Hawaii 8 – A New Covenant, New Heart and New Sign

Anyway, it's a pleasure to come andshare with you tonight. Um, I've justhad a wonderful couple of days with mywife. We've been visiting some of you inyour homes and we looking around theisland and you live in a truly beautifulpart of the world. And you might saythat a natural healing from God is thebeauty and peace of Maui. And my wifeand I, we went up to that big mountainbehind here um two nights ago and it wasa clear day and we drove all the way tothe top and there was no clouds goingall the way up and we sat there on thislittle over overlook and the sun wasgoing down in in the west there on topof the clouds and for a few moments itlooked like there was an atom bomb goingoff in the distance.

It was this thisthis orange plume. It was astoundinglybeautiful. uh we took some pictures ofit. And so I think one of the ways thatGod heals our our souls is actuallygiving us the beauty of nature and wesee we hear the sound of the water andwe see the beauty of Hawaii and uh Ijust thank the God thank God that God isa God of beauty. So tonight we're goingto talk about this is the title of ourtalk tonight.

It's called a newcovenant, a new heart and a new sign.And so, um, I'm going to be talkingabout the old covenants and the newcovenant and what is this covenant andwhat does it mean for us today and thesign of this new covenant that God givesus. So, as we begin, invite you to bowyour heads with me and invite thepresence of the Holy Spirit.My dear heavenly father, we thank youfor the the blessings we've enjoyedtoday. Lord, thank you for that healthnugget. Thank you that you've given usin our own pantries, our own kitchens,many natural healing remedies. And Ipray Lord that we will recapture thisknowledge uh before we need it.

I prayLord I thank you for the gift of musicthat you bless us with this evening. AndI thank you father that we all have fullstomachs here. That in a world of wantand a world of hunger um each one of ushas a full stomach and a bed to go hometo tonight. Father for all these smallmercies. We thank you now.

Lord as wediscuss this question of the newcovenant. I pray that you will speakthrough me and for me. I pray that youwill speak to every heart that is bowedhere today and to those watching onlinewherever they may be. May your HolySpirit work in our lives in a beautifuland a powerful way. We ask this mercy inJesus' name.

Amen.Let me ask you a question. Is modernsociety healthy or is modern societykind of sick? What would you say? Sick.All right. I used to work in Britain inthe health care system.

I was a hospitalmanager, which you know, most people'sminds put you somewhere between likelike a rat and a ro and a mouse orsomething because in Britain hospitalmanagers always denying people care.That's their job. And I was working as ahospital manager and sometimes I go downto the ER on a Friday night or on aSabbath night and the ER is where yousee the reality of society. Particularlyat the weekends, you see people comingin, those road traffic accidents. Umthere's there's there's wounds fromviolence. There's people coming inwho've had accidents because of drunkdriving.

You see drug overdoses comingin. You see self harm cases coming in.And if you want to know whether yoursociety is healthy, go and spend aweekend in ER and it'll give you a veryclear picture of how healthy our societyreally is. So our society really is notthat healthy. We have many challengesaround us. And so I want to talk firstabout God's diagnosis of um how we gotinto this condition.

Then we're going totalk about God's solution. Then we'regoing to come to the heart of thematter. And then we're going to come toour conclusions. But let me say this, asociety without a clear sense of moralvalues will inevitably degrade andeventually collapse. And without a moralcompass in society, inevitably we arethrown into a state of moral confusionand social chaos.

And we live in asociety today where Disney tells ourchildren to follow your heart. AndDisney tells our children that you canbe whatever you want to be,but nobody can tell you what to do.And so our children are raised with theidea that follow your heart, follow theinclinations of your heart, do whateveryou want to do. But we've lost theability in society. We've lost the moralcourage to say this is right and this iswrong. And so what is God's diagnosis ofour situation?

Well, Proverbs 28:26written by Solomon, maybe the wisest manthat ever lived, he says this, "He thattrusteth in his own heart is a what?Is a fool." So if you follow theinclinations of your heart only, uh theBible says that you are a fool. And afool saith in his heart, but we readelsewhere that there is no God. So ifyou trust in your own heart, it meansyou're going to lean on your ownunderstanding. Trust in your own wisdom.You don't know the future. You don'tknow the consequences of your actions,but you're going to trust your faulty,deceptive heart, and before you know it,you're going to be in deep trouble.

Theprophet Hosea put it this way. He said,"They sow the wind and they shall reapthe what? The whirlwind." So let me[clears throat] how this work in oursociety. So we sew the winds of violencein Hollywood and we reap the whirlwindin the glorification of violent crime insegments of our society. We sew thewinds of immorality in our movies and wereap the whirlwind of family breakdown.We sew the winds of explicit contentonline.

And we reap the whirlwind of sextrafficking and the abuse of girls andwomen nationwide.And so when you sew to the wind, youreally do reap the whirlwind as the asthe Bible says. Now, at the end of thebook of Revelation, the middle of thebook of Revelation, this says the lastbook of the Bible, we read about acoming judgment. And it says there,"Then I saw another angel flying inmidheaven with an eternal gospel toproclaim to those live on the earth, toevery nation, tribe, language, andpeople. And he said in a loud voice,fear God and give him glory, for thehour of his what has come? Judgment hascome.

And worship him who made theheaven and the earth, the sea, and thesprings of water." And if you askyourself, well, when there is ajudgment, there's always a standardagainst which you are judged. Is thatfair? You always are judged against thelaw in some some way, one way oranother. And uh so this the standard ofGod's judgment is what we call the tencommandments, the the decalogue astheologians call it. So I'm going to puton the screen just look through our theten commandments here.

And on the lefthand column, I'm going to list them outone by one. And we view these, we callthem the ten commandments. But actuallyin the book of Deuteronomy chapter 5verse 22, it doesn't call them the tencommandments. It calls them in theHebrew davarim, which means words. But abetter translation is promises.

So haveyou have you all heard of the tencommandments? Yes. Okay. Have you everheard them referred to as the tenpromises?Yes. Okay.

Okay. But if you look inDeuteronomy 5:22, it refers to the tencommandments as the 10 davarim, which iswords or promises, not necessarilycommandments. So if you call these theten promises, does that put a differenttone on your understanding to if youcall it the ten commandments? Absolutelyit does. So let's look at the firstcommandment here.

The first commandmentis you shall have no other gods beforeme. And what is the blessing of this?Well, we are called to the worship ofthe one true God, the creator, ourcreator. It means we have no dividedloyalties. So, we don't follow animismor materialism or paganism. We don'thave divided hearts.

We we our worshipis solely towards our creator God. Thesecond commandment is this on the lefthand side. You shall not make foryourself an idol, whether in the form ofanything that is in heaven above or onthe earth beneath or that is in thewater under the earth. you shall not bowto them or punish them. And uh so that'sa restriction against making idols.

Dopeople have idols around our worldtoday? Yes, they do. I've worked in manycountries and whether you work in thewest or in parts of Africa or in theAmericas or in Europe or Asia,everywhere you go, people have versionsof idols and people will bow down andworship them. Well, um what is the whatis the promise that goes with thiscommandment? I've put it there.

This isa call to re reject idolatry andidolatry is the worship of demons. Andif this is calling us away from theworship of demons says if you don't havethese idols in your life, you're goingto free yourself from the destructivepower of demons in your life.1 Corinthians chap 10 20 and 22 talksabout the pagans. They they theysacrifice to idols, but they're actuallysacrificing to demons. And we've spokenabout demons last week. Demons are real.Idols are manifestations of demons.

WhenI used to work as a missionary in India,you'd go to um a religious festival andyou know these um Hindu temples with allthe gods lining the walls, these statuesof various um beings. One of them iscalled Ganesh. He has the head, the bodyof a man with multiple arms and the headof a truck elephant. You've seen thatone. And what happens at these religiousfestivals is those stone or wooden stoneor those wooden statues become to life.They come down, they dance around thefire and the holy men known as devtors,they are filled with those spirits andthey tell the secrets of the entirecommunity and at the end of the festivalthose statues go back to the walls ofthe Hindu temples and and everybody goeshome.

So people pay a lot of money tothe devtors the the Hindu holy men inorder for their secrets not to be spokenout in public. But the secondcommandment not making yourself anyidols, not bowing down to it. God issaying if you don't have those idols inyour life, I'm going to protect you fromthe power of demons in your life aswell. I say praise God for that. Thethird commandment, you shall not makewrongful use of the name of the Lordyour God.

For the Lord God will notacquit anyone who misuses his name.Well, the blessing of this commandmentis that God is calling us to purity ofspeech and thought and to live livesthat bring honor and glory to God. Youknow, I was discussing with somebody theother day. When you leave a room, whatdo you want people to remember you for?Do you want people to remember you forhow stylish your clothes were?Or do you want people to remember youfor the nobility of your character andthe purity of your speech?So, in following this commandment, we'reliving lives of purity, lives of honor,lives that bring honor and glory to God.What that does is it increases yoursocial standing. People know they cantrust you. You are a trustworthy personin the community.

The fourthcommandment, remember the Sabbath day,which is the Saturday, to keep it holy.Six days you shall labor and do all yourwork, but the seventh day is a Sabbathto the Lord your God. You shall do nowork, you your son or your daughter,your male or female slave, yourlivestock, or the alien resident in yourtowns. Why? For in six days the Lordmade heaven and earth, the sea, and allthat is in them. But he rested theseventh day.

Therefore, that God blessedthe Sabbath day and he consecrated it.What this version, what this commandmenttells us in terms of a promise is thatwe are called to worship God as ourcreator. That is, we don't live in arandom universe. We live in a cosmos.We're not random collections ofchemicals. We are moral beings and we'reaccountable to God for how we treatothers. So if we all worship God on theSabbath day and we are reminded that weare creatures with a creator and he hasrevealed morality to morality to us inthe scripture that means that we areless likely to bring violence upon ourneighbor or to hurt our neighbor in anyway.

Why? Because we have to answer toour creator for how we treat ourbrothers and our sisters. The fifthcommandment, honor your father and yourmother so that your days may be long inthe land that the Lord your God isgiving you. Well, what does this what'sthe promise with this commandment? Thiscommandment, God is seeking to pro toprotect your family bonds, to fosterfamily unity and respect.

Thiscommandment values the wisdom that theelderly bring to life.And we live in a society that'sdominated by young people today. Wouldyou agree? We value youth and energy.But actually, if you want to listen towisdom, you need to listen to peoplewith a few gray hairs.because they've they've been around theblock a few times. They've gone throughcancer. They've raised kids.

They'vesurvived a bankruptcy. They know what itis to to mend a broken heart and heal adisturbed marriage. Those are the peopleyou need to that you want in yoursociety that you can turn to them whenyou have a challenge in your generation.The chances are the previous generationshave already been there, got thet-shirt, and they know how to fix theproblem. And so this commandment here,God is valuing the wisdom that that grayhairs bring to a society. The uh thesixth commandment, thou shalt notmurder.Imagine a society where there was nophysical violence.Can you imagine that?That you could walk down the [snorts]streets of any city, any district of anycity in the world, and have no fear ofany physical violence, no rape, nokidnapping.No muggings.I've been mugged a few times in my life.It happened so quick you don't realizeit's happening.

Actually, one guy inLondon put a knife in my face and thenext minute I knew I didn't have mywallet anymore. And I'm grateful I gotaway without a knife stab because thesedays normally the knife stab comes withthe taking of your wallet. But the thesixth commandment, you shall not murder.God is saying that he wants us to createa society where there's no violence,that nobody live in fear of violence,that you can let your kids go outsideand play on the lawn and do whateverthey want and no harm is going to cometo your children. Can you imagine thatkind of society? If we followed thesixth commandment, the seventhcommandment um is thou shalt not commitadultery.

What does that mean? Is thatGod is saying if you all followed thiscommandment and adultery is a broadword. It covers all forms of sexualimmorality. If you avoid all forms ofsexual immorality, that's going toprotect every marriage outlet.And if you and if you're rejecting allforms of sexual immorality, that's goingto protect every marriage. Can youimagine what that does to the childrenwho would otherwise go through adivorce?How many children's lives get messed upbecause their parents went through adivorce?

And this goes from generationto generation. It's not the children'sfault. Sometimes it's not really theparents fault, but it's a reality oflife today. But in this in thiscommandment here, God seeks to protectfamilies. He seeks to protect your yourmarriages.

And thus, he's going toprotect the next generation from whathappens in this generation. The eighthcommandment is you shall not steal. Thiscommandment protects private property.And it rejects burglary, extortion,kidnapping, and God is protecting thefruit of your labors. So God is clearlynot a Marxist. Okay?Because private [clears throat] propertyis abolished in Marxism.And so thou shalt not steal also appliesto the government.

You know that thegovernment owns all the means ofproduction. And so God is not a Marxistin the eth commandment there. The ninthcommandment's on top of the screen now.You shall not bear false witness againstyour neighbor, against your wetneighbor. That means God wants toprotect your reputation in society andGod wants to promote truthfulness insocial interactions.Do we find that on the internet today?Well, this is how the internet goes. Youpost a picture of a nice apple and yousay, "I love apples."Within minutes, somebody is typing inthe comment section, "Apples?

Are youorange phobic?" I'm literally tremblingwith anger and beside myself, I amtriggered that you don't like oranges.You're an orange phobic. You're ahate-filled individual that what whatdid I say? I just said, "I like apples."But the internet is an irrational placewhere people they pick something up andit goes all around the world at thetouch of a button and before you get outof bed, you've been smeared from here toNew Zealand and back and you have no wayof undoing that damage. But the ninthcommandment, you shall not bear falsewitness. God wants to protect each ofour reputations in society and thatrequires truthfulness in our socialinteractions.

And then the finalcommandment is this. You [snorts] shallnot coveret your neighbor's house. Youshall not cover up your neighbor's wifeor male or female slave or ox or donkeyor anything that belongs to yourneighbor. And what does this protectagainst? It protects against envy,against greed and property crimes.Allows us to enjoy the fruit of ourlabors without fear or loss.

So let meask you the question. Those tencommandments, which you can also callten promises in the Hebrew ofDeuteronomy 5, are these tencommandments pretty good rules forsociety?They're very good rules for society.Those ten commandments, if applied toany society on earth, would lead to anim an immediate improvement.And so [clears throat] there was a manwho was uh hitchhiking in Scotland andthere was a big football or soccer gamegoing on. And the soccer games inScotland tend to be drunken drunkenaffairs, lots of violence in the streetsbetween the opposing sets of fans. Andum there's no place to stay in town. Sohe goes to the police department and hesays, "Um, where do I find a place tostay?" They said, "We'll put you in acell for the night.

You're a you're avisitor." Said, "I don't want to go in acell." He says, "Look at the window.Look at those big bars on the window. Idon't want to go in a window." And thepolice officer says, "Well," he says,"You know, it's up to you, but if I wereyou, I'd sleep in that cell tonight." Sohe goes into the police department. Hesleeps down goes puts his head down inthe cell. And about 8:00 at night, thefootball hooliganism starts and thefighting starts and the throwing ofbottles and the knifing goes on in thestreets. And that man looks up at thoseiron bars or steel bars on the windowand he says, "Thank you, Lord, for thosesteel bars.

Thank you that they areprotecting me from what's out there."And the ten commandments function likethat. To the extent that I and you andwe honor and uphold the moral law ofGod, the ten commandments, we createthis halo effect of blessing around usin our lives and in our community. Andif every community and every member ofour community were to uphold the law ofGod, society would be a dramaticallybetter place. But the Bible says this,"Do not be deceived. God is not mocked.For whatever you reap, that whatever yousow, that you shall also reap." So thereis a cause and effect.

When we rejectGod's moral law, we shouldn't besurprised when we have social breakdown.And that is what we have all around ourworld today. Social breakdown.There was a a famous Christianapologist. He was speaking in Australiawas to a large group of students afamous university [clears throat] andthis apologist who was a Christianevangelist was speaking about the law ofGod and some student stood up in theaudience. He says please say I got aquestion. He says like this this law waswritten by Moses.

It's over 4,000 yearsold. He said um don't you think we'veevolved in the last 4,000 years? Likewhy do we need to why do we need tolisten to these ten commandments?Haven't we improved as society? Look atall our learning. Look at all ourknowledge.

Look at all our computers.Look at all our wisdom. Look at thephilosophy of the ages. Haven't weimproved as global humanity? Why shouldwe listen to something that came from ashepherd who scratched himself in thedust in the Arabian desert? Why do weneed to listen to this?And the evangelist said, well, he said,let me just just let me ask you a simplequestion.

He said, "Uh, when when youcame here tonight," he said, "Did youlock your front door?"And the man said, "Yes." "Well," saidthe evangelist. "In that case, wehaven't changed much, have we?" "Thefact you had to lock your front doortells me that we're still dealing withthe same problems today. Thou shalt notsteal still applies today. And you'reafraid of theft. That's why you lock thefront door." So, this is this is thechallenge we're facing.

So what is God'ssolution to the challenge we're facing?Well, in the Bible, we find that Godmakes covenants. A covenant is anagreement between two parties and itlays out the rights and responsibilitiesof both parties. Now, we all enter intocovenants today. Uh has anybody here gota cell phone? Raise your hand.

Yes.Okay. Do you have like a monthly plan?Okay. So, that's known as a covenant.That's a legal contract that outlinesyour rights and your responsibilities.You pay your money, you get access tocertain benefits. Um, does anybody herehave a rental agreement or a mortgageagreement? Yes.

Okay. So, you haveentered into a covenant. If you lease acar, if you sign up to go to school andyou agree to pay certain school fees, ifyou get married, these are allcovenants. We enter into covenants allthe time. And actually, we base ourlives on the security that thosecovenants provide.

If you if there wereno covenants in society, you wouldn't beable to rent or buy a house. Youwouldn't have a phone in your pocket.You'd never be able to get married.Life would be pretty hard. Yes. The onlyadvantage of not getting married is nomother-in-law. But in general, a societywithout covenantsis going to be a miserable place.

Now,in the Bible, God enters into multiplecovenants with humanity. I'm just goingto give you a few on the screen here.Genesis 1:es 26- 27. Won't look at thetext tonight. Genesis 2, God gave usdominion and shared stewardship of theearth. And that covenant was with Adamand all of humanity at creation.

Sotoday, we are stewards of Maui. We don'town Maui. We are stewards as far as Godis concerned. We are responsible fornurturing the environment and passing iton to the next generation.The second covenant we find in thescripture is Genesis 3:15. Um that wasthe promise that the seed of the womanwould crush the serpent's head.

That's apromise of a savior for all of fallenhumanity. And um that the covenantpartners were everybody in the humanrace from Adam onwards. In Genesischapter 8, at the end of the story ofthe flood, God enters into aneverlasting covenant that the world willnever be destroyed by a flood again. Andwhat is the sign that God puts in thesky as a confirmation that the worldwill never be destroyed by a floodagain? The rainbow.

So when you see therainbow, which is caused by light goingthrough water, it's a reminder that Godwill never cause the world to be floodedagain. Have we had a flood in the last4,000 years? Yes or no? Not a globalflood? No.

Maybe in your basement, butwe haven't had a global flood in thelast 4,000 years. Has God's promise cometrue to humanity there?Yes, it has. Then Genesis chapter 12, wesee that God made a covenant withAbraham, uh, through whom all thefamilies of the earth would be blessed.And the covenant partners with God wereAbraham, Abraham's biological families,Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and so forth.And through him, every family on earth.And then you have 2 Samuel chapter 7.This is a covenant between God and KingDavid that God would raise up from KingDavid's family a ruler who would rule aneverlasting kingdom. That would be theMessiah. And the covenant was madebetween God and King David.

And itpointed to Jesus as the son of David whowill establish an everlasting kingdom.So God keeps making covenants withpeople as we go through the scriptures.[snorts]And uh the most famous covenant is whatone you see on the screen now. He madeit at Mount Si. This is Exodus chapters19-23. This is that when Moses went onto Mount Si was given the tencommandments. And the covenant was thisthat if Israel would be God's people, itwould be his treasured possession, hispriestly kingdom and a holy nation thatGod would be their God.

And who were thebeneficiaries of that covenant? was notjust the people of Israel at Mount Si,the descendants of the 12 tribes ofIsrael, but it's anybody who wanted tojoin themselves to Israel at that time.There's a woman in the book ofDeuteronomy,it says, I forget the text now, but youcan look it up. It says, um, she was adaughter of Pharaoh,but her name was Betha.And you say, well, so what?Well, in in Hebrew, anything ends in Yahmeans short for Jehovah, like Elijah,Eli Yah. Um, so Yah is short forJehovah. And Bith is is uh is the sameas Ba'ath, which means daughter likeBath Shebahad committed adultery with David.

Sothis daughter of Pharaoh, her name isnow daughter of Jehovah. That's what thename means. It's a beautiful change.you've seen her life. You see it therein the book of Deuteronomy that thisdaughter of Pharaoh who was a pagan andworshiped all the gods of Israel, she'sjoined herself to God's people and she'staken a new name which means daughter ofJehovah. It's a beautiful name Bethiaand Bith is is um Hebrew Beth Bath.

Bithis it means a daughter in Hebrew and sothis is the most famous covenant of all.Now we call this the old covenant andGod made it with Israel at Mount Si andat the heart of that old that oldcovenant or the Mosaic covenant were theten commandments. The problem is thiscovenant failed.We read about this in Hebrews 8. It saysGod finds fault with them when he saysthe days are surely coming sayaith theLord when I will establish a newcovenant with the house of Israel andwith the house of Judah not like thecovenant that I made with theirancestors that is at the at Mount Si onthe day when I took them by the hand tolead them out of the land of Egypt forthey did not continue in my covenant andso I had no concern for them. And whydid that covenant fail? Very simply thisis the reason when God gave them thecovenant it says all the people answeredwith one voice and said all the wordsthat the Lord has spoken whatwe will do.

So the people of Israelentered into a covenant with God andbasically they thought it was a matterof external obedience and not a matterof the change of the human heart. Theysaid we'll do everything but there wasno attempt to change the heart. And sowhen Jesus came and he discusses thesermon, the law of Moses in the sermonon the mount, Jesus shows that the lawof God wasn't just be about externals.It was about to be a change of the humanheart. And it says Jesus said, "You haveheard that it was said, you shall notcommit adultery." That's the seventhcommandment. Then Jesus says, "But I sayto you that everyone who looks at awoman with lust has already committedadultery with her in his heart."And so in the sermon on the mount, Jesustakes the law of Moses and basicallysays the reason it failed was becauseGod's people thought it only matteredthat God only wanted external obedience.And they didn't realize that what Godwants is a change of heart.And umthat change of heart is what's mostimportant to God.God is, yes, concerned about, you know,if you're going to be his covenantpeople, you're going to be obedient tohis will.

What God really wants is achange of heart. He doesn't wantgrudging obedience. He wants loving,joyful obedience.And so, God promises to make a newcovenant.Well, there's the text there, Hebrews8:10-13.And I'm just going to break it down inthis way for you. The new covenants thatJesus wants to bring about in each ofour lives is found in Hebrews 8:10through13. And there are four componentsto this new covenant that God wants tomake with you and I when we follow JesusChrist.

The first promise is this. Iwill put my laws in their minds andwrite them on their hearts. What doesthis mean? Means that God will put hislaw in our hearts. Not so not so notthat we have this grudging externalobedience but that we actually delightto do the will of God because his law isnow written upon our heart.You know, there's a big differencebetween, you know, if you've got a sonand you say, "Hey, son, could you mowthe lawn for me today?" And you have,you know, half an hour of back and forthnegotiation over it.

Eventually, he doesit and you can see the scowl on his facethat he may get the lawn done, but youboth end up with like a sour feeling inthat relationship. But if you say toyour son, "Hey son, have you got a halfan hour free?" He says, "Hey dad, I seethe garden needs mowing. Can I help youout today?" Think, "Oh, praise the Lordfor a son like this." Yes. And thatrelationship is much stronger. And afterthe the lawn has been cut, therelationship between father and son ismuch stronger than if you've comp ifyou've compelled obedience.

And so thefirst component of the new covenant umwhich we enter into when we follow Jesusis that God promises to write his law onour hearts. We call that theolog intheological terms sanctification or tobe made holy. The second component ofthe new covenant that God wants us toenter into is reconciliation. in thetext says, "I will be their God and theyshall be my people." Now, isn't thatpretty amazing?I think that's really profoundthat I'm in a covenant relationship withthe creator of the universe.So, according to the, you know, on underin the US federal government, I'm just anumber in the social security system.Yes. President Trump doesn't know me byname.

The the administrator for socialsecurity doesn't know me by name. fromthe Department of Health and SocialServices. They don't know me by name.Well, the book of Isaiah chapter 43says, "I I've called you by name and youare mine and you are precious to me."Isaiah chapter 43, the first couple ofverses. So, when we enter into this newcovenant with God, God says, "If youwill be my child, my son, my daughter, Iwill be God unto you." And so, there's apersonal connection with God in the newcovenant. The third component of the newcovenant is listed there on the screen.The text says, "They shall not know,they shall not teach one another or sayto each other, know the Lord, for theyshall all know me, from the least ofthem to the greatest." What this tellsus is that when we enter into the newcovenant with God, that we actuallyengage in witness and mission.

We tellother people about the w the covenantwe're in with God. How many young ladiesif they get married and if their iftheir fiance gives them, let's say, adiamond ring, do young ladies tend tohide that under a glove for the next fewmonths?What do they do on social media?The whole world is going to know that,you know, I'm now engaged. Okay. And umI'm grateful it's not a nose ring thatthey put in, you know. But anyway, theythey put a ring on their finger and yousee these pictures on Facebook and theymay be kissing and there's their hand isup like this and you see the ring there.Um when somebody gets engaged, they wantthe whole world to know about it.

Yes.When you're in love, can you hide thefact that you're in love?No. Being in love is like having areally bad case of body odor. Okay. Nomatter how much you try to hide it, youcan't cover it up. Okay.

If someone hasbody odor, can they cover it up? Yes orno? No. No. It doesn't matter how manyclothes they put on, you know, they theythere's a study once in Europe that saidthat the French have the highest percapita use of odilelet and the lowestper capita use of soap.And the English have the lowest percapita use of wa twelet and the Frenchand they have the highest per capita useof soap.And so, um, when you have a bad case ofbody odor, no matter how much you try tocover it up, it still leaks out.

Yes.And when you fall in love with somebody,can you hide it?You may pretend you're not in love,but it leaks out like body odor. Okay?It's people are going to sniff it out.They're going to, okay, we see see thatthere. And when you are in love with Godand you're in a covenant relationshipwith God, it's like that diamondengagement ring. You're going to letpeople know that you're in a covenantrelationship with the creator of theuniverse. It leads to witness.

And thenthe final component of the new covenantsays, "I'll be merciful towards theiriniquities and I'll remember their sinsno more." Uh technically that's known asjustificationor to be declared righteous by God. Andthis this fourth components of the newcovenant, God says, "I will rememberyour sins no more." I think that'samazing, don't you? that you enter intothe new covenant with Jesus Christ. AndI will remember your sins no more.That your family may remember. They maynot let you forget.

Your kids mayremember. They may not let you forget.Your spouse may remember. And hopefullyhopefully they will actually let youforget. But God says, "I will not evenremember your sins anymore." That'samazing. He says, "I will declare youinnocent.

I will declare you righteous."And we'll come on to that in a bit moredetail in a few more moments. But theseare the four components of the newcovenant. And you say, well, when do weenter into the new covenant?Well, there is we find this Jesus refersto it in Matthew 26. This is the Lord'ssupper. Says, "And as they were eating,Jesus took bread and blessed it andbreak it and gave it to the disciplesand said, "Take, eat.

This is my body.And he took the cup and gave thanks andgave it to them saying, "Drink ye all ofit for this is my blood of the what?"New testament which is shed for theremission of sins. Now uh if you look inyour average Bible, we call the firsttwothirds of the Bible we call the oldwhat?The Old Testament. And the last third ofthe Bible we call the New Testament.Okay. And that word testament um atestament is a legal will. Yes.

Like umit's like a will. And so some someversions say covenant and some versionssay testament. It's essentially the samething. And so the old covenant which wefound with the law of Moses onwards ismost of the old testament. But whenJesus comes along because the oldcovenant has failed, God gives us a newcovenant.

And we enter into that newcovenant when we are baptized. Numberone. And secondly, when we celebrate theLord's supper, because when we celebratethe Lord's supper, Jesus says, "This isthe new this is my blood of the newtestament which is shed for theremission of sins." When we celebratethe Lord's supper together, we'relooking back with with faith in whatChrist did for us in Calvary. And we'relooking forward to the day when we'llcelebrate with Jesus in the marriagesupper of the lamb when we all get toheaven. So, it's both backward-lookingand it is forwardlooking.

And so, we'reentering into a new covenant. And thatis why the Lord's supper is is anessential part of the Christianexperience. We are affirming that we arein the Lord's supper in the newcovenant. It's a bit like a marriageceremony. Um it's like signing for, youknow, in in in secular terms likesigning for the mortgage, signing forthe rent, signing for the car, signingfor the phone, whatever it is.

Butspiritually, when you celebrate theLord's supper, you are affirming beforethe world and the watching universe thatyou are in a covenant relationship withthe creator of the universe. And thatbody that was broken, it was broken forme and for you. And that that the drink,the the the grape juice that we drink,that represents the the shedding of thatblood, it represents the forgiveness ofmy sins. And the breaking of the bodymeans that his body was broken in myplace. And the shedding of the sinsmeans he died in order to bring meforgiveness for all of my sins.

Andwe're ac we're accepting accepting thatby faith. So this is the new covenant.It's a beautiful thing. Yes. I'venoticed in many churches that attendancegoes down on Lord's supper.Like people don't like come to Lord'ssuppers. I want to encourage you to be aregular attendee at Lord's SupperServices because that's where you affirmbefore the watching universe that youare in a covenant relationship with thecreator of the universe.It's a bit likeit's a bit like saying to your wife thisyear we're not going to celebrate ourwedding anniversary.Wife can say what we're not going tocelebrate the wedding anniversary today.And it's like saying to the kids, "Iknow it's your birthday next week, butwe're no longer celebrating birthdays inthis family." They say, "What's wrongwith you?" And then it's like yourparents calling your uncle and your auntand your grandparents a week beforeChristmas and agreeing on the phone andyou're listening in as little kids andthey're all agreeing, let's just agreeon no presents this year.

And the kidsall feel short changed by that. Hasanybody That happened to me a few times.So I remember that. But um these theseevents are important in our lives andwhen we celebrate the Lord's supper,we're affirming before the watchinguniverse that we're in a covenantrelationship with the creator of theuniverse. So what is the heart of thematter when it comes to that newcovenant? Well,let's go back to that message of God'sjudgments in Revelation 14.

This isknown as the first angel's message.Revelation has got three angelsmessages. Numbers 1, 2, and three. Thisis the first angel's message. Saysthere, "Then I saw another angel flyingin the midst of heaven with everlastinggospel to proclaim to those who live onthe earth, to every nation, tribe,language, and people. And he said in aloud voice, fear God and give him glory,for the hour of his judgment has come.And worship him who made the heaven andthe earth, the sea, and the springs ofwater." So this this uh this uhannouncement of God of the hour of hisjudgment draws our attention to the factthat we are to worship God as thecreator of the heavens and the earth,the sea and the springs of water.

And ifthe the moral law is the standard ofjudgment and we we are judged um againstthe moral law, particularly against Godas creator, there is only one part ofthe ten commandments that deals with Godas creator and that is the fourthcommandment which is the Sabbath day.Because it says there in red, six daysyou shall labor and do all your work,but the seventh day is the Sabbath, theLord your God. But then it goes on tosay, why do we worship God on theSabbath day? In the bit at the bottom,it says, for in six days the Lord madeheaven and earth, the sea, and all thatis in them, but he rested on the seventhday. And so the reason that we we honorthe Sabbath day is a memorial of God'screation. It's a recognition that I am acreated being.

I'm a moral being. I'mmorally accountable to my creator andI'm grateful for the gift of life everysingle morning.You know, uh I was joking[clears throat] with somebody today.How do you know you're getting old?Like when you bend down in the morningto do your shoelaces, you look for otherjobs to do while you're down there.Okay. Does anybody else have that sameexperience? [clears throat]or you struggle to get you can get onefoot in your underwear but not the otherfoot and you kind of stand there kind oflike doing like a performance trying toget your underwear one. Um uh my uncleused to do that in front of my aunt andshe was really upset with him cuz heturned it into a real performance.

Andso the the Sabbath day is is the is theum is the memorial of God's creation.It's a reminder to us. It's a reminderto us that God is good, that God islove, that God's creation was very good,that all good gifts come from God, andthat God wishes to have time with us.God created in the first place a perfectworld. We live in a broken world. We seethat around us. But the original perfectworld was infused with the presence ofGod's love of all that is good andwholesome, uplifting, lifegiving, lifesustaining, and lifeful.

It was neverGod's purpose for death, disease, dismayor despair, despair to inhabit ourworld. And the text says there at theend of the creation week, it says there,"Thus the heavens and the earth werefinished and all their multitude."Genesis 2. And it says, "And on theseventh day, God finished the work thathe had done. And he rested on theseventh day from all the work that hehad done. So God blessed the seventh dayand hallowed it because on it God restedfrom all the work that he' done increation." So in this passage here,three times, you see it in the redthere.

Three times the Bible isemphasizing the seventh day, the seventhday, the seventh day. So for days 1through six, God was making the physicalworld.But the climax of creation was nothingphysical.It was time,holy time.It's the capstone of creation. So days1, 2, and three, God creates thephysical environment. Days four, five,and six, God creates the animals, thebirds, the bees, the fish, and and thebirds. And on the sixth day, he createsAdam and Eve.

So days 1 and three areparalleled by days four, five, and six.But the capstone of creation is nothingphysical. You can't put it in a bottle.You can't sell it in Walmart. The climaxof the creation is something known asholy time.And it doesn't matter what part of theworld you live in. Doesn't matter howrich or poor you are. Doesn't matterwhat your zip code is.

Doesn't matterwhat color your passport is. Everybodygets the same 24 hours of holy timeevery week.It's available to all people equally inequal measure. Nobody can buy moreSabbath. Nobody can sell their portionof the Sabbath to somebody else. TheSabbath is a cathedral in time foreveryone here tonight to fellowship withGod regardless of who we are or wherewe've come from.Now, you probably noticed a few timesI've got lost when it comes to time uphere.

Yes.I I said on Monday night, I saidsomething like, "It feels strange thatit's already Tuesday." My wife said tome later, "No, Conor, it's only Monday."But have you noticed that if you don'ttake a day off in the week, what happensto your concept of time?It gets all blurred. Yes. After a while,you're saying, "Now, what day of theweek is it? Is it Monday? Is it Tuesday?Is it Thursday?

I really don't know." Sowe live in such a busy world, such abusy busy world that if we just if wejust keep working, working, working,working, and we don't stop on a regularbasis on a Sabbath day, we end up likerats on a treadmill. And after a while,we don't know what day of the week itis. And it's very disorienting.It's very disorientingwhen we slow down on Friday night.Sabbath comes in at Friday sunsetaccording to the Bible. When we slowdown, we create time for that which ismost meaningful in our lives, ourrelationships with our spouse, with ourchildren, with our members of our localcommunity. We tend to think that life isabout the acquisition of possessions.It's not.

God has made us to be humanbeings, not human doings and not humanacquirings.God has created us to be able to sit andthink and reflect about the purpose andmeaning and where have I come from andwhere am I going and do I have anyassurance of that. And the Sabbath isthis moment in time on a weekly basiswhere we can get off the never-endingtreadmill and leave the rat race and wecan reset all those relationships thatbring honor and joy to each one of ourlives. You know, you probably heard ofCharlie Kirk. Yes. He wrote a book onthe Sabbath.

He said, "Stop in the nameof God." And he spoke there about theimmense blessings that came when he andhis family on a Friday afternoon wouldswitch off their cell phones and switchoff the TV and switch off the internetand just have a straight 24 hours justwith the loved ones. And how his kidscame to love the Sabbath day. It waslike a weekly Christmas, Thanksgiving,and birthday party all rolled into one.And he spoke about the profoundblessings of keeping the Sabbath day.Somebody else who's high profile isIvanka Trump. You know Ivanka Trump,she converted to Judaism from whatevershe was before and she keeps the Sabbathday as according to the fourthcommandment that she and her husbandJared Kush, they switch everything offand they just have that 24 hours issacred.And so many people are trying theSabbath day and it's a bit like I'veheard of like angel fruit, but I came toHawaii. I never tasted angel fruitbefore, but I come to Hawaii and I tasteang is it angel fruit?

No. Dragon fruit.Okay. Dragon fruit. You know what I'mtalking about. It's this red stuff.

Yes.Red thing with little bit little blackpieces in it. I'd never heard of thisstuff. I'd never eaten it before. Butwhen I came to Hawaii, I taste it forthe first time. Now, there's a verse inthe Bible, Psalm 34:8, that says, "Oh,taste and see that the Lord is good."And you can hear about the Sabbath, butuntil you taste and see that God isgood, unless you actually slow down andstop on a Sabbath day and switcheverything off and disconnect from thestresses of this world and the stockmarket and the war in Iran andeverything else, you will not discoverfor yourself how good the Sabbathblessings really are.

So, I want toencourage you if you're not keeping theSabbath already, the heart of the newcovenant is God writing his law in yourheart. And part of that law in the heartis giving God a 24-hour date. It's knownas the Sabbath. You're going to connectwith your creator and remember onceagain that you are a human being createdin the image of God rather than just ahuman a rat in the human rat race. Andyou may say, "Well, the Sabbath is aJewish institution." Well, no, it's not.The Sabbath was given in creation inGenesis uh 2, long before the Jewishpeople even existed.

The Sabbath wasgiven for all of humanity as God'sblessing to all of humanity. Jesus saidin Mark 2:29,Jesus says, "Then the Sabbath was madefor man and not man for the Sabbath.Therefore, the son of man is Lord evenof the So Jesus is the Lord of theSabbath." He doesn't say anywhere elsein the Bible, he's not Lord of Monday.He's not Lord of Tuesday. He's not Lordof Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,Saturday, or Sunday. The only verse inthe Bible that says which day Jesus isthe Lord of is the Lord of the Sabbathday. And you look through the gospels,particularly John's gospel, some ofJesus' most powerful miracles were doneduring the the Sabbath hours to setpeople free from Satan's clutches.

DidJesus keep the Sabbath? Luke 4:16 on thescreen there. Yes, he did. It says,"When Jesus came to Nazareth, where hehad been brought up, he went to thesynagogue on the which day?" The Sabbathday as was his custom. So Jesus kept theSabbath.

He said, "He is the Lord of theSabbath." Sabbath comes from thecreation story long before the Jewsexisted. So, it's not a Jewishinstitution. It's a it's a blessing forall of humanity. Jesus kept it. Jesushealed on the Sabbath and he's the Lordof the Sabbath.

And when Jesus spoke tothe disciples, he said, "When I'm goneand the Romans surround Jerusalem withtheir armies," he said, "you need toflee." But Jesus said to his disciples,"Pray that your flight may not be winteror on the what? Sabbath." So Jesusassumed that his disciples will bekeeping the Sabbath long after he'sleft, gone back to heaven. And so theSabbath was not turned to Sunday becauseof the resurrection. Jesus didn't teachthat. The apostles didn't teach that.Nor did they practice it.

Jesus said tohis disciples after I'm gone. And 40years later or 30 years later when theRomans surround Jerusalem as they did inAD66,he said that pray that your flight willnot be on the Sabbath. And so Jesusassumed that his followers are going tobe keeping the Sabbath after hisresurrection. And Isaiah chapter 66takes us through to the new heavens andthe new earth. And we discover therethat when we get to heaven, we're notgoing to be worshiping from Sunday toSunday.

The Bible says from new moon tonew moon and from what to what? Sabbath.All flesh shall come to worship beforeme, saith the Lord.So the Sabbath exists in the Garden ofEden. Jesus kept the Sabbath. Jesushealed on the Sabbath. Jesus is the Lordof the Sabbath.

Jesus taught hisdisciples to pray their flight fromJerusalem would not be on the Sabbath.And the Bible promises that when we allget to heaven, we will worship God fromSabbath to Sabbath. Do you get it? Isthere is there a theme throughoutscripture here? Yes, there is. Now,we'll explore maybe tomorrow or I thinktomorrow night, we'll explore a bit moreabout the end time significance of theSabbath.But there is another reason why we keepthe Sabbath.

Not just because ofcreationis this and Deuteronomy 5 has is the theten commandments are listed twice in theBible the book of Exodus and also in thebook of Deuteronomy and the onlydifference between those two versionsthe ten commandments is the fourthcommandment the Sabbath day and the bitthat's different is the bit in red um sowe to remember the Sabbath day and tokeep it holy and so forth but now therationale has changed in Exodus we keepthe Sabbath day because God is ourcreator and he made the heavens and theearth in six days and he rested and heblessed and he hallowed the seventh daybut in the book of Deuteronomy we keepthe Sabbath day for an entirelydifferent reason. It says there rememberthat you were a slave in the land ofEgypt and the Lord your God brought youout from there with a mighty hand and anoutstretched arm. So in this reason forthe Sabbath, the Sabbath, we keep theSabbath not just as a memorial ofcreation, but it's a celebration thatGod delivered us from slavery to sin.It's a celebration of deliverance.It's like having a wedding anniversarymeal with your spouse. It's acelebration of what God has done for youthrough all the years. Well, hopefullyit's a celebration.

Okay? Not throughgritted teeth at least. So, you know, umI'd like to go to Taco Bell, but youknow, that's not that's never happenedin our wedding anniversary celebrations.But anyway, um this the Sabbath is acelebration that God has set me freefrom sin.We're affirming that God delivers usfrom slavery to sin to become hispeople. It's an opportunity to celebrateGod's deeds in our life. It affirms ourfaith in salvation past.

It affirms ourtrust in salvation present as affirmsour faith in salvation in the future.The Sabbath affirms that we look toJesus lifted high and dying in ourplace, trusting in God's provision forour salvation to deliver us from deathto life.The c the Sabbath is celebrated notbecause we want to be saved. It is notthe means of salvation. It's acelebration of the fact that God hassaved us in the past and he's saving usevery single day.Just as you cannot have a weddinganniversary meal without first beingmarried. Yes.So the Sabbath is a celebration of whatGod has already done for you in yourlife. And you don't have a weddinganniversary meal in order to getmarried.

you have a wedding anniversarymeal to celebrate what God has givenyou. And so we celebrate the Sabbath.And this commandment here, we arecelebrating God's salvation. As theBible says, most beautiful verses in theBible says, "It is by grace that youhave been saved through faith." And thisnot from yourselves. It is the gift ofGod. And so we're celebrating the factthat we are saved by grace rather thanby our own human works.

And the Sabbaththen becomes a sign between God and hispeople. It is a covenant sign that wethat we bear the name of Jesus Christ.And tomorrow we're going to look more atthe end time significance of the Sabbathin the final crisis of conscience thatis coming upon our world. But the bookof Ezekiel says this. Moreover, I gavethem my Sabbaths as a sign between meand them so that they may know that Ithe Lord sanctify them and hallow ormake holy my Sabbaths. they may be asign between me and you so that you mayknow that I the Lord am your God.

And sothe Sabbath is a sign that we are God'speople, that we belong to God, that weare his treasured possession, that he isfilling us with his spirit and turningus into a holy priesthood, that God hasentered into a perpetual covenant witheach one of us. The Sabbath is myaffirmation to God that I want to bechanged. I want to be recreated. I wantto be a new creation. I'm grateful forthe salvation he's given me.

I'm askinghim to more fully restore his imagewithin me.You say, "Well,why do most Christians worship onSunday?"Well, the original Christian church, youmight say, in the from the 5th to the15th centuries, was the Catholic Church,the papacy.And if you read in their writings,they'll tell you why most Christiansworship on the Sunday. It's not becauseJesus rose on the Sunday. This is theCatholic Encyclopedia. It says this. Thechurch after changing the day of restfrom the Jewish Sabbath or the seventhday of the week to the first, that'sfrom Sabbath to Sunday, made the thirdcommandment referred to Sunday as theday to be kept holy as the Lord's day.So, a couple of comments here.

If youlook at the original ten commandments,how many commandments are there in theten commandments?10. If you look in the Catholic Bible,they've changed the ten commandments.They've eliminated the secondcommandment, which is not making anygraven images, no idols because Catholicchurches are filled with idols. They'vetaken that commandment out. So thefourth commandment about the Sabbathbecomes the third. Hence, it refers tothe third commandment up here.

And theytook the final commandment, the 10th,about not envying your neighbor's wife,oxy maid, and so forth, and they justsplit it in two. So the Catholic Churchactually changed the law of Godwhich is really an act of blasphemy.It's not in the Bible. So the CatholicChurch says that they actually changedthe day of rest and in that when theysay this they actually saying that theychopped out the second commandmentcompletely and they split the 10th intotwos. They've still got ten commandmentsbut it's not as it's written in theHebrew Bible. This is from the um theconverts catechism.This is an official publication of thethe Catholic Church.

The question whichis the Sabbath day answer which day isthe Sabbath day according to theCatholic CatechismSaturday.Now if the Catholic Church who promotesSunday worship all around the world saysin their catechism Sabbath is theSaturday. Saturday is the Sabbath day.You got to take note. Question. Why dowe observe Sunday instead of Saturday?Answer. We observe Sunday instead ofSaturday because the Catholic Church andthe council of Leodysia transferred thesemnity from Saturday to Sunday.

Whatthis saysis that the Bible says remember theSabbath day to keep it holy and ratherthan the church being subject to thescripture like the scripture is over usand we're obedient to scripture. Whatthis says is that now we can change thescriptures for ourselves and determinefor ourselves what the Bible now says.that we're in control of scripturerather than us being subject toscripture. And the final quote I showyou tonight, these are all official CathCatholic publications. This is theCatholic Press newspaper Australia. Itsays there, "Sunday is a Catholic, bywhich I mean Roman Catholic institution,and its claims to observance can bedefended only on Catholic principles.From the beginning to the end ofscripture, there is not a single passagethat warrants the transfer of weeklypublic worship from the last day of theweek to the first.Not a single passage of scriptureaccording to the Catholic Churchwarrants shifting from Sabbath to Sundayworship.And that kind of tees us up for tomorrownight when we're going to talk about thefinal crisis of conscience that's comingupon our world.

Much like COVID, there'ssomething coming down the pike which ismuch bigger. It will be on a globallevel and the issue will be trueworship.So the solution in in conclusiontonight, the solution to our humanbrokennessis to enter into the new covenant withGod. We do that when we go through thewaters of baptism and when we celebratethe Lord's supper. We take the that weeat the bread that represents the factthat Jesus' body was broken in my placefor me. And we drink that grape juicethat symbolizes the fact that hisspilled blood brought forgiveness for mysins.

Now I'm in a covenant walk withGod. We ask God to write his law uponour hearts and we ask Jesus to livewithin it within us. And the sign ofthat covenant, the last two slides here,the sign of the covenant is the Sabbath.As the Sabbath is an eternal memorial ofGod's creation, and it calls for aresponse of worship. The Sabbath inDeuteronomy 5 is an eternal celebrationof God's salvation, and it calls us toproclaim his saving ways. what God hasdone in my life and in your life.

Andthe third reason is the Sabbath is asign of God's covenant relationship withhis people. And it calls us daily totalk and walk with him.I want to encourage you today,if you're not keeping the Sabbath, whydon't you try it this coming weekend?Just try it. Taste and see whether Godis good or not. Slow down on Friday.Switch off those phones. Avoid theinternet.

Don't worry about Iran or thestock market or whatever is whateverelse is on the news. And make theSabbath in Hebrew on it means a delight.Like you plan for Thanksgiving, you planfor a wedding, you plan for Christmas.Plan for the Sabbath day that it will bea delight for you and those nearest anddearest to you. And do it on a weeklybasis. And you will find that you haveenergy for the rest of the week. You'llfind you're not lost in the endless ratrace.

You'll find that the relationshipsthat are nearest and dearest to you areflourishing once again where previouslyyou were just lost in the rat the ratrace of life. And you will indeed tasteand see that God is good. In the FrenchRevolution,they decided to put all the animals theywent everything went metric or decimal.And so they said all the animals mustnow work nine days and have the 10th dayoffrather than working six days and havethe seventh day off.And within a few weeks, that scheme cameto an end because the animals refused towork on the Sabbath day. They knewthere's a seven there's a 7-day cycle.The animals, the horses wouldn't pullthe carts. The cows wouldn't work in thefields.

We we we were raised with dogson every Sabbath morning. They juststayed in their beds. They knew it wasthe Sabbath day. The animal kingdomknows about the Sabbath day. The Sabbathis a memorial of God's creation.

It's acelebration of our salvation and it's asign of our covenant walk with God.It's ultimately a sign that we've askedJesus to live within each one of us. Myfavorite verse in the Bible says, "It isno longer I who live, but it is a Christwho lives in me. The life I now live inthe flesh. I live by faith in the son ofGod who loved me and gave himself forme." When we enter into that newcovenant, that deal, that agreement,that bargain with God, that I will behis son and I will be his daughter andhe will be my God, we're not justentering into a covenant with God. We'reasking the creator of the universe.We're actually asking Jesus Christ tolive within us and to change us from theinside out and to do more for us andwith us and sometimes despite us than wecould ever imagine for ourselves.It's an incredible experience with God.It's the new covenant.

And so thisSabbath day, we're going to celebrate. Ithink we have some baptisms tomorrow andon Sabbath and maybe in a few weekstime, we're going to celebrate as peopleare entering this new covenant with God.It's a beautiful thing to see. It's abeautiful thing to be a part of. I wantto encourage you today that if your walkwith God has kind of wandered, maybeit's like a marriage has gone very dry,um to rekindle your walk with God,celebrate the next Lord's supper thatcomes along, and claim this promise ofscripture for yourself. It is no longerI who live, but it is Christ who livesin me.

And as of today, I want Jesus tolive within me. We sing that song, liveout thy life within me. This is whatthat song is singing about. The life Inow live in the flesh in Maui in 2026.I live my by faith in the son of God wholoved me and gave himself for me.It's a beautiful promise. It's abeautiful covenant.

And it's my prayerthat each one of us will enter that newcovenant with God. That will allow himto write his law upon our hearts. Thatwe will be his people and he will be ourGod. That he will remember our sins nomore. as far as the east as from thewest so far he's removed ourtransgressions from us and that um as heputs his law on our hearts we willexperience we call it holiness but we'llexperience the blessings that come fromliving according to the will of Godhas done incredible things in my lifeI'm still a work in progress but if Godbe before me who can be against me andif God before you who can be against youthe apostle Paul said of this I'mconfidence that the one who began a goodwork in you will bring it to completionby the day of the Lord.

It's my prayerthat when Jesus comes again in theclouds of glory, we will realize thatGod has done an incredibly good thing ineach of our lives and we'll be ready foreternal life. May God bless us as wewalk in this new covenant, experiencethat walk of joy with God, and lookforward by faith that glorious day whenall things are made new again. Amen.So,tomorrowum the health nugget will be on friedpotatoes.Is that right, Kim? No. Roast potatoes,baked potatoes, mashed potatoes.

No.What is that health nugget on tomorrow?Real eyes. Real eyes. Real eyes. Allright. Something about eyes andthinking.

All right. So we look forwardto that tomorrow. These talks are alwayscreatively titled and I look forward tothem. And so uh tomorrow um I'll bespeaking about the end times in the bookof Revelation. What we have to lookforward to before Jesus comes again.

Uhyou you might say as a summary we needto buckle up but if you know the end ofthe story you can get through to the endof the story. And uh then on Sabbathwe'll have our worship service in theKihei Church Adventist Church in CalvaryChapel. We'd love to see you there. Ithink it's just a worship servicebecause of the baptism at 8:30 down inthe beach and then the worship serviceat 11. Then our last night together willbe this Sabbath night here at 6:00 onSabbath.

We look forward to seeing youall here and I'm going to speak aboutthe second coming of Jesus Christ andwhat that means for us. So the blessedhope that we have within us. So untilthen, have a blessed evening and go withGod and go in peace.