Blood, Sweat, And Tears In The Church Of God

Prayer-

Introduction-

This morning I want to talk a moment about the church.

I say by sermon title the church of God because there are churches out there that I believe never ask God what He thinks about decisions that are made in His church.

I believe there are churches that are nothing more than social meetings and feel good stations that miss what the church is suppose to be and if they would ever start being the church that God intended the church to be, there would be many people that would leave “disappointed that the church is changing”

Blood, Sweat, and tears in the church of God- it is a unique sermon title, but not unique to operating a church under the direction of Jesus Christ our Lord, the one who founded the church of God.

When you think of the term, blood, sweat and tears- Besides a 70’s rock group, you immediately think of someone who has put everything they have into the accomplishment of being successful at a particular thing.

By definition, it would be hard work and effort in a hard situation.

Some believe that this phrase was first used by Sir Winston Churchill in a 1940 speech to the British people warning them of hardship facing WWII. He said “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.” Others believe Oscar Wilde of England, and Mark Twain in the USA used the phrase first.

I think it was lived out much earlier in the life of Jesus Christ when He went to Calvary to shed His blood, sweat and tears for the church and each one of us.

The church that is operating under the blood, sweat and tears of Jesus Christ cannot be stopped! Hear me when I say it again, the church that is operating under the blood, sweat and tears of Jesus Christ is unstoppable.

I want you to see this- Exodus chapter 29- Moses directing the people of Israel and they are being told to consecrate themselves and be “set apart”- to be the people of God and accomplish the things that God intended for the people of God.

(v1) “This is what you are to do to consecrate them, so they may serve me as priest.”

It involves blood, the sacrifice of a perfect animal put on the altar of God.

The killing of one so that the other may be under the anointing and blessing of God.

For us, on this side of the cross, the bloodshed was the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Because of his sacrifice, we are able to come to a Holy and perfect God and be forgiven for our sins and have a relationship with God Almighty!

We are not perfect… He is perfect.

We share His holiness because we as believers are under his blood of atonement.

We are consecrated to God because of His shed blood.

Hold this thought- We are only saved because of the blood of Jesus Christ, the perfect sacrifice, and we must be under the blood of Christ.

Meaning, we are not perfect in ourselves, we are only acceptable to God because of what Christ did for us.

Second thought- We as believers are called to action.

We are not called to sit in these chairs and just gather on Sunday morning and not make an impact to those that we come in contact with. Sure, we are called to be discipled, to learn God’s Word, to gather together those of like-minded faith in prayer and worship.

We are asked to be sensitive to others needs and use our resources to help make this place a better place to live.

It is not just a few that are called. It is not just the pastors, the leaders, those with special talents, it is each one of us doing our part to build the kingdom of God.

There is no age limit on who can be used of God.

God calls us to sweat equity in his church.

He is wanting the church of God to move into a community and change it to the image of Christ.

To move into a community with such love that they cannot separate the two- the church and what Christ intends to do through them.

Third thought- we are called by God to have compassion on those that we come in contact with.

We must be willing to shed a tear and be praying for the lost that are all around us.

This will mean at times we are to extend our hand in love and resources and at other times, to be the warning device God uses to bring people back to him.

Whichever we are at any given moment must be done in the love of God and the ultimate goal to see restoration.