Vaseline Petroleum Jelly Walls
Sermon © 2009 Deb Rempel
Sunday School Songs – Asking Jesus into my Heart
I asked Jesus into my heart in the summer of 1972. I had spent years of trying to figure out, trying to reason why so many people sing and praise and celebrate Jesus – yet He was as exciting to me as an old, yellow, cracked newspaper. When I was in Estes Park at YMCA of the Rockies, a co-worker asked me if I had ever accepted Christ as my Savior. I honestly said, “No,” thinking that this would be another failed attempt to apply dried-up old newspaper to the massive problems in my life. To my surprise she said, “You need to ask Jesus in your heart.”
Remember the old Sunday School song we used to sing?
Into my heart
Into my heart
Come into my heart, Lord Jesus!
Come in today
Come in to stay
Come into my heart, Lord Jesus!
So after years of intellectualizing God and Jesus and religion, arguing about it, even preaching about it here, I simply asked Jesus in my heart. My co-worker warned me that I could not do this lightly – when a person asks the Lord of the universe to come into her heart, He doesn’t just take a chair and sit in a dark closet and come out to give you meatloaf when you are hungry or a warm blanket when you need comforting. The Lord of the universe enters a heart and has every intention of taking over the life – of turning everything upside down, of basically killing – yes KILLING the old person and raising a new one in His image. At that point, though, my life was definitely in need of a death and resurrection – so with eagerness I asked Jesus in my heart early one morning, behind a cabin on the wet grass in the shadow of the Rockies.
My co-worker and I went to our daily job as housekeepers then. The Director of Housekeeping was a godly woman who always began our day with hymn-singing and devotions. I generally found this to be a great time to hide in a corner and catch a few more zzz’s. This morning, though, she asked us to sing “Amazing Grace.” Something special happened during this song. As I sang this verse:
'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.
The Holy Spirit within me felt like He was leaping for joy. Honestly – it was a completely unexpected feeling! I realized then that what I had done – asking Jesus in my heart – was not at all like lying dried up old newspaper on my massive problems – that this was entirely different, completely new. I realized that by inviting Jesus in my heart, I had started a transformation that would continue from that moment into eternity.
Peering into the Camera – Jesus Confronts my Problems
It would be wonderful to say that my life was like the old Westerns after that – to be able to say that I rode into a beautiful, orange and red sunset and my life just got better and better. If I were the rider on the horse in the Western movie, though, knowing me, I would start riding into the sunset – then turn around and wonder how the camera behind me worked – so if you were watching me on T. V., one moment you would see me riding into a blazing sunset with dramatic music and the next moment you would see my face pressed against the camera lens.
Isn’t that like all of us? I hear this so much – people say that nobody really changes. People saying they have tried everything and nothing helps. If something good does happen in our life that does promise to change things permanently for the better, our first reaction is amazing joy. After that, we start wondering if it will last, doubting if it really happened. We go back to the camera and peer into the lens. We can’t resist the temptation to poke around – even though we know – we KNOW that poking around can destroy the very thing that promised to change our wretched lives for the better.
But is God that fragile? I found He was not.
After I accepted Christ, I had a “honeymoon” experience for the rest of the time I was in Estes Park – about two months. When I returned to Bethel, I started to doubt my salvation and continued to be plagued by doubts throughout my Sophomore year of college. Nothing I could do – or pray – and nothing anyone else could say would still my doubts and give me peace.
Finally a friend of mine and I were at Rock Springs for a weekend retreat. I again talked about how I doubted that I was really saved – and, there on a bridge, my friend prayed a powerful, powerful prayer. I do not remember her exact words but I do know this – she prayed that by the power of the blood of Christ, Satan would be bound and not be able to ever torment me with doubts about my salvation.
I was so afraid that once again this was like trying to lay dry, old newspapers over this problem that had been tormenting me constantly for the last seven months – taking away sleep and peace. I was wrong. From the moment my friend said “Amen,” the doubts about whether I was saved or not were completely stilled.
Needless to say, I wanted to learn more about the blood of Christ and what amazing power it seemed to have. Over the next years, I found that somehow, for some reason, our enemy, the devil, is incredibly afraid of the blood of Christ. I would dream about frightening things after that prayer and say, in my dream “By the power of the name and the blood of Christ, be gone!” and even in my dream, the enemy would flee! I did not understand the power of the blood – I knew only the one scripture we are all familiar with –
Hebrews 9:22b: Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.
For me, that seemed a little simplistic - there had to be something more – some hocus pocus that would explain why the enemy was so afraid of the blood of Christ.
Scripture
New Living Translation -- verses from Hebrews 9Now in that first covenant between God and Israel, there were regulations for worship and a sacred tent here on earth. There were two rooms in this tent. …only the high priest goes into the Most Holy Place, and only once a year, and always with blood, which he offers to God to cover his own sins and the sins the people have committed in ignorance. … the gifts and sacrifices that the priests offer are not able to cleanse the consciences of the people who bring them 11 & 12 So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that great, perfect sanctuary in heaven, not made by human hands and not part of this created world. Once for all time he took blood into that Most Holy Place, but not the blood of goats and calves. He took his own blood, and with it he secured our salvation forever. Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow could cleanse people's bodies from ritual defilement. Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our hearts from deeds that lead to death so that we can worship the living God. …blood was required under the first covenant as a proof of death. For after Moses had given the people all of God's laws, … he said, "This blood confirms the covenant God has made with you." And … he sprinkled blood on the sacred tent and on everything used for worship. In fact, we can say that according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified by sprinkling with blood. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.
Other Scripture we are familiar with (all from NIV): Matthew 26:28 This is my blood of the [new] covenant, which is poured out for many for the
forgiveness of sins.
John 6: 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has
eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
Romans 3:25a God presented him as the one
who would turn aside his wrath, taking away sin through faith in his blood
Romans 5:9 Since we have now been
justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!
Ephesians 1:7 In him we have
redemption through his blood,
Ephesians 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been
brought near through the blood of Christ
Colossians 1:20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making
peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Summary – according to Scripture, what does the blood of Christ do for us:
1. Our hearts are absolutely cleansed from the crud we did that led to our death
2. Allows us to worship God
3. Sins forgiven and taken away
4. New agreement with God – He is not mad at me anymore!
5. Eternal life
6. Justified (Just As If I Never Sinned!) – Slate CLEAN
7. Bought out of slavery
8. Brought near to God
9. Peace
How Does it Really Work – Testimony!
There is something I have heard again and again – and it is critical to remember this when a Christian is thinking about the blood of Christ – the power of the blood of Christ doesn’t make sense to us but it makes sense to God – and in the end, He has the only opinion that matters. How is it that we are forgiven because of the blood of Christ? Because God says so. How is it that, when we ask Jesus in our hearts, we are not only forgiven but our souls are washed completely of all the disgusting things we did? Because God says so. If there were two debating teams – 10 billion, trillion, kagillion people on one side and God on the other – God would win every time on every point. His opinion is the only opinion that matters when it comes to the blood of Christ.
And God’s opinion of the blood is what has the devil running scared when a Christian uses faith to apply the blood of Christ to their lives.
For me, the biggest challenge I have had lately is irrational anger at inanimate objects – getting really mad at a T. V. remote control, at a shower, at a washcloth that kept on falling off the towel bar. I talked to someone about this and we traced this back to unresolved anger at some angry words that had been said to me – in sweeping statements like, “You are this…” rather than “I saw you do this.” I remembered quite a few of these angry “sweeping” statements that were said to me – not that I was blameless, you understand.
Let’s take this away from me and set up an imaginary situation – you are on the receiving end of someone yelling at you, saying, “You always fail. You are just worthless. You always think of yourself. You never help other people.” Note this person is using a lot of the words, “always” and “never.” It is like you are a wall and they are throwing wads of wet, already-been-chewed chewing gum at you. Most of these “always” and “never” statements are sticking to you somewhere.
After a while, they seem to become part of you. You are a wall with a lot of yucky pieces of chewing gum stuck to you. You cannot forgive this person – you have tried but you can’t because every time you look at things in your life, your view is blocked by all these wads of chewing gum. It is pretty frustrating, isn’t it? You can’t get a clear view of anything – the more the gum sticks to you, the more it seems to attract other yucky wads of chewing gum that people may not even realize they are throwing at you. You start getting really frustrated at little things – because of those stupid wads of chewing gum that are stuck to you.
When a friend asked me what it would be like to forgive the person that initially threw all those wads of chewing gum at me – the person that initially told me all those sweeping, “You always are this,” and “You never do that” type of statements, I prayed about it and realized that it would be like this – the person throws all the wads of chewing gum at me – “You are always… You never are….”and my wall was covered with Vaseline Petroleum Jelly – all the “you” statements would just slide off onto the ground and would not stick. Then I could forgive them and could see the person apart from all the things they said to me.
But try as I might, I could not figure out how to keep the things from sticking – I tried all types of thoughts that would act like Vaseline Petroleum Jelly, and nothing worked. I prayed asking GOD to apply the VPJ to my wall.
God let me know that He had a better substance than Vaseline Petroleum Jelly. He had covered me with the blood of Christ. I was thickly covered in the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ not only covered me but redefined me. God said that anyone covered in His Son’s blood is in His – entirely His – safe territory. Everything under the blood is God’s problem and not mine. When someone throws a sweeping comment to me– “You are selfish – you only think of yourself,” even if this is true at the moment – and I am sure it is to a large extent – I can have peace because I can turn this problem over to the Lord. Christ’s blood has paid for all my sins – past, present and future. I am forgiven. In faith I apply the blood to the hurt of the words and God says, “NBD, Deb. No big deal. This is not just your problem any more – it is OUR problem – and I will deal with this in you in My time. You are safe at home. Nobody can tag you. You are safe.” Like wet gum thrown to a wall thickly coated in Vaseline Petroleum Jelly, the hurting words can slide off inoffensively to the ground.
I have found since I have asked Jesus in my heart – asked Him to be Lord of my whole life -- that there is so much peace in the fact that He is Lord of me. He is daily becoming more and more Lord of me. I can forgive because God has completely forgiven me – not only for what I have done but for all I am still struggling with inside myself that I cannot deal with – because I know that in God’s perfect time, God and I will deal with it.
This is not saying that the blood of Christ is a “get out of jail free” card – what it is – is peace. Complete peace. I am forgiven. The job of making Debby like Jesus is a job that Jesus started and He promises to finish. I have seen Him do this in ways I never expected and I know – I KNOW that He will do this in every area of my life in His time. He is at work in me both in making me want to and helping me to do it. As the Bible says, this is the victory - our faith.
The worst part of our failures and problems is the power it holds over us.
The power of the blood, I realized, is in the fact that, as the Bible says, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. The power of the blood is that God forgives my sins because I am completely washed in the blood – and sin loses all its power when it is forgiven.
Let me repeat that. Sin loses ALL ITS POWER WHEN IT IS FORGIVEN. When you apply the blood of Jesus to a problem – when you remember you are a person who is covered in the blood of Christ and God has forgiven you completely for what you have done, are doing and will do – you are free to let Jesus have His complete way in your life – you are free from the power of sin and it is all joy. It is all joy. You can trust that not only are you forgiven but that God and you WILL BE VICTORIOUS over this and all things in your life in His time.
Change does not happen overnight. In fact, we will all struggle with sin until we see Jesus. We would love to add water and stir and it is no longer an issue. We must learn to daily walk in faith, daily allow God apply the blood of Christ to our lives.
Play “Dragons”
So are your “dragons” rising? Do you find yourself getting irritated at little things?
There is power in the blood of the Lamb
Are you struggling to get victory over something that has plagued you for years?
There is power in the blood of the Lamb.
Do you feel far from God right now?
If you are a Christian, you are sitting on His lap. The blood draws us very near. You are one of God’s best buddies. When it comes to spiritual things, you have the winning tickets to the lottery. There is nothing in your life that God will not conquer with you in His time. You don’t have to worry about anything – nothing. Nada. Not a blasted thing.
Wouldn’t it be nice to live that way?
There is power in the blood of the lamb.
Say it with me:
There is power in the blood of the Lamb.
Maybe you don’t get it?
Say it again.
There is power in the blood of the Lamb.
Really, if you don’t get it – that is ok. Let this sermon plant powerful seeds of confusion in you – I pray that God will blossom those seeds into a full realization of how terrified Satan is of people who know the power of the blood of the Lamb – and that you will then start walking in it daily.
That is my only objective this year -- to walk in the power of the blood of the Lamb.
Let’s pray.
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