What's So Precious About The Blood Of Jesus?

Summary

Pastor Adrian shows us why we talk about the blood of Jesus. Jesus shed His blood when He was crucified on the cross. His blood poured out and it was given as a sacrifice. His blood poured out as a sacrifice so that we could be saved, so that we could be forgiven of our sin, so that we could be changed and transformed. There's power in the blood, there's preciousness in His blood. What's so precious about the blood of Jesus for your life? How can I live within that truth? Not just take it for granted and keep it aside. How can I apply it to my life every day?

Transcript

Who's ready for the Word? Now I need a breath. Can I take a breath? Turn around to someone, tell them what you're having for lunch. And if you don't know, make it up. Tell them what you'd love to have for lunch today. What's your wish list for lunch?

It's communion. Okay, here's what we're going to do. Ushers, team, I would like you to, we're not going to take communion now, but we are going to hold our communion with us or keep it with us because I want us to be reminded as I'm talking today about the power that is represented in our communion. So if we can hand that out, hand the emblems out as we call them. Who trusts me? I trust me. Lord Jesus, don't spill it. I wouldn't want to spill it on my precious Bible that my daughter got me. I was reminded every time I get this, I look at the cover. This is my daughter got it presented to, not to Dad, to Adrian Deneen. Very formal. By, not your daughter, Ella Deneen. On the occasion of, I know she'll never live this one down, Farters Day. F-A-R-T-H-E-R-S, Farters Day, on the 3rd of September 23. So thank you Ella, it's very special and you're a very, very bright, intelligent, beautiful, powerful young woman who makes mistakes sometimes like we all do. And it's good to have my daughter on the front row, not up the back today. And so that's good. Very good.

So don't have communion now, but we're going to have whole communion and I've got a cup representing the blood of Christ.

I want to talk to you about the blood of Jesus Christ today. What's so precious about the blood of Jesus? What's so precious about the blood of Jesus?

'For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sake. Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory. You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart. For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. As the Scriptures say, “People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of the Lord remains forever.” And that word is the Good News that was preached to you.' 1 Peter 1:18-25 (NLT)

We're going to turn to 1 Peter, 1 Peter verse 18. 1 Peter 1 verse 18. For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose Him as your ransom long before the world began. But now in these last days, He has been revealed for your sake. Through Christ, you have come to trust in God and you've placed your faith and hope in God because He raised Christ from the dead and gave Him great glory. You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth. So now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart for you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal living word of God. As the scriptures say, people are like grass. Their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And that word is the good news that was preached to you.

It was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. What's so precious about the blood of Jesus?

Lord, as we come around your word and we come around communion at the end of this word today, Lord, I pray that you would reveal to us afresh in our hearts, God, not just nice words, but the power, the truth of who you are, Lord Jesus, and the power of your precious blood in our hearts and lives today, that it would impact and change our lives forever as it already has. Lord, we pray that in Jesus' precious name. Amen.

Have you ever had something that you later realised too late was of great value? Something that you didn't realise at the time, but later on you became aware, man, that was a lot more valuable than I thought it was. When I was a kid, I liked watching cricket and play in the backyard and watch it on TV and I had all my, you know, watch the Australian cricket team and there was Alan Border and Steve Waugh and all the guys. And at some point, I never used to go on competitions, but my mum or dad must have put me in this chemist, they had this competition to win a signed cricket bat. And they must have put my name down. And one day we got a phone call when people had phones in their houses back then, and we got a phone call at home and we got a call from this chemist saying, is your name Adrian? And I was like, my parents, oh, we'll put him on. And he's like, yes, it is. And they're like, you've just won the prize. And the prize was a grey nickels cricket bat signed by the Australian cricket team. That's pretty awesome, isn't it? That's something precious and powerful and beautiful. And you would think that I got that and framed that. And my parents, you would have thought, mum and dad, if you're watching, you would have thought that they knew that maybe we should put that aside and keep that because that has high value. But no, they said, here you go, son. You didn't have a cricket bat, now you do. And I went, awesome. And I went outside, got my sister, and I said, right, we're sitting on the pavement outside. I said, right, start, I'm batting, you start bowling. And we started playing with this cricket bat. That became my cricket bat that I used to use. And I'd use it every day. And I'd ground along the ground and hit it and things like they did. And I was like hitting against the pavement and the bottom got all torn. And I used it so much, the rubber on the handle got all wrecked and came off. And when I looked at it, it got all dents in the thing. And where Steve Waugh's name is, it sort of got all faded because it got all grass and stains and dirt and dented. And I stored that cricket bat in the shed out the back. Finished and just threw it in the shed. I'm like, I thought about that the other day. I'm like, that's probably still there. This faded cricket bat with all of the Australian cricket players' names on it. Some of you guys are aghast. You're like, you're going Adrian. But you could have passed that on as an inheritance to your daughter and her children and their children. Instead, that's it. It's probably been thrown out now because it had great value, but I didn't realise it. The names of the Australian cricket team. Have you ever had something like that where you go, you realise later, you know when you watch those shows and they've just been having something hiding in the cupboard. And they go, I'm going to go get this valued. I bought this for two bucks from the op shop. And the guy goes, this is worth £15,000. That's like, it's a chipped thing. And he's like, because it comes from this era of the whatever, blah, blah, blah. And they didn't realise that they were sitting on absolute precious possessions and just sitting them in the cupboard, throwing them in the shed.

I want to tell you, my friends, you know where I'm going. The blood of Jesus Christ, the precious blood of Jesus is more precious than any of that, is far more precious than gold or silver or anything else in this world. And if you've given your life to Christ, you have His blood. It has been poured out for you and it is precious to you, but we can just leave it in the shed. We can just leave it in the cupboard and not apply it to our lives and not realise the incredible value that the blood of Jesus has.

If you're a new Christian or someone who hasn't grown up in church, talking about the blood of Christ sounds weird to you, doesn't it? Who thinks it's a little bit weird that the church keeps talking about blood, the blood of Jesus? Yeah, there's a few of us. And it's like, that's weird. Well, I want to talk to you about why do we talk about the blood? Jesus, what we're talking about is the fact that He shed His blood when He was crucified on the cross. His blood poured out and it was given as a sacrifice. His blood poured out as a sacrifice so that we could be saved, so that we could be forgiven of our sin, so that we could be changed and transformed. There's power in the blood, there's preciousness in His blood. What's so precious about the blood of Jesus for your life? And hopefully by the end of today, you'll say, I've got to apply that more. His blood is so precious. How can I live within that truth? Not just take it for granted and keep it aside. How can I apply it to my life every day? Is that okay?

So we're going to go, I'm going to give you four reasons today on why the blood of Jesus is so precious.

It Shows Us His Power

The first one is this, it shows us His power. It shows us His power. The blood of Jesus, when it was shed on the cross, they didn't realise back then, but that His blood was the most precious thing in the universe. Peter says it here. He says it's far more precious. It wasn't just mere gold or silver, which lose their value and go up and down and get tarnished and forgotten. This was the blood of Christ. Do you know that there was no one else and there will never be and has never been anyone else like Jesus and there's nothing else like His blood. His blood is more powerful and more precious than anything else in the universe. And it was poured out for you. There is power in His blood.

Who knows the song? There is power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of the Lamb. Power, wonder-working power in the blood of the Lamb. There is power, power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of the Lamb. Who knows that one? About five of us? Yeah, come on. And the rest of you are going, Adrian, thank the Lord that you're not leading worship and secondly that we're not singing those songs anymore. But that's one of the songs I grew up singing.

There is power in the blood. There is power to save, power to heal, power to transform. When Jesus' blood was shed, He wasn't just sacrificing Himself. He was overcoming sin. He was overcoming death.

And I want to tell you this. I saw this illustration the other day that gives us a good example of this. It's now common for people to get tattoos, right? And many of us probably have one. And I'm too chicken to get a tattoo. So I'm not going through the pain. And so I haven't got one. But people get tattoos. Sometimes you get a tattoo and then people can regret that sometimes. Like if they get, you know, they love so-and-so and then the relationship lasts a month and they just got carried away in the moment. And then it's like, that's on my arm forever now. And they don't want to have it on their arm forever. So they want to get it removed, you know. So people want to sometimes get a tattoo removed. But it's very difficult, isn't it? It's very difficult because the pigment of the ink has been on purpose put deep into your skin and it doesn't come off. You can't just wash it off. It's there. And even as you get older, it stays there. It stays there. And so there's different methods of trying to remove tattoos. And one of them involves laser light. And they put these high beam laser light into where the ink is. And you have to go for multiple sessions. But as they do the light, what happens is it dislodges some of the pigment deep beneath the skin and it breaks it up. And as it gets broken up, what then happens is that the body's immune system and the fluids in the body, the blood, the lymph system, it flushes out those broken up pigments. And so it's washed out of the body bit by bit. And then you go back and you get the laser light onto it and it breaks up more pigments and then it gets washed out.

And I thought this is an example, if you think about it, of what happens to us spiritually when Jesus comes and saves us. Because here in this scripture, we've got two things going on. We've got the precious blood of Jesus Christ. And as you heard me read before, and some of you are saying amen as I did, he says this, your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal living word of God. The word of the Lord remains forever. And I thought you've got these two things happening here. See, our lives in some ways, the sin and pain of our lives, the hurts that happen to us that we've caused to others, they're like tattoos, aren't they? Who's got some regrets in this life? Regrets that have happened to us. And you know what? They don't get forgotten. You can't just forget those things. They stay like a stain. You can't see them like an obvious mark, but they're internal. They're internal in our hearts and our ways of thinking. Sin is like that. Sin puts a mark on us that wrecks us and hurts us and we wish it would go.

We find other ways. Some people, we try and find other ways, or all of us try and find other ways to get rid of the hurt and the stain through different things, bravado or substance abuse or relationships. We're trying to find other ways. But there is only one way to get rid of the stain of sin and the pain of our past and our hurts and all those things. And that is through the word of God spoken into our hearts. It's like the laser light that pierces and speaks truth. The word of the Lord. See, everything else fades away but the word of God, the truth that Jesus spoke. Jesus Christ is the word, the living word of God that speaks into our hearts and lives. It breaks up the bits of pain and sin and brokenness and the blood of Christ, the sacrifice, His blood shed. What happens? It washes away as we hear the word.

And I want to ask you, are you allowing the power, His power, the power of the blood, the power of the word of God, are you allowing it to penetrate your life? Because we've all got areas, don't we? We've all got areas. And I've watched many of us as Christians and many times myself, I've got areas in my life and I'll go, no, I'm not listening to the word. I'm not letting the laser light of God. The word is like a two-edged sword and it says it cuts deep, deep into the marrow and it gets deep into us. No, I don't want that. But you've got to let the word of God speak into your heart and life. And then He'll start breaking up things. He'll start challenging that. And then if you just go, oh, I've just got truth and I've just got... Then you need grace. See, the word of God says that Jesus was full of grace and truth. The word spoke and broke up the sin and the degradation and the pain and the regret. And then the blood of Christ, His grace comes and washes away.

And that's what you've got to do. If you want to be changed, there's power in the blood, friends. It'll wash you clean. There's power in the blood to save. There's power in the blood to restore. There's power in the blood to heal. I was praying for someone up the back in our prayer meeting for healing and I started claiming the blood of Christ over their life. I said, there is power in Jesus' blood to heal your life. There's power in Jesus' blood to restore relationships. There's power in the blood of Jesus as His word penetrates and you receive truth. There's power to get rid of your guilt. Some of us are carrying guilt, brothers and sisters. We're carrying regret of our lives. And I want to tell you, when you come to Jesus, there is power to say, Lord, here I am. Your word has penetrated my heart. I realise I want to change. I want to be restored. I want to be transformed. And then the blood of Christ applied to your life washes away our guilty stains and it makes us white as snow.

Isn't this what we believe? Have you applied it to your life? Are you applying that truth to your life? When you feel like rubbish, when you feel like guilt, when you feel like the sin won't go, that temptation and that habit won't leave me. God, I want to apply your word and the blood of Christ to my life. That's the first thing. It shows us His power. That's why He's so precious.

It Shows Us Our Price

The second thing is this. The blood of Jesus Christ shows us our price. It shows us our price. It says this in verse 18, For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Jesus. There has a price has been put on your life. A value has been placed on you. Do you know that? Do you realize that you walk through life many times subconsciously aware that there's a value on your life and you're trying to work out what it is? You're trying to work out what it is. How valuable am I? And do you know how you rate that value? You rate that value by what someone said about you, how they treat you. You rate that value by how your friends have treated you, how your parents have treated you. You rate that value by what society says about you.

And do you realize that we have all kinds of values placed on us? And you go, well, am I valued? Sometimes we go, I was valued when I'm young and I felt confident. Then I got older and then I felt devalued. Like I wasn't as important anymore because society or people didn't treat me as important. A relationship broke down and I felt devalued and I felt like the price of my life, what I was worth, wasn't very high. Do you know who else puts a value on you? You do. You think about it. If you talk to people really authentically and honestly about how they value themselves, you'll find many of us don't place a very high value on our lives. Because we know our weaknesses, don't we? We know how other people have treated us. We feel it. And so we carry a burden of saying, I mustn't be that important. I mustn't be that important. We carry the hurts and pains. We carry things like the way different people groups are treated. We carry the ideas of the way racism exists in our world. Are they treating me that way? And then we carry that internally, how our parents brought us up. All those things, we value ourselves.

Well, here's the reality. Your value, your price, your worth, how do we rate something's worth? We rate it by what? By the highest bid price, don't we? The highest price. If I go to a house and want to buy a house, who gets that house? What's that house worth? It's worth the highest price someone's willing to pay for it. If someone comes in with a low ball offer and if that gets attributed, that house isn't worth the lowest offer, it's worth the highest offer, is it not? And so your life's the same. The price on your life is the same. The price on your life, it is worth the highest bid price. Who's willing to pay the highest price for your life? That becomes your value. It doesn't matter what you think. It doesn't matter what your parents think. It doesn't matter. Or of course those things matter, but actually they're not the ultimate truth. And this is the beautiful truth of Christianity. The truth of Christianity is that we know our highest price. You know our highest price, do you not? Because it just read it here. It just was written here for you. You know that God paid a ransom. And what did He pay? He didn't pay in saying, here's a bunch of gold, here's a bunch of silver. You know what? You're worth this much. You're worth this much. He didn't rate and go, look, Alex, you've got a beautiful singing voice. You know what? I'm paying more for you. But you know what, Adrian? Yeah, you know what, mate? Paying a bit less for you. That's what human beings do. You know what God did? He saw us and He said, I pay equally for every single human being and I don't pay with mere gold or silver. I pour out the highest priceless thing that exists in the universe, my son's blood, the precious blood of Christ. What's your price? Your price is priceless. Your price, your value before God is the highest value.

You can read it through Romans. The angels, these majestic beings stand in awe of who you are. Do you know why? Because God made you and He bought you with a price higher than any other price in the universe. You are exalted beyond any other creature in the universe. Your price is so high. And I want to tell you, you and I need to live in the truth of that because too many of us are walking around devaluing ourselves. Isn't that true? I do it. You do it. Someone says something mean about us and I feel rejected. I walk into a room and I'm not the most powerful person in the room and maybe those people are using their power to belittle and push down a little bit and I feel like I'm devalued. Maybe I walk into church and someone doesn't say hello to me and I feel, oh, that's because you're not that special. That's because you're not important. Oh, they're important up there. All those thoughts going on and on and on and on. When you have a greater truth, you have a higher price.

Imagine what your life could be like if you walked everywhere. You walked into your workplace, into your school with your mates and you walked around with the truth that God himself has paid the highest price possible for me. The blood of Christ, the precious blood of Christ. That will change your life. And here's the thing, as Christians, it should change our lives. As Christians, my value, that's why the Christians could be thrown into the coliseum and thrown to the lions and the animals and killed but they said, you don't get to value me, Caesar. You don't get to value me, Rome. My value has been placed by God. I'm loved by God. I'm lifted up by God. My value, my price is so much higher.

And then because of that, he goes on to say, therefore, how should you live? Here's the thing, we've got this wrong in church.

'So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.” '1 Peter 1:14-16 (NLT)

In verse 14 of this passage, it says, so you must live as God's obedient children. Don't slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn't know any better then but now you must be holy in everything you do just as God who chose you is holy. For the scriptures say you must be holy because I'm holy.

We get this wrong. We think that God demands you live a certain way because he's holy and he just demands you live holy. That's what it sort of sounds like, doesn't it? God places demands on me otherwise I don't please him and I upset God and he gets very angry and upset. Actually, that's not how God works. God's not demanding you live a holy life. What he's saying to you is he's saying, I want you to see the truth. I want you to understand that I have placed a price on you that's higher than any other price. I've placed a value on you and do you know what? I just want you to see that value. And when you see the value that I've placed on you, when you realise the blood that I've poured out for you, you will say, why would I live a lesser life?

Do you know sin is just the lesser life? It's just a devalued life, is it not? Think of all the different sins. Oh, that's pleasure for a moment. No, you're just devaluing yourself. I can do what I want, Adrian. You can't stop me. That's right. Well done. I've realised that as a pastor. I can't make anyone do anything and God doesn't make any of us do anything either. He tries to give us a revelation that says your life is far higher value. Why would you, you know, we talk about the overt, open. Why would you take drugs and alcohol and devalue yourself and your worth for a moment of pleasure that actually leads to more pain? The Bible talks about sexual sin. Why? And young people get caught up in this. Young people are like, what am I allowed to do? What am I allowed to do before God's like, naughty? And then we try and push the boundaries. Oh, well, maybe this and that and the other. Okay, you're asking the wrong question. You're looking at it in the wrong way. Because God isn't against sex. He created it. He understands it. What God's trying to say is if you value yourself the way I value you, you won't want to degrade yourself with other ways of living in what the Bible calls sexual sin, which is just devaluing yourself for a moment of pleasure. And it's silly, friends. And I know it's tempting. And I know it's there. But can I encourage us to say, stop trying to go and look at how far can I go and what can I do and what can I get away with and instead focus on the value that God's placing? What price is he placed on me? What does that mean? Who am I?

If you're a young woman in this place, your value is far higher than this world puts on you. Males, caught up in, oh, I just want pleasure for a moment. And it can be pleasurable. But you know what? It's not the value that you are. Sex is created for a relation. This is why sex in marriage, I've heard it talked about. Why is sex in God created sex within marriage? Because he says that level of intimacy, that level of giving yourself to someone else and the intimacy and the vulnerability, I want it to be someone who's committed their life to you, who said, I love you, not for your body, not for a moment of pleasure, but for who you are. I value you the way Jesus values you. And because of that, I commit my life to you. So when you go through pain and suffering, I commit to you. And we got a world saying, oh, try sex before you get married. No, no, no, we got it wrong. Because sex is made for people who've said, I'm there for you no matter what. That's the love of Christ. That's the value.

If you truly value yourself, then that's why we should do those things. That's why we should live holy lives. Because my price is higher than this world places on me. I know that's, it's not hard. It's just truth. It's real and it's liberating. And the world wants to live your life as if your price is higher than it places on you. You get treated like rubbish by your employer. You get treated. It's like, that's not your price. Jesus placed the price on you. God the Father placed the price and it is precious and beautiful and holy and righteous.

So live in it friend, be liberated from the ways of this world. That's why the blood of Christ is so precious.

It Shows Our Purpose

The third thing is it shows our purpose because when you realize what the blood of Christ has done, that he has power to liberate us and cleanse us from sin and pain and condemnation. When you realize that he's set our prices higher than any other being in this universe, then you realize your purpose. And he says it here to us, Peter flows on.

'You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart. ' 1 Peter 1:22 (NLT)

He says so many things, but he goes on and he says, you were in verse 22, you were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth. So now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters, love each other deeply with all your heart. That's why we have our vision, love God, love people, change lives. Because when you realize the blood of Christ and what he's done in your heart and your life and the value he's placed on you, the transformation he's given you, you know what you want to do? You realize your purpose. I want to pass that on to everyone I meet. I want everyone else to discover that this love is for them. We're not an isolated club. The church is not some specialized club that we go, oh, you're not allowed in here. The church is open doors. Isn't that who we are? That you can go to your friends and family and everyone you know and say, this truth that I've discovered is for you too. Go and love people. That's the hardest thing on earth. How can you do that? You've got to see the blood. You've got to see the blood of Christ poured out selflessly. What a sacrifice.

Have you had a revelation of what the blood of Christ? You're holding that thing that Jesus Christ died for you while you were still a sinner. So how should I treat those around me? We've got to get better. We've got to grow. I've got to get a better revelation because people are annoying. They're annoying on the roads. Aren't they Ella? Ella just got her L plates. Well done Ella. Well done. She's had a revelation that the annoyance her dad sometimes shows on the road sometimes comes down on her when she stalls the car for the fifth time. She's getting a lot better. But Ella turned to me the other day and she said, dad, this is true. She goes, dad, you've got to get more encouraging. You've got to be more like mum. She goes, mum encourages me. She's helpful. I was like, listen, I was like, it's true Ella. Yes, you're right. All right. It's true. Okay. That's my own daughter. And I go, we got to show more love and more grace to each other. Don't we? It's hard to do because we're caught up in ourselves. But when I see the blood of Christ, you know what it makes me realise? Christ poured himself out while I was still a sinner. God, can you help me live like that? Can you help me show that love to others? The person in the restaurant, the person at the shops, the stranger, the neighbour, my spouse, my kids, my parents, my friends. They said something that wasn't fair. It hurt me a little bit. God, I'm going to pour out just like you poured out your blood and your grace on me. I'm going to pour it out on them. Let's love each other deeply.

It's hard to do. That's why, you know, the church goes on and people outside, they go, oh, you're a bunch of hypocrites. You don't do what you say. No. And you know what? They're right. None of us live exactly the way that we're supposed to live. We know that. We're not really hypocrites. We're here saying, yeah, we're not getting it all right, but we're trying to live the way that Jesus would live. We're trying to let the blood wash over us and then we're trying to pass it on in our family.

Can I encourage you, fathers in your home, let the blood flow through you and let the love flow through you. Your purpose is to love your family, not just to provide, not just to say, obey and do what you're told. It's to love deeply from your heart. Wives, find a way. Kids, find a way to love your parents because they love you even though they're not perfect. It shows our purpose in God.

It Shows Our Paternity

And then the fourth one is this. We've got three so far. What's so precious about the blood of Christ? It shows His power. It shows our price, our value. It shows our purpose. And the fourth one, the most beautiful one to me, it shows our paternity.

Your paternity. Who is your parent? Who's your father? What bloodline do you come from? It's interesting, isn't it? The blood that flows through us and flows into our family, through our family, it affects all of us. It affects the way you look. It affects the colour of your skin. It affects your culture. It affects your personality. I don't know whether to be proud or saddened for my daughter when people say, you're like your dad. I'm like, I'm sorry, Ella. I'm sorry. But she is. She's got my personality. The blood flows strong. I'm praying more that we get more of that encouragement side from my beautiful wife in there. It is there, Ella. The blood from your mum and dad, from your grandparents flows through you, doesn't it?

Do you know it has such a huge effect? I was reading a book the other day. I didn't even know this, but I was reading about some of the history in the last 100 years of Korean people. And isn't it interesting? These major things happen in history and you don't even look at them because they're not part of your group. And I was looking at, just reading about Korean people and what happened is, in the early 20th century, the Japanese came into Korea and basically annexed it. They took over and they took control of Korea. And they weren't very kind to the Korean people. They treated them as, they were racist. They treated them as lesser than them and you couldn't get certain jobs and you were treated in certain ways. And they were called lazy and they were called, it's in your blood, the Korean blood. They're lazy, they're deceitful. It's the same kind of racist garbage that we've heard throughout history. And it happened to them. And I was reading this book and saw the pain that that caused, the suffering, the subjugation, the abuse that happened, just because your blood happened to be Korean. I think these, some Korean people, they moved over to Japan because their connections were there and they got over. And in Japan, they couldn't, even if you were born in Japan, but you had Korean blood, you couldn't become a Japanese citizen. And you were treated as sub-jobs and racism and derogatory comments and all this stuff. The story's told, someone was telling me last night, I read about it in Korea, they took young women who, and they told them, hey, we're going to give you jobs in China, because they're taken in parts of China as well. We're going to give you jobs in China. And they took them during World War II. And these young women thinking they were getting jobs and they sold them into sexual slavery. Why? Because of the blood, they were Korean and they took advantage of it. The blood has such power, but it causes so much pain.

My dad came over, he's coming back this week. My dad's going to be moving over to Melbourne. So you might see a little bit more of him in the next few months. He came over and we're sitting around the table and we were talking about the blood from his family. And we hear a lot about my Italian side, my mum's side, but I don't talk a lot about my dad's side. And his grandparents, they came over from Prussia. A part of Germany, or it's part of Germany now, or part of Poland, but it was Prussia, they were German, Germanic. And they came over on the boat and they moved to Queensland. And we were talking about the fact that basically, you wouldn't be able to tell that from my dad's name, from his language, from any of the culture, from the food they eat, that any German food, the closest my dad gets, he likes sausages. But there's no kind of heritage that we remember. We were saying, why is that? And my dad had this big thing of the family tree that had been passed down. He was the youngest, it passed to him, and he just gave it to me. He didn't look through it much. I said, why is that, dad? Why haven't you got this pride in your family line? And he said, he goes, Adrian, I think it was because there was so much pain and so much abuse that happened. His father had gone through a whole bunch of stuff and his dad became an alcoholic, became quite abusive. And there was shame that was carried within that bloodline. And so they don't talk about it. My dad was one of eight. And all the pain and shame that his dad, my grandfather died when my dad was 13 of a heart attack. He'd gotten saved in the last year of his life, but so much pain had been caused beforehand. And over the years, the brothers and sisters have slowly passed away, but they hardly talk to each other because they're struggling with the pain.

Some of you know what I'm talking about. You know, the pain of your family, the pain, it's so much shame in there. It's hard to face and you don't want to talk about it, but it causes disintegration of relationships. And you carry that shame, that pain. My dad carried it and it affected his whole life. And then I realized one day as I was growing up, my dad went through, and I've told some of this story before, but my dad's and mom's marriage ended. And there was a lot of pain and shame. My dad was working through and all of that. Then my mom carried the shame of being an unmarried or divorced woman. And I realized in my blood, I was carrying shame. I was walking into church and feeling like I wasn't worth something because I belong to this family. And no one would say anything. But in my head, I went there thinking stuff. They're treating me that way because my dad's no longer here. He used to be a pastor, but now he's in shame and pain. And look, we don't talk about that side of the family because the blood is tainted.

We've all got that. Some of us in our blood, some of us are proud of who we are. We should be proud of our heritage, but you know what? We've been mistreated. Some of us have gone through racism or your parents went through that. And it's still there that the pain of some of that is still there in the blood, because human beings, we do this to each other. The blood gets tainted. And this is why it's been such a beautiful revelation of my life to realize that the blood of Jesus Christ, when I accepted Him as Lord and Savior, I became part of a new family and I got a new precious, perfect father. And my blood, my bloodline, my family is now a higher family that I don't need to be tainted by my past anymore. That's still there. And God wants to work through those things. But the way He does that is He says, you're part of a new family now. And whatever's happened in your past, whatever's happened to your parents, whatever's been done to you, whatever people say because of who you are, because of the blood you carry. Some of us have got a bloodline. We've got frailties or sicknesses or things in us that people look at us and go, oh, that's because of this or that's because of this.

Jesus' blood gives you a new family, a new paternity. That's why you have a look around this room. People of all different walks of life, different ages, different statuses, social statuses, different countries. We're all in the family of God because the blood flows through all of us. You're my brother. You're my sister. We've been made clean and pure. And guess what? That bloodline doesn't have all the taints. That bloodline is straight from Christ. He's perfect. He's beautiful. He's holy.

Do you realise that you are a son and daughter of the Most High God? Your paternity has changed. I'm a new creation. I'm a new creation. I'm being cleansed from my sin.

'For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. As the Scriptures say, “People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of the Lord remains forever.” And that word is the Good News that was preached to you.' 1 Peter 1:23-25 (NLT)

Verse 23, Not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever. There's a lot of pain in our blood. But there is purity and promise in the blood of Christ. And it is yours. So I want to ask you how you're living. It's nice to grab communion. We're going to hear this song again. Alex, the team are going to lead us in. And what you hold in your hand is the little emblem. And it can mean nothing to you if you want it to. You can walk out of this place and it can mean absolutely nothing. Or you can look at that little emblem, that juice, that wafer, and you can say this represents the precious blood of Christ. And today, today, Jesus, I'm going to apply your blood in my life. I'm going to remember your power. I'm going to remember the price you placed on my life. Some of you have been pushed down. I'm looking around. Some of you, the Holy Spirit's shown me. Some of you feel so pushed down in your mind and heart. You've said such negative things to yourself. Can you remember today the price that he placed on you? More precious than gold because he loves you. He's chosen you. Remember our purpose to love those around us. So Lord, help me, help me to show that love. And remember your paternity, that you have a heavenly father, that your bloodline has been cleansed, that you've been made whole, that you've been clean, and you're part of a new family now. And you can stand tall and proud, not because of the things you did, but because of what Jesus did for you.

Isn't that beautiful? Don't you want the world to know? I want the world to know my Jesus saved me and He can save you. Make you part of my family. You're welcome. You're welcome in my family. You're welcome in His family. You're welcome with me. Come on. I was broken. I was hurt. I was disillusioned, but He welcomed me and He cleansed me and changed me, and He can do the same for you. That's the precious blood of Jesus. So take that. And as Alex leads us today, when you're ready, I want you to take that communion, and I want you to thank the Lord and let it flow through you afresh this morning.

And in this place, why don't we just bow our heads and close our eyes for a moment. Some people in this place, maybe you're watching. Jesus died for you. He paid that price for you. Do you realize that? No one's ever valued you as highly as He has. He did it because He loves you. He did it because He wants relationship with you. He did it because He wants to forgive you, cleanse you of every sin and give you a new life. He wants to bring you into His family. And what we're going to do right now, we're going to say a prayer together. And you say, Lord, I need to be in that family. I want to be in that family. Jesus, I need your blood to wash over me. I need you to cleanse me. Maybe you've been far away from God, but today you're coming back in close and you're saying, Jesus, it's a new day, a new life. So we're going to say this prayer all together. You say it to the Lord. If this is for you first time, we are coming back to the Lord.

Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for your blood. I believe you're the Son of God. You died on the cross for me and you rose again from the dead. So forgive me, Lord Jesus. Be my Lord and Saviour. Let your blood wash over me. Make me a son or daughter of God. I give my life to you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let's keep our heads bowed because I'm going to pray for us. I want to pray for some people. We're about to finish, but I want to pray for you because some of us need to apply the blood afresh. And this is what I'm going to ask us to do. You say, Lord, I need, what Adrian's been talking about today, Lord, what your word says, Lord, I need that to change my life and my heart. I don't want to just hear a nice word, Lord. I need to be changed. I want to be changed. God, I need to know the price that you've placed on me. I need to live in that truth. Lord, I need to give that love to others. Lord, I'm believing for your power in my family, in my body for healing. I'm going to apply the blood of Christ in my life. If that's you and you say, Adrian, will you pray for me right now? I just want you to lift out your hands before the Lord. No one's looking around, just before you and God. It's a sign of surrender. It's a sign of saying, here I am, Lord. Let the blood apply to me. Let the blood apply to me all over this place, all over this place. Maybe it's for family that you're saying they need to know the blood of Christ. Let it wash over them. Let the blood be applied to my children, their children's children, my nieces and nephews, Lord, let the blood be applied. God, I pray that the painful things of my bloodline, generational things that have carried, Lord, I'm surrendering to you and asking that the blood wash over me and my family and my children. Let those curses and those things that the devil's created to harm and destroy, let them be made as nothing by the blood of Christ. And so, Lord, right now in this house, if you're watching online, that applies to you right now. Someone watching online, there's been generational issues in your family that you feel like they've overpowered and the devil's in your mind trying to say, you'll never get through it. It'll pay passed on and passed on. And that's a lie of the devil. And he's saying, the Lord is saying to you right now, I set you free in Jesus' name by the blood of Christ shed for you. Apply it to me. You don't have to do anything but apply it and believe it and receive it. And so, Lord, right now, people all over this place watching online, we believe in the precious blood of Christ poured out for us. There's power in the blood. There's provision in the blood. There's salvation in your blood, Lord. And so, Lord, right now, we apply it to our lives. Let us know our price. Let us know our paternity. Let us know our purpose and let us know your mighty power in our lives, our family's lives and for generation to come. Rise up, mighty man and woman of God, for you've been made a son and daughter of the Most High God. And it was not with mere gold or silver, but with the precious blood of Jesus, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. Come on, we worship you, Lord. We give you honour and praise and adoration in this place. You're worthy of our love. You're worthy of our praise, God.

Come on, let's sing it one more time. The blood. The blood, the blood, the blood. Oh, yes, it is, Lord. Oh, the blood, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. The blood, the blood, the blood. One more time. The blood. Thank you, Jesus. The blood, the blood, the blood. Oh, your love, Lord. Oh, the wonderfulness, Love. Let the redeemed. Thank you, Jesus. The blood, the blood, the blood. Oh, the wonderful blood.

So, Lord, we thank you for your blood and your grace to us. Let it wash over your people. Let it wash over their lives. Let it be applied and change us from the inside out, we pray. Bless your people, I pray, in Jesus' name. And everyone said, Amen. Amen.

God bless you.

We got the new friends lunch. We got morning tea, coffee. Go have a great rest of the day.

We love you guys.