THE NEW COVENANT

(INTRO) COVENANTS: CLARITY & SECURITY (Me/We)

[1]WELCOME: Good morning everyone! If you’re new with us today, either on campus or online, my name is Nic Cook and I’m one of the pastors here at Cornerstone along with Joe and the other elders.

We’re continuing our teaching…

SERIES: called ANCHORED based on a letter in our bibles called Hebrews. Today we’re going to be talking about…

COVENANTS: Now this isn’t a word we use in everyday conversation. [2]So let me give a quick definition of what a covenant is. A covenant is a serious and formal agreement to enter into a relationship and fulfill explicit promises to one another. Probably the most vivid picture of a covenant relationship today is that of a wedding. [3]During the ceremony a couple is asked “Do you take this woman as your wife, to live together in holy matrimony? Will you love her, comfort her, honor and keep her in sickness and in health, and forsaking all others, be faithful to her till death do you part? If so, say “I do.” Then the minister turns to the other person and asks the same questions. They make vows to each other in the sight of God and other witnesses. Now, when I first mentioned the definition of a covenant to Susan, [4]Levi said “hey, that sounds like the unbreakable vow in Harry Potter.” Which if you are a Harry Potter fan, you know that there is a point where a character promises another character that they will help them and if they break their vow, they will die. And I think this fits right in line with what covenants are supposed to do. They provide…[5]

o CLARITY AND SECURITY: Think about it, there are two things that damage relationships more than anything else. The first is not being on the same page about what is expected of each other. Unless both parties know what is expected of them, there’s going to be fighting and disappointment. So, covenants clarify, this is what I promise to do, this is what you promise to do. Secondly, relationships are damaged when trust is violated. So, a covenant says, I’m committing to you and you alone. We will be faithful to one another. [6]The problem is, even in the most committed human relationships we see covenants broken all the time. In fact, as of 2021, 50% percent of marriages in the US end in divorce. It’s no surprise that people have a hard time trusting. Humans have a hard time meeting agreed upon expectations and being faithful to one another. So it’s not surprising that humans would have trouble trusting God to stay committed to them when every other relationship has failed. [7]But what is surprising, is that God would still commit to us, knowing perfectly that we would fail in our commitment to him. This is the beauty of what covenants mean to us. So if you’ll open your bible to [8][Heb. 8:1-13], let’s look at what God wants to say about his covenant relationship with us means and why it is so amazing. Let’s pray and read together. [9]

(TEACH) GOD’S COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM/MOSES (God)

BACKGROUND: Since the first people who heard this letter were Jewish, when they heard in [10][verses 6-7] 6 But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises. 7 If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it. They would have begun thinking about all the other covenants that God had made with people. One of those covenants would have been with…[11]

THE COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM: we’ve talked about Abraham over the last couple of weeks. God entered a relationship with Abraham and promised to be with him, provide for him, love him, multiply his family, give him a homeland, and bless the entire world through him. A little further after God made the original promises to Abraham, we sin in [Genesis 15:9-10] where God formalized his covenant with Abraham. He tells Abraham, “Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 So Abram presented all these to him and killed them. Then he cut each animal down the middle and laid the halves side by side; he did not, however, cut the birds in half.” [12]This may seem strange, but in that culture it was both costly and symbolic. To enter into the relationship was going to require sacrifice. Animals were expensive and a source of security. It was also symbolic. There would be animals taken, cut in half and a walkway was made between them. The two parties would stand on opposite ends of this pathway. The person who had less power and authority would cross between the animals to join in relationship with the person who had more power and authority. It was a way of saying, If I break my promises in this relationship, may what happened to these animals happen to me. What is different is that God himself reveals himself as a flaming object that walks through the pathway on his own. The one with all the power and authority is the one saying, may the penalty for breaking this covenant fall on me. So, let’s pause right there. From the very beginning, what does this say about our God?

· [13]GOD COMMITS HIMSELF TO PEOPLE HE KNOWS WILL FAIL HIM. How comforting is that? God doesn’t say, well I’m going to commit myself to you, but I expect you never to hurt me or let me down or be unfaithful to me. If you can’t promise me that, I can’t commit to you. No! God looks us in the eyes and says, I know you will fail me, but I will still commit myself to you. It also tells us that GOD IS WILLING TO BEAR THE CONSEQUENCES OF OUR FAILURE. He didn’t make Abraham walk through the path of blood and promise to die if he failed. God said, I’ll make the commitment to you, and even knowing that this is going to lead to pain for me. So, the first readers of Hebrews would have probably thought about the covenant made with Abraham. But they would have then moved to the next time a…[14]

COVENANT WITH ISRAEL AT MT SINAI: in [Exodus 19:5-6] God says 5 Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples on earth; for all the earth belongs to me. 6 And you will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation.’ This set of promises built on the previous covenant to Abraham. The first promise included being given a land, multiplying, and being a blessing to the world. This covenant kept all of those promises in place, but it added to it. It basically said, I will continue to be your God and to bless you and to be in relationship with you, but your job is to represent me to this world. You are to be my priests to the world. What does this covenant tell us about God? [15]

· GOD’S COMMANDMENTS LEAD TO FREEDOM. We often view the commands in the bible as restrictive. God says don’t do this, don’t do that. We look at the bible and say, boy I wish that wasn’t in there. I don’t like that part. But if God is the one who created life, understands how it works, he wouldn’t command us to do anything that deprives us. His intention is that we flourish! He wants to see us experience balance, joy, peace, wholeness. No one can deny that if the whole world practiced the 10 commandments, this world would be so much better. Shoot, how much better would government be if no lying or stealing alone were honored. So, God puts forth his commandments as part of the expectations of the covenant for our good. But… LIVING GOD’S WAY INVITES THE WORLD TO HIM. GOD SAYS… You are to be my priests. My representatives. The way you live should be so beautiful and good that other people will want the kind of life that I have given to you. They’ll see that the gods of gold, wood, and stone can’t provide for them or love them like I can. You’re example will draw people to me. Will you promise to do these things? I promise if you promise! And in [Exodus 24:7-8] it says “7 Then he (Moses) took the Book of the Covenant and read it aloud to the people. Again they all responded, “We will do everything the Lord has commanded. We will obey.” 8 Then Moses took the blood from the basins and splattered it over the people, declaring, “Look, this blood confirms the covenant the Lord has made with you in giving you these instructions.” [16]We promise God. Then splash, blood. Again, this is symbolic. It is both a symbol of God accepting them and forgiving them. But it is also a symbol that if they break the covenant, may their blood be spilled like that of the animals that were killed. Now there are a couple other covenants that I don’t have time to cover this morning like the covenant made with Adam, Noah, and David. But I wanted to point out some major things they had in common. [17]GOD WANTS TO BE IN RELATIONSHIP WITH US. HE COMMITS HIMSELF TO US. HE MAKES PROMISES TO US. BUT HE ALSO HAS EXPECATIONS OF US. HE KNOWS WE WILL NOT LIVE UP TO THEM. BUT HE STILL COMMITS HIMSELF TO US. HIS EXPECTATIONS ARE FOR OUR GOOD AND TO SHOW HOW GOOD HE IS TO THE WORLD! AND THERE ARE CONSEQUENCES FOR BREAKING OUR PROMISES TO GOD. The major problem with covenants is not the God who made them, it’s that…[18]

(APP) BROKEN PEOPLE WILL BREAK THEIR COVENANTS (JC)

WE CAN’T KEEP OUR SIDE OF THE COVENANT BECAUSE OUR HEARTS AND MINDS ARE BROKEN. Our hearts and minds don’t work right. They don’t love what they’re supposed to love. They are rebellious. They’re unable to keep their promises. Our minds think we know better than God does. We define what’s right and wrong. As much as we’d like to, we can’t ignore it. We look around at relationships between people and no matter how committed the relationship, our selfishness and brokenness inevitably cause us to be hurt and to hurt others. We simply can’t perfectly keep our commitments EVEN to each other. We have a sense of justice; “well, they broke their word. There needs to be consequences.” How much more so if God has always been faithful to his side of the covenant and we have hurt and betrayed him over and over again. God cannot leave sin unpunished. We have wrecked ourselves, wrecked each other, and wrecked this beautiful world by our selfishness and rebellion. The animals that lay cut in half and the blood that was spilled out cry out, you broke your covenant with God! Blood is required. Punishment is necessary. Yet God is not surprised. God knew we wouldn’t fulfill our side of the covenant. He knew we would betray him. We said, may what happened to these animals happen to us if we lie. And we broke our covenant with him anyway. So how did God deal with it? [19] [UNDERSCORE]

(JC) JESUS TOOK THE PUNISHMENT & KEPT THE COVENANT

JESUS TOOK OUR PUNISHEMENT FOR BREAKING THE COVENANT: This is often called the great substitution. Instead of us dying for breaking our side of the covenant, or instead of reaping the full consequences of our rebellion against God, Jesus took our place and punishment. Remember how in the covenant with Abraham, God’s presence walked through the bloody path? Essentially, he was saying, if this covenant is broken, may I take the punishment? That’s exactly what happened. God became a human, and chose to die for our broken promises. [20][2 Corinthians 5:21] says it this way… “21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

[21]JESUS KEPT OUR SIDE OF THE COVENANT FOR US: We often focus on what Jesus did through his death, but we need to realize what Jesus accomplished through his life. We needed another human being who could keep our side of the promise to God, so that God could fully pour out all of the blessings he promised. That’s how the covenant promises work…IF WE DO THIS, THEN HE DOES THIS…If we worship him alone, if we have no idols, if we keep the sabbath, if honor our parents, if we don’t lie, steal, cheat, covet, commit adultery, then we will be able to live abundantly, and we will be able to represent God as his priests. But Humanity as a whole couldn’t and didn’t keep the covenant. However, one man, Jesus did. He perfectly lived the ten commandments. He perfectly represented God’s intention for life. He kept our side of the covenant for us. And because he did, we can now inherit all the blessings of the old covenants. A life in relationship with God. An eternal home full of joy, pleasure, abundance, and peace. We get to be partners with him in inviting the world to see how to truly live when they let God be king. We get to live new lives right now, full of hope and peace because Jesus is our king. We get…[22]

(INSP) ALL THE BLESSINGS OF THE OLD + THE NEW: SINS FORGIVEN, NEW HEARTS/MINDS

The new Covenant that Jeremiah promised offered two things.

1. OUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN FOREVER: I absolutely love this verse [Heb. 8:12] And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.” We’re told that because of what Jesus has done, if we give our entire lives to Jesus, our sins will never be counted against us! They’re forgiven. Not only are they forgiven, but it says they are forgotten. It doesn’t mean that it slips God’s mind. It means when he looks at us, he will treat us as if they never happened! WE DID SIN, BUT WE’RE TREATED AS IF WE HADN’T! The writer of Hebrews started this chapter out by saying, “We have a High Priest who sat down in the place of honor beside the throne of the majestic God in heaven.” [Heb. 8:1] Did you know that in the temple, where sacrifices were made to bring about forgiveness, there were no chairs? Because the job of a priest was never done. Sin kept happening all the time, so sacrifices had to keep happening as well. But when Jesus died on the cross and said “it is finished!” no more sacrifices had to be made. The great high priest could sit down. SO, LISTEN TO ME TODAY! JESUS IS SEATED! HIS WORK OF FORGIVING SINS IS DONE FOREVER. You don’t have to wonder if God loves you or has forgiven you. Jesus is seated. That job is done. Your sin has been dealt with. You don’t have to get back into God’s favor. HE’S COMMITTED TO YOU FOREVER AND YOUR SINS CANNOT SEPARATE YOU FROM HIM THIS TIME! TALK ABOUT A COVENANT PROVIDING SECURITY! The second promise is…

2. WE WILL BE GIVEN NEW HEARTS & NEW POWER TO LIVE OUT OUR COMMITMENTS TO GOD! The author of Hebrews quotes Jeremiah and says [23-27][Heb. 8:8-11] Notice something here. In previous covenants, God says “If you do this, then I’ll do this.” In this covenant, there’s no “if you” there is only “I WILL.” I will make a new covenant. I will put my law in their minds. I will write my laws on their hearts. God promises to give us new hearts and minds that want to do the will of God. New hearts and minds that love good and hate what is evil. It’s not about following rules, it’s done out of a deep understanding and desire to do what pleases God and leads to true life. Now, anyone who has been following Jesus for a while, knows that we don’t immediately start doing everything we know we’re supposed to do. It is true, that we are new creations, but we are still living in bodies that have been shaped by years of habits and sin. We want to live like Jesus. But, [28]in order to experience the new life of Jesus in us, we have to learn to depend on the Holy Spirit the same way Jesus did. We do the things he did, so we can live the way he lived. THE WRITERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT CALL THIS WALKING IN THE SPIRIT, KEEPING IN STEP WITH THE SPIRIT, BEING FULL OF THE SPIRIT. The disciplines help us surrender our power to the Holy Spirit and begin to live the way our hearts truly long for. Through disciplines of silence, solitude, prayer, Sabbath, fasting, community, worship, and other habits. This month’s discipline is silence, so if it’s okay I’d like to guide us into a time with God together. We can practice it together today, and then you can take this practice with you into the rest of the week. So I’d like to invite you start with…

[29](AWARE/INVITATION) First start by saying a simple prayer asking the Holy Spirit to make you aware of his presence, as well as make you aware of a situation, relationship, or sin in your life that is coming between you and God.

(ADMIT/CONFESSION) Secondly, has there been an action or attitude in the last week that has not honored God that comes to mind? You might admit to God that you realize it hurts him, you, and others. Next, ask God to forgive you.

(ASK/PETITION) Ask him for the wisdom and clarity to understand why you did what you did. Ask him where you might not be trusting him. Ask for the power to react differently in the future. Ask Him what he wants to say to you.

(ATTEND/MEDITATION & CONTEMPLATION) What questions does he have for you? What scriptures might the Spirit use to remind you of what he wants to say? Now, focus on the truth that you are forgiven. And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.” (Hebrews 8:12) Focus on God’s love for you. The kind of love that stays committed, even to people he knows will fail him. Thank him. What words do you want to say to him?

(ACT/SUBMISSION)

Before you say amen, what is God calling you to do in response to what you’ve heard? What actions need to be taken? Do you need to make a phone call? Do you need to take steps to keep from sinning in that way again? Ask for God to help you not simply to be a hearer of the word, but also a doer. Ask him to give you the strength to do what you cannot on your own.