Why You Need A Blood Donation Series

1. Title: Why You Need a Blood Donation – first hour edition

2. Text: Hebrews 9

3. Audience: Villa Heights Christian Church, AM crowd., August 27, 2006, in the series “Nothing Better Than The Best”

4. Objectives:

-for the people to understand the meaning of atonement, why it is necessary, and how we are able to have it n Jesus only

-for the people to feel needful of forgiveness before God and grateful to have it in Jesus

-for the people to share the need and meaning of the atonement with someone else who needs it; to express thanks to God for the precious blood of Jesus, especially during the time around the Lord’s Table.

5. When I finish my sermon I want my audience to have a much greater appreciation for the blood of Jesus and plan to share it with someone this week and the weeks ahead.

6. Type: expository

7. Dominant Thought: The blood of Jesus is the sinner’s only hope to be truly made whole

8. Outline:

Intro: October 22, if I can get all the details worked out, I’m going to see if we can have another blood drive at VHCC. I’d encourage you, if you’re able, to plan on donating blood. It fulfills a real need, and it’s another way that our church family can be visibly serving our community. If I could have gotten it done on shorter notice, I would have had it today – to make a point. This morning we’re going to talk about blood – and why you need a blood donation.

Why a blood donation? Giving blood? – that’s pretty significant. Some people pass out having it done. Some people even pass out watching it done! Wouldn’t some other kind of donation be easier? Navel lint? Ear wax? When’s the last time someone passed out because of a Q-tip? Start drawing blood, and that’s serious stuff. That’s the point. Blood is serious stuff.

Story - Early in 1998, my dad was home in FL recovering from a surgery. He seemed to be doing well, but no one knew that a blood vessel in his stomach had been weakened by the procedure. He awoke one morning, feeling sick, and suddenly began to vomit his own blood, in huge amounts. He was literally bleeding to death inside, and fast. They rushed him to the hospital, where they immediately began to give him blood. They located and stopped the hemorrhage, but it was too late – he had lost so much blood that his heart stopped. They continued to give him blood, shocked him with a defibrillator, and got his heart started again. By the time they had him settled, he had received 11 units of whole blood. Dad recovered from that episode, but there was no way he would have survived it without donated blood.

250 years ago, the medical world didn’t realize just how vital blood was. In fact, “bleeding” was a debated but fairly common medical practice. Doctors figured if you’re sick, you’re blood is bad, so the way to cure it is to remove that bad blood. Historians agree that George Washington died in part due to the 2 pints of blood they bled from him when he was sick. We’ve learned some things since then.

You can’t live without blood. We understand that it’s significant. Rather than saying, “People are being injured or dying” we often talk about how they’re “shedding blood.”

Ill - When Andy was just a few years old and he’d get a scrape or a cut. He was fine with it, that is, until he saw that he was bleeding. Then, he’d go ballistic! Why? Because blood is significant…especially when it’s yours and you’re looking at it! When it’s separated from our body, it means that life has either been lost or endangered or compromised somehow. Or, when you’re donating it, it means that by giving up some of yours, life is being saved on the other end. There’s nothing quite like watching that donation bag fill up with your own blood while you sing, “I’ve got a river of life flowin’ out of me!” Life is in the blood.

Lev. 17:11, as God introduced sacrifices, He pointed this out. He told the Israelites that they were being given the blood of sacrificial animals to make atonement. It wasn’t their hair or their horns or their milk that made atonement. It was their blood, because it meant the life of an animal was taken away and it couldn’t be regained. Serious measures – especially if you’re the bull or goat or sheep! But it was given by God to Israel as an important ordinance. They needed a blood donation.

Leviticus 17:11 - For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.