The Only Plea: Why Jesus is the Lamb of God

• The Blood of Jesus Christ [00:31:40 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor introduces the series theme, emphasizing that Christian faith is filled with blood and that salvation is bought by Jesus' shed blood.
• The Passover Lamb [00:34:02 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor traces the concept of blood from the original Passover event in Exodus 12 to Jesus' sacrifice on the cross.
• Salvation and Freedom from Sin [00:35:24 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor asserts that there is no salvation or freedom from sin apart from the blood of Jesus, linking it to reconciliation with God.
• Value and Sacrifice [00:35:51 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the concept of blood equating to value and life to explain the cost of salvation.
• Typology of the Passover Lamb [00:44:05 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor draws a direct line from the Old Testament Passover lamb to Jesus as the perfect, eternal sacrificial lamb, highlighting the hyssop branch connection.
• Soteriology by Faith vs. Works [00:43:07 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that God looked only for the blood on the doorposts, not for good deeds, perfect attendance, or adherence to dietary laws, establishing salvation by faith in the provided sacrifice.
• The Identity of Jesus as the Lamb of God [00:48:54 ▶️ 📄]
  > Citing John 1:29, the pastor identifies Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, contrasting John the Baptist's role with Jesus' divine identity.
• Cleansing and Justification through Christ's Blood [00:51:13 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that the blood of Christ covers, cleanses, and clothes believers, referencing 1 John 1:7-9 and Isaiah 61:10 to assure believers of their spiritual state despite past sins.
• Evangelistic Mission of the Church [00:49:51 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor defines the church's role not as promoting the institution (New Spring Church) but as pointing others to Jesus, using the 'I don't have the answers, Jesus does' framework.
• Cleansing and Salvation [00:52:51 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor asserts that the blood of Jesus cleanses believers from all sin, regardless of the severity or type of transgression, citing Isaiah to support the concept of being clothed in righteousness.
• Pleading the Blood [00:54:51 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains the theological significance of 'pleading the blood of Jesus' as a spiritual defense against the accuser (Satan), using the analogy of the Fifth Amendment in a courtroom to illustrate how believers have no defense other than Christ's sacrifice.
• Communion and Sacrament [00:57:00 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor transitions to the practice of communion, emphasizing it as a holy sacrament of remembrance and participation in Christ's sacrifice rather than a mere ritual, and provides instructions for both believers and non-believers.

• Sermon Illustration [00:31:40 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references a previous illustration by Brad, who had his blood drawn, and jokingly suggests doing a spinal tap or using a chainsaw to emphasize the reality of blood, before clarifying he is kidding.
• Sermon Illustration [00:36:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the upcoming Veterans Day and the 250th anniversary of the Marine Corps as an analogy for the cost of freedom, noting that veterans shed their blood to secure liberty, paralleling how Jesus' blood secured spiritual freedom.
• Sermon Illustration [00:38:22 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts the biblical narrative of the Passover in Exodus 12, describing how the Israelites were instructed to slaughter a lamb, apply its blood to the doorposts, and how the destroyer passed over those homes, sparing those under the blood.
• Sermon Illustration [00:41:35 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor invites the congregation to visualize the visceral experience of the Israelites on the night of the Passover: fathers slaughtering lambs, children asking questions, the tension and fear, and the act of painting blood on the doorposts with hyssop. He contrasts God looking at the doorposts rather than the interior lives of the people.
• Sermon Illustration [00:44:22 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor connects the hyssop branch used in the Passover to the hyssop branch used to hold the sponge of sour wine vinegar to Jesus on the cross, noting hyssop's symbolism of healing and renewal.
• Sermon Illustration [00:46:17 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes a modern-day visual rendition of the doorposts being covered with blood, linking it to the Last Supper and the institution of Communion as a remembrance of Jesus' shed blood.
• Sermon Illustration [00:48:54 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts John the Baptist pointing to Jesus and saying, 'Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,' urging listeners to cast their gaze on Jesus rather than on human leaders.
• Sermon Illustration [00:51:31 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references an old Pentecostal/Baptist hymn ('There is power, wonder-working power in the blood of the Son') to illustrate the cleansing and covering power of Christ's blood, applying it to specific sins like cheating, theft, and bitterness.
• Sermon Illustration [00:55:41 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses a courtroom analogy, comparing 'pleading the blood of Jesus' to 'pleading the fifth' (the Fifth Amendment) in a legal setting. Just as a defendant can remain silent to avoid self-incrimination, believers plead the blood of Jesus as their only defense against Satan's accusations of guilt, transferring the judgment to Christ.

• Pastoral Charge [00:36:18 ▶️ 📄]
  > Veterans are asked to stand to honor their sacrifice.
• Pastoral Charge [00:45:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > Thank Jesus for his sacrifice
• Pastoral Charge [00:59:36 ▶️ 📄]
  > Non-believers are instructed to abstain from taking the elements and instead reflect on Jesus' sacrifice.
• Pastoral Charge [01:00:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > Non-believers are invited to open their hearts to Jesus and receive Him by faith during the communion service.
• Pastoral Charge [01:01:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > Believers are invited to take and eat the bread element of communion.
• Pastoral Charge [01:01:37 ▶️ 📄]
  > Believers are invited to take and drink the juice element of communion.

[00:06:13] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[00:06:13] Let's begin with worship. We're going to start by looking at Psalm 100. And I'd love for us to just read the first couple of verses together. Verses 1 and 2, it's going to be on the screen. I'm going to read it from my Bible. Yeah, let's all read it together. You guys read with me.
[00:06:25] Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing. That's what we're doing right now. We are wanting to come into his presence with singing, believing that God is in the room with us. This is his way that we come before him.
[00:06:43] So you guys sing this with me.
[00:06:44] Let our praise be your welcome.

[00:06:47] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_14]
[00:06:47] I pray a song.

[00:06:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:06:56] Yes, I tell them that it's here to worship God.
[00:11:22] Again, we worship through singing agreement with testimony.
[00:11:27] We're going to get to our church.
[00:11:31] They're going to go declaration of faith through baptism here in a little bit.
[00:11:35] We get to worship in so many ways.
[00:11:38] I want to take a minute.
[00:11:41] We're glad to have you with us in church this morning.
[00:11:44] My name is Jason Wilson.
[00:11:45] I'm our associate campus pastor here at our Anderson campus.
[00:11:48] And man, what a gift.
[00:11:49] what an honor it is to get to gather together on this November Sunday and be together worshiping God, learning, listening, opening ourselves up to whatever He has for us and whatever He has in mind.
[00:12:00] And so we're glad to have you with us. Especially want to say welcome if you're new here. Let's put our hands together for our new folks. If that's you, if you're new with us, welcome. We'd love
[00:12:11] to say hey to you out in the lobby. As you walk out, if you're brand new, stop by our new here area on the right side of the atrium as you leave today. We'd love to just say hello, shake your
[00:12:20] hand. But right now I'm going to turn it over to my brother, Pastor Tom, and we're just going to get the chance to hear and understand some brand new stories of people in our church. So Tom.

[00:12:32] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_09]
[00:12:32] Awesome. Thank you so much, Jason. We're so excited to celebrate baptism. Obviously it's such a big thing. Jesus modeled it on this earth. And not only that, but he taught about it in the great commission in Matthew 28. He says, go therefore and make disciples of all the nation,
[00:12:47] baptizing them in the name of the father the son and the holy spirit teaching them to observe all that i've taught you and so today as we gather today in obedience and celebrating this amazing
[00:12:58] gift of baptism we know that it's not a public baptism is a public declaration of what's going on on the inside so that's what we'll get to see today when richard is baptized the act of baptism
[00:13:10] does not save you we know that we are saved by grace through faith alone ephesians 2 tells us that but today is very symbolic of the fact as Richard is lowered under the water it's symbolic
[00:13:19] of the fact that we are no longer dead to our sin but as he's risen up out of the water that we are alive in Christ by the step of baptism we we learned that today and so we're eager to hear
[00:13:29] your story today Richard and we'd love for you to share that with us right now most of my life I've

[00:13:35] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:13:35] questioned my faith God Jesus and to some extent churches I was going through the motions years ago I had an accident and while stuck felt the presence that told me to try again and that
[00:13:48] saved my life but still I didn't act on it and my daughter Ashley's urging I started coming to New Spring and questions I had were getting answered my prayers start making sense I wanted to be baptized to be buried with Jesus to rise up and have new life in him to have spiritual

[00:14:12] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_09]
[00:14:12] resurrection in union with Christ amen Richard thank you for sharing your story with us I have some questions for you. Have you repented your sin and trusted in Christ alone for your salvation?
[00:14:30] And do you commit to following him for the rest of the days of your life? Amen. So church, I want to ask you this question as well. Do you commit to encourage and support Richard as he's trusted
[00:14:41] in Christ and chose to follow him all those days? If so, say you do. Praise God, your church is supporting you. I want to ask you this question, Richard, who is your Savior and Lord? Because you
[00:14:53] profess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, we baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, in the holy spirit no longer dead in your sins but risen to new life in christ praise god that's
[00:15:15] incredible richard so richard was baptized by his daughter ashley and her husband trey who i had the great honor to marry a couple years back trey is next to get baptized here with the small group
[00:15:25] with rally here and so trey we're also eager to hear your story as well when i was seven i was

[00:15:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:15:31] baptized but i didn't fully understand what it meant at 11 during a week at camp mccall I made a real decision to follow Jesus, but I never followed through with the baptism.
[00:15:42] For years, I would rationalize excuses in my own head, convincing myself I didn't need to do it.
[00:15:48] Over the past few years, though, God has gently nudged my heart to take this step, and today I'm obeying.

[00:15:59] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_09]
[00:15:59] Great. Trey, a question for you.
[00:16:01] Have you repented of your sin and trusted in Christ alone for salvation?
[00:16:06] Do you commit to follow Him for all the days of your life?
[00:16:09] I do.
[00:16:12] Church family, as Trey has made this commitment and committed to follow Christ all the days of his life, do we support and encourage him in this step?
[00:16:21] Trey, your church family is with you, and I want to ask you this.
[00:16:23] Who's your Lord and Savior?

[00:16:25] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:16:25] Jesus Christ.

[00:16:26] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_09]
[00:16:26] Because you profess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, we baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
[00:16:32] No longer dead in our sin, but alive to new life in Christ.

[00:16:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:16:36] I love it.
[00:16:44] We worship through agreement in these testimonies.
[00:16:47] We worship through singing, and we worship through giving.
[00:16:50] And as our ushers prepare to pass the baskets, as we receive our tithes and offerings, let's all pray this prayer out loud together as we continue in worship.
[00:16:59] So you guys direct your attention to the screen.
[00:17:01] Almighty God, everything we have comes from you.
[00:17:06] We respond in obedience to your word and out of gratitude for your love, faithfulness, and generosity toward us by bringing our tithes and offerings.
[00:17:15] may you use them to bless others and bring more of your kingdom on earth from you through you and to you are all things to you be glory forever in jesus name amen we're going to continue singing

[00:17:38] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_12]
[00:17:38] and we're going to sing a new song this morning so i'd love to teach you the chorus before we

[00:17:44] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:17:44] hop in so the words are going to be on the screen sing this with me and we put our eyes to have so

[00:27:35] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:27:35] South Carolina is a beautiful place. It's a place that I love living. I've loved raising a family here.
[00:28:12] You know, geographically, you have a little bit of everything.
[00:28:15] You got these beautiful mountains, and then you have this beautiful coastline and so much variety.

[00:28:20] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:28:20] Upstate has a special part in my heart, but I think my favorite part about South Carolina right now is my city, is Florence.
[00:28:27] But more than just the geography, I love the people here.
[00:28:31] Serving one another, helping one another, cooking meals together.

[00:28:35] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:28:35] In South Carolina, we have such an opportunity because of the diversity of our population to be a beacon of hope, to be a light, to bridge the gap to people being unified through the name of Jesus.

[00:28:46] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:28:46] Where there's been, you know, perhaps some historic pain of division, I think that our state is ripe for a move of God in unity.
[00:28:55] Christians have always made distinctive contributions towards the culture of life in a community.
[00:29:02] this is our backyard we can't go out there if we don't start right here so

[00:29:07] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:29:07] when I think about 4SC I think about culture being transformed I think about a state being renewed I think about the darkness that exists in our state being eradicated by the light of the gospel and that affects the school systems it
[00:29:22] affects foster care and adoption it affects homelessness in our state it

[00:29:26] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:29:26] affects the hungry and the poor. And I think that if the churches, not just New Spring, but the church at large, really grabs the vision of seeing the gospel extend outside the walls of the church,
[00:29:39] we will see South Carolina radically transformed in a way that truly leads the nation in the marriage of the gospel to the lives of people in the everyday. Can we praise God together for the

[00:29:55] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:29:55] difference that he's allowing us to make all across the state of South Carolina? Many of our campuses have already participated in 4SC Day. And we have many campuses that are about to do that.
[00:30:06] We wanted you to see that video so you could see what we're actually about as a church. We say it over and over again. We want to see everyone everywhere in an everyday relationship with
[00:30:18] Jesus. And in order for that to happen, we've got to live out the gospel in our communities. And you're making that happen. And we're so proud of you and thankful for you. And even in the days to
[00:30:29] come, we're all going to be able to participate together. At this time of year, one of the ways that we're able to do for SC Day and impact our communities is through our end of year offering.
[00:30:41] And what we are asking you to do this year, you walked in the gathering today, you probably received one of these small little cards. It says Vision 2030. And I'm going to ask you if you would,
[00:30:53] they're small, but they really are important. Put this in a prominent place, maybe sit on your table so that when you sit down to have a meal, you can pray. Put it on your refrigerator so that
[00:31:02] when you open it up to get something out to eat or drink, you pray. Here's what we're asking everyone to do this year. 100% participation is what we're asking for. We want you to do one
[00:31:14] thing as the end of your offering approaches. We want you to pray. Ask God what you should give and then do it. We're not giving you an amount. We're not giving you a goal. We're giving you
[00:31:26] this challenge. Let's all together pray and let's ask God what he wants us to do. And then let's obey so that we can continue to carry the light of the gospel across South Carolina and beyond.
[00:31:40] Well, I'm excited today to preach this message in our series on the blood of Jesus Christ. You know, last Sunday, Brad used this powerful illustration. He had his blood drawn from his arm. And I'm just
[00:31:55] gonna ask, did anybody feel very, very squeamish, weird, or uncomfortable during that? Yeah, Brad's got his hand up higher than everybody on the front row. Well, in case any of you missed that illustration last week, we're gonna double down today. And so I've got a medical team that's
[00:32:14] coming out right now, and I'm gonna have a spinal tap done right here on stage. Come on out, guys, bring the chainsaw, bring the jackhammer. I'm just kidding. I would never, ever do that for you.
[00:32:25] But what we are going to do today is we're going to see the Passover lamb revealed and explained to us through scripture, and we're going to better understand how the blood of Jesus Christ saves us from our sin and then empowers us to live out the gospel.
[00:32:48] So today, what I'm going to do, I'm going to show you, you were also given one of these when you walked in today, we're going to have a special time of communion at the end of our
[00:32:56] gathering today. And I'm going to lead us through this communion. And for some of you, you've never taken communion before. And for some of you, you take it with us every Sunday. You grew up maybe
[00:33:07] like me taking it once a quarter at your church where you grew up. But today we're going to explain what the blood and the bread actually symbolize. And as we take it together, you will
[00:33:20] understand more fully what the blood of Jesus means, because today I'm going to draw a straight line from the scripture. I'm going to take us all the way back to the original Passover event in Exodus 12. And I'm going to draw a straight line from that original Passover all the way to
[00:33:39] Jesus' blood being shed on the cross, and then all the way to right here, right now, today at New Spring Church, as thousands of us gather together to remember Jesus' sacrifice and to participate in this amazing act of worship and obedience. So that's what we're going to do today.
[00:34:02] We're going to talk about the blood and specifically the Passover lamb. Now, I want to help you understand that when we think about our Christian faith, we have a faith filled with blood.
[00:34:17] Our faith as Christians is filled with blood.
[00:34:21] Over 380 times in the Bible, the blood is mentioned.
[00:34:26] And as we talked about last Sunday, we sort of live in a disconnected, removed, sanitized world where we don't know where our food comes from.
[00:34:36] We wear leather belts or carry leather bags.
[00:34:38] We eat meat, but unlike our ancestors from thousands or even hundreds of years ago, we don't actually see the blood that is shed in order for us to live. Because in the world that we live in, things have to die for us to live. It's a reality of how God created the world.
[00:34:58] And our Christian faith is a faith filled with blood from the very beginning. But we also have a salvation that was bought by the blood, the blood of Jesus Christ. There is no salvation apart from Jesus' shed blood. There is no freedom from sin apart from the blood that Jesus shed on
[00:35:24] the cross. This is a theme in our salvation that we are now reconciled to God because Jesus poured his blood out to purchase our freedom. We are free today because Jesus gave his life and bled
[00:35:40] for us then. Now that might be a foreign concept to some people. Let me see if I can draw a straight line to something that's going to happen just in a couple of days and help you understand how blood
[00:35:51] always is equated with value. Where there is blood, there is value. Where there is blood, there is meaning. Where there is blood, there is life. Where there is blood, there is sacrifice.
[00:36:03] On Tuesday of this week, we celebrate Veterans Day here in America. And I want to honor every veteran at all of our campuses right now. As a matter of fact, if you're a veteran, if you have served in the armed forces in any capacity, would you do us the favor
[00:36:18] of standing to your feet right now so that we can celebrate your sacrifice and so that we can honor you. We'll celebrate Veterans Day on Tuesday. And we want to say to every single one of our veterans
[00:36:32] or active duty service members, thank you. We'll celebrate that on Tuesday. By the way, tomorrow, some of you don't know this, and some of you do. Tomorrow, we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Marine Corps, of the Marine Corps to a quarter of a millennium. Now that stirs up
[00:36:57] something in us. Do you know why? Because those men and women were willing to shed their blood for us to literally be free. Well, let me explain this to you. If it weren't for our veterans who
[00:37:12] have shed their blood, we would still potentially be under the control of the crown of England.
[00:37:21] If it weren't for our military veterans that were willing to shed their blood, God forbid, we could still have slavery in the United States of America. If it weren't for the blood that was shed by those who were willing to defend us, we could potentially be speaking
[00:37:40] German right now. You think about the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and World War II.
[00:37:46] Freedom comes at a cost, and the cost is blood. Our salvation comes at a cost. Our freedom from sin comes at a cost, and that cost, the blood of Jesus, the most valuable thing in the whole world.
[00:38:03] Let's go back to the original Passover, where we can trace blood all the way to us today, sharing communion together at the end of our gathering. We're going to be in Exodus chapter 12 verses 21 through 28. Exodus chapter 12. I would love for you to go there with me. You can
[00:38:22] look up on the screens if you like. The Israelites have been slaves in Egypt now for over 400 years.
[00:38:30] They don't know what freedom feels like. They don't know what liberty tastes like. They only know the power and the control of Pharaoh. And God has sent a message through Moses to Pharaoh, let my people go so that they may worship me. And Pharaoh refused over and over again.
[00:38:47] So God sent plagues as his warning and as his judgment, his righteous judgment on the sinfulness of the Egyptians. And as Pharaoh continued to refuse, the final plague was announced. And God spoke to Moses and told Moses to go warn and instruct the people. And the
[00:39:07] instructions contain blood. Watch this. Exodus chapter 12. Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, go select an animal from the flock, according to your families, and slaughter the Passover animal. Take a cluster of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the
[00:39:31] basin and brush the lentil and the two doorposts with some of the blood in the basin. None of you may go out the door of his house until the morning. When the Lord passes through to strike
[00:39:44] Egypt and sees the blood on the lentil and the two doorposts, he will pass over the door and not let the destroyer enter your house to strike you. Keep this command permanently as a statute for you and your descendants.
[00:40:02] When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, you are to observe this ceremony, the Passover ceremony.
[00:40:11] When your children ask you, what does this ceremony mean to you?
[00:40:15] You are to reply, it is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord.
[00:40:20] For he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when he struck the Egyptians and spared our homes so the people knelt low and worshiped then the Israelites went and did this they did just as
[00:40:37] the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron God gives a command to the Israelites my wrath is coming my judgment is coming and I want to make a way for you to be spared I want to provide a way of
[00:40:54] mercy and protection for you. And that command was given that they must slaughter a lamb, that the blood of that lamb then must be put over the doorpost of their home with a hyssop branch from a hyssop tree. And later that night, the destroyer or the angel of death
[00:41:12] passed over those homes. And the ones that were spared were the ones who were under the blood.
[00:41:20] the ones who were saved or the ones who trusted God's command and applied the blood to their homes. I want you to imagine this with me. I like to, I want to feel the visceral nature of this.
[00:41:35] Can you imagine what it was like among the Israelites on that night? Can you imagine when the father of the home went out into the, into the yard where the animals were kept and maybe
[00:41:47] his little daughter or his little boy were walking alongside him. Daddy, where are you going?
[00:41:51] What are you doing? I'm going to go get a lamb and I'm going to slaughter it. But why daddy, why are you going to slaughter this lamb? Because we have been warned by Moses that God's judgment
[00:42:04] is coming. And we have been told to take the blood of a lamb and apply it over the doorposts of our home. Can you imagine the entire nation of Israel that evening, the sounds of animals being killed,
[00:42:19] the amount of blood that was collected in basins? Can you imagine then as those fathers and mothers went to break off a hyssop branch, dipping it in the blood and painting it over the doorpost of
[00:42:33] their home, a brand new thing that had never happened before. Can you imagine as that family then walked into that home as sunset. And the wife had, the mother had prepared the meal and they sit down to eat that meal together. Can you imagine the feeling of tension and fear yet
[00:42:53] trusting that God would spare that family and save that family? And then imagine that night as God, the Lord himself looks out over those homes. And do you know what strikes me? God was not looking
[00:43:07] inside the homes, he was looking at the doorpost. He wasn't looking inside the homes to see who had perfect attendance at Shabbat. He wasn't looking inside the house to see who had kept the dietary
[00:43:20] laws and regulations and abstained from food that was unclean. He wasn't looking to see who had memorized the prayers or the scriptures. He wasn't looking for good deeds to outweigh bad deeds.
[00:43:32] When God looked at those homes, he was looking for one thing, the blood. He was looking for the blood because it was a great act of faith and trust for the people of Israel to actually believe
[00:43:46] that applying blood to the doorpost of their home would be the very thing that would spare them.
[00:43:51] But they trusted God's word and they obeyed God and they were under the blood, the blood applied, so they were saved. And this occurred to me just a few days ago in my preparation. And I want to
[00:44:05] just, I want to draw a direct line so that you can see Jesus in all of this. They use a hyssop branch dipped in a basin of blood to apply over the doorpost. Fast forward to John chapter 19.
[00:44:22] Jesus is hanging on the cross. Jesus is about to die. He quotes from the book of Psalms, I thirst. And what do they do? They take a sponge on a hyssop branch and they dip that sponge
[00:44:36] into sour wine vinegar and they put it in the mouth of our Lord so that the last thing Jesus tasted as he died was the bitterness of our sin on his mouth. But the branch that was used
[00:44:51] was the hyssop branch. Do you know that hyssop in the Old Testament is always symbolic of healing and renewal. This is just one of hundreds of symbols and powerful shadows in the Old Testament that point us to Jesus being the perfect, the true, the eternal,
[00:45:13] sacrificial lamb. And that is good news for me and you. It means not only do we not have to go kill animals to make sure the wrath of God does not fall upon us, but that we don't even have to earn
[00:45:25] it with our good deeds. Jesus did it with his pure, perfect, precious blood on the cross. Can somebody thank Jesus right now for his sacrifice? Animal blood in the Old Testament points to Jesus blood in the New Testament. Animal blood, every time you see it in the Old Testament, when you
[00:45:50] see it in Exodus chapter 12, it points to the blood of Jesus in the New Testament. I want to show you visually how we can draw that straight line from the first Passover to Jesus' blood shed
[00:46:04] on the cross, to the communion that we have with God and with one another as we celebrate and remember and participate in the blood that was shed. This is a picture of what it may have looked
[00:46:17] like, a modern day rendition, a version of the doorpost and the lentils being covered with blood, every home of every Jewish family that obeyed.
[00:46:27] And you see that this blood covers the entranceway to a home.
[00:46:33] And then Jesus later on, the night before he's crucified, will go to Passover with his disciples.
[00:46:42] And that Passover is celebrated before Jesus goes to the cross.
[00:46:48] And that blood that is shed on the cross there that day prophesied in the Old Testament numerous times is now the power that cleanses us from our sin, but it's also the power that gives us access to communion with God and with one another as we take the cup and
[00:47:07] drink and as we take the bread and eat. The bread symbolizes his body. The cup symbolizes his blood.
[00:47:16] And what we get to do today together in just a few minutes is we get to remember. We get to follow this command. And when we take communion together as the body of Christ, we are reminded of the great sacrifice that Jesus made for us because Jesus is the lamb of God.
[00:47:39] He is the sacrifice that God provides. This is actually a title lamb of God that is given to Jesus in the Bible. Jesus is the perfect Passover lamb, the one that God provided. So in Exodus 12,
[00:47:55] every family had to provide a Passover lamb. But when Jesus comes, Jesus is the lamb that God provides. And God doesn't do anything halfway. God doesn't do anything unless it's perfect, good, and right. So when God provides a sacrifice, he actually provides his own son
[00:48:21] as the sacrificial lamb. And we see this in John's gospel. As a matter of fact, the very first chapter, when Jesus appears, his own cousin, John the Baptist, who many had been following and wondering if he was the Messiah and wondering if he was the prophet Elijah. And John the Baptist,
[00:48:41] who had a following and people listening to his teachings. When he sees Jesus publicly at about age 30, he points to Jesus and this is what he says about the Lamb of God. He literally says,
[00:48:54] look at this, John 1 29. The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Behold, cast your gaze on him.
[00:49:08] Take your eyes off of me. I'm just pointing you to him. I'm just preparing the way. I'm just clearing out all the obstacles so that you get a clear view. Look, there he is. Look, that's the
[00:49:23] lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. I'm a mere mortal man, but he is God's son. And that's the one you should be worshiping. That's the one you should be following. He's the one you
[00:49:36] should listen to. He's the one that will purchase your freedom, not me, him. And is that not what we're called to do as the church? That's who we are. We are called to say, it's not me, it's Christ.
[00:49:51] It's not us, it's Christ. I love New Spring Church. This is my home. My family is invested here.
[00:49:58] We love our church, but I want you to hear, you've heard this from our other teaching pastors and you'll hear it again. We are not about New Spring Church. We're about the gospel. New Spring Church
[00:50:08] serves the kingdom, builds the kingdom, proclaims the gospel. So we want the gospel to be known.
[00:50:13] We want the name of Jesus to be famous. We don't care if people know our name. We want people here at New Spring Church so they can be discipled and formed and shaped so that we can all collectively
[00:50:24] together say to the world, to our coworker, to the guy in our chemistry class, to the girl that that shares a locker right beside of us to our next door neighbor.
[00:50:34] Hey, I don't have the answers, Jesus does.
[00:50:36] I really can't help you, but I can point you to Jesus.
[00:50:39] I don't really know how all of your problems can be solved and how your life can get better, but I know a guy who did it for me.
[00:50:45] Look, there he is.
[00:50:47] Can I show him to you?
[00:50:49] Come with me, come with me.
[00:50:50] I'll buy you a cup of coffee.
[00:50:52] We'll go to the Waffle House, I'll pay.
[00:50:53] I'll pick you up.
[00:50:54] Come with me.
[00:50:55] Let me show you.
[00:50:56] Come sit in my backyard around the fire pit.
[00:50:58] Come and eat at my table.
[00:51:00] Come to the game with me and let me tell you how the lamb of God can take away your sins like he did mine. We've got the best news in the world and it's our joy to share it. And because of the
[00:51:13] blood of Christ, you and me, we are covered, we are cleansed, and we are clothed. The blood that was shed on the cross was more than just the blood of a mere mortal man. It had power. Like the old
[00:51:31] hymn I used to sing in the Pentecostal and the Baptist church growing up. Anybody remember that old hymn? If you know it, can you just hum it or sing it along with me? There is power, power,
[00:51:44] wonder-working power in the blood of the Son. Some of y'all are starting to clap. You remember it, don't you? You remember it. There is power in the blood. Power to do what? Cover, cleanse, and clothe us. Look at first John one verses seven through nine. Look at what John says the
[00:52:04] blood does for us. If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of his son, Jesus cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no
[00:52:22] sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Do you ever
[00:52:36] feel dirty? Do you ever feel shame? Do you ever get stuck in a mental loop of deeds you've done in the past? Do you ever wonder if God really loves you or if God accepts you or if you'll ever
[00:52:51] go to heaven? Because you can't forget that thing. I've got good news for you. It's the blood of Jesus that cleanses you of that sin. You are clean, brother. You are clean, sister. I don't
[00:53:04] care if you were high last week. If you are here today in the blood of Christ, you are cleansed.
[00:53:11] You might be recovering. You might be walking that long road, but you've got power. Power the world can't give you. You've cheated on your spouse. You can be cleansed by the blood of Jesus. You took
[00:53:23] money that wasn't yours, you can be cleansed by the blood of Jesus. You cursed at someone, you are harboring bitterness, you can be cleansed by the blood of Jesus. It's not just a New Testament concept. The prophet Isaiah, 700 years before Jesus was even crucified, said this in
[00:53:42] Isaiah 61, verse 10. I rejoice greatly in the Lord. I exult in my God, for he has clothed me with garments of salvation and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness. As a groom wears a turban
[00:53:59] and as a bride adorn herself with jewels. Do you see that? We are clothed in the salvation and righteousness of our God. So when you feel like you don't measure up, when you fall back into that
[00:54:12] pattern of sin again, when you have thoughts that betray your innermost fears, when the depression and the anxiety that you just prayed and prayed would go away is back stronger than ever. Let this truth sink in. By the blood of Christ, you are now wrapped, clothed, adorned in the good
[00:54:36] works of Jesus so that when God sees you and me and he sees the blood of his son applied on us, over us, in us. He doesn't judge us. He grants grace and mercy. I grew up with this old phrase
[00:54:51] and I still use it, but I want to bring it back. Here's a phrase I learned. Some of y'all can relate to this. When I grew up in church, we used to pray for people, sick people, people that were
[00:55:03] going through things, for divorce marriages to be restored, all kinds of things. And I grew up hearing my mom and my dad and my pastor say, I plead the blood of Jesus. We lay hands on people.
[00:55:17] I plead the blood of Jesus over this marriage. I plead the blood of Jesus over this home. I plead the blood of Jesus over this man. God, would you heal him of cancer? I plead the blood of Jesus
[00:55:26] over this mission trip. Would you go before these people? And we used to pray that all the time.
[00:55:31] And I kind of got out of the habit, but I've picked up the habit again now so that when I pray, I plead the blood of Jesus. Why? Because there is power in the blood. Can I give you an example
[00:55:41] that maybe you will understand? When you watch a drama that's set in a courtroom, whether it's a Netflix special or a movie or something like that, and they put somebody up on the stand and they're trying to make them give testimony that will prove their guilt. What do they say?
[00:55:58] I plead the fifth. The fifth what? The fifth amendment. The fifth amendment to the constitution literally gives you and me the right. If we're ever in a court of law, even if we're guilty, we can plead the fifth and remain silent so that we don't have to incriminate ourselves.
[00:56:19] That is why I want us as a church to plead the blood of Jesus over ourselves and over people that we love and pray for because we're all guilty. We've all incriminated ourselves. We have
[00:56:31] no defense, but the blood of Jesus. So when the enemy comes to you, when Satan starts talking to you and telling you, you don't deserve God's grace. You don't deserve God's mercy. You don't deserve God's love. You can say this. I don't plead the fifth. I plead the blood. Take it up
[00:56:47] with my savior. He purchased me. I belong to him. Talk to my Lord, my master, my boss, and my king.
[00:56:53] I'm under the blood of Jesus. I plead the blood and you can go talk to him about it.
[00:57:00] Plead the blood. It's our only plea. It's our only hope because you and I, we have the blood of Christ. And because we do, we practice communion. But when we practice communion, we are actually participating in Christ's sacrifice. We participate in Christ's
[00:57:21] sacrifice when we take communion together. So some of you may be wondering, why do we do this every Sunday? Because it can turn into a ritual if you allow it to, but we're not going to allow it
[00:57:32] to. We don't want it to become a ritual. We want this to be a holy sacrament that brings us again to a place of participating by remembering. We honor the sacrifice given and we remember the
[00:57:48] blood that was shed. And I want to take you to that night when Jesus took the Passover meal with his disciples from Luke 22. I want you to go ahead and take the elements and hold them in
[00:58:00] your hand while we look at the scripture. And then I want you to look at the screens or in your copy of the word and let's see what happened that night, Luke 22, 14 through 20.
[00:58:12] When the hour came, he reclined at the table and the apostles with him. Then he said to them, I have fervently desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you,
[00:58:24] I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. Then he took a cup and after giving thanks, he said, take this and share it among yourselves. For I tell you from now on,
[00:58:35] I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them and said, this is my body, which is given for you.
[00:58:46] do this in remembrance of me in the same way he also took the cup after supper and said this cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you and just mere hours later
[00:59:07] his blood would be poured out on the cross now i want to ask you as we prepare in a moment to take this if you're a christian if there is a moment in your life that you know you have given
[00:59:19] your life to Christ, you have repented of your sin. You're not perfect, but you have been forgiven.
[00:59:25] If you have asked Jesus to come into your heart and save you and be the Lord of your life, then this is for you. And we want you to participate as we remember Christ. If you're
[00:59:36] not a Christian, if you've never given your life to Jesus, if you're not a believer yet, I want you to do something different while we take communion. Instead of you taking communion while we take it. I'm going to ask you not to take communion if you're not a Christian,
[00:59:51] but I want you to do something different. I want you to think about and reflect on the sacrifice that Jesus gave for you and the blood that he shed for you. You're not excluded from the kingdom of
[01:00:05] God. You're invited into the kingdom of God, but we want you to understand exactly what Jesus paid to buy your salvation. And if you're not a Christian and you don't take communion with us today, maybe during the moments while we're taking communion, you open up your heart to Jesus
[01:00:25] and you are ready to receive him by faith. And nothing would make us happier than for you to take communion after you give your life to Jesus today, before you leave this room that you're in
[01:00:36] right now. We've got plenty of these available for you, but we want you to reflect and think about the sacrifice that Jesus made while we take communion together as Christians. So if you're not a Christian, open your heart up to Jesus during communion. And if you are a Christian,
[01:00:53] I want to invite you to take the cup with me right now and together. Take the portion where the small piece of bread or cracker is. And I want you to open that up. And in the tradition of Passover,
[01:01:10] as we look back to Passover, and as we reflect on Jesus on the cross, take and eat for this is his body broken for you. And now if you'll take the portion with the juice,
[01:01:37] if you'll open that. And as you look down into that cup, let that remind you that Jesus actually spilled his blood out because he loved you and he loved me. And as we take this cup and we drink it,
[01:01:59] we honor the Lord. We participate in the sacrifice and we remember his blood. Take and drink for this is the blood of the new covenant. And would you close your eyes and open your hearts to the Holy
[01:02:22] Spirit, right where you sit in this moment, reflect on the power of the love of God and the sacrifice that Jesus paid for you. And at every one of our campuses, if you abstain from taking
[01:02:46] communion because you knew, I'm really not sure. I don't know that I'm a Christian. I don't know that I'm a believer yet. May I invite you to please give your life to Jesus right now? Would
[01:02:57] you please open your heart to Jesus? Would you just give your life to him right now?
[01:03:02] You've seen the straight line drawn now from the first Passover to the Passover that Jesus celebrated with his disciples, to Jesus hanging on the cross, to where we are right here right now today. Don't you want to know Jesus? Don't you want to be cleansed, covered, and clothed
[01:03:21] in his righteousness? Don't you want to have a brand new start to life and friendship with God?
[01:03:28] you can. It starts by a simple act of faith. As the Israelites trusted that blood on the doorpost would, would spare them. You can trust right now that a simple prayer of faith will bring the grace
[01:03:45] of God to your life because Jesus loves you so much and he's ready. Just pray this to him. And if you pray this prayer, the prayer doesn't get you into heaven. Jesus does, but this is the way
[01:03:55] that you put your faith in him.
[01:03:57] And not only will you be able to take communion before you leave this very building today, you will begin communion with God as a new believer.
[01:04:07] Pray this to him right now if you wanna begin that relationship with Christ.
[01:04:13] Jesus, I thank you for your blood.
[01:04:17] Thank you that you died for me.
[01:04:24] I receive you by faith and I give my life to you.
[01:04:33] Forgive me of my sin.
[01:04:34] help me know you and follow you. Thank you for loving me so much, Jesus. And now I'm yours.
[01:04:50] With your eyes closed and your hearts open, could you just quickly and deliberately, if you just prayed that prayer to Jesus and it was real and you meant it, would you just raise your hand straight up above your head right where you sit right now? Just raise it all the way up,
[01:05:08] every campus, every location. I want you to put your hands up. I'm looking, I can't see everybody in this room. I certainly can't see all the campuses, but would you just raise your hand?
[01:05:18] This is just an external sign that internally you've opened your heart to Jesus. Praise God.
[01:05:27] You can put your hands down. I'm going to invite everyone at all of our campuses now to stand to their feet together. Let's all prepare to respond. We're going to sing and we're going to worship.
[01:05:37] we're also going to have our ministry teams come to the front and the sides of our buildings right now in our room so ministry teams if you want to go ahead and go to your places one
[01:05:49] of the things that we want to invite you to do today is whatever burden you brought with you to church today we have people that want to pray with you if your heart is heavy if you need a
[01:05:59] miracle if you need healing or encouragement or wisdom or just somebody to care enough to pray for you. We have ministry teams at all of our campuses. We also have a cross in every room. And
[01:06:10] so in this room, I counted 13 people who just responded to say, I gave my life to Jesus and I meant it. No idea how many prayed that across the state, but I'm going to pray. And when I say
[01:06:25] amen and the band begins to sing, even while I'm praying, you can begin to make your way.
[01:06:30] I want to specifically encourage those of you that prayed a prayer of faith to make a decision to open your heart to Jesus. Take the next step and take it now. Don't wait. Don't delay. There
[01:06:45] is no shame and nothing to fear. You're among brothers and sisters. We're your family. Would you, when we begin to move, would you just come and find the cross in your room and go to the
[01:06:56] cross and our ministry team will be ready to pray with you. We're asking you to move as others move to pray. If you gave your life to Jesus today so that we can help you take your next step,
[01:07:05] which begins with baptism. Lord, now we want to honor you for what you've done among us today.
[01:07:11] And we want to thank you for the blood. It reminds me of just how precious your blood really is. I cannot believe still to this day that you loved us enough to have real skin in the game for us.
[01:07:22] we glory in your sacrifice. We participate. We remember, and we honor you Lord Jesus as the

[01:07:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[01:07:31] Passover lamb in Jesus name. We pray. Amen. Before we sing together, let's just take a moment, reflect on what Jesus has done for us. As we sing to him in praise to just, as we, as we sing,
[01:08:17] if you feel compelled to move and want to move to pray, there's people up front and there's people up top too. Don't be stuck in your seat. Don't feel like you can't move. Don't feel like everybody's
[01:08:26] watching you. Now's the time to do it. I don't know if me personally, if I put something off, I'm not going to do it. Maybe a lot of us are like that. So as we sing together, just feel the
[01:08:37] freedom to move. Whatever God's calling you to do, asking you to do, sing this together. Come on.

[01:08:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_15]
[01:08:51] Can't meet nothing but the blood of Jesus. Sing that again. What can one show? I said Nothing but the blood of Jesus Me whole Sing what can wash away Nothing but the blood of Jesus
[01:10:29] Sing oh precious What can wash away The whole thing together just one more time

[01:11:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[01:11:04] What can wash away my sin Just all of our voices joining together

[01:11:08] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_15]
[01:11:08] Can't show my sin Nothing but the blood of Jesus Can make me whole Nothing but the blood of Jesus So precious It passed on time Nothing but the blood You gave your life for mine
[01:12:33] You gave your life for Nailed to the cross You crucified All of my sin and shame It was washed by your mercy For the treasure I find My reason for living Someone who saved my life
[01:13:37] High King of Heaven My King forever Ate to my Was told Things to lie You know, so much of what today is about

[01:17:44] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[01:17:44] is a mystery.
[01:17:49] There's this word that keeps coming to mind from this morning.
[01:17:51] there's so much that happens in the heavenly realms that we don't fully grasp yet. So what's bubbling up in my heart is, you know, I'm sitting over here receiving this word. Thank you, Clayton, for that. And knowing and trusting and believing all of this is true. I am completely washed. I
[01:18:09] mean, Jesus said later in John 15, you're already clean because of the word I've spoken. Yet so many times I don't feel it and I don't know that I fully understand that. Is there anybody else who
[01:18:23] feels the same way sometimes? Just slip up your hand. Like you feel that way sometimes, like, yeah, I get this. I know it. I'm, I'm walking this out. I'm trusting Jesus, but there's still this mystery and that's just true. And that's why the trust is important. That's what faith is
[01:18:41] about. Faith is sure and certain. We can't see it, but we keep walking. And so let's just keep going, church. God has so much in store for us. I want to leave us with a charge this morning,
[01:18:55] and that's to pray for two specific things throughout this week. The first thing Clayton mentioned at the top of his message is on this card that you got on your way in, Vision 2030.
[01:19:06] I want to put this, we want to ask you to put this on your refrigerator, maybe your dashboard of your car, and be praying for these specific things. And also, we want to ask you to be praying about
[01:19:16] how you can give towards the end of the year offering to help these things come to fruition.
[01:19:23] Church, I mean, we celebrated two years ago, we are a debt-free church.
[01:19:26] I'm so thankful for that.
[01:19:29] Praise God, praise God that we are debt-free.
[01:19:37] The kingdom will move at the speed of our sacrifice.
[01:19:41] And that sacrifice may be two pennies.
[01:19:46] It might be two pennies.
[01:19:49] And what we wanna ask you to ask God for is what does he have for you to bring?
[01:19:54] Just trust him and see what he does next.
[01:19:57] The second thing I wanna ask you to pray for this week is next Sunday.
[01:20:03] So Pastor Lee's gonna preach a message on healing.
[01:20:06] We're a church that believes that Jesus walked 2,000 years ago, walked into some towns unannounced.
[01:20:14] Some of the first things he did was touch people, heal physical ailments.
[01:20:19] I believe that Jesus still does that today.
[01:20:26] So next Sunday, when you come in, Pastor Lee's gonna preach on healing.
[01:20:30] We're gonna have an extended time of prayer at the end of our gathering.
[01:20:34] So what if this room takes some time this week?
[01:20:38] Maybe you set aside a 24-hour period where you don't eat and you fast.
[01:20:42] And you ask God, God, will you do that?
[01:20:46] Will you do that?
[01:20:47] One of the first things Jesus asks most of the time when he does these miracles is, what do you want?
[01:20:54] And so maybe throughout the week, you ask Jesus to stir and prepare your heart for what you really want to see happen next Sunday.
[01:21:03] And so let's pray with that in mind, those two things.
[01:21:05] And I wanna send us out this morning with this blessing before we leave.
[01:21:10] So if you will, open up your hands and receive what God would have for us in this.
[01:21:15] May you walk humbly, confidently this week, covered in the blood of Christ.
[01:21:21] May the grace of the Lord Jesus, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all, amen.
[01:21:28] Have a great week.