Sermon Tone Analysis

*A New Year’s Resolution*

*Hebrews 8:6-13, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Revelation 21: 1-5, Romans 8:18-25*

*Ice Breaker*

* Good morning church.

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas.

I wanted to thank everyone for the candlelight Christmas Eve service.

What a great time of celebration.

* Starting this Wednesday night and for the next 4 Wed nights in January we will be going through the January Bible Study “Amazing Grace” and it is based on the book of Romans.

Let me invite everyone to come to the study starting at 7pm each Wednesday.

* Let’s open with a word of prayer.

*Introduction*

* Usually at this time of the year we have all eaten too much and spent too much money and we start thinking about our New Year’s Resolutions.

We usually want to get on a budget, get on a diet, and spend more time with God and with our friends and family.

I hope you can accomplish those things in 2008.

* Have you ever wonder why we do this ritual called New Year’s Resolutions?

One of the reasons is that we all have a need in our life to start over on some things.

Most of us are not satisfied with our lives the way they are and that are not necessarily a bad thing.

Most of us could use some improvements.

* Unfortunately, what most of us have found out through many years of experiments is that in just a few months our budgets get broken, diets are all but forgotten, that exercise program was just too hard, and regarding our daily Bible reading well we did ok in January but then February came and we got bogged down in so-in-so begot so-in-so and to be honest we just quit.

* A Resolution simple means an act of determination and this morning I want us to look at 3 things God has resolved or determined that He wants to do for us.

* The good thing is that God does not quit, get too tired, or just get lazy.

What God sets out to do – He actually does.

That is great news for you and me because God is the one responsible for making you and me in the likeness of Christ.

You can’t do one thing to make yourself more holy, but God can dramatically change your life.

* I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

(Phil 1:6)

 

\\ *Point 1 “New Covenant”*

* God has resolved Himself to make a new covenant with man.

The original “Covenant with Moses” or the “Covenant of the Laws” was not satisfactory with God – it had a flaw and that was that man did not keep up his end of the covenant.

*   The old covenant required a sinful priest to offer sacrifices for himself and then he went into the tabernacle ~/ temple to offer a sin sacrifice for the entire nation.

Because the priest was a sinful man then this had to be done every year.

The payment for sin could not be fully met.

* *(Hebrews 8:6-13) *But Jesus has now obtained a superior ministry, and to that degree He is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been legally enacted on better promises.

*7 *For if that first ⌊covenant⌋ had been faultless, no opportunity would have been sought for a second one.

*8* But finding fault with His people, He says:

*“Look, the days are coming,” says the Lord,*

*“when I will make a new covenant*

*with the house of **Israel*

*and with the house of **Judah**—*

*9*     *not like the covenant*

*that I made with their fathers*

*on the day I took them by their hand*

*to lead them out of the **land** of **Egypt**.*

*Because they did not continue in My covenant,* (here is the flaw)

*I disregarded them,” says the Lord.*

*10*     *“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of **Israel*

*after those days,” says the Lord:*

*“I will put My laws into their minds,*

*and I will write them on their hearts,*

*and I will be their God,*

*and they will be My people.*

*11*     *And each person will not teach his fellow citizen,*

*and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’*

*because they will all know Me,*

*from the least to the greatest of them.*

*12*     *For I will be merciful to their wrongdoing,*

*and I will never again remember their sins.”*

*13          *By saying, *a new *⌊*covenant*⌋, He has declared that the first is old.

And what is old and aging is about to disappear.

* Therefore He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance, because a death has taken place for redemption from the transgressions ⌊committed⌋ under the first covenant.

(Heb 9:15)

* Just like the old covenant – the new covenant only works for those that are willing to abide by the covenant.

It is a legal contract.

* In the same way He also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant ⌊established by⌋ My blood; it is shed for you.

(Luke 22:20)

 

*Point 2 “New Creation” or “Newness of Life”*

* God has resolved Himself to make you a new creation.

When you come to Christ and surrender your life to Him then you are no longer in control.

It is now God’s responsibility to make you holy.

Now this process goes a lot easier if you are a willing participant but only God can make you holy – you can’t make yourself holy.

Just like our children do not know how to be adults – it is our job to teach them.

* For both circumcision and uncircumcision mean nothing; ⌊what matters⌋ instead is a new creation.

(Galatians 6:15)

* For us to have a relationship with God means that we have become a new creation.

We are not just reconditioned or had a new coat of paint put on but we have actually become a new being.

That is what Jesus talked to Nicodemus about when He said you must be born again.

* How can you be a new creation?

The Bible says we must:

* First be called by the Spirit of God.

It is God that leads us to salvation.

No man has ever decided to get saved on his own.

It is God’s Spirit that draws us, convicts us, and makes us recognize that we need salvation.

* Second we must confess our sins to God.  Did you know that you are a dirty rotten sinner?

Well, if not let me be the bearer of good news.

You have fallen short of God’s glory.

You have missed the mark.

The Bible says that you are as filthy rags.

The good news is that God wants to take all that away from you.

* How can I get rid of my sin, well you must confess it (agree with God) and then believe on the name of Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

Only Jesus can pay for your sin debt, only Jesus can wash away your sin, only Jesus can make you into a new creation.

* To complete this transaction, to go from an enemy of God to a friend of God, to go from outcast to heir, you must confess Jesus as Lord & Savior of your life.

How do I do that?

Well, you ask Jesus into your heart~/life and then tell someone else about it.

That is exactly what we saw with Abbey Joiner & Jennifer Long.

They were drawn by God’s Spirit, admitted they were sinners, believed that Jesus was the only way, and then confessed Jesus before us.

* Therefore if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.

(2 Cor 5:17)

* God has resolved to make you a new creation.

He was so resolved that Jesus went to the Cross to give you and me a new beginning.

I don’t have to stand before God as a dirty rotten scoundrel – I get to stand in the presence of God as one of His children, waiting for a blessing not a curse.