 The theme of this conference is the power of the cross, the power of the blood, the power of Jesus' sacrifice and the power of Jesus' death on the Calvary. And though I wasn't able to be here during those days but I had the opportunity to watch the services online and God was doing some wonderful things. When Slavic was preaching and then when Roman was preaching yesterday morning and unforgettable night last night when Vic was speaking. It's just an awesome, awesome presence of God and well there was no live stream for me but I got quotes on Facebook of people posting of this session. So it was fantastic and I just want to take this time in the morning to speak about this theme that we have during this conference about the blood and the power of the cross. Google says that 7% of your body weight is made out of blood and also that if you have a million 200,000 mosquitoes taking a bite out of your body at the same time they will drain your body out of all your blood. I pray this will never happen to you. Blood is a very vital part of our body. Without it our body cannot function. Without blood your physical body cannot properly function. Blood has a lot of functions in the body. For example one of the first functions the body it has in the body is it collects carbon dioxide, ammonia and other waste from our body. It transports nutrients to our body. It also carries hormones to our body. Some of you who have hormone imbalance you just need blood transfusion and all of it will go away. Blood also carries oxygen to your body. Blood also is in your body to maintain balance in fluids. Blood in your body has a function also to fight microorganisms that come and attack your body. Basically without blood your body will have no life. It will still have the bones. It will still have the structure. It will still have the features but it will not have life. That's why the Bible says that life is in the blood. It doesn't say life is in your skin. It doesn't say life is in your brains. It doesn't say life is in your muscles. It doesn't say life is in your bones. It says life is in the blood. That means if you remove the blood you can still have the body but no life. Body cannot function without blood. If our physical body cannot function without blood the body of Jesus Christ which is the church cannot function without the blood of Jesus Christ. We can still have a structure. We can still have principles. We can still have organization. We can still have management and we can still have good morals. We can still have great families but one thing that will be missing when the blood is missing and that is life. Because life does not come from organization. Life comes from the blood and when you drain the body out of the blood you will still have a body but it will be a corpse not a body. And the vital part of a Christian life and the vital part of a church in the 21st century is the same vital part that was of the church in the 1st century. It is the blood of Jesus Christ. That's why Paul says that I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ for it is the power of God to those who believe. Can somebody say amen? With that said if you have your Bible let's go together to the Old Testament. Joshua chapter 2 and verse 17 and verse 18. This is a conversation between the spies and the rehab the woman who was a prostitute who lived in Jericho. And so the man said to her we will be blameless of this oath of yours which you have made us swear in verse 18. Unless when we come into the land you bind this line of scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down. And unless you bring your father and your mother and your brothers and all of your father's household to your own home. I want you to say this quick prayer out loud after me. Say Lord Jesus. Say a little louder. Say Lord Jesus. Open my heart to your word. Lord Jesus. Open my heart to your spirit. And Lord Jesus. Open my heart to your faith. If you are taking notes and I would encourage you to do so you can title this small talk will be called the scarlet cord. And we're going to talk about the blood of Jesus Christ. If somebody counted that the word blood is mentioned 300 times in the Old Testament and about 43 times in the New Testament. And it was a very vital part in the Bible. It was a very vital part in the covenant that was Old Covenant. And it was a very vital part in the New Covenant. And if you ever had or came in contact with casting out of some demons that come through the blood. You will soon discover that those are the hardest demons sometimes to cast out. I remember when last year we had one incident in our church when one girl who was 17 years of age pretty skinny, pretty tall. But at the age of five her parents cut her finger and they made a blood covenant with her. Without her knowing what she was doing she made a blood covenant with Satan himself with the devil. And she was dedicated to witchcraft. And so she just moved on, left her parents, lived her own life and somebody brings her to church. And during prayer we had six buff strong men could not hold this young lady. We had guys broken ribs, camera broken, I mean things just broken and shattered. And it was a very tough battle of removing an evil spirit that came through somebody blood. Because blood is very vital in the spiritual world. Not only in the Christian world, but also demonic world understands the importance and the value that blood contains in relating to creating covenant and the bridge between this world and the other one. We see in this story that we've read and this is a very familiar story that most of us have been acquainted with from our Sunday school. Or you have probably have heard in the church the story about Rahab. It goes like this that the nation of Israel were about to conquer the land. Few tribes already possessed the land on one side of the Jordan and the rest of the tribes were marching into the promised land. And Joshua being wise, instead of sending 12 spies, he recognized if you send 12, 10 will be bad, 2 will be good. So he just got rid of 10 and sent just the two spies into Jericho and they went in there and the Bible says that they found a lady whose name was Rahab. Now she wasn't a prayer warrior, she wasn't an intercessor and she was not a devout Christian. The Bible says that her career was prostitution. Most likely historically speaking, this lady was a temple prostitute who was not just a prostitute on the street, but she was involved in prostituting in such a way that would initiate men into paganism. So they came into her house and they quickly discovered that this lady, to their greatest surprise, has faith in God. They come from a country, a place where people have seen God and didn't believe in God. And here is a woman who is a prostitute and believes in God. Kind of an aside note, you don't have to be holy to have faith, but you have to have faith to be holy. And they begin to talk to her and she begins to converse with them. And the men find out that she has a visitor in the house and they send some soldiers or they send some FBI or they send police to her house to search the house. And this is an opportunity where she had, she risked her life by hiding them instead of giving them up. And she hid them and then she released them. It's interesting that eventually because she hid them, they saved her life. And if you forward a few chapters later, you will see a man named Aiken who also hid some things from Jericho and they destroyed his life. Everyone is hiding something. The question is, what are you hiding? And whatever you're hiding will change your future. I know you think that your bachelor's degree or your charm or the fact that you're attractive or the fact that you got the new car on the loan or the house and maybe a gift is really going to change your future and affect your future. I have a newsflash for you. It's not that. It's what you're hiding today. And every person is hiding. It's good to hide things. Good things to hide. Somebody say amen. Somebody say amen. Try to never say, what are you hiding? Don't let them show it to you. And so we see in the scripture that she is about to let them go. And they make this promise. At first it seems a very good promise. This is what she would do if somebody is helping you. They're climbing down out of her window on a rope. The Bible calls it a scarlet rope, scarlet red collar. They're about to get down. They're making her a promise. They say, when we will attack the city, we will save you. If this rope keeps hanging out of the window of your house and if all of your family is inside of your house, if that doesn't happen, then we're not responsible for your death. They go back to Joshua and they tell Joshua about the story and they get ready to attack the city. Now this is the interesting part. They had no weaponry and they had no strategy of destroying the walls. They're making a promise that they cannot keep. It's not going to be them who will destroy the wall. They never touch the wall with their finger. It will be God who's going to use his finger to just push the wall down. But they're making a promise to a woman. Saying, we got you covered. If I would be her, I would find out how am I going to be rescued. Because your God has a tendency when he uses his fingers, nobody gets in his way. And how in the world will you tell your God to move your finger for the whole wall and miss my apartment? Because the Bible says her house was in the wall. Not in the city. So imagine the dilemma. You're making a promise. Yeah, we will attack the city. We'll keep you safe. Oops, I forgot. We don't know how to attack the city. God will do that. And we've got to let him know your address. That's one of the reasons why I believe prophetically they did not even know what they were doing when they were telling her, leave the scarlet out of the window, not for us, for him. Because it's he who will destroy your city. The number one lesson I want us to learn from today is the blood of Jesus protects us from the wrath of Jehovah. If you're taking notes, you can write that down. The blood of Jesus protects us from the wrath of Jehovah. Many times when we hear word salvation, many people have different views. What are we saved from? Some people believe we're saved from hell. Some people believe we are saved from sin. Some people believe we are saved from death. And all of these answers are somewhat true. But the real salvation is when you and I are saved by God from God. Now it may sound weird. It may sound strange. Why would God save us from himself? Does God has a bad cup, good cup day kind of deal? Where he cannot figure out what he wants to do. Whether he wants to be loving or wants to be holy. But actuality, the Bible says that we are saved from the wrath of God. Many times when we read the Bible, when we read the Old Testament and we see the holiness of God being so exemplified. And we come to the New Testament and we feel like that kid in a story who came to his parents and said, Dad, I read the New Testament and I read the Old Testament. Was the New Testament the time that God got saved? Because he was pretty rough in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, it's obvious he had a change of heart. God did not get saved in the New Testament. And the cross of Jesus did not change God. Somehow we have this feeling that God in the Old Testament, we see his wrath being exemplified in many situations. But in the New Testament, we see Jesus playing with babies and children. We're like, well, this is really God. He is really soft and he's really on a loving edge. The Old Testament is God kind of like overboarding on holiness. And the New Testament is God overboarding on love. And the cross somehow made a little shift. Metamorphosis, God went from holy to loving. But cross did not change God. Cross revealed God. Because if God would not be holy, there would be no need for the cross. And if God would not be loving, he would never let Jesus hang on it. He would put me and you there. Therefore, cross is the best revelation of who God is. It's not the best indication of who God was. The cross reveals that the high beam speaks of God's unwavering standard on holiness. And the horizontal beam speaks of God's unconditional, stretching all inclusive love that says, if all four corners of the earth will come, I will forgive them. Somebody say amen. When God saved Noah from the flood, I want you to notice that demons were not behind the flood. God did not tell Noah, build the boat because Satan is getting pretty ticked off about all of you and he's going to flood the earth. No, God says, I'm ticked. And I'm going to flood the earth. I'm a holy God. And we have problem with God's holiness only when we sin. But when we are sinned against, I want God to be holy and right now, not tomorrow, not at the judgment seat of Christ, not when they die, right now, all of the holiness. And that's when we sing with angels, holy, holy, holy. And where is your wrath, O God Almighty? But when you are the one committing sin, then the scriptures and holiness, man, that's kind of rough. That's kind of overboard. Really? Anger, wrath? Man, I'm definitely not going to share that story with my children. But God's love and God's holiness go together. God saved Noah from his wrath. God saved Lot from his wrath. Not from the devil, even though salvation also includes being saved from the darkness. And the Prince of Darkness, but salvation is first and foremost being saved from the wrath of God. When you are in sin, your problem is not the devil. The devil is your last problem. Your problem is holy God. When you are living away from God, you don't worry about the devil. Worry about your God, the fact that he is holy and whatever you are doing is not taking good with him. And I know sometimes we have this idea that, well, I will appeal to God's compassion and God will be unholy trying to be loving to me. But if there was ever a time God would be unholy trying to be loving, it would be at the Calvary. When his son loaded with my sin, looked at his father and said, Dad, why have you done this to me? If there was any time during the history, God could bend the rule and God could bend his identity. It would be at that point if he didn't, then he will not do it now and he will not do it for me and he will not do it for you. God will never be unholy by being loving. God is love, but his love will never, ever cancel his holiness. The moment he stops being holy is the moment you will not trust him. It's the moment you won't worship him and the moment he stops being God. If he did not stop being God when his son was bleeding on the Calvary, he will never stop being God because of me and because of you. Therefore salvation is being saved from the wrath of God. That's why I believe prophetically, when the spies stole the woman, put the red scarlet out of the window. I'm not sure whether they knew exactly what they were doing, but somewhere in the story we see a connection. That the God who was about to use his finger to push the wall to the ground, came to the part where he saw a red scarlet and he put his finger over it and he kept going to the wall. He did that 40 years earlier when he would come and we see a death would come upon every house and he would see the scarlet hanging over the doorpost and the Bible says that he wouldn't go inside. He would pass over. Why would he pass over? Not because they had a cross over the house. Not because they had a Hebrew over the house. It wasn't because the houses were nice or people inside were good, but it was because there was a sign of blood on the house and it told God, I can't punish someone's sin twice. Somebody already died in this house. We are not going to heaven because we didn't commit sin. We are going to heaven because our sin was paid for. God sees the blood and it reminds him, this person already suffered the wrath of God. In the 16th century, forgive me, in the 16th century there was a King Philip II who invaded, and he rebelled against his rule and he sent one of his commanders, Doug Alva, to go and just crush the rebellion in this particular city and particular region. As this commander went into this place, he had a very unique strategy of defeating the city. He would go into each house and instead of wasting time to go to different houses at the same time or repeating going to different houses, he would go into a particular house and take the family members on the porch and they would execute judgment on them in such a way that blood would come out from their bodies and spill on the door porch and they would drag those dead bodies back inside of the house, close the door, and this was a mark that we kill somebody in this house because there is blood. We spill the blood in the front of the house and they would go one after another and simply do that to every single house to prove to them that King Philip II is the king and rebellion to him is punished by death. There was a particular house at the end of the street who had a family and they heard the cries of people from different houses of their neighbors who were being slaughtered, who were being defeated and who were being crushed because of the rebellion. And one particular son in the house realized that we are next and we are not going to escape this punishment because we participated in the rebellion against the King Philip II. And what he did is that he went to the backyard and he went into their barn and he found a goat and without being spotted by the soldiers he took to the front of the house and he killed the goat in front of the house, dragged the goat inside and let the blood spill and run all the way from the front to inside of the house and shut the doors and let everybody remain silent until this captain arrived to this house and he looked at the blood that was still fresh and he looked at his commanders. He says, I guess one of ours has been here before and he passed over that house. Exactly what happens when you get forgiven. Most of us think God just takes a napkin and wipes the whole thing out. Not one sin gets forgiven. It's first paid for and only then it's forgiven because if God will forgive that would be unjust to his holiness. If he would just forget it and remove it without somebody paying for it that would be an injustice and he would not be God. He would not tolerate that. That's one of the reasons the first thing the blood does for us is it satisfies his wrath and makes us look at us and say, you know what, you already took the punishment through my own son Jesus Christ and for that I am grateful. Let's put our hands together for Jesus Christ. The blood of Jesus saves us from the wrath of God. You are saved from the wrath of God through the blood of Jesus. Maybe some of you are here today. You are not saved. Maybe you came here today, your friend invited you or maybe you just stumbled in, somebody dragged you along or maybe you came for different reasons to check out a girl or check out a guy. I want to tell you something today that God is holy and that God is going to judge sin. And there's going to be a time he's going to put his big finger on your life and his holiness will crush your life. You may say, no, it won't. I'm going to give you a proof. Your sin did to Jesus, your sin will do no less to you. It killed him. Separated him from God. It will do exactly same thing to you. Look at the passion of the Christ. That's exactly what happened to him because not his sin, my yours. And if you think you can escape that, my friend, you are dead wrong. The only way to escape that is to the trust in his blood. Put his blood over your life and say, Jesus, forgive me. And only then God looks at you. And he will not just see your sin. He will see his blood and say, you know what? Your sin has been paid for through the blood of my son. Somebody say amen. But the second thing I want us to see from this story is that the blood, the scarlet cord, not only it delivered her from the wrath of Jehovah but it delivered her from the grip of Jericho. The grip of Jericho. Because you must understand after God went with his finger and the walls fell her house stood there and she was there in her house. But now the scarlet cord was a point of reference for the spies to find the house. Not only so they will protect it but so that they will take her from the house and say, now you come with us. Now you are going to live with us. They didn't take her out and say, you know what woman? God saved you. Hit the road, Jack. We don't want to know you. We never met. They didn't send her off like Abraham sent Hagar and say, hey, here's some water and here's some crackers. I hope you make it. But don't ever come back to our house because I will call police. That's not what the spies did. The spies took her and they said, you are coming with us. And we see in the beginning she lived outside of the camp. And well, I see why. I mean, she prostituted all her life. You're not going to want to have this person living in your neighborhood. She's not coming to synagogue anytime soon. She lived outside. They were like, we're not sure. I mean, God saved her. That's good. But keep your husband's woman. I mean, you just, it's one of those things. You don't let her come close. But then we see, and then she begins to live inside. And then we see she lives part of Israel and the most amazing part. She marries one of the men named Salman who was spying her city. The best part about the blood is not only that it satisfies the wrath of God, but it has the power to break the grip of my past. Talk about a woman. She didn't smoke weed. She was a prostitute. She didn't do it because of human trafficking. She did it because that's what she wanted. And that was her religion. And she did it for as long as she could remember. It's inside of her blood. Yes, God protected her. Yes, God had mercy on her, but it's still inside of her. Allow this woman to integrate into a society of people who love and worship God. What if on inside she's not changed? But this is where the blood does its invisible work. As it goes into the spiritual world and the things she was gripped by for years. It loses that grip. And the woman who was so loose becomes so godly. And the woman who was so messed up becomes so holy. And this woman who by some people's standards should never be married because of what she's done. And yet she married one of the most trustworthy men in the nation of Israel. That is the power of the blood. The blood has power. It has power to deliver a captive from its captivity. Ask a nation of Israel, they'll tell you that we did not only were captives for 40 years or 30 years, but for hundreds of years our ancestors were born in that captivity. We only knew captivity. And all nine plagues could not move pharaoh until the blood was spilled. And the grip that lasted for years and decades, that grip was loose. And we walked out of Egypt, a whole nation, not one person. A whole nation left a captivity of generations because of the blood. There is power in the blood. Not only to forgive you, but to change you. Not only to remove the penalty of sin, but to break the power of sin over your life. I remember a month ago we had an opportunity to be in one church in Africa. And while we were sitting there, there was an incident that took place there that honestly I would believe one of those incidents that really marked my life and shook my life. One man who was a part of a Boko Haram terrorist group. It's that terrorist group just recently kidnapped 100-something girls from one school and they are responsible for 10,000 deaths in the last decade in Nigeria alone. They're close to link with Al Qaeda and these people are ruthless. These people are nuts. And a lot of them are not only just radical Muslims, but they are also committed occultists. And they sent five people with the bomb to the church that we had 60 people with us from the United States in this particular church visiting this church. And these five people, they were not Christians. They've never stepped into the church in their lifetime. They were sent with the bomb to church. They've done this before in churches before and they've succeeded. They've never failed once. And we were there sitting on the first row. We were very privileged to be part of the service. And as these five people, they didn't come to church first. They set across the church in a restaurant waiting when the church service ends so that when most people flock through the doors that they can set the bomb in front of the doors and that's where it's going to be most casualties. As they were waiting, they're eating and the service was translated. Just like we have a service translated on the website. Over there, it was translated to the restaurant because the people in the restaurant belong to the church. So they translated the service from the restaurant. As they're sitting there, five men eating, they're like, well, yeah, this is the church that we are going to bomb. And the pastor of the church begins to pray through the screen and four men begin to shake. These men are not Christians. These men are devoted to their religion and they're devoted also to occultism and witchcraft and they have spells to protect them from pastors' prayers. But this pastor is praying and they shake. One looks to another, he says, this is not good. The other one looks, he said, we should run before this gets worse. And so four, take the bomb and run. And the fifth one decides to test his power out. He says, well, I have enough spells. I mean, he has all kinds of bits on his body to withstand the power of God. And it helped them to withstand. I don't know what kind of power they were with God they were with standing before. But they somehow withstood every church that they bombed before. And this man stands there and he begins to shake his shiver until he starts to convulse on the floor and the people in the restaurant drag him to the church. Not knowing, he's a terrorist. As they brought him to the church, he's shivering, shaking and he's beginning to confess. And they brought him straight to the pastor of the church and the pastor says, hey, what's your name? Who are you and what are you doing? He's like, I'm a part of this and this organization. Now for me, that's strange. When he said that name, I thought the whole place will take chairs and take him out of this world. People were mad, people were upset. And the pastor asked him, he says, what are you doing here? And he says, well, I'm this and this. I was dedicated to this occult, to this kind of practice. And I'm also practicing this kind of religion. And this is why I came here and I'm asking you, please pray for me because something is wrong, something is tormenting me and I just need help, help me to get rid of this and I'm just gonna go, I will never come here again. The pastor says, okay, we're gonna pray for you. As he begins to pray, the demons begin to manifest. And the guy begins to convulse and roll around. I was literally about three feet away from him. I was scared for my life. I'm like, this is the guy that caused 9-11. And I'm like, and this right here in front of me. I mean, who knows what could happen? I'm like, at least it's in church. 30 minutes of prayer. After 30 minutes, this man collapses on the floor. I mean, the demons were doing all kinds of things. He collapses on the floor, he gets up. And I was so close that I was able to see his face before and after. And this is the part that crushed me. When he got up after being delivered, his face immediately changed. The first thing that happened is tears started to roll down his eyes. He got on his knees. He said, pastor, I wanna receive Jesus. And I'm like, this is a terrorist. This is not just somebody who smoked weed, sold drugs, stole a few things from the store. This is, these people, I'm like, God, these people don't get saved. There is no hope for these people. I'm like, in my mind, I couldn't comprehend that even these kind of people, the blood can go down so too and remove all of the grip of the enemy instead of free. There is power in the blood. And as I was there, you know, in my mind, I'm debating, because I am being judgmental. I'm like, Lord, you can't do this to him. I'm like, Lord, just forgive him and let him go to jail, but don't deliver him. Because he shouldn't be delivered. But I was reminded that, see, sometimes we don't want Rahab to come into our camp because of what she's done, but we quickly forget, 40 years ago, we were captives and slaves over home bandits, and it was only the blood who got us out. It was only the blood who got you out. I was reminded when I was nine years of age, from nine to ten, and I had this captivity in my life for I don't know how it came, I was addicted to cursing. I just, some cussing spirit came up on me. That's the only thing I could explain. I couldn't stop cursing. I was cursing day and night. I would walk on the street by myself and just curse until it dawned on me that I can't stop it. And inside of me, I would curse and cry and say, God, I can't do this. And I don't want to do this. I'm a Christian young man. And until my dad heard it and he disciplined me and I realized, okay, this is getting really bad, but I couldn't stop it. And one fateful day, I don't know how it happened till this day, but as a young man ten years of age, I cried out to God and I said, God, I'm a Christian boy, but I need help. And the same blood who delivered the terrorists, the same blood who helped the prostitute, helped the young man ten years of age to be free from cursing and cussing and to use his mouth to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. The blood has power. Somebody shout, the blood has power. Somebody shout, the blood has power. Maybe today you're not like Rahab, who is trapped in Jericho. Maybe you're like Aiken. You don't live in Jericho, but you're lost after Jericho. Maybe you're not like Rahab, that you are a practicing citizen of Jericho. Maybe you're like Aiken. You're secretly attracted and secretly indulging in the practices of Jericho. See, Rahab was sick and tired of Jericho. Rahab wanted to get out. Aiken wanted to get in. Both people can be set free by the power of the blood of Jesus. Your will power is not enough. All the good things, the kind of ability, all of that is good. But the Bible says in Revelation 12, 11, they overcame Him by the power of the blood of the Lamb. There is power in the blood of Jesus. It can set you free from the grip of pornography. It can set you free from the grip of sexual perversion. It can set you free from generational curses where your mama or maybe your grandmama or things just passed on. The blood is better than that. It can set yourself to a clean blood, the blood of the Emmanuel. And it can stop that in your life. Maybe you are bound today by certain things that you cannot get out from. Yes, I will encourage you right away to position yourself for some transition because when you get changed at first, it's not the same. You come into a community, you feel weird. You feel different. You feel like I need to learn a new language. I need to learn, get a new wardrobe. I need to learn their customs. It's a completely different world. And there are people who are always waiting. Well, we'll see how long she will last. We'll see. We'll see. We've seen those before. This is nothing new. Yeah, the blood. The blood did with other stuff too. With other people being here before the blood. And people will have that, but you have to have enough confidence in the blood. When the naysayers are saying, when the critics have their stones, when everybody has that, to know those critics who have their stones, they also have a past that only the blood helped them to get through. And you will get through whatever you need to get through if you will lean fully and completely on the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. The power is in the cross. The power is in the blood. That's what this conference is all about. It's not about your efforts as much as it is about His work and His death on the cross of Jesus Christ. Somebody say amen. Let me share with you the third thing. So the first thing is we see the blood sets us free. It saves us from the wrath of Jehovah. We see the blood delivers us from the grip of Jericho. And the third thing that I want to share with you today and we will come to time of prayer is the blood connects us to Jesus. If you notice, they're all three G's, J's. I worked hard on them. The blood connects us to Jesus. Where this comes from in the story of Rahab, you know, Rahab eventually got a good family, which also is a very good testimony to us because a woman of her past lived in a place where grace was not a culture in the church. Grace was a foreign topic. Forgiveness and all of these things. They were not as practiced as they are in church today. And though she walked into that environment and somehow supernaturally God not only forgives her past, but God gives her a husband. Gives her a good husband. Gives her good children. He gives her a good family. And not only that, but he puts her in the lineage of Obed, Jesse, and David, the king of Israel. I mean, this is so beautiful of how the blood can take a woman with a questionable reputation, with a very scandalous name and not only keep her from falling back into sin, but give her a family, give her children, and give her a future. There's some of you here today who maybe your past is nothing to write a home about. And maybe you've been told that because of your past you cannot hope for anything good. It is true. You can't. If there will be no blood, but because of the blood you can raise your expectations, not proportional to your deeds, but proportional to his love. If Rahab could have a family, and because of her past when she lived without knowing God, but because of the blood her life was changed and she had a family. Listen, you can have a family too. Maybe you were lost in your past. Maybe you abused drugs in your past. Or maybe you were alcoholic. Or maybe you prostituted your body. But if you meet the blood of Jesus, it will not only secure your place in heaven, but it will change something inside. And that change will be so dramatic that your life today will be so different from yesterday. Your zip code is going to change. Your look is going to change. Everything about your life is going to change. You will go from zero to a hero. You will go from the hallway of shame. The doorway of God's glory. Somebody say praise be to God. Somebody say there is power in the blood. The blood connects us to Jesus. The amazing part is not only she was a great-great-granddaughter of David, but in Matthew chapter 1 those first few verses that most of us skip where Abraham begotten this and you'll read and you begin to realize that in the old days men gave birth to children. And you see four women, well, five at the end with Mary mentioned and one of them is mentioned is Rahab. And you see that not only that, but because of her faith, God links her to Jesus. Relationship with Jesus. The path for that relationship is his blood. You cannot be connected to Jesus without being linked to his blood. The story I want to use to illustrate this is a story of a young man, a short man in the Bible. His name is Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was a short man and there's two things you need to know about short people. They're born short, they can't do nothing, not to be short. No offense to people who are, and God loves them three, amen. But the point was this, the Bible says that we are all fall short of the glory of God. Everybody's short. Shouldn't you never say you're short? Some of you thought, I want to diss on the short people. No, my wife is short. Okay, I will never dare to do that. The point is this, Zacchaeus is not the only one who struggled with his statue. You are also the one who has a problem with his statue. The Bible says he was short and because of his statue, he could not see Jesus. The Bible says he wanted to see Jesus, but he could not see Jesus because he was, well, he was very short. And when you're short, the problem you have is that you can't see everything other people can see. And because he was short, he was not able to see Jesus. I know this about us is that when you come many times to your prayer closet, or you begin to walk in your relationship with God, there will be many and many times when you will feel just like Zacchaeus. You will feel short. And your desire to see God, your desire to connect with Holy Spirit, your desire to be really close to God, many times it will become sabotaged and become quenched because you will look at yourself and you say, well, not today because, well, I'm very short today. And Zacchaeus, instead of going home and saying, well, Jesus doesn't like short people or Jesus is too tall for short people, guess what? Jesus is not for me. The Bible says Zacchaeus finds a tree, a sycamore tree. He takes time to climb on the tree to get a better view of Jesus. See, he only wanted to see Jesus, but my Bible makes me to understand that it never mentions that Zacchaeus saw Jesus. It says when Jesus was passing by, Jesus saw Zacchaeus. See, Jesus walked to the tree and Zacchaeus was in the best place not only to see Jesus, but to be seen by Jesus. Jesus looks up and says, hi, Zacchaeus. God provided the tree as Zacchaeus discovered it. This tree, this Zacchaeus story, I've been going to this tree so many times in my prayer time. I know this spot that Zacchaeus found. I know this spot that Zacchaeus discovered and I know the same spot that Holy Spirit passes by every single time you sit there. It will take time to get to that spot. Sometimes to crawl on that tree and hang to the cross and to the blood and say, that's all I got right now because my feelings are against me, my consciousness is screaming against me. Everything is against me so I will just hold on to this tree just to get a better view of Jesus and little do you know, as you're holding on to that, Holy Spirit begins to walk by and he begins to see you. Your relationship with Jesus has to be completely linked with your dependence on the blood of Jesus every single day. When you get a theology degree, when you become a pastor, when you become a leader, when you quit doing the things that you think you should be quitting and then you'll be really perfect even then you will feel short in comparison to God and you will need a tree. The same spot that Zacchaeus found there is room on that tree for you too. I found my room, you can find yours as well. It's where Jesus can see you. The best part is not when Jesus saw him. The best part is the Bible says Jesus looked at him and he called him by name. A person's name is the most sweetest word in the language to them. Jesus called him not by his profession, not by his past, not by his weakness, his struggle, or his issue. Jesus called a man who probably doesn't get called by his name many times because he ripped people off. He was hated by the Jews because he worked for Romans and ripped the Jews to make himself rich. And Jesus looked at a man who clings to the tree and says Zacchaeus. See, that was Zacchaeus. See, I wanted to see Jesus but I never knew Jesus knows me. Vic was talking about a powerful message last night to know God. But when you climb on a tree and you have nothing to hold on to but the branches of the Calvary, something will hit you. It's not only that you love God, you want to know God, but the God intimately knows you. Not to you that people know. Not to you that church knows. Not to you that you want to be. Not to you you were. Not to you you promised and the New Year's resolutions to be at the end of the year. To you that's on a tree right now. To you with that name that you have right now. Zacchaeus. But the most amazing part is not that Jesus called him by name. It's that Jesus said, I go to your house. Let's go to your house. And the Bible says as they went to the house and they came inside of the house they begin to eat and this Jesus whom he met on the tree now knows his name. And not only that, Zacchaeus and Jesus are hanging out together. Zacchaeus and Jesus are together and something hits Zacchaeus. Where Zacchaeus come to Jesus and Zacchaeus is Jesus. Everybody I ever cheated. I will give them back. And Jesus I'm going to give half of my possessions to the poor people. And Jesus turns to the people and he says today salvation has come to this house. Your relationship with Jesus is anchored in his blood. When it's anchored in his blood you will be changed. It's not going to be the preacher who's going to tell you what to do and that's not going to change it's not going to be New Year's resolution it's going to be that his presence will become so amazing and beautiful that everything else that is not will become burdensome and tiring. That's why we see Jesus telling disciples follow me. We don't see Jesus telling disciples leave the nets first by the way guys because it's going to be very difficult to follow me and drag those things. No, he tells disciples follow me and disciples get so excited and the Bible says as they started to follow him I think they quickly realized you can't follow and drag the nets. But the problem we have with the church today is that we tell people to abandon their nets who have no desire to follow him and therefore they don't feel the pain of the heaviness of their nets because they don't have the passion for him is if you will have the passion to follow him these nets will be burdensome to you and I won't need to tell you that they are burdensome because you will tell me how tiring they are to you. When his presence overwhelms the extra money you got in your savings account that you ripped other people off they begin to bug you and then you cannot remain in his presence till you fix that. Oh no, not because Jesus is screaming or Jesus will leave it's that you will die with that thing hanging in your safe closet because his presence is so saturated with holiness is so saturated with love and so saturated with grace you are able to do whatever it takes the blood of Jesus saves me from the wrath of God the blood of Jesus delivers me from the grip of my past and the blood of Jesus makes my relationship with Jesus your relationship with Jesus a flourishing, exciting, powerful full of life every day see some of you maybe you feel like that during your prayer time this story of Zacchaeus I'm not sharing this because well I'm sharing something for the third point or else my sermon would be incomplete with two points I'm not doing that but it's my secret Zacchaeus has revealed that and many times in my own prayer time when I don't feel close to God or when I feel like I am just eaten up by my own consciousness or by the things I should have done or haven't done and so many things and at that point I said devil I'm gonna race you to the cross and when I clean to that spot the Zacchaeus stand there yes sometimes it takes 15 minutes sometimes it takes 20 minutes sometimes it takes a minute and there you see the Holy Spirit walking by and you have that sweet communion and you walk out of that place wanna be different you walk out of that place wanted to forgive you walk out of that place wanted to change wanted to give your life and to do those things that you didn't have the power to do before because of his blood and because of his cross wanna stir rise to our feet if the worship team could come up I want you to bow your head close your eyes whatever you are standing right now wanna first of all wanna ask those people here today who are in this service and who are not right with the Lord you're not walking with Jesus or maybe your situation is that you have backslidden you walked away from the Lord I'm asking everybody to put your phones down and to close your eyes don't look at me and you're not walking with the Lord today I wanna tell you something that eternity is very long and eternity walks alongside of you every single day and this salvation that Jesus is offering costume his life it wasn't microwaved it wasn't created out of a poof heaven it cost Jesus everything the salvation is so important God thinks it's so important to let Jesus bleed and die I think it's very important that it deserves to be shared and I believe that you think it needs to be received today God's wrath can only be satisfied through the blood of Jesus and this is the day God wants to forgive you of your sin if you walked away from Jesus or maybe you're not serving Jesus at all I met a young man last Thursday who had 14 years of age tried to commit suicide twice never knew who Jesus was said Jesus could forgive of sins and I had the greatest privilege in my life of bringing this man to Jesus Christ today is our greatest privilege at this conference if you will begin your relationship with Jesus Christ through his blood if you have walked away from Jesus or you don't know God and today you want to give your life to Jesus you want to get saved I want you to raise your hand high and I'm gonna pray for you thank you everybody keep your eyes closed no one looking around this is your time to open your mouth and begin to pray but if you have walked away from the Lord you say today I want to get saved or today I want to rededicate my life to just keep your hand up I see your hands thank you anybody else this is your day the day of salvation this Saturday morning is supposed to be the day where the blood of Jesus is gonna make a difference in your life where the blood of Jesus is gonna forgive you of your sin and the blood of Jesus today is gonna begin to work inside of you to break the grip of sin over your life as the worship team begins to sing right now I want you to slowly walk out of your seat and I want you to come here in the front and we're gonna pray for you I want you to slowly begin to walk out of your seat and begin to come and we're gonna pray for you Holy Spirit I ask you right now that you will begin to touch every person that you will be speaking to this morning Holy Spirit I ask you right now that you will begin to bring change in their hearts Holy Spirit I ask you right now that you will begin to bring cleansing in their hearts right now in Jesus name I want us just those Who are not walking with the Lord not those who just wants to experience the presence of God or get closer to God But if you're not walking with the Lord you are living in sin Or you are just have not had a relationship with Jesus Christ and you're saying today is the day I want to do that I want you to come We're gonna trust today that the power of the blood of Jesus Christ is gonna touch you at the point of your need We're gonna wait for a little bit more for anybody else The greatest miracle is not healing of cancer and though that is great The greatest miracle is the healing of your soul. It's when Jesus comes to live inside of you and All other miracles simply come to confirm that greatest miracle Holy Spirit, I thank you for your grace and I thank you that today you are able to bring change in the hearts of these people I thank you that your word has power and I thank you Holy Spirit that your presence and your grace is sufficient and it's enough In Jesus name I want us to pray right now. We're gonna pray the sinner's prayer together Just give me a second and then we're gonna help pastors pray Those those of you guys who are here. I want you to look up look up at me Those of you who are in the front look up at me just just for a second Which is gonna wait now take a moment. I'm gonna lead you in a simple prayer The Bible says if we confess our sins to Jesus Christ that he is faithful and true to forgive us of all sin And the Bible says that if we believe with our heart and we confess with our mouth that he is Going to give us that salvation this gift. It's gonna happen instantly. It's not gonna happen tomorrow It's gonna happen today the process of transformation is a continuous walk with the Lord, but the forgiveness and reconciliation It happens instantly and it's gonna happen instantly today in Jesus name I want you guys to close your eyes, whatever you're standing right now And I want you to repeat this simple prayer out loud after me. Say Lord Jesus. I Thank you for dying on the cross for all my sin I Acknowledge I'm a sinner I'm in need of your mercy I'm in need of your forgiveness Please forgive me of all my sin and wash me with your precious blood Give me a new heart and fill it with the Holy Spirit and right now I receive Your forgiveness and I declare that I'm forgiven in Jesus name Amen, I want you church to stretch your hands right now every one of every one of you if the pastors could come if pastors and Leaders if it could come and just touch them and just pray over them I want you guys to right now receive prayer church stretch your hands right now open up your lips and just begin to Let's just take next few minutes and pray and pray the God is going to do a work in their hearts That's deeper than anybody can do the Holy Spirit is going to begin to move in their hearts in Jesus mighty name