Sermon for the week of December 18th, 2016 by Pastor Steve Hopkins
Main Text: (Jeremiah 31:31-34, NLT) “The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the Lord. “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,” says the Lord. “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”
Sermon Outline: A Reason for Love
- “For God so loved the world…” (John 3:16)
1. The Covenant with Adam
• In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth. (Genesis 1:1, NIV)
• So, God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.” (Genesis 1:27-28, NIV)
• So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. (Genesis 3:23, NIV)
2. The Covenant with Noah
• The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. (Genesis 6:5, NIV)
• But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord…Noah did everything just as God commanded him. (Genesis 6: 8, 22, NIV)
3. The Covenant with Abraham
• Your name will be Abraham for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. (Genesis 17:5-7, NIV)
4. The Covenant with Moses
• Now if you 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. And you wil be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation. (Exodus 19:5-6, NLT)
5. The Covenant with David
• For when you die and are buried with your ancestors, I will raise up one of your descendants, your own offspring, and I will make his kingdom strong…Your house and your kingdom will continue before me for all time, and your throne will be secure forever. (2 Samuel 7:12, 16; NLT)
6. The New Covenant
• 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. (Hebrews 8:6, NLT)
• But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. (Romans 8:10-11, NIV)
- Additional Reading: Hebrews 8-12, Romans 8, John 3
“We love because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)
• TQ1: How do I see my life story in the context of the Biblical narrative?
• TQ2: How can I better receive the love of God each day?
• TQ3: How can I better give the love of God each day?