This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome back to our look at Hebrews chapter eight. This is day
four. We're going to look at verses 10 to 12 today.

We're looking at the new covenant, at the new things that God brings into our
lives through this new covenant. And we're still reading today as we begin in
verse 10, we're still reading from Jeremiah 31, 31 to 34. This is actually the
longest quote in the New Testament that's from the Old Testament.

And it's about the New Testament, the new covenant. Let me read for you these
verses 10 to 12. "This is the covenant I will make "with the house of Israel
after that time," declares the Lord.

"I will put my laws in their minds "and write them on their hearts. "I will be
their God and they will be my people. "No longer will a man teach his neighbor
"or a man his brother saying no the Lord "because they will all know me "from
the least of them to the greatest.

"For I will forgive their wickedness "and will remember their sins no more. "
Yesterday we talked about what the New Covenant, the New Testament is. Today we
look at what this New Testament, this New Covenant does in our lives.

I don't know if you've ever been to a reading of a will. If you haven't been to
one, you might have seen one depicted on TV or in the movies. In one sense,
that's what we're doing right now.

We're sitting together and we're reading the last will and testament of God.
We're reading his inheritance that he's offering to us through Jesus Christ, the
one who dies and now lives. And in Hebrews 8, we're seeing here these three
major things in these verses that God has promised to us in his will, this
covenant, this New Testament.

We see in these verses the promise of a new heart. We see in these verses,
secondly, the promise of a new relationship. And we see, thirdly, the promise of
forgiveness.

First, the promise of a new heart. I will put my laws into their minds. I will
write them upon their hearts.

Now, in the Old Covenant, in Deuteronomy 6, 6 to 9, the Bible talks about
memorizing God's word. And that's a part of the Old Covenant, that they were to
memorize God's word. It's good to memorize God's word.

I deeply believe in memorizing God's word. But that's different from having
God's word written on your heart that's being talked about here. That's a
different thing.

Memorizing God's word with your mind is a good thing, but this is different.
Writing it upon your heart. Under the Old Covenant, they memorize verses.

Here, God is impressing the power of those verses on a human mind, on a human
heart. The truth of the matter is we struggled to follow him. They struggled.

They couldn't follow him. They couldn't do what God had asked them to do. So
God's solution, we struggle with our heart, so he gives us a new heart.

We struggle with our mind, so he gives us a new mind. Now, we're not talking
about an organ transplant. We're talking about some kind of a spirit transplant.

That he gets his spirit into our lives. This new heart is the desire to do the
will of God. Truth is, as I've talked to people, most people want to change.

Most people want to change. They want to see something new happening in their lives.
But one of the things we have to remember is that under the Old Covenant, that's
impossible.

The Old Covenant is me doing it on my own power. The Old Covenant is I'll try
harder. I'll do better next time.

That's Old Testament. That's you trying to live up to the laws of God. New
Covenant, New Covenant, New Testament is thank you, Lord, that you've given me a
new heart.

Thank you that through it, I can follow your will. That with this new heart, I
can be a growing person. That's faith.

This is the answer to the problem of motivation. We need to be motivated to do
the things of God. Have you discovered you can't motivate yourself?

You just can't motivate yourself. You know what you want to do. That's not the
problem.

The problem is doing it. The problem is doing. The problem isn't wanting to do
it.

The problem is doing it. So God has a new covenant, a new arrangement, a new
constitution that makes provision for that. We look to Christ when we're
controlled by the thing that we don't want to do.

We look to Christ and we say, I need a new motivation. I need a shove, an
impetus, a motivation from you. So what do you do in that moment?

You say, Lord Jesus, instead of me trying to do this one more time on my own
strength and energy, you have promised to write your truth into my heart and
mind. You've promised to put your will into my life so that I would be motivated
to do what you want me to do. And then based on that prayer, you pray that
prayer, Lord, you promise to do this, then you move ahead in the direction of
what he wants you to do.

You think, well, wait, wait, I want him to move me ahead. I want him to give me
so much emotion and motivation that I cannot help but move ahead. It's not the
way that it works.

First you have faith. You say, God, you've given me a new heart. Even though I
don't feel it right now, I know that if I'll move in that direction, you'll give
me the motivation.

Then you begin to move in that direction. Those who have tried this have
discovered that it works. They've discovered a new motive, a new motor, which
comes from the same word for their lives, a new power to do what we need to do
in our lives.

New power comes from a new heart and a new mind. Stop trying to live out a new
power with an old heart and an old mind. It is so frustrating.

Start by recognizing God has given you a new heart and a new mind. And then move
ahead based on that. It's the promise of a new heart.

Second thing that this New Testament, this New Covenant does is it gives us the
promise of a new relationship. I will be their God. They will be my people,
these verses say.

Now, this was promised, this relationship with God was promised under the Old
Covenant as a condition of man's obedience. And when mankind would obey, men or
women would obey, that promise would come true. Well, they couldn't obey.

That promise can be realized now under the New Covenant. For it's a condition
now of God's will for us. These verses say in those days, you no longer have to
teach about God because everyone will know God.

This promise of a new relationship, they will be my people. I will be their God
and who am I? I am one of his people, they will be my people.

The aching question of many of our hearts is, and we talked about this a couple
of weeks ago, is the question of identity. Who am I? Well, you're one of God's
people.

God says you are identified with me forever. I will be your God, you will be my
people. That's your identity, you hang on to that, the promise of a new
relationship.

That's what it does in our lives. And then third, there is the promise of
forgiveness. I will be merciful to their sins, their iniquities.

I will remember their sin no more. Forgiveness is an essential part of this
covenant because apart from forgiveness, how can I have a relationship with God?
I still mess up.

I have the sins that I've sinned, I have the sins that I'm struggling with right
now and will struggle with the rest of my life. I hope that I grow, I pray that
I grow, I expect that I will grow through the Spirit of God so that those sins
slowly begin to have less influence in my life. But then I'll see other ones
that have influence in my life that I didn't see before, that were hidden behind
that sin.

We're human beings, we struggle with sin. And apart from forgiveness, you will
never have the relationship with God that you're meant to have. And apart from
forgiveness, you'll never see the personal victories in your life that you want to
see.

Guilt will constantly drag you down. Apart from forgiveness, you'll never be
able to relate to God as you're meant to relate. Guilt will constantly drive you
away from Him.

Who wants to be close to a God that makes you feel guilty? Well, that's not what
God's all about. God's all about forgiving.

Forgiveness frees you from guilt because it frees you from the source of guilt,
sin. Forgiveness frees you to love, to have joy, to have victory, to experience
real life. Now this may sound to some of you like Christianity 101, forgiveness,
but the truth of the matter is it's Christianity 1.

It's the thing I need to remember every day. I am a forgiven saint. Praise God
for His forgiveness and praise God for the new identity He's given me out of
that forgiveness.

So this last will and testament of God. You're in a judge's chambers and you've
heard these promises contained in God's will. The question for my life is, am I
going to accept them or reject them?

Yesterday we talked about accepting them for the first time in your life and I
hope some of you prayed that prayer and crossed the line to get a relationship
with Jesus Christ. That's where you start. But then you have to accept these
promises every day of your life.

Every day I have to ask, am I going to be content with my old heart? Me doing it on
my own strength and energy? Or am I going to depend on God's new heart?

Am I going to be content with my old relationships? Feeling far from God, trying to
impress others? Or am I going to be focused on?

Am I going to be living in the new relationship that I have with Him? Am I going to
live with my old guilt or the new forgiveness He wants to give me? This moment
every day of our lives where God says, here's the inheritance.

Are you going to live in the inheritance or are you going to live outside the
inheritance? It's as if God has given us, even on this earth, this beautiful
house as an inheritance. It's a house of forgiveness and of grace and of love
and of faith.

And the choice I have every day is, am I going to walk into that house one more
time or am I going to hang out in this shack that's outside of the house that I
made myself or that has some friends in it or whatever? Am I going to hang out
here? Every day you and I make that choice.

Let's right now make the choice to live in that place of His inheritance. Our
Father, we want to live in the place today. We want to live in the place of a new
heart, a new motivation that comes from your Spirit.

We want to live in the place of a new relationship, realizing that you're dwelling
with us. We want to live in the place of forgiveness, not being overwhelmed by our
guilt but being invited by your forgiveness to live the new life that you've
given us to live. Thank you for the new heart, the new relationship, the
forgiveness that you have given.

Thank you in Jesus' name, amen. Tomorrow we're going to look together at the
importance of knowing what's old so that you can live what's new.