212 ~ GOOD FRIDAY ~ SET APART BY THE BLOOD

Hi and welcome to the Via Zion Sermon podcast.

We are a local church based here in Chennai, India.

We are so glad you are with us and hope that this will

encourage, inspire and instill fresh faith in you.

Our theme for the year 2024 is set apart and today on Good

Friday we look at how the blood of Jesus has set us apart.

As you listen in, would you ask God to teach you how to live

with a better understanding of His blood, its power, and

covering over your life? Hi church, what a amazing day it

is to celebrate the goodness of God.

We we look at Good Friday through the lens of Jesus and it

changes everything because it truly is a Good Friday.

We have a good Father who sent His perfect son who was a

sacrifice for you and me. And the good news is that

because of what Jesus did on that cross, you and I Can Walk

and freedom and newness of life. I was reading this story this

week and I thought I should share it with you.

This person writes about how he had a herd of sheep, and one of

his sheep one morning when he went to check on them, found

that it's face was completely swollen and the sheep looked

like it was in terrible pain. When he examined the sheep, he

found that the sheep had been bitten by a rattlesnake, which

was very common in that parts of the country.

He was The shepherd was a bit worried for his sheep, but the

sheep didn't look perturbed by it at all.

The rattlesnake didn't know that the sheep's blood could actually

handle its venom. So although the sheep, for

better part of two days, was swollen up and in a lot of pain,

it kept doing its usual things. It was wandering around.

It was, you know, looking for pasture and doing all of the

usual things. The truth is that apparently

antidotes for snake venom are raised in sheep.

The rattlesnake didn't know that, so this sheep was actually

having blood that could override the venom of the rattlesnake.

If you have been living fearful of the serpent or his bite, I

want to remind you of this, that be sure that the lamb's blood

flows in your vein veins. What was shed on that cross of

Calvary now today flows in our veins.

We don't have to live afraid anymore.

When Jesus died on that cross, he took once and for all and

paid the penalty for our sins. Today, because of that blood

that runs through our veins that is washed over us, we can live

free from the power of sin. And one day in eternity where we

will live with the Father, with the Son, we will see that we

will be free from the presence of sin as we get into today's

Scripture. I was looking at the book of

John, and I love this one passage where John the Baptist,

when he sees his cousin Jesus walking in into the town that he

was in, He had a very weird way of introducing his cousin to the

people around him. He says, look, here's the Lamb

of God, the one that takes away the sins of the world.

But John had spiritized to see what Jesus was going to

accomplish. He knew that his cousin was

going to do something that no one else could ever do.

And so I want to ask you this. Have you ever felt that the only

tough part of you know, being a believer, being a believer in

Jesus, the follower of Jesus, is admitting just how sinful we

are. We needed a lamb who would take

away the sins of the world because we ourselves are so

sinful. We needed the lamb who would

take our sins upon himself. Sometimes it's easier to look at

someone else and say they are so sinful or they're doing

something. Or we look at the crimes that

are happening in our countries and we look at those people and

think, well, what a sinful person.

But to come back to ourselves and to remember that I am so

sinful and that's why Jesus died for me, I continue to grapple

with sin. I'm not no longer a slave to it.

I now have power over it. But it doesn't change the fact

that we are sinful. We are sinners that were saved

by grace and we we are sinners who are continually in need of

that grace. It's a saving grace that it

happens every day. That's the renewing work of the

Holy Spirit. So before we go further, I want

to just first look at the power of the blood.

We're going to be looking at a lot of scripture today, so I

would urge you to keep your Bibles open.

We're going to begin with Hebrews Chapter 9.

Hebrews 9 · chapter mention

We're going to be reading about the power of the blood for you

to understand, actually in its entirety.

Why are we focusing on the blood?

I thought today was today was about the cross, but I want to

just encourage you. It's about the cross.

But from the cross float the blood of Jesus, which for you

and me was our redemption. So I want us to look at Hebrews

Hebrews 9:12–15

Chapter 9 verses 12 to 15. This is what it says.

With his own blood, not the blood of goats and calves, He

entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our

redemption forever. Under the old system, the blood

of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse

people's bodies from ceremonial impurity.

Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our

consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living

God. For by the power of the eternal

Spirit, Christ offered Himself to God as a perfect sacrifice

for us sins. That is why He is the one who

mediates a new the covenant between God and people, so that

all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has

promised them. For Christ died to set them free

from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that

first covenant. The first thing that we looked

at look at in terms of the power of the blood is it It wipes our

sins clean, and therefore it sets us free from the penalty of

sin. When you go to a store and you

see an outfit, there's always something attached to it, and

that's that, the price tag. All our sins have a price tag to

it. You commit adultery, there's a

price tag. You lose your marriage or you

you are distant from God. Maybe you have an addiction to a

certain substance, but there's a price tag attached to that sin.

Maybe it's an anger problem. Again, there's a price tag to

that sin where you antagonize and hurt people.

All our sin has a price tag. But the beautiful thing is that

in Jesus, the sin itself is wiped clean.

So there's nothing to hold the tag on to now.

And so there's no longer a penalty for it.

And so we are set free from the penalty of sin.

Isn't that amazing? Hebrews chapter 10, verses 19 to

Hebrews 10:19–22

22, it says. And so, dear brothers and

sisters, we can boldly enter heaven's most holy place because

of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new

and living way, giving through the curtain, giving way through

the curtain into the most holy place.

And since we have a great high priest who rules over God's

house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere

hearts, fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have

been sprinkled with Christ's blood to make us clean, and our

blood bodies have been washed with pure water.

Picture a dark room with heavy sun blocking curtains.

You know you have those these kind of curtains now just so

heavy that cuts all the light out.

Israel and the rest of the world was literally in a darkened room

when Jesus died on that cross, when the blood flowed from his

broken body. It says that he made a way to

the presence of God himself. The curtain in the temple was

torn into two right from the top, right down to the bottom of

the curtains. And the blood therefore opens a

way to God and brings us into his presence.

Up until then, the high priests had to do all of this work of

mediation. They had to offer the

sacrifices. And then people could actually,

you know, present their, you know, Thanksgiving to God or

their offerings to God. But now, in this beautiful turn

of events, the blood opened up the curtains.

And you know what? When you open a blocked room, a

light blocked room. Have you seen how the sunlight

just pours into the room? It lights up every crevice, but

it was no difference spiritually that that day.

On on that Friday afternoon when Jesus's blood flowed, the way to

the Father was open. No longer with priests needed as

mediators. No longer did they have to look

to any other means to have access to God.

They had direct access to the you and I have direct access

because of the blood. Let's look now at Hebrews

Hebrews 12:22–24

chapter 12 verses 22 to 24. It says.

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living

God, this heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of

angels, to the General Assembly and Church of the first born who

are registered in heaven. To God the judge of all, to the

spirits of just just men made perfect.

To Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant, and to the blood

of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

If you remember the story of Cain and Abel, Cain turns to his

brother in the field after his sacrifice was not accepted and

in a fit of rage kills Abel. When God confronts Cain, he

asked, Where's your brother? He asked.

Am I my brother's keeper? He says your brother's blood

cries out to me from the ground, which opened up to receive it.

And and So what Abel's blood was probably screaming for was for

justice, for recompense. But today he says the blood of

Jesus speaks a better thing. What does it speak?

The blood of Jesus speaks mercy over punishment.

It speaks forgiveness over condemnation.

Isn't that amazing? The blood of Jesus speaks a

better thing and brings restoration.

In the Old Covenant, the blood didn't speak restoration

necessarily. But here in the New Covenant,

when this blood was being poured out, it spoke restoration, it

spoke peace, it spoke love, It spoke volumes of grace.

The blood speaks over us. So the main thing that you need

to remember in terms of the power of the blood is it wipes

our slates clean, No more sin. It wipes our sins away.

It removes the penalty of sin. It opens the way to God himself

and leads us into His presence presence directly.

And thirdly, it speaks and brings restoration.

Isn't that amazing? The blood of Abel, it didn't

speak restoration. It's it's screamed for justice.

But today the blood of Jesus speaks forgiveness, speaks

mercy, and I want to encourage us to think of this in a new

way. When you look at the blood of

Jesus, I want you to remember the theme for this year at V as

I and the theme for this year is set apart.

Right? But God has marked us for His

own He set us apart. But I want to bring our

attention to Hebrews chapter 10, verse 10.

Hebrews 10:10

And this is what it says. And in accordance with this will

of God, we who believe in the message of salvation have been

sanctified, that is set apart as holy for God and His purposes

through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, the Messiah,

the anointed. Once for all, we have been

sanctified, set apart as holy for God and His purposes.

How? By the blood of Jesus.

So the call on us today is to a holy separation.

You and I, we live in the real world.

We have real jobs. We meet with the real people.

So what does this look like? He's calling us to being set

apart. No longer is it an option.

It's a command. Because we were bought at such a

high price, it was not ordinary that someone would die for us in

such a gruesome way, give their life for us so that their blood

ran and washed me clean. I have no other response except

to being set apart. Why are we finding it so hard to

be set apart? Far from the madding crowd?

We want to hang out with people. We want to merge in.

We want to fit in. We're so desperate from the time

of little children in kindergarten, You know, some of

us are trying to fit in when God distinctly called us to be set

apart. How can we have the incessant

desire to fit in when his blood has marked us and set us apart?

Those are things we need to consider for ourselves.

What does it look like to be actually set apart, to have a

holy separation? I want us to look at Hebrews

Hebrews 13:10–13

chapter 13 verses 10 to 13. It says we have an altar from

which those who serve the Tabernacle, the sacred tent,

have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals

whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as

an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp.

Therefore Jesus also suffered and died outside the city gate,

so that he might sanctify and set apart for God as holy the

people who believe through the shedding of his own blood.

So let us go outside to him, outside the camp, bearing his

contempt, the disgrace and shame that he had to suffer.

When you look at this, it gives us a clear picture of what it

looks like for us today to be set apart.

Jesus suffered on all you know, that route of Via della Rossa

and right up to the hill of the sky, Golgotha, where he was

bruised, beaten, made to carry his own cross up.

And then, when they fixed him on the cross and hung him, he hung

there for the better part of a couple of hours.

He suffered outside the gates of Jerusalem.

He was removed from his place of birth.

From his origins he was taken separately.

He was separated and isolated he was and this this particular

hill would stand out so that people from a long distance away

could actually see him. He was made a spectacular.

He was despised and and afflicted and pointed at and

laughed and mocked. So many of us have a problem

with people disliking us. We have a a a constant need to

please people. I'm one such person.

It offends me that I've offended someone else.

It hurts that someone would treat me bad, and I didn't

deserve it when I didn't do anything that deserved it, when

they rightly deserved something and yet they looked at me like

the problem. It's awesome.

But when you read this, it brings us into a sharp focus of

what God expects from us. That when his blood has washed

us, it sets us apart. And there will be times when you

take a stand for Jesus in your work spot, in your family, in

your home, in your neighborhood, wherever you go.

Maybe when you're travelling, when you take a stand for Jesus,

it will cause reproach to fall upon you.

You will be name called, You will be called out.

You will be mocked. Will you be willing to bear it

for Jesus? If Jesus could do it, would I be

willing to join him outside the camp?

The camps are many. We look at school kids, they

have those tight cliques and a new kid who joins and God forbid

they don't know which group will fit them in.

Sometimes when they when kids join a school late, they just

fit themselves to the group that's seated closest to them

and then they find within a few weeks they don't fit in at all.

Wherever your camp, wherever you have set up camp, It could be at

office with a group of people. It could be in your apartment.

It could be in your society. It could be anywhere.

Will you take a stand for Jesus? That could even mean

excommunication from that camp. It might mean a season of

loneliness. It might mean a season when you

don't have many people to process things with.

It might mean a season when you need to go deep with God and let

go of certain relationships. But will you do it because Jesus

suffered outside the camp? Will I be willing to go to him,

the writers actually asking us. So let us go to him outside the

camp, bearing his contempt. Too many of us are avoiding the

contempt of people by saying all the right things, by agreeing

with the culture, with agreeing with New Age philosophies, by

appropriating those into our lives.

God's calling you to a holy separation.

What does it look like to separate ourselves practically?

You may say. Well, that was Jesus.

He knew his assignment. He knew right from the beginning

that he was going to suffer outside.

He knew that he was going to be set apart and pulled out and

made fun of. He knew that he signed up for

that. I don't know if I could do it.

I'm a man. I'm a woman.

Let's look at the example of Moses.

Hebrews Chapter 11 verses 24 to 28.

Hebrews 11:24–28

It says by faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be

called the son of Pharaoh's daughter because he preferred to

endure the hardship of the people of God rather than to

enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.

He considered the reproach of Christ, that is the rebuke he

would suffer for his faithful obedience to God to be greater

wealth than all the treasures of Egypt.

For he looked ahead to the reward promised by God.

By faith he left Egypt, being unafraid of the wrath of the

king, for he endured steadfastly as seeing him who is unseen.

By faith, he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood

on the doorposts, so that the destroyer of the first born

would not touch them. The first born of Israel, Moses

was born to his to an ordinary Jewish family.

But his family, even in that it says by faith, Moses's parents

saw that he was a beautiful special child and they kept him

hidden for three months. And I think that faith was just

carried on intrinsically towards Moses as well.

And so Moses carried that he knew he didn't belong in the

Egyptian household. He knew who he belonged to.

And so it says that he he preferred to endure the hardship

of the people of God rather than the the pleasures of the

Egyptian palace. He considered the reproach of

Christ to be greater than the treasures of Egypt.

It's interesting that by faith he left Egypt.

He didn't worry about the wrath of the king.

He had to run for his life of course.

But he left. And eventually it says by faith

he kept the Passover. Another, the word that is

repeating there is by faith. By faith, it was just an act of

obedience to an unseen God. He couldn't see this God of of

his forefathers in person, but he knew he was speaking to

someone real. He knew he was encountering a

real God and he was taking him at his word.

And the beautiful thing is, he chose again and again to be in

the camp of God himself. He could have chosen many times

along the journey God would say, you move aside, I'm going to

destroy the Israelites and he would stand in the gap and say

don't do that Lord. It's for your name's sake.

It would look like you couldn't bring them out safe.

So please, Lord, hold off. He kept choosing the assignment

that God had placed on. He kept choosing the Jesus camp.

He kept choosing the hardships of following his God, even

though they were easier options at the time.

He could have turned a blind eye to his suffering people, to his

suffering kin and kit. He could have looked away and

said this is not my problem, I don't know how to do this.

I have no background in this. I don't know social justice, I

have not studied and I don't have a degree in this.

I don't have the resources. I'm just an adoptive son.

Instead, he decided to step out. He stepped out of the camp of

comfort. He stepped out of the camp of

being recognized and being honoured into a place of

dishonour, into a place of obscurity, and he trusted the

God who had called him. Will you be OK to suffer for

Jesus to have a hard life just because you've said yes to him

and no to the world? Will you keep your eyes fixed on

an invisible God? For those of you who come from

families that don't know Jesus, they must find it very funny

that you would worship someone without a picture, without an

altar, without any kind of, you know, form.

But the beautiful thing is that our God may not have all of

that, but he's real. He's as real as the breath in

our bodies, and he's doing things that no man can even

understand. His ways are higher, his

thoughts are higher. I love that we are in a season

as a church where a lot of things that God had spoken to us

a couple of years back are coming into fruition.

And so it's amazing for those of us who have been praying to

actually see God's word unfold. We're in a season where he spoke

before, but now he's doing it. And so you're starting to see

the dots join. And without a doubt, we know he

is real. He's so real.

And so will you choose to again and again pursue this God who

others can't see but you know is with you?

Will you choose the Jesus camp? That's the question.

Will you choose? The Jesus camp is not with the

crowds. It's set apart.

It's being outside. It's a little isolated, but you

have an incredible community there with him.

It requires that you will be ready to give up everything that

he asks you to give up. I love that When you read the

Old Testament, you look at the depths of the sacrificial

system. And you know, I've often thought

when I was read, when I read Leviticus, when I read numbers,

I I feel exhausted just reading the content because it feels so

exhaustive. It feels so.

It's tiring to have known these things as a community by heart

and then to do the right thing. Also, this is this week.

I need to do the grain offering. I need to do the burnt offering.

We need to do the trespass offering.

You know, there were so many things that they had to process,

figure out and do it right. And I think God insisted on that

so that there was a certain focus that the people had when

it came to worship because they were so easily turned aside by a

golden calf. They needed their eyes to be

fixed, and in these ritualistic offerings, their hearts, hands,

and mind would be fixed on actually worshipping God with

all that they had. It would keep them far from

idolatry because they would be so caught up in what they needed

to do. And the sacrificial system

actually began way before Leviticus, when Adam and Eve

sinned. God himself provided leather

garments from slain animals to clothe them with so that they

will not make it anymore. It didn't end there.

Then Noah, after the flood and when the earth was starting to

be, you know, reformed, so to speak, with, you know, new trees

and all of that coming back up. And the animals from the ark

were going out to populate the earth.

It says that Noah took a couple of those clean birds and he

actually offered it as a sweet smelling offering to God.

And it says that when God smelt that sweet offering, he decided

he will never destroy the earth by a flood again.

Following that, Abraham on multiple occasions built altars

and so did his sons, and they built altars.

They would worship at the offered burnt offerings.

So the sacrificial system then took shape, and you know, it

became really concrete with Moses when Moses actually gave

instructions on how the Tabernacle had to be built and

how everything had to be set up and how they had to institute

the concept of the blood sacrifice so that things would

be sanctified. The whole every item in the

Tabernacle was sprinkled with blood and the animals were

slain. And the priests would be so

involved in killing these bulls, or the calves, the heifers, the

sheep, and offering them to God. There were strict rules on how

it had to be done, and only the priest could do it.

But every single thing that you looked at, you saw that there

was so much of meaning, deeper meaning, there was so much of

symbolism in what they were doing in the old Covenant.

If you notice Hebrew chapter, Hebrews Chapter 11, verse 28, By

Hebrews 11:28

faith he kept the Passover. This is Moses and the sprinkling

of blood lest he who destroyed the first born should touch

them. Like I was saying, the blood has

such huge relevance. God gave an instruction to the

people. When you eat animals don't eat

the blood because the life of the animal is in the blood.

And yet at the Passover, just before they left Egypt on their

exodus, God says I want you to kill a goat.

Take his soap, which is a kind of a herb herbaceous plant.

Dip it in the blood and then smear it on your doorposts right

now. How did Moses know that this was

something he had to do? He trusted God.

God told him do this. It will protect your homes.

Because I'm going to send a destroyer who is going to

destroy every first born. If you want your people to be

safe, if you want your people to be set apart, you need to do

this. And Moses intrinsically knew

that he had to do what was being told to him.

This would be the beginning of a lot of instructions that God was

going to give him. And so he obeyed and told them

that in every single Israelite family obeyed.

And I love if you watched The Prince of Egypt, it's a cartoon

animation of of the story of Moses and the people of Israel.

And I love the way they showed that that particular scene that

night everyone is locked into their homes and this dark figure

descends from the sky and starts to visit the houses.

And every time the figure came near one of the Israelite

houses, one of the Jewish homes, they had the blood marked on the

door post. It would look at.

It was just like a big cloud that came down a dark cloud.

It would visit that it cannot enter the house because of the

blood and it would swerve and go to the next place.

But the same dark creature would went into Egypt and caused havoc

in every family. From the Pharaoh's home to the

bonded labour in Egypt. Everyone lost someone in their

home. The power of the blood, the

power of the sprinkled blood. By faith, Moses kept the

Passover. Today we are no different.

We can sometimes read these things as these incredible

stories which maybe give us goosebumps and we think, well,

that was them. But I want to encourage you

something about something. Today we know the power of the

blood. We know that it speaks.

We know that it opened the way. We know that it washes our sins

clean. But if we don't appropriate that

power in our lives, we're going to live powerless, empty lives.

We're going to live lives that are defeated by sin again and

again, even though the battle was already won.

Today we have that blood of Jesus in us, but it requires for

us to appropriate it. When you look at the the

sacrificial system, the priests had to dip their hands in the

blood. They had to actually touch it.

When they when they cut the throat of the animal, when it

bled out, they would collect the the blood in a vessel.

And I'm sure there was a whole lot of blood on their hands.

Ignore the pun, there was a lot of blood on their hands.

And then when Moses and the priests had to dedicate the

Tabernacle, they had to dip their hands in and they had to

sprinkle it. They had to sprinkle it.

He had to apply it on the left lobe of Aaron and his sons and

on different places to sanctify them, to mark them as being set

apart. What am I trying to say?

They had to get their hands messy with the blood.

There was no, you couldn't be, you know, all being germophobic

at that point, because when the blood flowed, you had to

actually be there to touch it, to apply it when Moses and the

Jews at that time had to apply it on the doorpost.

You think that was a a clean job?

No, it was a messy job. They probably got the animal's

blood on their clothes, on the floor.

And you know, when they were sprinkling it, some of it must

have dripped on them. Appropriation is everything.

The blood of Jesus was shed for us.

Yes, it flowed from that. His body slowed down, I'm sure,

But you and I need to take the effort to appropriate it and

make it ours. Today I want to ask you, have

you ever tried this? Have you tried to appropriate

the blood of Jesus on your life? Have you appropriated it over

your children's lives? Have you appropriated it over

your home, over your office, over the things that you love

and own? What do I mean by that?

What do I mean by that? So this past few weeks we have

moved from, you know, all of us use ACS at home in Chennai

because it's really hot and I have a problem wherein when it's

cold, I when you know, I need a comforter.

When it's warm also I need a comforter because I can't bear

the cold of the AC. And so this past week we have a

comforter which we use, but it only works for geshom.

For me, it's way too cold even with the comforter.

So through the week from Sunday evening, I was trying out

different bed sheets over the comforter just for my side, you

know, to keep me a little extra warm because I wasn't sleeping

well at all. I kept waking up because of the

cold switching off the AC, switching it back on.

It was exhausting. Finally, on Wednesday night, I

just, I tried a new blanket. So this was, you know, a little

heavier and it just rested on the comforter, didn't move off

in the night. And on Wednesday night I had the

best sleep ever because the the comforter stayed, the blanket on

top of it stayed. I was at the right optimal

temperature and I could sleep well.

I didn't have to wake up. I didn't have to switch off the

AC, none of that. And when I woke up in the

morning, I was thinking about, you know, how I had to

experiment so much with these different coverings till I

settled on this one blanket that worked.

And I felt like God was reminding me that that's what

the blood of Jesus is. It's a covering.

And too many of us have been trying different coverings on

our life. We make sure we have the best

insurance, home insurance, health insurance, dental

insurance. Some of us are so concerned

about the right networks because if this business fails, that

opportunity may come in. Too many of us are trusting in

friendships and thinking that they will be our covering.

Some of us love our marriages so much that we think our spouses

are covering. For those of you who are older,

you're so worried about your retirement, you think your

children are going to be the covering.

Rightly so. But God is coming to this place

of asking us. My blood is your covering today.

If I stand before my Heavenly Father and I can speak to him

boldly, I can speak to him As a friend.

I can speak to him and tell him my heart's desires, I can weep

before him. It is because I am covered by

the blood of the lamb. He sees me as redeemed.

He sees me as ransomed. He sees me as pure.

I'm covered. You are covered.

What? I'll fitting cover.

Have you been using? The problem is the covers that

we use. Like I mentioned, it could be

people, it could be situations, it could be our jobs.

There's so many things that we tend to use as coverings to

protect ourselves, to make sure that you know, all our ducks are

in a row. The problem with that is they

will not bring lasting peace. The evidence of the covering and

its legitimacy in your life is the peace that it will bring.

When you appropriate the blood of Jesus as you're covering,

when you believe and say, Lord, I claim the blood of Jesus over

myself, I believe that I'm healed.

When you claim it over a child who's who's out of control and

say I plead the blood of Jesus on this child, I know that your

blood has already washed him clean.

He's OK. He's going to be fine.

When we believe that the blood of Jesus washed this person or

this situation, when we pleaded over our lives, it changes

everything. It changes how we look at our

current situation. And the important thing is that

when we begin to appropriate the blood of Jesus into our lives,

we see three things happen. And that's what I want to leave

with you. The first thing is you have

peace with God. Romans chapter 5 verses 9 to 10.

Romans 5:9–10

Now that we are set right with God by means of the sacrificial

death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a

question of being at odds with God in any way.

If when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with

God by the sacrificial death of his Son.

But now that we are at our best, just think of how our lives will

expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life.

Isn't that amazing? When we were at our worst, we

were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of

his Son. The blood of Jesus got you

peace. Maybe you're someone who's

saying I don't understand God's ways.

He feels unkind. He feels mean.

He took away my job. He allowed my marriage to

crumble. A child that was wayward left.

How is he still good? I can't be at peace with this

God. I can't pray to him.

I don't know what the outcomes are going to look like.

It looks all over the place. It feels too unpredictable.

I want you to remember that when you appropriate the blood into

your life, you come into this place of, I should say, just

this casual relaxation when it comes into being in the hands of

God. You realize that God.

Yes, I'm having these health issues, but you've got it.

Your blood has washed me clean. Bio stripes.

I am healed. I'll be OK.

The blood unites us with God. It makes peace with him so that

I begin to view his ways through the lens of his beautiful

character, Not through my expectations, because my

expectations are so warped. But I begin to look at him and

say, Lord, I know that you have a plan.

Even in this, even in this huge set back.

I know you have a plan, and the blood of Jesus does this.

When you appropriate and say, Lord, I apply your blood upon

this particular situation which is disturbed, disturbing me so

much, he'll begin to give you fresh perspective where you will

start to accept his sovereignty in your life.

That's the beautiful thing. The blood of Jesus enables you

to accept that he is God. He can do as He pleases, but he

will do good. He will turn anything around for

good, for his glory. The second thing is when we

appropriate the blood of Jesus, we have peace with ourselves.

Isaiah chapter 53, verses two to six.

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

It says the servant grew up before God.

A scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field.

There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us

to take a second look. He was looked down on and passed

over a man who suffered, who knew pain first hand.

One look at him and people turned away.

We looked down on him, thought he was scum, but the fact is it

was our pains. He carried our disfigurements,

all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on

himself that God was punishing him for his own failures, but it

was our sins that did that to him that ripped and tore and

crushed him our sins. He took the punishment and that

made us whole. Through his bruises we get

healed. We are all like sheep who

wandered off and gotten lost. We've all done our own thing,

gone our own way, and God has piled all our sins, everything

we have done wrong on him, on him by it says he took the

punishment and that made us whole spirit, soul and body.

So often the reason we feel out of control all over the place is

because they're not In Sync. We feel discordant because

stuff's going on inside, but we're speaking something

different. We're acting in a different way,

but God is saying that because of the blood that was spilt on

your behalf, that blood doesn't just physically heal you, it

heals you spiritually. It heals your emotions.

It heals every part of your life so that at the end of your life

you are completely whole. When you're presented to God

himself, isn't that amazing? So your dislocated parts of your

life, your wounded, broken pieces, will come together when

the blood of Jesus washes over you.

I love the description for Shalom that Eugene Peterson

gives. He says it's a vibrating

wholeness that resonates throughout your being.

It's that abundance that Jesus talked about in John 1010.

I have come that you may have. Life in abundance is basically

peace that holds all the bits together.

Isn't that amazing? And so that's what happens.

When we appropriate the blood of Jesus on ourselves, we have

peace with ourselves. When we appropriated the blood

of Jesus on ourselves, we have peace with God and we finally

have peace with one another. One Corinthians, chapter 10,

verses 16 to 17, it says, is the cup of blessing which we bless

at the Lord's Supper not a sharing in the blood of Christ?

Indeed it is. Is the bread which we break, not

a sharing in the body of Christ. Indeed it is.

Since there is one bread, we believers, who are many, are

united into one body. For we all partake of the one

bread which represents the body of Christ.

That is what we do at communion. When we actually partake of the

Lord's table, we are actually uniting ourselves with others

whom the blood connected us with.

Today, the body of Christ is our greatest gift.

I love that when we go to another country, we go to

another city. The minute you see a fellow

follower of Jesus, you know the connection which comes as so

uncanny. We may look different, we may

have different languages, we may be part of different

denominations. But the fact that we love Jesus

unites us so fast. It's important that we apply the

blood of Jesus over our relationships because then we

truly experience peace. Will there be discord?

Will there be issues? Yes.

But the blood of Jesus brings peace.

The blood of Jesus unites US against all odds, however

different we are. No matter what our upbringings,

no matter what our socio economic status looks like, the

blood of Jesus brings us together.

Even as I close, I want to just ask you this.

Do you know Jesus for yourself? We often take it for granted

that as you're listening in that you know the Lord personally.

But if you don't know Jesus, I would encourage you to make a

decision today. It's a very simple thing, like I

began. John introduced John the

Baptist, introduced Jesus, his cousin, saying, look, the Lamb

of God that takes away the sins of the world.

You and I primarily have to admit that we are sinners in

need of a saviour. And if you are someone who's

saying I need Jesus, I I've heard of him, He seems nice, but

I feel so sinful on my own. I don't think I can save myself.

I need Jesus. Can I lead you into a very

simple prayer? It's a prayer where we just say,

Lord, I'm a Sinner. I need you.

I believe that you sent your son.

I believe that he died for me. I believe that he rose again.

And I believe that he's going to walk with me into eternity, that

I'm going to have a life full of purpose.

That's all it takes. It's that simple a prayer.

And the beautiful thing is that as soon as you pray that prayer,

you first of all become part of the body of Christ of which he's

the head. But more importantly, your sins

are immediately washed. You have access to the Holy of

Holies, the presence of God himself.

And not just that, it doesn't end with that.

You now have access to the new life, a life that is filled,

where you have power to overcome the things that you were a slave

to before. So, as I pray, would you repeat

the simple prayer after me? This is for those who don't know

Jesus. Heavenly Father, I admit that

I'm a Sinner. I admit that I cannot save

myself. I need a Saviour.

I invite Jesus, the Son of God into my life.

I believe that he came to earth, died for me, rose again, and is

now alive in heaven. I believe that he now lives in

me and will be with me as I navigate life here on earth.

I love you. Heavenly Father, thank you for

choosing me and setting me apart to know you in Jesus name.

Amen. Amen.

Welcome to the family of God. You belong to Jesus now.

You're one of his. You're a child of God.

You have incredible things lying ahead of you.

So I just want to congratulate you as you've started this

incredible journey. The blood of Jesus has washed

you. It has set you apart.

If you have never appropriated the blood of Jesus into your

life, if you feel I have used every other covering known to

man, you know, much like Adam and Eve, when they sinned, they

took fig leaves and tried to cover themselves.

But God knew that was such an insufficient thing because the

minute you plucked a leaf off its stalk and put it on you, it

would wither. It's not a permanent covering.

The blood of Jesus is a permanent covering.

It covers you so that when you stand before the throne, you are

counted as righteous. It covers you.

It cleanses you. It wipes away everything.

It speaks God's love over you. It speaks his mercy and

forgiveness over you. And so I want to ask that if you

have never appropriated this love, you've never claimed it

over your life. You've never pleaded it over

your life. Today I want to lead you in that

prayer, believing that as you do so, you're going to have peace

with God. Maybe you've been wrestling with

God. Maybe you've been saying God.

I don't want certain things that you are promising because it

feels like it comes with strings attached.

I don't know your heart, God. Maybe you've been struggling

with yourself, with ailment after ailment, set back, after

set back, Emotional, physical, financial, any area, he says.

I want to bring peace within yourself.

Maybe you've been struggling relationally in your family with

your friends. Plead the blood of Jesus over

those relationships. Can we do that together?

Father in heaven, we just thank you because you are here.

We thank you for the great gift of your Son, Jesus, how much it

must have pained you to watch your son go through that

suffering at the hands of other image bearers.

Thank you, Father, for that plan of redemption.

Thank you for the perfect sacrifice that Jesus was.

And even now, Lord, we just plead the blood of Jesus upon

ourselves, upon our families, upon our circumstances, upon our

homes of Father, that you would fill every place with your

fullness, that you would bring peace like never before.

I pray your Father, that you will wash away everything that

is not of you, that God you will open up, Lord, areas that have

been so dark and dank to the brilliance of your light and

presence. Father, I pray where negativity

has spoken into our lives that Lord the blood of Jesus would

speak life and truth and hope Once we pray in the name of

Jesus and believe that we are covered by the blood of the

Lamb. We thank you that your blood

flows through our veins today. We thank you that you are

healing us from deep within at the DNA level.

You're bringing healing, Lord of the emotional level, you're

bringing healing. Father, thank you that our

spirits, which have been dead for very long, are being revived

by the blood of Jesus. We thank you, Lord, that by your

stripes we are healed. We thank you that the

chastisement that I should have been on us was on you.

And because of that, Lord, today we are set free.

We thank you, We love you, We glorify you.

We pray that Lord our lives would scream and shout of Your

grace, your mercy and your forgiveness.

We submit ourselves to you, cover us with your precious

blood. In Jesus name I pray.

Amen. Amen.

God bless you, even as you get into this last two days of the

Lent season. Can I just ask that you would

take some time on this weekend to just spend some time with the

Lord? Ask him to show you things that

maybe you missed in the past 40 days.

Ask him to reveal himself clearer than before, and maybe

you haven't had the time to pray or intercede for someone.

But if you could spend some time this weekend just pleading the

blood of Jesus on yourself and asking God to move in a powerful

way, can you do that? I hope you can.

God bless you. God bless you.

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