1. Where do I sign?
The covenant is in you!
Jeremiah 31:31-34
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2. Who is the covenant for?
•Israel
•Judah
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3. Who is it for?
• For the people
that are divided
– By race
– By ideas
– By religion
– By gender
– By political
– By just about
any other thing
that divides
people
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4. Who is going to do this?
God says,
“I WILL!”
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5. What will it be like?
• Not like the old one
• Not one where I take
them by the hand
• Not one where I am
the husband
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6. What does this mean? Galatians 3.
• 21 Is the Law then contrary • 23 But before faith came,
to the promises of we were kept in custody
God? May it never be! For if under the law, being shut
a law had been given which up to the faith which was
was able to impart life, then later to be
righteousness would indeed revealed. 24 Therefore the
have been based on Law has become
law. 22 But the Scripture our tutor to lead us to
has shut up everyone under Christ, so that we may be
sin, so that the promise by justified by faith. 25 But
faith in Jesus Christ might now that faith has come, we
be given to those who are no longer under a tutor.
believe.
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7. The Change…Jeremiah 31:33
• I will put my law within
them,
• and I will write it on
their hearts;
• and I will be their God,
• and they shall be my
people.
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8. What it looks like…Jeremiah 31:34
• No longer shall they teach
one another,
• or say to each other,
"Know the LORD,"
• for they shall all know
me, from the least of
them to the greatest, says
the LORD;
• for I will forgive their
iniquity, and remember
their sin no more.
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9. How will it get in there?
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10. Mystery is Christ in You!
• Whoever serves me must
follow me, and where I
am, there will my servant
be also. Whoever serves
me, the Father will honor.
"Now my soul is troubled.
And what should I say--'
Father, save me from this
hour'? No, it is for this
reason that I have come
to this hour. Father,
glorify your name."
John 12:26-28
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Editor's Notes
Internal divisions in ourselves. We want to be something and yet we are not. We want to be whole, unified inside, and yet we are conflicted. Of knowing what we ought to do, even wanting it, but not being able to do it.My resources are not adequate: Education, intellect, abilities, family, extended relationships, etc. They are not enough, have not been enough for me to address all the inconsitancies in my life and n my world.
31:32 It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt--a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD.
The law is God’s advertising firm. It is like the ad market, which highlights that we are not satisfied with what we have and helps us get in touch with the truth that we desire more. We, most of us at least, desire a healthier life and lifestyle, a safer world where we can leave our property unguarded, where our children can walk to school and not be abducted, we long for better relationships with the people that we love and with the people that we don’t like very much but wish we did. And the list goes on. The law helps us get in touch with these things and reminds us that God would like things to be better as well. But they are not. At least not yet for most in the world. But God does have an idea on how that might change.
Fused values, identity, vision, mission and purpose. The ones who are like that will become a people. They will naturally gravitate to each other and together to God.A few weeks ago we heard people remark about Jesus that, “Zeal for His Father’s house consumed Him.” The law was written on Jesus’ heart. It consumed. It moved Him.I believe that God has done this with many sitting in this room. Written the law on your hearts. Values talk. Purposeful Plan. Our collective heart.How do I know this. Because is see you doing things that tell me that the law of God is written on your hearts. I see it throughout the Mennonite Church at large.
People will begin to the right things without being told what to do.This is scary for some. No ecclesial job security here.Anabaptist history and priesthood of all believers.Stories of what that looks like. MDS, MEDA, MCC, Ten Thousand VillagesEveryone has permission to do the “right” thing without asking permission.You say, “This is impossible.” That is just what I said to God. He disagreed with me. Because God defined the “right thing.” How?
The Cross is the example and the means for this writing on our hearts to happen.The “right thing” = self sacrifice.How does something enter our hearts. By touching us deeply. We read a story, see a picture, watch a movie, hear a song or meet a person and that encounter it “moves us” we say. That meeting changes who we are. Sometimes radically. Things are written on our hearts when we allow something to set off our emotional mechanisms that release all kinds of chemicals in our brains that then embed those values, those characteristics, those behaviors deep into our psychi or our heart so that we begin to live out of them and not out of something else.The story and image of the Cross with the person of Jesus Christ dead on that Cross should and does move us. It is God’s best attempt to write on our hearts the essence of all the law. You will love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind and you will love your neighbor as yourself.If we will open up our selves to this image alone, not just opening our minds but opening our hearts and emotions to this story and image, we will be transformed and the law of God will begin to be written on our hearts. This is where it happens. This is how it happens. This is why it happened. For you. So that you might become the person and we the people that we long to be. That we know we can be but are not sure how to become.It is a bit of a mystery…
Colossians 1:26-2826 the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. 27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
