Title: The Bloodline of a Champion – 1
“The Blood: God’s Liquid Love”
Text: I Peter 1:18-19
A few years ago I bought my first blackberry ever! Corey McAllister came up to me one day and told me all that his blackberry could do and that I had to have one being the Pastor and all. He told me that the applications on that blackberry were endless. Well, needless to say, he sparked my interest. Before the blackberry I had a phone that would make phone calls. But he said the blackberry could do WAY more than a regular phone. So, he talked so highly about it, I thought I just have to have one. My life will be SO much easier if I just had one of these phones. So I went out and bought one. He wasn’t lying. It really could do all kinds of stuff. With a touch of a finger, I can access every church member and family members contact information. With a touch of a finger I can access all my e-mail, I can get on the internet. I have a built in GPS system, I can read the newspaper on this little device. All of Webster’s Dictionary is right on my phone. I check the weather on my phone, it has a camera, it has 27 versions of the Bible on this phone alone! I know, hard to believe isn’t it? All I really needed was a phone, but now I can do everything on this phone that I can do on my home computer and more! All I need to do is explore the applications. I just have to learn how to use it to apply everything it has to offer.
We have heard about the blood all of our Christian lives. And sometimes Christians think they know all about the blood of Jesus, but throughout this series we are going to learn much more about the blood. Yes, the blood washes away our sin and prepares us for Heaven. However, God wants us to increase in knowledge and application of the powerful blood of Jesus. It is the by the blood that we will overcome in these last days.
I know the phone is just a simple illustration of how much you can do if you know the applications on it, but there is much more that we as Christians can access from the blood but we must know how to access it.
A little girl was diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma cancer. After multiple treatments, the doctors concluded that without a bone marrow transplant she would not live. If a compatible donor could be found, the infused cells of the donor would travel to the bone marrow and initiate new and healthy blood cell production. An extensive search for the perfect match began in her family, friends, community and even across the United States, but it seemed as though this donor would never be found. After several months of searching, a possible match was located. What joy there was when tests confirmed they could proceed with the bone marrow transplant of the healthy donor to this little girl!
The process involved killing off the little girls own blood cells prior to introducing the bone marrow into her body. The infused blood cells of the donor would travel to the bone marrow and then initiate blood cell production.
Results of this transplant are quite amazing and can be compared to the new birth of someone who receives Jesus as their Saviour. The little girl’s body was drastically changed forever. Not only was the unseen bone marrow and blood type completely changed and her health restored, but her skin, hair and eye color were also forever altered to match that of the one who donated their blood. Now, if the little girl ever needed an organ transplant in the future, the match would not be found in her natural family, but in that of the donors.
This little girl was dying from an incurable condition in her bone marrow, which is the source of your blood. The bone marrow transplant brought new life to this little girl and changed her very nature and physical characteristics.
In the same way, because of Adam’s disobedience, the spiritual nature of all mankind was diseased with sin. Jesus Christ, the perfect match, the perfect sacrifice was found and offered. Now when the sinner receives Jesus into their heart, they receive the very life of God. This life is in the blood of Jesus and not only causes you to live eternally, but imparts the personality, nature, and ability of the family of God. You look different, talk different and act different. You are a new creation in Christ because of the blood.
Why would the God of the Universe, Creator of Heaven and earth, concern Himself with every individual on the earth? What lengths did He go to in order to embrace us as His family? The answer is found:
Ephesians 2:4-5; ΒΆ “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).”
He loves us so much that He was willing to pour out His own blood to satisfy His great love for the whole world.
Romans 5:8; “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Another translation says it this way: “But God puts His love for us beyond all doubt by the fact that Christ died on our behalf while we were still sinners.”
Someone once said: “The blood of Jesus is liquid love that flows from the very heart of God. It is the greatest expression of the Father’s eternal love for humanity. While we remained in the filthy, ugly state of sin, that precious blood was poured out on the cross. Redeeming us from the chains of sin and restoring us to right standing with God, it was the most costly sacrifice in history. While reaching into Heaven’s holiest place, the blood extends to man’s lowest place. It frees mankind from Satan’s dominion and carries righteousness, mercy, redemption and healing. The blood is alive and proves God’s relentless love for us.”
Through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ, we can live in the reality of our redemption. Because the blood liberates us from the curse of sin, depression, sickness and poverty, it provides real solutions to real problems for real people. By believing and speaking, we can apply the blood to every area of our lives and become part of a new bloodline – the bloodline of a champion.
THE BLOOD BRINGS US BACK INTO FELLOWSHIP
The blood of Jesus brings us back into fellowship with Him and restores our dominion. In the beginning when Adam sinned, the first thing he lost was his fellowship with God.
The Amplified Bible: Genesis 3:8; “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”
As we all know, Adam and Eve messed things up. Instead of operating in The Blessing they had been given and becoming a blessing to the whole earth, they disconnected from God through disobedience. They bowed their knee to the devil and gave him access to their God-given authority. When they did this, the whole deal was twisted. The Blessing was turned into a curse. Instead of the earth prospering, as God had desired, the earth resisted them and became their enemy. Instead of speaking to it and reigning over it as kings, Adam and Eve worked it like slaves, sweating and labouring just to make a living. Does that sound familiar in any of your lives? There are several people that are barely making a living, just getting enough to scrape by, that was not God’s original plan. Adam and Eve had a long fall! Adam had once had enough power to subdue the entire earth and bless it; after sin entered the picture, he could hardly make a living in his own garden.
God’s original plan was for Adam and Eve to subdue the whole earth and have authority over everything. God did not give up on His original plan. He never gives up, so why do we think that He would change His original plan for mankind just because one man failed. That is not the way that God works. He never changes. There is no shadow of change in Him. Once He sets out to do something, He stays with it until it is done. He never changes His plan because of our faults and failures.
So right after Adam’s fall, God right to work to find another man to get in covenant with. We just spent four weeks on the video series talking about the covenant that God made with Abraham. So, we won’t get into all that covenant. But the important part is that God had a plan to redeem us.
God loved us so much that He sent Jesus, the second Adam to bring us back into fellowship with Him.
I Corinthians 15:45 says; “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.”
Who is the last Adam? Jesus! Jesus, through Abraham was the true inheritor of the Covenant. His whole earthly ministry was a demonstration of The Blessing. Everywhere He went; He brought blessing. That is why when sick people came to Him; He healed them. He was carrying out the mission Adam had been given. He was the second Adam.
Jesus didn’t stop there. He wasn’t just the second Adam; He took it all a step further. After demonstrating the power of The Blessing in His own life, He went to the Cross and shed His blood and paid the price for the sin of all mankind. He defeated the curse once and for all, rose again and through the blood of Jesus we have a blood Covenant!
Galatians 3:13-14, 29; “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: 14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. 29 And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
Do you realize what this passage is saying? It is telling us that through the blood of Jesus, you and I have become heirs. Not just heirs of a blessing, or even many blessings. We have literally inherited The Blessing through the blood Covenant of Jesus Christ! We have been given power to overcome anything that is against the nature of Christ. We have been given power over anything that comes against us to try to destroy us. Remember Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. We have power over everything and anything that tries to take that life away from us. The devil comes to steal, kill and destroy. We have all the power that we ever need right now. We have already inherited it because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. We have the bloodline of a Champion flowing through our veins.
If we have already inherited it, why is it that we are not walking in it? What can we do differently to receive the promises of that Covenant? There are a couple of different answers. The reason Adam lost The Blessing is through a life of disobedience. Disobedience, that is what sin is, separates us from that blessing. However, because Jesus went to the Cross for our sin, that is all we have to do now is renounce that sin in our lives and allow His forgiveness to sweep over us and we can walk in The Blessing.
It is time that we exercise our dominion and claim the blessing that belongs to us in our bloodline. Take authority over the enemy, look him in the eye, and put Satan, fear, sickness, and depression under your feet. Resist the devil and he will flee from you! Once you make that determination, God will back you up!
What Jesus did for us through His blood was the greatest demonstration of love that is known to mankind. As we exercise faith in the blood of Jesus, He brings healing, victory, blessing and restoration to us.
Romans 8:37; “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.”
Another version says; “Listen! In all things Jesus our great Leader has established us as invincible champions through His amazing provision for us.”
Let’s make this declaration of faith: “Christ has redeemed me from the curse of the law. I am redeemed from sin and sickness and have received the promise of the Spirit through faith. I boldly confess that through the blood of Jesus, I am healed in my mind, my will, my emotions, and my body. I am blessed with Abraham’s blessing of spiritual life, healing and provision because of the blood of Jesus.”
