Pastor Matt showed us how the new covenant was sealed for us by the death and resurrection of Jesus.
MY STORY
Describe an agreement you have with someone. More than likely, this agreement is just assumed and unspoken. What are the stipulations of that agreement? If you could change any of the “sections” of that covenant, what would they be?
WHAT DOES GOD WANT US TO HEAR?
Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 31:31-34)
What’s so different about the New Covenant predicted by Jeremiah?
In what sense is the law of God written on your heart?
What percentage would you put upon the number of situations where you just know the right thing to do? How does your relationship with God affect that percentage?
What does God want us to hear? Based on the passages above, what are the factual “takeaways” that are meaningful to you?
WHAT DOES GOD WANT US TO DO?
Pastor Matt said, The third promise of the new covenant is that it will be personal and intimate. God isn’t offering a religious system that people have to remind each other to follow. He’s offering something far greater, a relationship so real, so alive. This is radical. God is saying, in the new covenant, faith is not inherited. Faith is not just learned. Faith is experienced.
What kinds of systems can people get caught up in an attempt to earn God’s love and favor?
How does the New Covenant offer a striking contrast to that “system”?
In what sense have you, as a believer, become “the dwelling place of God”?
What difference can that make in your life, especially in your relationships?
What does God want us to do? Flowing out of our reading and interpretation, what action does this passage or the Spirit’s leading, nudging us toward?
WHAT DOES GOD WANT ME TO DO?
Pastor Matt said, Think about it: all the heart-change, all the assurance, all the personal knowing of God, it hinges on this. God’s people don’t cling to Him because they’ve finally gotten it right. They cling to Him because He has forgiven, He has restored, and He has erased the record of their failure.
If you have not embraced God’s offer inherent in His New Covenant, Easter week would be an opportune time to do that. All that’s necessary is seeing yourself in need of God’s mercy (because of deliberate and willful sins), and then trusting Jesus, in that mercy, to save you.
[All the baptisms you will witness on Easter are a symbolic representation of saving faith… which is simply repentance and belief].
If you have embraced saving faith, take this week to meditate on Christ’s anticipation of his death… knowing the exact day, and the horrifying way it was going to happen. In your prayers, empathize with Jesus’ turmoil as he faced his agonizing separation from God (as he took upon the sins of the world).
What does God want ME to do? What is the personal application and action step that the Holy Spirit is calling you toward?
Message Notes
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