God's Love Plan

I'm so honored to be with you. I'm so glad we're together here at AO Church. And, man, happy Easter. Happy resurrection Sunday. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed.

Amen? Because he lives, you live. I live. We live. And I'm so glad that you took the invite. Some of you were invited by a voice, text, or an email, or a phone call, or, just so glad that you came today.

We are so glad that you're here. And my name is pastor Erik, and I'm one of the pastors here at AO Church. And I'm on pass... On behalf of our pastors, Delgado's, we love you, and we are so glad that you're here this morning. What's the plan? What's the plan?

You ever... I I wrote all the guys in my group this morning or last night, hey. What's the plan after after church? We're going to eat somewhere? You know, where are we going? You know, I wanna know what's the plan.

You ever come to church on Sunday and you... What do we do now? What's the plan? You know, I love what Jeremiah twenty nine eleven says. God says, I have good plans for you. I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord.

Plans for a welfare, not for evil, but to give you a future and a hope. What's the plan? God has a good plan for you. He has a future and a hope for you, for your family, for your marriage, for your business, for your life. He's got good plans. Everyone say good plans.

Good What's the plan? He's got a plan. God has an amazing love plan for you. And today, I wanna talk to you about four miracle truths, four thoughts, four ideas about his love plan for you. Now I know in this world, everyone's asking the questions, why did my baby die? Why did my marriage fail?

Why did my business not succeed? Why is there so much pain and suffering in this world? For a lot of those things I just listed, that's happened to me. Maybe it's happened to you. The world is looking for answers, and we have solutions to those problems. And today, these four truths are gonna answer the questions the world is asking and probably thoughts that you've had in the past.

Why is there cancer? Why does bad things happen to good people? Why is there suffering? Why don't they have more parking at Raising Cane's and Doral on Sunday? You ever been there? I was just there.

They never have parking. Why? The world is asking questions. Why? And we have the answers. We have four truths today that I wanna share with you.

The number one is God created us. God created you. Did you know that God created you? The Bible the Bible says in the book of Genesis that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And he set... And he formed this world, and he put land and sea, and he put the light in the sky.

He put the sun and the stars so that he could tell time and have a calendar and know when it's to go to sleep and when is it to get out of bed. He gave us vegetables that are great to eat, and he gave us cattle that are great to receive. How many of you like prime rib? Come on. I know pastor David over here loves prime rib. Ribeye, picanha.

God made that. He made cows. He made flowers for you to see with all the colors that you love. Mango trees and avocados. Come on. How many of you like them avocados?

I do. God made that for you. God created you, and he created this world, and he made it good, and he put it here, put you in it so you could have a great life. God, when he made all this, he called it good. It's all good. It's all good in the neighborhood.

But then he created male and female. And in the scripture, it declares that you and I were made in the very image of God. When you wake up in the morning, you look in the mirror, back looks God. Mankind, male and female, you and I, red, yellow, black, white, you are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the children of the... God made you to look and reflect like him.

You have been made. Your identity is. You come from the king of kings, the lord of lords. He created you. He's the creator of all things, and he made male and female. Amen.

I can only imagine when he created this earth and he was he was probably walking around Miami Beach, maybe on Ocean Drive, and there was this beautiful sand. And he said, you know what? It's time. It's time. I need some friends. I wanna create man.

And he formed them out of the dust, out of the sand, of the sea. Right? And he he formed them, and this is how a man's gonna look. And he got down, and he and he... He breathed. He put his spirit on the inside of man.

God's spirit gave life to you. You are a spirit being. God has given you his presence, his essence, his DNA. You look like him, and he made you. Every time he made the earth, every time he created the sun, the star, the sky, the fruits, the vegetables, he spoke to the ground. But whenever he made you, he talked to himself.

He said, let us make man in our image. You are different. You are of a higher caliber. You are of a heavenly citizenship. You are of a kingdom, and you have a king. His name is Jesus Christ, and he is the lord, and he is the savior.

He is the ruler. He's the master. He's the CEO, and he has a plan for you, a good plan for you. Not to harm you, not to condemn you, not to hold you down, but that they have a plan of life and life more abundantly. He doesn't hold back. He gave it all for you, and he made you to look just like him.

Amen. Imagine in those days, he created this world, and he put man and woman in it. And he put them in this beautiful garden with roses and flowers and all the smelly goods that we love. And he had a great relationship with them. They walked around talking like I'm talking to you. They had a conversation like, hey, God.

How are you doing? It says they walked in the cool of the day. Imagine this kind of relationship where Adam's like, hey. You know, I was thinking of this daughter for my future son, but she got some teeth that look kinda crazy. What do you think, God? Do you think that woman's okay?

I mean, he had a relationship where he talked to him. What do you think? You see that that that big thing? It's a hippopotamus. You think it's okay I give that? Go ahead, Adam.

He had a relationship. What do you think, God? Should I do this business deal? Should I be in partnership? Should I invest in this? Should I do that?

Should I marry this person? He had imagined. This was a good, amazing relationship God had with mankind. This is the relationship he wants to have with you. He made you. He has good plans for you.

He created you. He loves you. And this was the design from the beginning of time to have this amazing relationship with your creator, with your father in heaven. Amen. He's a good father, and he loves you. Amen.

That was the original idea, to have a time to hang out and do things together, and it was all called good. God saw it all and he said, they are good. This is good. You are good. Amen. But then there was the great deception.

Satan tried to trick us. He tried to destroy us. And then in the story, there's this tree of the the knowledge of good and evil and... Or the tree of life. And and the the... God says, don't eat of this tree.

And the devil comes and whispers in the ear... Eve's ear and it says, did god really say that? That you can't eat of that tree? That's not true. You'll surely die if you eat of that tree. That's not true.

He knows if you eat of that tree. And what did he get her to do? To doubt God. Doubt is the seed of sin. That's all the devil has ever tried to do is get you to doubt. He tried to deceive.

He tried to destroy us. Right? And all of a sudden, they took this apple. They took this tree. They ate of this fruit that they they weren't supposed to do, and in came separation with God, a disconnect with God all of a sudden. And the funny thing is man and woman, Adam and Eve, ran to hide.

But you know what God did? He went calling for them. Adam, where are you? You don't think God didn't know what he just did? He came after him. But because of their sin, they ran.

They hid. But God is here today talking to you and calling out to you. I don't care what you did. I already know. Where are you? Come back.

I want a relationship with you. I wanna know you. I wanna talk to you. I wanna have our friendship, our connection, the reason I formed you. You're my kids. My...

I love hanging out with my kids. I love having my kids around. They're all right here. Matthew, Bella, Victoria. They love it when I say their names in church. Come on.

God wants a relationship. And even when they sinned and even when they broke the rules and even when they did wrong and they knew it, they doubted God. God still came calling. He's calling your name today. Hey. Come back.

Hey. I love you. I made you. You are create... You are mine. I am yours.

Come back. But sin came. Disconnection came. And then the blame game came. Right? All of a sudden, this is where blame...

You know, that's where the first blame... Hey. The man was supposed to do this. The woman blames the man. And then God has to kill an animal, and it's the first blood sacrifice is made. He takes these skins to clothe them because all of a sudden, they're ashamed.

All of a sudden, they're in fear. All of a sudden, they realize I'm naked, and he makes skins for them. And they're forced out of the garden. They put a a angel in front of the tree of life, and I believe that this angel did not want and God did not want when man was separated, disconnected from him to live forever in that state. So he said, you gotta leave, and I'm guarding this tree. And they left.

They're forced out. But life is in the blood. The first sacrifice was made. Life is in the blood. Blood... The bloodline comes from the man, and it determines the blood type.

And light... And the blood is passed out. Life is in the blood. Behold the lamb of God that came to take away the sins of the world. He came to give his blood for you and for me. Life is in the blood.

In Genesis three fifteen, Jesus and God were not devastated. They were not taken of alarm. They did not have a surprise. Immediately, the prophecy came that that in the future, Jesus would come and stomp on the devil's head in Genesis three fifteen, that I'm gonna come and send my son. The prophecies begin. And in those times, imagine, this was like being in a mad scientist lab.

You ever seen a mad scientist with a white coat, and they got all these liquids and bubblies and things that are happening? And there's an explosion. And there's this gas that gets in everything. You ever sprayed that Febreze? You ever smelled that strong cologne that's a little too strong? Gets in everything.

You ever? That's what it was like when sin infected the world. It went in and got in and corrupted everything that God had created that was good. This is where death comes from. This is where jealousy and envy and all the things of this world that aren't good has come from sin. Sin has infected.

It has brought the fall to the world. It brought corruption and death. God never intended for man to die. He intended you to live forever. And live forever you shall. Because when you are absent from the body, you will be present with the Lord.

Amen. Romans five seventeen says this about sin coming into the world. For it, because of one man's trespass, talking about Adam, what he just did, death reigned through one man. How much more were those who received the abundance of grace and the free gift? Free gift. I love free gifts.

Americans love free gifts. I got a free gift today. You don't gotta pay for it. There ain't no scam. There ain't no bait and switch. It's free.

It's a gift of righteousness, of being right with God forever. It's free. The free gift of eousness reigns in life through one man. Who's that one man? Jesus Christ. He came.

This great deception took place. This trickery that Satan tried to destroy and tried to take us out, but immediately, Jesus and God steps in. Sin came from disobeying God, but God wants you to trust him. God is the alpha and the omega. He knows what's best. He does have good plans.

What's the plan? A good plan. God has a love plan for you today, and he sent Jesus to the cross to die a brutal death, to shed his blood on behalf of you. And the third miracle truth is the great substitution. Hallelujah. The great substitution that Jesus came to redeem you, to buy you back.

I don't know if you've ever been to school. You remember when subs... You know, I know there's a lot of teachers here. But you remember when they'd have a substitute teacher? I don't know. For some people, that was a great day for kids.

It's a bad day for the sub. You ever played basketball and, oh, they're gonna sub you out, son. What? I wanna be subbed out. You know, nowadays, they substitute real sugar with fake sugar or canola oil with avocado oil. We substitute.

We love substituting. Well, Jesus came, and he became your substitute. He took your place. He came out of... He he put himself... He took you out of the game of life and put himself in your place and said, I'm gonna take your penalty, whatever you did wrong, whatever...

See, sin deserves death. And he said, you know what? I'm gonna take that place of you. The wages of sin is death. And he said, I'm a take your place so you don't have to go through pain. You don't have to die so you can have a new life.

Amen. Jesus, the great substitute for you. He came to redeem you, which means to buy back, to recover what was stolen. Amen. How many of you would love for your mortgage to be redeemed today? Say, hey.

You're... Someone paid it all off. That's what Jesus did. He paid it all off. There's nothing more required. There's nothing...

There's not another mortgage note attached to your life that once you get done, then you got something else to do. No. There doesn't matter if you've walked into a jail cell, if you've walked out or you're still breathing. When you say yes to Jesus, you could be made right with God today, a free gift of salvation. Redeemed. Second Corinthians five, I love this, 17, it's the great exchange, the great substitute.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, anyone, anyone... Oh, only white Anglo Americans. No. Only Greeks or Jews. No. No.

Latinos too. Come on. Anyone who is in Christ, he is a new creation. Good news. This is God's plan for you. The old...

What's the old? Everything you ever did wrong, everything you thought you might do wrong, everything you do wrong, past, present, and future, The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. The great exchange. Welcome to the new. When you're in Christ, at the end of service today, I'm a tell everyone that wants to make the great exchange a reality.

We're gonna say, welcome to the new. Just like the scripture, behold, the new has come. God has a plan for you. Amen. A good plan. Christ made you.

He created you. You are like him. He loves you. And then the devil tried to come with his great deception. He's a deceiver. He's a liar.

He's a trickster, but we darn ignorant of the devil's devices. We know how he tricks. We know that he lies. Those voices that he tells you, the things he brings back to your mind, it's not true. Behold, the new has come, devil. I'm new.

The new is here. The great substitute has come. Jesus came in a virgin birth. He brought... Came to heaven and emptied himself as of all deity because before the joy that was set before him, he said, I'm gonna go down to earth. I'm gonna die on a cross.

I'm gonna be flogged and whipped to death so you can't even recognize me. And I'm the king, but I love you so much, I'm gonna give it all to show you. And you don't have to do anything to to earn it. You just receive it. The good news, the great substitution. You don't have to be put to death.

He already was. The lamb of God that came. He died on the cross. He was put in a tomb, and on the third day, he rose from the grave. This is a historical fact. There's Jews that wrote about this.

There's other writers and other religions that wrote about Jesus walking in his day and that there was miracles, and there was these people walking around talking about all the stories that were happening. This was going on. It's a historical fact. It's a supernatural fact. It is reality. It is factual.

Amen. This is what Jesus did. This is what Jesus did. He is the great sub for you. Matthew four twenty three. Look at this.

God's love plan for you. And he went through all of Galilee teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. In Acts ten thirty eight, it says this. This is what Jesus did. This is what he's about. How God anointed Jesus with the holy spirit and with power, and he went about doing good.

Good. Do good. That's what Jesus did. Good. He did good in healing all who are oppressed of the enemy. He wants to heal you today.

He wants to heal your heart today. He wants to give you new life today. If you've been oppressed, he wants to deliver you today. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. If he healed in bible days, he still will heal you today. He has no favorites.

He don't like, I... You know, I don't have no favorites. My son is my son. My daughter is my daughter. They're all equal. They all have the same love. Not one of them is better than the other.

It's the same in the kingdom of God. It's same with the children of God. Oh, well, that guy went to bible school. Look at... Let me tell you something. All the people in the bible that did great things, most of them didn't go to a bible college.

Most of them did not finish three ten week classes at church. Most of them didn't do any of that. They just said, Jesus is real. I'm gonna follow him and take him at his word. You do that today. That's all that matters.

He's got a blood plan for you. You don't gotta earn it. You don't have to go to school to get it. You can get it today. Just believe in Jesus. There was a guy named Nicodemus.

He came to Jesus and said, what do I gotta do to get eternal life? He said, just be born again. Be born again today. Amen. Be born from heaven today. Become a new creature in Christ.

Let the old go and let the new come today. Psalms one zero three, I love this. Verse 12 says, as far as the east is from the west, so far he's removed your transgressions from his sight. Let me get a baseball and throw it east. It don't ever come back. Whatever sin you've committed, God's thrown it to the East or the West and ain't ever coming back, brother.

Oh, well, I have five wives. I've done this. I've done that. I slept with 25. It don't matter what you did. Oh, I used to be in that.

Who cares? Jesus said, I didn't come for the righteous. I came for those that were sick. This room is full of sick people. Don't get it twisted. Everyone's here smiling, but we all got issues, and we all got problems, and we all need Jesus who's our savior.

Amen. The East is from the West. He's removed your transgressions. He chose to adopt you like he chose to... Moses was adopted by Pharaoh. God chose to adopt you to be his key...

His kid. He made a choice. I want them in my house. Amen. He chose to put his wrath and anger on Jesus, his only son, so you could have this great exchange, this great substitution. Put me in.

Take me out, God. Thank you for taking it all for me. Thank you for giving me life. We've been restored, brought back. Romans five eight. Look at this verse.

I love it. For God showed his love for us and while we were still sinners. Oh, I gotta wait till I'm righteous. No. He died while we were still decided to be against him. Maybe you're in this room.

You've been against him for a long time. You've been in church for a long time, and you still been against him. Maybe you're living your life and you know about Jesus, and you even... Maybe some people call you a Christian, but in your heart, you know you got stuff that ain't right. It's time. He still loves you.

He's still saying, where are you? I'm here. Come back. Good news. We've been restored, made new, brought back from the original to the normal unimpaired condition. And when I was...

My first car was a 1950 Plymouth. It was not purple at the time. It was... I don't know what it was. It was a 1950 Plymouth, three in the tree. The brakes didn't work, but at the end, we restored it.

We put five coats of purple and then another five coats of clear coat paint, and then we put white carpet. Glory to God, white carpet. It's great to have white carpet. You know what happens with white carpet? Doesn't matter. But we had white carpet.

We had seats that were white with purple stripes. Dude, that thing was amazing. That horn. They don't make horns like that no more. Now they got these wimpy horns. This was like a train horn.

We restored that car, my first car, put it back to its original condition. That's what God wants to do for you today, put you back in the original position like Adam and Eve where they walked, they talked, they had open relationship, open dialogue. There was nothing that they were hiding from. They didn't... They weren't in trouble. They weren't in fear.

They weren't worried about what they did last week, the last month, the last year. No. Jesus paid it for it. All of it. All of it paid for. All of it for you.

All of it taken care of. Good news. Good news. You've been returned back to your right position with God through what Jesus did on that cross. And when he came out of that grave, that was proof to the world what he said was true. He is the way, the truth, and the life.

The fourth miracle truth, John ten ten, and I'll ask the band to come up. You are made new. You are restored back to God. Amen. You are made new. Jesus said in John ten ten, it said, the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

The devil tried to steal and kill and destroy you. He tried to do it at the beginning of time. He thought he won. Immediately, God already had a plan. The devil thought he had won. He thought he could steal your life and steal your marriage and steal your your heart.

He came to kill you, but guess what? You're still alive. You're God's creation. You're his. I come that they may have life and life more abundantly. Do you believe that?

Jesus said, you are made new. Today, it's time to believe again. I know you're in church today and you're invited. I'm so happy you came. But today, it's time to believe again. Believe that God's plan for you is true.

He has a great plan for every one of you in this room. Amen? He wants to put you back in right standing with God. Jesus came to save you. Jesus came to heal you. Jesus came in Psalms one forty.

It says he came to heal the brokenhearted. Maybe you're here today and your heart's broken. You weren't raised right. I understand. Your father left you. I know.

You didn't have a good example. Maybe life is really hard. God didn't do that. Sin did that. And today, you can come back. Today, God's calling, come back.

I don't care what you did. I don't care. There's this story about a little boy visiting his grandparents, and he was given this first slingshot. He practiced in the woods, but he could never hit the target. And he came back to his grandma's, and he saw their pet duck. He said, let me give it a try.

I'm gonna... Whoosh. And he slung the thing, and it hit the duck, and the duck died. Can you imagine? And he was, oh my goodness. What am I gonna do?

So he hid the duck under a pile of wood. And then when he looked up, his sister Sally was right there. I saw you. She saw it all. And after lunch that day, grandma said, Sally, let's wash the dishes. But Sally said, oh, Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen today.

Didn't you, Johnny? Remember the duck. Right? So he stays and washes the dishes. And then grandpa comes back the next day and he says, hey. I wanna take you all fishing.

And and grandma says, hey. I need Sally to help me make lunch. But Sally goes, oh, you know, Johnny said he'll help you make lunch. And she whispered to him, hey. Remember the duck. And then Johnny stayed.

Sally went fishing. Several days later, they were doing their chores. Johnny was doing his chores and Sally's chores, and finally, he couldn't stand it. And he went to his grandma and he confessed to her. He said, grandma, I killed the duck. And she goes, Johnny, I know.

I saw it. I saw it. I was standing in the window. I saw the whole thing the whole thing. But because I love you, I forgave you, and I wondered how long you would let Sally make a slave of you. Don't let the devil be the Sally in your life anymore.

Oh, you messed up. Oh, you did that. Don't forget. God already saw it. He ain't surprised. Right?

On Easter Sunday, it's time to make a new connection with Jesus. It's time to come back home. It's time to have peace again. It's time to really celebrate that you're free of slave... Slavery today, That you're not bound to that stuff. You're not...

You don't have to give in to that. You don't have to go that way. There's a new way. His name is Jesus. Mark one fifteen says, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel, the good news. And he said the time is fulfilled.

The kingdom of God is at hand. He said this, repent and believe. Repent and believe. Repent and believe in God's love plan for you. Repentance is not just changing your mind. It's not just going a different direction.

It's getting a whole new vision, a whole new perspective that, hey. You know what? No longer am I a slave to sin. I am free. No longer do I think justice, but I think mercy. No longer do I think I'm a sinner.

No. I think I'm saved. I've been given the free gift of righteousness. I'm a king's kid. No longer I'm gonna think, oh, I'm sick, and I'm... I've had all this PSC in my life and trauma that I can't get over.

No. I'm gonna think I'm healed and restored, and today, God's making me new. It's time to repent. No longer am I gonna think I'm guilty. No. Today, I'm gonna believe that I'm not guilty, that the debts have been paid.

All of it. They've been paid. Change the way you think about God. He loves you. He loves people, and he believes in you. And he believes in you so much, he brought you here this morning to hear about his love plan for you.

I'm just the messenger trying to compel you and share with you the good news. Stand to your feet this morning. It's time. It's time to believe the good news. He carried your debts.

He paid for your sin. He doesn't demand payment. Amen. It's been paid once and for all, and his name is Jesus. Repent and believe on Easter Sunday.

Today is your day to be welcomed back into the new amen. Today, the Holy Spirit draws all men and women to him. Today is your day. This day was made just for you. This love plan is your plan.

God has a great plan for you. You might have a file that is full of bad stuff, but only the blood of Jesus cleanses that file and takes everything out that was ever against you. Amen. Today, you will go home with peace. Today is your day.