You Can’t Guard Me

Yeah. Hello everyone and thank you so much for joining me today. My name is Roderick caesar the third on the lead pastor of Bethel Gospel Tabernacle in Jamaica queens new york. And I’m so excited that you decided to join me for the full gospel hour right here on global seven. My prayers that you will be blessed. You’ll be encouraged and inspired by this message. Thank you so much for joining and God bless because he lives. Oh I can face tomorrow because he lives all fear or fear is gone because I know I know he holds the future and life is worth the living. Yes guy, one more time singing because he lives because he lives, I can face tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow because he lives all fear is gone. Our fear is gonna fear all because I know he holds the future and life is worth living hey man, because he lives Hallelujah. Hallelujah, thank you Lord. Because you live. Thank you Lord because you not only live but you rain. It’s not that you got up and you just live and you’re just existing. You have all power. All authority. You rose with clout. You rose with authority. Thank you father. Because you live, we can face tomorrow. Life is worth the living. You can face tomorrow because jesus has arisen. Whatever your tomorrows hold christ holds your tomorrow, so rest assured in that fact that life is worth living because jesus christ the son of the living God got up again and he lives, the tomb is empty. The tomb is empty and we serve a risen savior. Take a minute right now and just give the Lord some praise. Thank you Lord, thank you father. Thank you Lord praise the Lord Bethel praised the Lord Bethel Gospel Tabernacle is great to be with you on this resurrection sunday from First Lady Stephanie and from myself from our family to yours. We wanna wish you all a happy resurrection sunday it is on this day that the foundation of our faith rests. If he stayed in the grave, it would all be for naught. But he got up and as a result we have joy today. As a result we have hope today. We have freedom today and so we wish you a happy resurrection sunday. Uh, I’d like to thank reverend Michelle Sweden Dicaro from the People’s Church for lending leadership with some of our worship sections today. She’s the wife of one of my seminary professors, Professor Lewis Dicaro. I’m so grateful for them and how the Lord used her to help with the worship today. I’m so grateful for our consecration. Amen how many of you truly enjoyed and were blessed by what the Lord did through our time of consecration or time of prayer. Our time of fasting. How many of you are more committed to following jesus today than you were yesterday. If that’s you, I want you to say I’m committed. I’m committed. I’m committed. I’m committed, write that down in the chat. I am committed. We are following jesus. I just want to thank the Lord jesus christ for the tech team Oh my God, thank you to the tech team for making sure that this zoom fast. This zoom consecration went well and that the Lord was, was glorified as things flowed smoothly. Thank you so much for the video team for digging through some videos in the archives and making things come to life. Thank you for the clergy that came together and brought leadership and uh, brought guidance to, to our prayer rooms. I’m so proud of Bethel and for what the Lord is doing in this ministry and how he showed himself mighty and strong through this consecration. We are committed to following jesus amen, amen and amen. Uh, without further ado, let us turn our attention to the text. Matthew chapter 27 I’ll be starting from verse 62. Yes verse 62. If you ever, if you have your bibles, you can turn with me, scroll with me or follow along on the uh, your television or, or ipad or whatever it is you’re watching from this morning. I’m so grateful that you chose to spend this uh, this uh resurrection sunday with us here at Bethel. Now, bear with me, I’m going to read a couple verses but these are important key verses in our faith. So let’s read along Matthew chapter 27: verse 62 and the text reads the next day that is after the day of preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before pilot and said, sir, we remember how that imposter said while he was still alive. After three days I will rise. Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the 3rd day lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people he has risen from the dead. And at last fraud. The last fraud will be worse than the first pilot said to them. You have a guard of soldiers, go make it as secure as you can. So they went and made the tomb secure by stealing the stone and setting a guard And follow now along to Matthew chapter 28: verse one. Now after the sabbath toward the dawn of the first day of the week, mary, Magdalene and the other mary went to see the tomb. And behold there was a great earthquake for the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing was white as snow, and for fear of him. The guards trembled and became like dead men. But the Angel said to the woman, Do not be afraid, for I know you seek jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen as he said. Come see the place where he lay, then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead. Behold he is going before you to galilee there, you will see him. See I have told you so. They departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy ran to tell his disciples and behold Jesus met them and said greetings and they took hold of his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid, go and tell my brothers to go to galilee. They will see me today’s title and text of for a title and text today is you can’t guard me, you can’t guard me. I want you to say that or type that in the chat. You can’t guard me, you can’t guard me. Let’s pray dear Lord, I thank you so much for this time. I thank you for who you are. I thank you for who you have called us to be. I pray father that as we are following your leading, as we’re following who you’ve called us to be in the way you’ve called us to walk Lord, I pray that you would be glorified in all that we do. I pray that as I speak, you would be seen, you would be heard. You would be felt that your people would be encouraged today because you live. We thank you, we praise you, we give you glory, we ask these things in jesus name, Amen, Amen and Amen in the game of basketball, one of the most confident things someone can say or one of the most uh ultimate insults, so to speak or signs of disrespect. One can say on the basketball court from one person to another is can’t guard me, you can’t guard me. It suggests the idea that the defender with all of their defenses and with all of their defensive skills cannot hold, cannot contain, cannot ultimately stop the offensive maneuvers of the individual that has the ball. They can weave, they can cross over, they can put the ball behind their back, they can put the ball behind uh between their legs and they can cross over and get past their opponent. They simply cannot be guarded. The phrase suggests that no matter how much you try, the offense cannot be stopped. You can’t guard me on this resurrection sunday. I believe that that is what Jesus was saying to all of his opponents and all of those who would want him to stay dead on that resurrection sunday. You can’t guard me. Our text today lets us know that we see that the after jesus was killed, the religious leaders at the time verse 62 says the chief priests and the Pharisees came before pilot and they said, sir, we remember how this imposter they’re referring to as imposter, he’s not the king of the jews. This impostor said that while he was alive after three days he’s gonna rise. So we need to stop this, their their fearful and they need to stop this. They wanted to make sure that this jesus, that was dead, stay dead. This jesus that died stayed dead and it dead didn’t become a past past tense thing in his life, that he just stayed dead. So in order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day, he said he’s gonna rise on the third day, so let’s put some guards there until the third day because his disciples are gonna steal him away and when they do this, when they steal him away, they’re going to say that he is risen and what’s happening later will be worse than what happened before. He’ll have more followers, he’ll have more traction, he’ll have more fame, he’ll have more notoriety and pilot says get a get a stone, get a guard and place it in front of the tomb. You see the same people that killed, Jesus wanted to be sure that he stayed dead, that he stayed that way. And what this shows us, the principle that this shows us is the enemy will always want to keep you down when you’re down, the enemy is not gonna wait or make it easy for you to get back up to get back on your feet to get back where you need to be the enemy. Once you’re down, the enemy, we want you to stay down. So the thought that they came up with was we need to secure the tomb, we need to make it difficult for the disciples to come in and steal this body because they were scared of what they would have of what would happen. The religious leaders were scared of what would happen. They were fearful of the news that would spread. They were fearful that this resurrection gossip would be believed. They were fearful that if his body was in the tomb, uh, if his body was not in the tomb and the tomb was empty that the message that he was speaking when he was alive would grow. So jesus is dead, but the enemy is still afraid of him, Jesus is in the tomb, but the enemy is still afraid, afraid that he wouldn’t appear to stay that way. And so for us today, the enemy knows the power we have in the resurrected christ and so he wants to keep us bound. The enemy knows that in christ, we have power that in christ, we have authority in christ, we have strength as chosen sons as chosen daughters. And he’s fearful because we are not on our own greater is he? That is in us than he that is in the world. The enemy’s defense did not work. So don’t get it twisted. The enemy will go to great lengths to keep you down. Great lengths to keep you seemingly out of the fight. Great length to discourage you great lengths to keep you and your, your confidence at bay. Great lengths to keep you angry and and stuck in a fence. Great lengths to keep you sad and stuck in misery. Great lengths, that’s why they didn’t just leave the tomb opened. They had this huge stone and then they had soldiers come and guard the tomb verse 60 for the text says order the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Because if he doesn’t rise on the third day, like he said, if it was the fourth day, the fifth day, nine rounds, that’s nice. But that’s not what you said. How many of you know God is a man of his word and he’s not a man that he should lie. God is a god of his word, right? So when he spoke and said the third day, what day did he mean? Not the fifth, not the sixth. He met the third day. And so pilot says to them, look, you guys have a guard of soldiers going make it as secure as you can. So they went and did as best as they could. They made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard, They sealed the stone and set a guard. The defensive strategy of the religious leaders. What was to put a guard up. Now to the the people of Israel, the jewish people in this day and age, there was probably nothing that they feared more than the roman soldiers because Crucifixion was as we know we we heard the seven last words good friday, we know what jesus went through. Crucifixion was an agonizing and a painful death and that’s something that the roman soldiers inflicted upon you. So if you did something against the roman soldiers, you were doing something against caesar and to do something against caesar meant that the wrath of caesar would come upon you and they put the roman soldiers to guard this tomb and they had this big stone in front of this tomb and the enemy looked intimidating. The enemy looked scary. The enemy looked like something to be afraid of and Jesus was laid behind this tomb. But the enemy will do that. He’ll come parading trying to intimidate, trying to look fearful, trying to look uh in a way that will make you fear him and trying to to guard guard the things that are laid to rest in your life that God wants to see come alive and they’ll say oh you can come this far but no further. You can come and look at the tomb but you’re not rolling away the stone, he’ll come and say yeah you can only have victory this much in your life but you can’t truly be free. He’ll say oh yeah yeah yeah uh this offense that you’re carrying, you can still carry that. Sure no problem, you can you can carry that. You don’t have to lay that at the cross God God God you know he’s freed you from all these other things. You can keep that, you can hold on to that the enemy will guard the things in your life that you need to truly let go of to be free and free. Indeed to bring a true freedom and wholeness to your life while here on earth. So he’ll speak lies, he’ll speak deceit, he’ll show force. But he’s really just a roaring lion seeking for someone to devour. But aren’t you glad? I know, I’m glad. Aren’t you glad? That for all his show of strength that for all his is flexing and all of him a roaring It pales in comparison to the strength of our God who uses the weak things to confound the wise, who uses across to get and obtain the victory. Who uses death to bring life. Our God is a God that turns the plans of the enemy on its head. That turns the plans of the enemy upside down. Our God has other plans. And so we see here in Matthew 28, There’s one through 10 the resurrection. Now after the sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week mary, Magdalene, the other mary, they go to see the tomb, they’re going with spices, they’re going to anoint the body of jesus. This is the greatest news in the history of mankind. The good news behold there was a great earthquake. For the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came back and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothes was white as snow and for fear of him. The guards trembled and fainted. They became like dead men. Now when heaven touches earth, things have to shift. When heaven touches earth, things have to change our father who art in heaven hallowed, be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. When the kingdom comes, Man’s kingdom must bow Man’s Kingdom must leave, Man’s Kingdom must obey because the Kingdom of God is here with authority. The Kingdom of God is here with power. And so when heaven touches earth, things have to shift, Things cannot remain the same. Things cannot be as they once were when God comes and touches our hearts. When God comes and puts and breathes on our situation. When God comes and rolls back the stone, there is power and things will not be the same. We have to believe that Saints of God, we have to actively act as though we have the power to touch heaven and change earth. When you’re praying for situations that seem like they can never be one. Remember who it is, You’re praying to remember that you can touch heaven and change earth. Remember that you have access to the king of Kings who is on the throne, You have access to the Lord of Lords. So you have this jesus that makes intercession on our behalf who goes to the father and says, this is what’s going on, let’s pray, let’s intercede. And for us, what we need to do is realize that we have that authority, we have the power to touch heaven and change earth. That’s something that we have as we follow christ and we realized that when the angel came, he rolled back the stone, he rolled back the stone and he sat on top of the stone to show dominance, to show authority over something that was heavy and difficult for for the women that were visiting to roll back by themselves. The angel said, oh, this is nothing for me. I’m just gonna roll this on back right here, take a seat right here and when they show up. So what’s up? I’m not doing resurrections that day. It was good. And so it lets us know, it allows us to realize that what is difficult or almost seemingly impossible for man is easy for God, easy for God. Three days a resurrection comes rolling that stone away, the angel comes and sits on top. What an incredible thing. And so I think for us, it’s important to know that we have the authority and power to touch heaven and change earth. But what I love about this specific text is that it shows it shows the dominance of the kingdom of God over the ways of the world, the dominance of the kingdom of God and living with the spiritual lens over just a physical lens if you live with just walking in the flesh and walking in the uh physical lens, you’ll see the, you’ll see the roman soldiers, you’d see the stone and you say no, I can’t get through there. No, it’s all right. You know, I can’t get through it and you walk away discouraged. But when God shows up, those things all have to go away when God shows up, you see with a different perspective and what we see is that when jesus was being tried, when jesus was being beaten, when jesus was being crucified when jesus was being killed, that was the enemy on offense. We were talking in sports terms basketball terms when jesus was on calvary’s cross, that was the enemy on offense, doing as best as he could to take him out and Jesus was on defense, Jesus was on defense. You know how they say defense wins games right now, Jesus defensive strategy was very odd because he didn’t do anything. He could have called angels to come and take him off the cross. He could have called angels to stop in the, in the garden of gas Semini and and he would have been fine physically, the world would have been in shambles, but he he would’ve been fine physically. And so what we realize is his defensive strategy was to do nothing. His defensive strategy was to say have your way and I’m gonna lay down my life and lay down my life. So on Friday, it looked as if the enemy had one on friday it looked as if jesus was dead. They wrap them up, they put the spices, they put him in the tomb, they laid him in this tomb and it looked as if the enemy had one. Yes is that the enemy had one? And so the enemy said to themselves, let’s let’s get on defense just in case, just in case they try and and and pull something that makes this jesus look like he resurrected. Let’s get on defense just in case. So they put a stone in front of this, they seal up the stone and they put guards in front and this tomb is nice and and boarded up and it seems as though the enemy has one, it seems as though the enemy is winning their own defense, they’re guarding this tomb but I’m so glad that early one sunday morning Jesus the christ woke up and got up from the grave, he got up from death, he resurrected and he didn’t just say no I don’t got the rock, he said I am the rock and so let’s move this stone back as I exit this tomb and show my authority because I’m on offense now and you can’t guard me, you can’t guard me and so for us what we need to realize is that when these guards fainted, the enemy flees in the presence of the true and living God, the resurrected savior, jesus christ And just because the because the enemy cannot guard God cannot guard jesus, he can’t guard us as well. We need to give God praise because we cannot be guarded, we cannot be stopped. We are stronger because of the Lord that is within us. And there are places in our lives where the enemy thinks he has the upper hand where the enemy thinks he is winning. There are places in our lives strongholds as we see in scripture where Jesus talks about the strong man and we’re having to come in and and bind up the strong man. There are places in our lives, strongholds in our lives where the enemy feels as though he has the upper hand places and things in our lives when uh perhaps uh the spirit man that God wants to call from death to life is hidden behind this tomb of offense is hidden behind this Tomb of unforgiveness is hidden behind this tomb of anger. This tomb of of of of sadness and sorrow. But God has given us the authority and strength and power to have the stone rolled away so the spirit man can come up so the spirit man can rise up and God could be exalted and glorified in our lives. It is time Saints of God to roll away our stones, it is time Saints of God to touch heaven and change earth and so the women now are fearful and the angel says to them. do not be afraid for I know that you seek jesus who was crucified? This is the most agonizing and one of the most painful ways to go, painful ways to die. But it did not work. The end result did not work. He is not here for he has risen as he said once again, God is not a man that he should lie. And then the angel says, come see the place where he lay, where he used to lay. The tomb is empty, it’s empty, he is no longer here. Imagine their surprise, they’re going to this tomb to anoint the body. They see their soldiers on the floor, they see the tomb world the way they see this angel and the tomb is empty and then the angel says, go quickly and tell the disciples that he has risen from the dead. He’s going before you to galilee there, you will see him. See I have told you so they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples And behold Jesus met them and said greetings and they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him and jesus said to them, Do not be afraid, go tell my brothers to go to galilee and they will see me after they hear this good news. The angel, the first command of the angel is to go and tell it to go and share this good news. That same principle applies to us today, we know this good news that jesus has gotten up from the grave, but are we sharing it? Are we reflecting it? Are we preaching often preaching always, but often with words sometimes with words. How are we showing the fact that Jesus has resurrected in our lives? How are we showing it? Not just saying it? How are we showing and being a witness of this Gospel? So we have to examine ourselves because this this resurrection, we have a responsibility in light of the resurrection. The resurrection demands a response and responses is tied to the word responsibility. So if you have a response, you have a responsibility to respond to this resurrection. What would your response be as a believer? We have to reflect the fact that christ is alive in us. Don’t let your body be the tomb, the tomb obstructed was an obstruction to to being able to see the resurrected christ and and oftentimes if God wants to be seen, he wants to be seen through us, he wants to use us. So for us we need to in our walking and are talking and how we uh display ourselves and how we reflect, We need to be able to reflect God. So go tell it, the angel says, and then jesus then says, don’t be afraid, go and tell it. That means that communication of this truth is important. Communication of this truth cannot be overlooked. How are we communicating the gospel? It is the responsibility of the believer to communicate the gospel. How are we doing that? How are you doing that? Ask yourself that question, let’s meditate, pray on that and see where the Lord leads us. If the Lord leads us to speak on it more, if the Lord leads us to speak with our lives, uh just see, let’s pray on that. How are we communicating the gospel? So the good news must be shared. And then also we see in verse nine that as they’re running to go tell jesus just pops up and says greetings, hey, what’s up? I know it’s been a couple of days, uh, how you guys doing and they come and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. Their immediate response upon seeing the resurrected savior is worship. They’re in a posture of worship because worship is the key. Worship is the appropriate response. When you realize how much jesus gave up. When you realize that jesus, how much jesus laid down and when you realize that as a result of him getting up from the grave, we have a life, we must worship the Lord. And so for us, it is important as I close for us to really be number one in tune with God in this season, in tune with God in this season, this is resurrection, sunday God is alive, That means he’s speaking God is alive. That means he’s active God is alive. That means he’s moving. We say he’s alive but it calls for a response, understand that God cannot be uh you can’t guard me. That applies to him being in the tomb and it also applies to him getting to us, he’ll get to us speak to us and direct us. So we have to be willing to be led as we spoke about in the concentration, we have to be willing to follow God, he’s not here, he has risen. As he said, the tomb is empty. I love the fact that we’re called to go and tell it. We’re called to sow a seed were called to sow a seed and have got to bring the harvest. And many of the reasons why we don’t speak up about our faith to other individuals because what if they know more than me or what if they talked me down or oh what if I I embarrass myself. God’s called you to be obedient. He’s called you to to not necessarily go out and convert everyone right within your first conversation. He’s called you to plant seeds. It is God that brings the harvest. Who knows what your show of strength, what your conversation will do in the life of someone else. This is called the good news and good news is to be shared. Good news is to be spread. And what I also love as I close is that the resurrected, jesus christ meets us where we are, he met these women as they were leaving to go and share this news and they were able to see him and worship him wherever you are this morning, wherever you find yourself at whatever season in life God can meet you where you are, the enemy could not guard him. The enemy cannot guard him. He can meet you where you are. If you’ve heard this message and you realize, hey, I don’t know jesus, I don’t have a relationship with him and I want to, I want to know him, I want to be saved. I want to have a relationship with jesus christ on this resurrection sunday. If that’s you, if you don’t know christ and you want to come to know him. I’m asking you to text saved to the number at the bottom of the screen, saved to the number at the bottom of the screen we have people that will pray with you and lead you to salvation through jesus christ, I’m just gonna pray Dear God, I thank you so much for this time. I thank you for your people. I pray Lord that as you do what only you can do that we would be that you would be glorified in the lives of your people and that uh father that you would show yourself mighty, show yourself strong, we thank you, we praise you, I pray for those that don’t know you that they would come to know you experience salvation today in jesus name. We pray these things. Amen and amen. Hello again and thank you so much for tuning into the message at Global seven. Once again, my name is Roderick caesar the third, the lead pastor of Bethel Gospel Tabernacle. My prayer is that you were blessed and encouraged by the message. And if you want to contribute and give to the ministry, you can text B g T F I 277977 again, you can text B g T f E 277977. We’re so thankful for you and my prayer is that God will continue to strengthen and empower and encourage you as you listen to this message, we hope you tune again later and God bless you. Thank you so much. All right.