they at times they think that a B stands for after Christ's death but it actually doesn't stand for after death it's actually a Latin word and the word is anno domini and this word when it's translated it means in the year of our Lord so meaning once that Jesus is born now the date system starts counting up and it's called ad in the year of our Lord so today for instance is March 17th happy st. Patrick's Day if your neighbor doesn't have green on pinched em real quick no kidding it's March 17 2019 a.d now it's a little bit confusing right like can you imagine living back then like what year is it for how can it be I'm 35 feet huh imagine if you were on the earth before Christ it's like everything's counting down it's a really scary Happy New Year 3 happy new year - Happy New Year one what is going to happen yet it's important for us to understand that this date system this didn't show up until about five hundred years after Christ was on the earth and it was adopted first in the Julian calendar and then it actually transferred over to what we now all celebrate known as the Gregorian calendar which is the most widely used calendar system in all of the world so this time frame in this way of dating history it wasn't taking place while Jesus was on the earth it started after Jesus left the earth and I suppose for me that's what's so fascinating about it I suppose what's so intriguing to me because I know we've got a room full of all types of people some believe in Jesus others don't but what is intriguing to me is that you're telling me that every nation every tongue every race every region every religion is actually telling time based upon the birth of a Jewish carpenter and we have the audacity to say things like I don't think there's much anything special about Jesus what that's pretty supernatural that every one of us are are telling time and recording history based upon the life of Jesus Jesus is at the center of it all it puts weight to words from Paul when he writes to the church in Colossae Colossians chapter 1 verse 15 he says the son which is Jesus is the image of the invisible God the firstborn over all creation for in him all things were created things in heaven and on earth visible and invisible whether Thrones or powers or rulers or authorities all things have been created through him and for him he is before all things and in him all things hold together let me paraphrase it Paul is like yo Jesus created everything and everything you see right now is being held together by him he's the source of all beauty he truly is at the heart of all creativity he's the foundation of everything good in the world he's the provider of everything that you have want and need without Jesus we are nothing [Applause] love him or hate him you can't deny it run to him or run from him but you can't hide from him regardless of your opinion about Jesus today the one thing is true that you cannot avoid Jesus for goodness sake you can't even tell time without Jesus bc-ad the rest is his history I like this word history because history to me is actually two words his story and that's really at the core of what we're looking at for the next five weeks as we march our way towards Easter this day where the global church will celebrate the greatest event in the history of humanity where Jesus Christ resurrected from the grave yet before we get to his resurrection his story has always been told see God has always been telling a story and before we ever get to AD let me just tell you Jesus doesn't first show up in the nativity scene Jesus shows up even in the BC that Christ has always been the story that God is telling God's telling a story and the story has a name here it is Jesus Jesus the Redeemer the rescuer the deliverer the provider the protector God's telling the story of redemption and the question for us is how does this apply to our Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday how is it's not just a fun conversation on Sunday the question for us is are we going to be a part of God's story or we to live our life in a tell our own story because he's inviting us and he's wooing us in to tell his story that he says I want you to come and be a part of this story but if you don't know the story you can't play a part in the story like from the very beginning this is what's wild it's always been Jesus Jesus shows up BC like not even be the very beginning like the very first book of the Bible of creation story whether you believe in the creation story or not understand Jesus shows up in the creation story in the beginning God created heavens and the earth and the Spirit of God was hovering over the earth and God said let there be light how many of you know Jesus he said about himself I am the light of the world in me there is no darkness God created the waters jesus said drink of me you'll never thirst again on the seventh day God rested and he pretty showed us and modeled for us what Sabbath means but we know in the New Testament in the ad Jesus shows up and says I am your Sabbath every bit of rest you find in me Jesus has been there from the start from the very very beginning the whole story has been about Jesus Jesus he said this about himself John chapter 5 verse 39 he said you study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life so what's he saying he said that you look at this book called the Bible and you think the Bible is what's providing you eternal life but these very scriptures the Bible they testify about me yet you refuse to come to me to have life what's he saying he's saying the whole book like the whole thing Old Testament New Testament bc-ad like it's always been about me and if you're reading this book without the intent to discover me all you're catching is principles but if you'll find me that's where you'll find life and life more abundantly the whole Bible is about Jesus Charles Spurgeon may be the greatest preacher that ever walked according to most theologians even historians he said it this way he says I have never yet found a text that doesn't have a road to Christ in it what's he saying he sent it like open up to Genesis open up to Esther open up to Jonah open up to Psalm opening up to proverbs you're gonna find Jesus in the Bible and we thought before we got to Easter it would be fun for you and I to go and find Jesus in the BC to go and see history and learn his story may be here today and maybe you've never heard teaching us before or maybe you're kind of going okay I think I get this but like how do I even start there's a myriad of ways that he shows up in the old testament we don't have nearly enough time to go through all of them but but I want to show you two six really quick that we're gonna try to approach some of these over the next few weeks like one of the first ways is that through prophecies I think there's all these books in the Old Testament that they're prophetic books in fact Palm Sunday like we're gonna preach on Palm Sunday the story of Jesus coming into Jerusalem but what's really cool about Palm Sunday is that that was prophesied about in the Old Testament there's this idea of titles when you go through the Old Testament you'll see all these titles the son of man Alpha and Omega the suffering servant you'll hear these words like I am what's crazy is that in the New Testament we learn that all those titles that we were reading about in the Old Testament those were all about Jesus that God was foreshadowing the story will see these things like types types like these functions that people would play on the earth in the Old Testament that really are giving a glimpse of Jesus things like the high priest we know that Jesus is the true high priest the second Adam we know the first Adam number the first Adam he failed the temptation test in the garden the second Adam the last Adam Jesus he passed the temptation test in the garden the whole thing is is foreshadowing one to come one of my favorite ways is through christophany x' it's like what is that because christophany x' are like kind of divine Where's Waldo moments like when you're looking you've read it before like Jesus actually shows up in the Old Testament like never that time that Abraham is like talking to like God Yakub it that was Jesus never Jacob wrestles he was wrestling with Jesus my favorite for the story of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego I got to save some energy I gotta preach tonight but like yo three Hebrew boys again so cause it's so applicable to you and I it's like yo they're living in the secular land there's this Idol they have to bow down to and if you don't bow down you're gonna be put to death but these guys are like yo King Nebuchadnezzar our God can save our God will save that even if he frickin doesn't save we're still not bowing down he's like well that's it you're going to the furnace they throw him in the furnace that matters like yo I just won I just destroyed these guys but as Nebuchadnezzar staring at these three men in the furnace to his amazement and to his shock he looks in and he shouts out wait a minute I thought we threw three men in the fire whose fourth man in the fire the fourth man was a christophany it was Jesus Christ in the flesh show it up to say the whole story's about me the fifth way is through like experiences that these stories in these characters if you will in the Old Testament David Jonah Esther these are these are characters that did something but Jesus came and did it so much better than them but then the last area is this area of those events and this is the one I want to try to take the next 16 minutes if I can with you on this first installment to lay a foundation which is there's these events there's these celebrations and there's these festivals in the Old Testament but really these events once again are just setting up the story of Jesus that God is telling as you read the Old Testament you'll see that there was lots of different celebrations and festivals and Paul this is what he said in Colossians chapter 2 because this is not my ideas this is the scripture and we're connecting the dots and we're cross-referencing it Paul says it this way Colossians chapter 2 verse 16 therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink orthe regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath they were debating about should we celebrate things like atonement should we celebrate for instance the Pentecost should we celebrate things like the Passover supper what he says is this he says these are a shadow of the things to come but the substance every once a shadow but the substance every once a substance the substance belongs to Jesus in the funny that I think there's people in church there that are more in love with a shadow than they are the substance there's some of us that would rather just have the religious trappings of a shadow but we don't actually want to dive into the substance and the source which is Jesus see Jesus shows up in the ad and Paul is not saying that these festivals don't have any weight what he's saying is that Jesus is the fulfillment of every one of these festivals and if you have Jesus you have the festival and if you have Jesus you have the party and if you have Jesus you have the commemoration if you Jesus you have the celebration all of those festivals were just a shadow of the substance to come and there's so many we could talk about I just want talk about one and the one I wanna talk about is Passover and the reason why I felt drawn to talking about Passover is that in a few weeks much of the world will celebrate Passover for Passover it typically happens in March or April and it's a celebration that's still honored today by Jewish people yet the Passover has meaning for you and I and the Passover is a part of the story that God is telling Passover just for context sake it took place as we read in Exodus chapter 12 our opening text that the Israelite people are living in slavery in Egypt they've now been in bondage for 400 years God picks a man the man's name is Moses is his Moses I want you to go and set my people free Moses like a lot of us in this room he's like yo I'm disqualified I've murdered a dude I have a stuttering problem you got the wrong guy how many of you know that God has not called a qualified he qualifies the called you know it's a waste of time to argue with God right finally Moses concedes that he goes to Egypt and he goes up to Pharaoh and he says Pharaoh it's time to let God's people go and Pharaohs like I'm gonna let anybody I got two and a half million people here doing our labor it's free labor no way I'm letting them go Moses like well your problems not with me is with God and so God then sends a series of plagues ten plagues to be exact crazy plagues the last plague the tenth plague is the worst and that's where Exodus chapter 12 comes into context God says to Moses I want you to tell the Israelite people to go and find a lamb make it a male lamb without any defects slaughter the lamb at the same time then take the blood of the lamb paint it on the doorpost and then eat the Lambs meat that night I'm gonna come over Egypt in any house that does not have lambs blood painted on it the firstborn will be slaughtered animals and humans well of course the Israelites they obey they do what God says but the Egyptians they do not obey and that night as as the Death Angel comes over everyone in Egypt the firstborn is slaughtered even Pharaoh's home when Pharaoh wakes up the next morning is like yo Moe you got to go because get out of you take everybody with you but the story gets even deeper the scripture says that Pharaoh tells Moses take anything that you need historians tell us that they plundered Egypt that night it was one of the greatest exchanges of wealth as they took gold and silver from Egypt not only that Pharaoh said before you go can you bless me that's powerful like like I feel like I was your slave and now you want what I got you want me to bless death that's only God but then God says something important God says yo Moses here's the deal from here on out every year I want you to take seven to eight days and I want you to commemorate this moment and I want you to have what I would call a Passover meal that you will remember the day that I was faithful to Israel that I set you free that I protected you that I delivered you that I never left you and I never forsook you it's like God was saying yo I don't have a Polaroid camera but I do have a Passover meal I don't have a way for you to take an image of this but it's so important that annually you stop and you pause and you get together and you throw a party with a purpose and you remember my faithfulness because your future is dependent upon you not forgetting what I've done for you this is important because God set up the Passover so that people would remember what he did why because when you remember how good god was in the past you will not fear God in the future maybe you walked in here today and you walked in thinking about giving up today but before you give up today just look back on yesterday that God was faithful that he was gracious that his mercy brought you through before you quit before you bow out before you throw in the towel remember a God who took two and a half million people and overnight they went from being slaves to millionaires remember two and a half million people who were slaves but on their way out their oppressor said can you bless me that's the God that we serve he's a God who turns things around my faith suffers when I forget the goodness of God my faith suffers when I cannot remember and if I don't remember I will not rejoice and so I must set it in motion before I forget I gotta tell myself I'm capturing the goodness of God oh I know we got people in this room today that you are not completely satisfied with where your life is but before you complain about today just look back on yesterday take a stroll down memory lane if it was not for the grace of God you would have never made it this far come on somebody you ought to praise God not for road of perfection but a road of progression little by little step by step I'm moving forward I don't know about you but I know I know if it wasn't for God I would not be here I would not be here I don't have Polaroids of every moment but God said receive the Passover drink the wine eat the lamb consume the unleavened bread but do so in remembrance of this event where I set you free because God was saying it's so important because you will forget unless you set it in motion to remember and when you remember you will you will rejoice I gotta remember how good he was in the past I don't need to be afraid of the future if he brought me this far he will take me the rest of the way being confident of this that he who began a good work in me will carried out on the completion I'm not afraid of tomorrow and I'm not afraid of tomorrow because I have evidence of how good he was in the past it's funny because like some of you maybe you experienced before but like have you've had a moment we're like like God showed up for you but you didn't even know God showed up like it wasn't like retrospect took oh God was there thank you Jesus you know like it was kind of a delayed praise you know there's like an aftermath praise you know two weeks ago I was in Colorado I was at Beaver Creek I was snowboarding I'm a very good snowboarder if you didn't know and snowboarding and I was with my friends and they were didn't have polaroid cameras they had that oh they had they were recording me on a video and this the situation happened where I was having fun and then I I fell in front of one of my friends and my friends he just I keep almost like hit me like in the head it was like it was almost a disaster but I didn't know I got a you know what happened I thought out later on and rather than me tried to tell you what just look at this video cuz I want you I want you to see this this is good watch this I mean your boy almost died on a mountain two weeks ago what was crazy to me is like I just thought like life was going good it wasn't until an hour later my friend was like y'all brought came pretty close to you and my other friend was like y'all I gotta long film we looked at I was like oh my god thank you Jesus soon I can't prove it theologically but I just have this sense in my spirit that one day we're gonna get to heaven we're all gonna get in to hang it out and there's give me some angel it's a sign just to you he's like hey um I need to speak to you I want to go over your files you like files they can just want to show you how when we go through the files he's gonna sit down with yous and start pulling out polaroid pictures he's like remember this day and you're gonna look at it and for the first time in your life you're gonna see that as the enemy came and was threatening to steal kill and destroy you you didn't even you weren't even aware of the threat and the reason why you weren't aware of the threat is because you were surrounded by a faithful God who protected you every step of the way some of you in this room you have to start learning how to praise God before you forget I should have died in the car accident but God I should have never had a baby but God cancer should have ended me but God I should have never passed that test I should have never gotten that job I should have never had that marriage but it was because of the goodness and faithfulness of God I wish I could get somebody to worship God for all the things you've forgotten about seed by seed picture by picture you like oh oh had I known I'd have said something had known I would have I would have worshipped you I didn't I just I didn't know that you were that good I didn't know that you were that faithful I didn't know that you were with me I want to worship God for all the things I don't even know about like like I don't know like I just like if he holds it all together behold it's like the only reason why I'm standing right now is cuz he's holding me together like I think he deserves praise for that you know I want I want to praise God for for everything even the stuff I forgot even the stuff I didn't photograph even the stuff I'm unaware of God's like yo listen I want you to have this party every year every year and I want you to remember me setting you free and taking you out of Egypt if you don't do this you'll probably forget it here's a good moment so I want you to do this now now there's a whole lot of debate around the historicity of the exodus but most theologians the most scholars they would say that if it did happen which we do believe it happened it happened probably 1,500 1,400 1,300 years BC so I want you to get this just called for Tina for 1,400 years Jews were coming together once a year and they're pulling out the photographs what God did and as they remember they rejoiced and as they look back on the past they had faith for the future they they remembered at the Passover story like it's a shadow remember it's not the substance it's a shadow because now the year is thirty 31 32 33 ad Christ has been born in Luke chapter 22 Jesus is with his disciples and he's having what has now become most famously known as the Last Supper yet the Last Supper is what we call it but the Last Supper was truly the Passover meal and as he's having the past over meal this is the night he will be betrayed this is the night they will put him on a cross and he's eating with his brothers and they are remembering this moment yet Jesus does something that's radical and scandalous and provocative he grabs the wine and he grabs the bread he says when you drink this cup and when you eat this bread do this in remembrance of me I thought we were I thought we were remembering the exodus no I am the Exodus I thought we were I thought we remembering the festival no no no I am the festival I thought we were having a party no no I am the party you see the Passover [Applause] the Passover is a commemoration for the Jews of when they had physical freedom the Last Supper is a commemoration for all of humanity when we found spiritual freedom and it would have been a wild night there because the Passover had this grocery list kind of like Thanksgiving there's items that you have to have you have to have the wine you have to have the unleavened bread you have to have the lamb on the table yet for the first time in history this was the first moment that there was a lamb on the table but the lamb was also at the table for John the Baptist said behold the lamb of God speaking of Jesus who takes away the sins of the world hear me loud and clear the b-c lamb is the shadow of the ad lamb known as Jesus Christ who was slain since the foundations of the earth because of all of history is his story he's the true Lamb who delivers us and in the same way that the Lamb that was slain BC delivered the Israelites the Lamb known as Jesus Christ he delivers all of humanity and Jesus says remember me don't don't forget me your faith it's gonna suffer if you forget if you don't remember you won't rejoice so so remember me I'm the one who delivers you it was crazy because I don't get skeptics in the room that's awesome we love our church we love people that don't even believe in Jesus coming you are so invited here but you start to get confronted with the scriptures and too much stuff is just radical and supernatural here's what's really weird 1,400 years earlier when God said you know slaughter the lamb at Twilight they all did that on a day what's crazy is 1,400 years later when Jesus is on the scene the night that he goes to the cross guess what it was the exact same as all those Jews who were slaughtering a lamb they didn't know that the Lamb of God Jesus he was the true deliverer and he showed up right on time to fulfill every bit of what the Passover needed to do the thing is is as you study the Israelites they can so get typecasted as like people of weak faith but I see myself in the Israelites because their faith was fickle I won't talk about you I'll talk about me but sometimes my faith is fickle it's like one moment they were all about God next moment they were not sure about God it sort of seems like whatever their circumstance was looking like it seemed like their circumstance dictated their faith it's ever happened to you that's like sometimes my circumstances can dictate the intensity of my faith but I don't want a faith that my circumstances dictated I want a faith that dictates my circumstance every step of the way I want to be a person I got photographs of this man I don't need a Passover meal I got I got Jesus it reminds me of a Chinese parable I heard this an interesting parable it's about this elderly man who has one son they lived on this farm and at this farm they've got one horse and one day that horse runs away and when the horse runs away all of his neighbors come to the old man and they say oh man you have such bad fortune we're so sorry lost your horse the man replied how do you know it's bad fortune a few days later that horse returned but when he returned he returned with a whole bunch of wild horses well all the neighbors they came back to the house and said yo ho good going man wow that's awesome you have such good luck the man looked back and said how do you know it's good luck for a few days later his only son got on the back of one of those wild horses and that one of those wild horses bucked him off and he fell off the horse and he broke his leg the neighbors came back and said you have such bad fortune he said how do you know it's bad fortune two days later a warlord came trying to draft young men into his army but because the boy had broken his leg he was unable to be drafted all the neighbors came back they said yo ho you have such good fortune and the old man said how do you know I have good fortune the parable ends because we can see the progression of where it's going yeah you see when you sign up to follow Jesus and when you surrender your life over to Jesus no longer is there really these titles of bad days and good days but instead it's not until you've surrendered all the days that the judge can account for which day was actually good and which day was bad because he's telling his throughout our responsibility is not to forget and to trust in him for friend when they crucified him on Friday it was a bad day but the next day when it got to Sunday and he resurrected that was a good day on Friday people might have said bad fortune but those of us who follow Jesus we don't say bad fortune we say it's God's good grace he is unfolding his story telling his story and I no longer label my days I now just surrender my days and my faith isn't gonna be dictated by how I feel I already know what Jesus did he's the Lamb of God who's delivered me but he's not just the Lamb of God who delivered me friend he's the Lamb of God who has protected me they said take the lambs blood and paint it over the doorpost of your home and when I come through Egypt that night whatever house doesn't have blood on it they will experience the wrath and the judgment of an Almighty God listen to me loud and clear the Israelites were not spared because they were Israelites but the Israelites were spared because they were covered by the Lambs blood I don't know what's going on in your life I don't know what's going on in your story but if you're having a hard time thanking God for something you don't have to look very far you just have to remember and remind yourself that if you've put your trust in the Lamb of God no longer has he do not only as he delivered you from sin shame in bondage but his blood now protects you so that when the wrath of God comes upon humanity if you're covered by the blood no longer will you receive his wrath but instead you will receive the reward of Jesus Christ and it's worth crazy so I grew up in deep Pentecostal charismatic church an old women used to look at me and Sam will plead the blood of Jesus over you and I used to be like what in the heck does that mean in fact I'm sorry if you brought your friend today and we're talking about all this blood stuff like it's not normally like this cuz it sounded so creepy and he plead the blood of Jesus that sounds so ethereal and bizarre and Christian enos but when you know the Passover you know the power of pleading the blood our church is full of incredible people so no one here has ever been a trial before but if you ever stand before a judge the judge will make you stand and say how do you plead and you will either plead not guilty or guilty but the good news of the blood is that one day when you stand before the judge well we all know we can't plead not guilty starting with me I'm guilty I can't plead not guilty but the good news is I don't have to plead guilty either but instead when I stand before righteous God one day and he looks at me and says rich Wilkerson jr. what's your account how do you plead it's pretty simple god I plead the blood of Jesus Christ my house is covered by the blood look protected by the blood of Jesus that sets us free that covers us it reaches the highest mountain it flows to the lowest Valley can separate you from God you've been covered by the blood come on church lift your hands

Channel: VOUS Church

Views: 19,996

Rating: 4.9130435 out of 5

Keywords: vous, vous church, jesus, rich wilkerson, rich wilkerson jr, easter, snowboarding, message, preaching, near death experience

Id: Z0fHwLPdx1E

Length: 42min 40sec (2560 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 18 2019