He has risen

He defeated death and snatched the keys to death from Satan's hands. The grave could not hold Him. He's got the best answer to eternity. 

email: RuggedTruthGodsWord@gmail.com

God has a super huge plan. We all have to do our part as He assigns to us. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, brothers and sisters in the Lord and hopeful family members to join the family. I hope you all are having a good day and a good week. It's a beautiful time of year. Easter. And it's not about bunnies nor eggs and chocolate, which I love all of those, but that's not what it's all about. Just like Christmas isn't about Santa Claus and putting a big fine tree up. Easter and Passover go hand in hand. It's all about the sacrifice that was made. And before they were temporary sacrifices. Now the permanent sacrifice has been finished and done by Christ. His last words in John 19 and 30, when Christ said, It is finished. And it wasn't a victorious situation for Satan. It was victorious for Christ, meaning paid in full. Everybody's sins had been paid for. All you have to do is ask. And you can go straight to the God of the universe. You don't have to go to a priest, a church, or anything. All you have to do is ask. And God will be right there with you through Christ. If you ask in the name of Jesus Christ, repent of your sins. That just means changing your mind and wanting to do better, and Christ will help you do it. And after his sacrifice, which was a terrible way to die because there were people that hung for days on the cross when the Romans would crucify them. And the Lord died on the cross, and they stabbed a spear in his side, and blood and water came out, proving that his blood had settled and his heart had stopped beating, and he was truly dead. And there are some that say, oh, he was just swooned or just fainted or what nah. He was dead as a doornail. His spirit departed for three days. And on the morning of the third day, hew, howdy. When the two ladies got there to see things, actually they'd come to prepare the body and with uh herbs and stuff. But they didn't expect to see an open tomb and a stone rolled away. They thought they might have to have somebody move it, but there were angels there already that had done that trick. And not that Christ needed to move, but He the stone was moved for us so that we could see in. Our brothers and sisters, uh the OGs could see in there and see where the wrappings that wrapped his body were, and that he wasn't there anymore. In Matthew 28, 5 to 7, it gives a little bit of a laydown about that. Sum of it is he is not here, he has risen, just as he said he would. And in doing so, he defeated death and the stronghold it had over all of humanity, and it actually had it over him as a human. But death could not hold the God of glory, the creator of all. After being dead for three years, three three days, he uh that was proof enough, and he snatched the keys from an angry Satan and showed himself to many people, and many witnesses there were. Christ showed himself for 40 days after he rose. God has uh a liking for number, and forty is one of them. In the first chapter of Acts, in verse 3, it was it said that he showed himself to them in just that right there over a 40-day period. And then the next verse in verse 4 is when he promised them the uh the gift from his father for them to stay in Jerusalem. Do not leave Jerusalem, it says. And in verse 5, it he sent the Holy Spirit, and he's been sending the Holy Spirit ever since, and the Holy Spirit has been leading so many people to salvation and away from the highway to hell, getting them off, take the exit ramp off the highway to hell, get on the highway to Christ, get on the highway to God and heaven and goodness and a peaceful life. If you look at it seriously, Christ had the first revival. He was revived first, and he is the king of glory, and he sent his wonderful Holy Spirit here to help us, to help us in our progress, our walk with him, uh, our daily repentance. And we have revivals and we talk about revivals, but so many times revivals end up crashing and burning because people they don't really repent, and that's what they have to do. During a revival, that's a good thing because it's like a slap in the face or a slap on the bottom, whatever it takes to get our attention. But we need to be in a constant state of repentance. In 1 Thessalonians 5.17, uh talks about pray without ceasing. We just keep the communication line open to him all the time. He loves to hear from us. And I'm sorry to say it, but sometimes I go into some churches and the folks look like they've been sucking on lemons and their faces are drawn up, just trying to be all pious and all this. Christ, God doesn't want that. He wants us to rejoice and be happy because we've got our names written in the Lamb's Book of Life if we follow Christ and we trust him with our salvation. When Christ rose, he broke the chains of all addictions if we lean on him. Just lean on him. It could take some work, but he can help you defeat every one of them. Every one of them. I had a lot of addictions that he helped me with, and I'm living proof that he can help us. He can help each and every one of us and every sin we've ever committed. He can forgive. He will forgive if you ask and repent of it. He's right there, says, come on, let's do this. Let's do it. Let's do it. And God absolutely is our biggest cheerleader. He wants us to succeed and be in the middle of his will and helping others find Christ. We set up introductions with others to meet Christ, to talk to Christ, and to be saved by Christ. We can't save anybody, but we can set up introductions. Now that Christ has risen, we don't have to go to a priest to ask forgiveness. We can just close our eyes and ask forgiveness. No absolution, all that mess, and that's exactly what it is. There's a big money scheme out there, and Christ came to crush some of that too. Religion and all this stuff that makes it so difficult to come before God. Christ did all the difficult parts. He died for us, and all we have to do is take up our cross daily and follow him. That just means follow his teachings. In Matthew 22, 37 to 40, when Christ said to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. And the second is like it. He says, to love your neighbor as yourself. That one is one of the hardest ones to do. It really is. Sometimes your neighbor is hard to love. But you know what? We do our best and we ask God to help us with it. But keeping that communication line, as talked about in 1 Thessalonians, He can help us grow with that and grow stronger and build our faith. And we just have to remember that He has risen. He defeated all of this. Death has no hold over us anymore. It's like a final sleep. Everybody has to do it. You know what? Do it and fall into Christ's hands after that. A good eternity happens after we die. And we've got to help others while we're here find Him because if they don't find Him, if they don't know Christ, their eternity will not be good. And that goes for everybody because everybody is born on the highway to hell. And we have to help them to find Christ. We can't, like I say, we can't save anybody, but we can set up the introduction to the one that has defeated death. The good good father. And in John 3.16, how much God loves us is he sent his only son, his one and only Son, to die for us. He knew he could resurrect him, but it took a blood sacrifice to cover the sins of the entire world. In the Old Testament, the Jews that have blood sacrifices, and it would be a temporary. They would have to dip it in hesip and sprinkle it on the people. But it was temporary and it was continual and they had to do it every time they would sin. They would have to come back and say, Oh man, I got to get sprinkled again. To be a temporary fix. But when Christ was murdered on the cross, and he was murdered to cover our sins, his blood covered our sins, but he was resurrected to defeat death for us. And not only did he defeat it, he gave us a strong life, a good life to live. With the Holy Spirit in us, we follow God every day. A daily walk. We pick up our cross every morning and just carry through the day. It's really isn't difficult to do. Once you get used to it, it's habitual. You have to, when you wake up, you say, Good morning, God. Lord of glory. Thank you for another day. And you praise God. And when you praise him, you do it respectfully. You call him the Lord of glory, and you, you know, be respectful in how you talk. But he loves us beyond anything we can ever imagine. If we can't realize that by him sending his only son to die for us? Wow. And the pain that Christ had to go through. That description can be found in Isaiah 52 and 14. Talks about he was uh beyond uh uh that of any human being. He couldn't recognize him. He was beaten like hamburger. I believe that's part of why he died so soon on the cross. He was just beaten to death nearly. And then he was crucified on the cross. Then after he passed, they stabbed him in the side to make sure he was dead. And blood and water, after your your blood settles and water comes in to start the degradation of the body. And sometimes when I find myself either at a loss to what to say or what to pray over, I will start praising. I just say, Lord of glory, you are worthy of all praise and all honor. And I'll say that over and over. I said, You are beautiful, you are wonderful. I'll tell you what, I find myself getting uplifted, and wow, it really does work, brothers and sisters. Give it a try. Well, this is Brother Rick getting off of here, and he has risen, and it's a wonderful day. And I pray the good Lord save your souls and his face shine down upon you. And until next time, I love you in the name of Jesus Christ.