Frankie Mazzapica - Pouring The Blood On The Devil's Pulpit
Thank you for tuning in today. My name's Frankie Mazzapica. The title of today's message is, "Pouring the Blood On the Devil's Pulpit". Pouring the blood on the devil's pulpit. I'm gonna just dive right into it. Let me lay the scriptural foundation for it. We're gonna be talking about the blood of Jesus today. And I wanna talk about how when you're taking communion, it's not just a personal thing where you remember what he's done for you. You remember him dying on the cross. It is a most personal thing, but it goes far beyond that.
So, let me just share with you the opening scripture where this message is built upon. It's in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verses 23 and 24 where Paul says this, "What I have received from the Lord," what God has told me, "I am sharing with you". Somebody else didn't tell him, he didn't learn it from somebody else, God told him this. And he said this, "On the night that he was betrayed," when he was having the last supper, "on the night that he was betrayed," right before Judas betrayed him. He said this, that he took the bread that was sitting on the table and he broke it and he said this, "This is my body and I am giving it to you". And then he broke the bread and he says this, "Any time you have bread, I want you to partake and I want you to remember that this is my body".
They didn't understand what was going on. They were just like, "Okay, I think we got it. We're just gonna nod our head as if we do". And then he says this, "He took the wine and then he poured it right after the supper". And then he said, "This is the new covenant". The old covenant: you sin, you die. He goes, "This is the new covenant. When you sin, my blood is going to cover your sins". It will seal the covenant, the promise, that God is going to cover you the way this jacket is covering me. And this is the same way that the blood of Jesus will cover you. You are wrapped around oxygen. Come on, put your hands together. You are wrapped around oxygen. You can't separate yourself from it. It says, "I will cover you with my blood. And when you partake of the wine," and I've got juice here today, "if you partake of the wine, I want you to remember me".
I've got three major points that I wanna talk with you about. The first point is the devil's pulpit. Second point, I'm gonna talk about the power of the blood. And then my third point is going to be what happens when you're behind a closed door and you're praying and no one even knows about it. Let me talk about the devil's pulpit. There's a place in Scotland. You can get on a plane and fly there right now. There's a place in Scotland that is lush. Well, all of Scotland is lush, it's green everywhere. There's these mountains, they're not rock. They're covered with trees and there's moss that covers the rocks. There's vines, it's beautiful. This is what Scotland is known for. Well, there's a place that you can go to and it's between these two mountains. It's like a river and the water looks like blood because of the reflection that's taking place underneath it.
Now, as you were to go down that stream, you would see this huge rock. It looks like a mushroom and it's covered with moss and grass. And this is where the devil stood and talked to people who were separating themselves for a period of time just to pray and just to worship. The devil himself would show up as an angel of light. In Hebrews chapter 11, verse 14 it says that he shows up as an angel. He doesn't show up with a pitchfork. He doesn't show up like that. He shows up as someone beautiful, as an angel of light and they gathered around and he talked to them and he drew them away from the Lord and into his evil presence. And so, there was this man, he was an intercessor.
An intercessor is someone that when they pray, they have gotten to the place of maturity where they're not just praying for themselves, they pray for other people. And the Lord told him, "I want you to go to Scotland. I want you to go to this mountain and I want you to pray". So he went to this exact place. He stood on this cliff area and he began to pray. He began to pray fervently. And that's the wonderful thing about prayer, is you don't have to be eloquent. You don't even have to pray for a long time. You just have to pray with passion. To show you a contrast, is if you're having Froot Loops in the morning. You sit down, you say, "Lord, thank you for this food. Thank you for breakfast".
You see the passion level is right down here? Thank you for the food. My favorite is when we go eat fried food somewhere. "Lord, thank you for the food and bless the hands that made it". You don't even know that guy. You have no idea who's back there making the food. And bless the food. It's fried. It's chicken fried steak. "Bless the food, let it go down like vegetables in Jesus's name. Bless the food". He would get up there and he wouldn't pray these non-passionate prayers, but he would pray with a sense of urgency. In James chapter 5, verse 16 it says that the fervent prayer, "It availeth much". It causes heads in the spiritual realm to turn. It's, "What is happening"? Demons get nervous, angels arrive, God notices. This is what happens when people pray fervently. This is what happens. It's never eloquent. It's just, "I love you. I love you. Jesus, I praise you. Jesus, I thank you. I love you. I love you".
All of you who have ever driven a car before know how to pray fervently. Have you ever driven down the road before someone pulls out in front of you? Or you see a cop hiding? Jesus! You know how to pray fervently. So, he stood on these little cliffs and he was praying fervently. He didn't know why God led him there. He just felt compelled to go there and he would pray fervently. "God. I just, this is your place, this mountain, beautiful, this is your place and I praise you". And then, he just got done and he was ready to go. And then the Spirit of the Lord just kind of tugged him, not out loud, just, like, right in here. Just, "You're not done. You know, I want you to go to this other place and pray".
So, went over there and, again, it's not out loud, just a compelling pull. I think I'll go over there and pray. A lot of times when you say, "I think I'll", that's the Lord putting it in your mind. I think I'll go over here and pray. And he went over there and prayed. He was done and the same thing happened a third time. But this time he said, "I want you to go stand on this flat rock that oversees the town below". And, again, when the Lord speaks sometimes you know it like you know your name and other times it's just a thought. You know what? I think I'm gonna go stand on that rock and pray. He stood over the town and all of a sudden passion went to another level and he began to realize and think about the power of this blood.
And so, he raised his hands over the town and he said, "I am just calling God for the blood that you shed on the cross to just flow through this town. I'm calling on your blood. I'm calling on your blood to be on this mountain. I'm calling on your blood to be wherever my eyes can see. As far as I can see. I'm calling for your blood to be here". So, as the Lord sometimes does, I say sometimes because this doesn't always happen, you end up finding out what that prayer was all about. And a few years later, he bumped into a satanic high priest. You see, there's often these lower level demonic worshippers. You know, they wear things, they do Ouija boards.
I was going through Starbucks the other day and I saw this girl, she had this raven tattooed on her arm and... I always like to ask people the story behind the tat. Tell me about that tattoo because there's always a cool story behind every tattoo. Sometimes they say, "This reminds me of my mom," or "Hey, I ran an Ironman and I like to put the logo of the Ironman," whatever. But she said, "This raven represents the god of music". And I was like, "No". No, no, no, no, no. I was in Starbucks, so I couldn't start yelling. But I'm like, "No".
This opens up a door. There is no god, there is no all these little things and, you know, no. And so, but this guy is a high priest. And so, he met the man who was interceding on the mountain and he said, "So you were the one". He goes, "That mountain used to be ours. We could stand in these places and call down curses, but now, we're not even allowed on that mountain". He goes, "Your prayers are powerful". And he said, "No, no, no, no. It's not my prayers that are powerful". He said, "I was calling on the blood of Jesus Christ".
When the Lord says, "Do this in remembrance of me," for all of you who have partaken in communion, this is the moment where we say, "Lord, thank you. I remember what you've done". But I wanna tell you that blood covers territories. Blood saturates where you live. Let me tell you this. In Mark chapter 5, many of you know the story, Jesus got on a boat, went across the sea to a place called Geranese. And when he got there, he saw a man that had thousands of demons. And he prayed for him. But right before he prayed for him, the demons knew they were gonna have to leave this guy. And the demon said this, "Please don't cast us away. Let us go into that herd of pigs right over there". And the Lord said, "That's fine. Your final judgment hasn't come yet. Go ahead and go into the pigs".
And, now, you have to ask the question, why would these demons want to go into these pigs? Because the pigs lived on the territory. Not only does Satan want to torment you, but he wants to live on territory. He wants to live on property and affect everything around it. Affect every family member, affect every thought, affect the whole house. He wants to live on the property. He wants to have a pulpit where you live. He wants to sit on your car and move around. He wants to follow you around wherever you go. He wants to whisper things in your ears. He wants to control your eyes, control your thoughts, and control your speech. He wants the territory. Point number two: the power of the blood.
Now, I already shared what happened to the mountain whenever he called for the blood of Jesus. Already shared about how it covered the town and the town began to look to the Lord. But I wanna share something in particular that took place in the Bible. In Exodus chapter 12, we find a whole town full of sinful people. The Bible says this, in Matthew 24, verse 12, that there will become a day where sin will run rapid and the love of many will grow cold. What does sin running rapid mean? Imagine a rapid in a strong river. It's just overtaking every rock, it's overtaking every person. Every person we know, we look around and we just say, "Where can I find the godly"? And it's overtaking.
And so, in Exodus chapter 12, God said, "I am going to send angels with a drawn sword to sweep through this city and sweep through this town, killing everyone". But what the Lord said, "For those of you that are mine, those of you, your eyes are up," you're not perfect. Do you know when you do something you should not do? You shouldn't say? And you know it affects the intimacy between you and God? The most important thing is your very next decision. That's the most important thing because your very next decision either wipes that away where the blood of Jesus pours over it because you say, "Lord, I'm sorry". Or, the next decision is, "Oh my goodness. I can't believe I said it. Well, I messed up now. Might as well just keep going".
And Jesus says, "The next decision is very important. If your mine, I want you to take the blood of an animal and I want you to put it all over your door post. And when these angels come through, every single person that believes in the blood, everyone will be judged, their homes will fall apart, death will come upon them. But judgment will pass over your house".
This is the power of the blood. Where sin is being rampant everywhere, everyone's sinning. There's a basketball player in this room that goes to the same school that Luke goes to. He's got an unbelievable three point shot. Last Friday he was on fire. Hi, Jordan. And the reputation that he has, he doesn't go to parties. He didn't tell me that. I go to that school a lot. Watch my son play basketball. I heard about it. What a reputation. You see, absolutely. You see, you can't find godly people, but you can find people that's going like this. And angels just passed right over those houses. I wanna tell you, realize that the blood takes down the devil's pulpit. He cannot stand in your house and influence you. Come on.
I wanna talk about, now, the third point is what happens behind closed doors. You see, again, just to summarize. The first point is the devil's altar. The second point is the power of the blood. And then the third point is what happens behind closed doors. The Bible says this, in Matthew chapter 6, verse 6, it says, "When you pray, go alone by yourself, nobody needs to know what you're doing". There's always that one obnoxious person, "Going to pray! Are you praying"? I'm really loving you right now. "Go alone by yourself. Shut the door behind you". Ten minutes before you go to bed, laying in bed before you even open your eyes. It says, "When you're alone and that door is closed," when you get in your car and you close that door. When the office door closes and you just whisper something. He goes, "This is what I'm going to do. I'm going to meet with you".
In Revelation chapter 3, verse 20 the Lord sends a message to an entire church, a church of Laodicea. And he says this, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Whoever hears my voice, I will come into him and I will commune with him, and he will commune with me". You know, there's a couple pieces of that sentence I wanna pull out. Where he says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice," sometimes you knock and other times it's like, "I know you're in there". Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
If you show up to my house unannounced, you might see my bald head crawling on the floor. I'm not into it. You can yell all you want to, I'm army crawling underneath the dinner table. I'm looking at my 10 year old. I don't care. You can yell all you want to. I deserve a phone call. "Hey, I'm coming". That's all I'm asking for. It had nothing to do with anything. But the Lord says, "I'm banging on your door". You know if the Lord is banging on your door if you're listening to me right now and there's a desire for him increasing. That's the Lord drawing you to himself. And he says, "If you open the door," meaning, you take a minute to spend time with me. "I'm gonna commune with you".
If you ever walk into a restaurant and you see two people sitting at dinner and they're drinking wine, they're having a... they're not rushing the evening. They're having a pleasant conversation. They're taking their time. It's not, like, if you see the same two people in McDonald's, Burger King, or anywhere else. These are fast food restaurants that are really good, absolutely. But you're just shoving your face. I'll take an apple pie. I'll take cookies. I'll take a double cheeseburger. I'll take it all. And when you're sitting somewhere like that, it's not communion. You're not taking your time, you're trying to kill yourself, right? So, this is... let me just say this, all food, if it's not green, well, I don't know what we're doing.
But, anyway, and, "I don't like vegetables". Okay, I'm chasing rabbits. Pow, pow. Let me get back to what I was saying. Says, "I'm gonna commune with you. I'm gonna have a moment with you. You take time to have a moment with me, I'm gonna have a moment with you. I'm gonna have a moment with you". You know, I tell you what spurred on this message. I was at a conference recently and there was a lady up there speaking and she said... I don't know what it was. She said, "My thoughts were making me depressed. I was down. I walked into my home, I'd have a good time outside, but then when I got into my house, everyone was arguing. Everyone's mad. I leave the house. I go to work. I'm in a fine mood. I come home, everybody's down. Nobody's talking to each other. There's tension in the room".
And she goes, "Then it dawned on me. I need the blood of Jesus in my house". So, she went out and she bought a gallon of grape juice. And she went around her house and poured it all the way around her house. And she's saying, "I'm claiming this property as God's. I'm pouring the blood of Jesus on my house". And wouldn't you know the effect, you know, the devil drowns in grape juice. Some of us just need a gallon of grape juice in our house, to walk around the home and say, "This home belongs to the Lord".
If you live in an apartment, well, you might have to do this at 2 in the morning, but just go around the whole building. People start getting blessed and they don't know why. Just go around the whole building. I tell you what I've begun to do in my own life. Is that I've begun to take, I've had communion alone three times this week.
You know, at churches, including ours, we pass out communion items where there's juice and a cracker. You know, get online and buy them yourself. Always have bread. Well, everybody has bread in their house if they're... well, never mind. I was gonna make a joke, but we don't need that. I don't have time for jokes anymore. Sit down and have communion. Make sure you have grape juice in your house. Go online, order your own communion. Say, "God, the power in your blood is far greater than what I realized". Does anybody receive that? Come on, put your hands together.