Core 52 Week 16 - A New Covenant Series

You can hear the sermon on my podcast at: https://pastorlanny.buzzsprout.com/

Core52 Week 16 - New Covenant

Intro:

• Stopping by friend’s house to drop off some stuff.

• Got invited in. Just couldn’t resist. Was wonderful for even 5 minutes of connection with friends.

• We’re all sick and tired of “outside.” (even though we’re stuck inside.) The barriers that keep us from interacting in a meaningful way.

• We’re made for relationships. We’re made for interaction. As wonderful as it is to be able to keep up online, it’s still not the same.

• Growing discontent and frustration with being outside, unable to connect, to work, to play together. Hard to endure since we can’t say for sure when this will all be over. Hope is deferred.

Proverbs 13:12 12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

• This sense of disconnection and isolation is difficult. We recognize that so many are without a solid connection not only with one another but also with God.

• Our survey continues to report that you feel hope and connection with God which is wonderful.

• Need to be reminded of where that comes from and that so many people in our lives are experiencing hopelessness.

• We need to hear regularly how God has made us new. He was brought us “inside.” Especially in this time of isolation.

• We have a new relationship with God.

• Because of our new covenant with God - promised long ago by the prophet Jeremiah.

Little historical context:

o Jerusalem under siege by Babylonians for the 3rd and final time (586 B.C).

o They were not there to knock on the door to sell magazines.

o Jerusalem utterly destroyed.

o All hope seems gone.

• Like Jeremiah and the Jewish people we need to be reminded that God is making all things new (like the prophecy of Rev. 21).

• Here’s what God promised the Jewish people and has given to us in Christ:

New Source of Direction

Jeremiah 31:33 33 “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the LORD. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

• Read the instructions. 64% of men and 24% of women don’t read the instructions before starting a task. With predictable results.

• What if the instructions were already in your mind and actions?

• This is the promise God makes for the faithful: His will for us will be within us.

Romans 7:4–6 4 So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God. 5 When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death. 6 But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.

Hebrews 8:10 10 But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day, says the LORD: I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

• Hope in a new sense of direction.

New Relationship With God

Jeremiah 31:33 33 …I will be their God, and they will be my people.

Ephesians 3:16–17 16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. 17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.

• Our relationships are very different right now.

• Some have been strengthened by online connection. Others are suffering.

• How about our relationship with God? The promise made is that we will never be without God in our hearts.

• Paul’s promise is that will keep us strong.

o 2x people told me yesterday that if this quarantine goes on for very much longer they would lose their minds.

• God’s Spirit, living in your heart will guide and bless you through this.

New Access to Forgiveness

Jeremiah 31:34 34 And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the LORD.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,” says the LORD. “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”