New Covenant Nuggets

Let's lift those Bibles up.

Is this our custom?

Wave them around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad.

Let's say this together say, heavenly Father, I'm grateful for Wednesday night because I'm hungry for more and I've tuned in with a hungry heart to receive.

Receive all that you have for me out of the Word and by the Spirit's illumination to my spirit.

My faith is growing.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Let's turn in our Bibles to Hebrews, chapter six, and actually what I'm gonna do tonight, a little unusual.

I don't usually use a different version, but I'm gonna read Hebrews, chapter six, verses 10 through 20 out of the contemporary English version, the CEV.

And if you wanna follow along with the King James or whatever, but I'm gonna read it out of the CEV, starting with Hebrews 6-10.

God is always fair.

He will remember how you helped His people in the past and how you're still helping them.

You belong to God and he won't forget the love you have shown His people.

We wish each of you would always be eager to show how strong and lasting your hope really is.

Then you would never be lazy.

You would be following the example of those who had faith and were patient until God kept His promise to them.

No one is greater than God.

So he made a promise in His own name when he said to Abraham I, the Lord, will bless you with many descendants.

Then, after Abraham had been very patient, he was given what God had promised.

When anyone wants to settle an argument, they make a vow by using the name of someone for something greater than themselves.

So when God wanted to prove for certain His promise to His people could not be broken, he made a vow.

God cannot tell lies, and so his promises and vows are two things that can never be changed.

We have run to God for safety.

Now.

His promises should greatly encourage us to take hold of the hope that is right in front of us.

This hope is like a firm and steady anchor for our souls.

In fact, hope reaches behind the curtain and into the most holy place.

Jesus has gone there ahead of us, and he is our high priest forever, just like Melchizedek.

And so I wanted tonight to share a message entitled New Covenant Nuggets.

Where do you get that title out of what you read?

Well, just bear with me.

I mean, you could call it having anchors of hope.

You know the scriptures talked about having anchors of hope for our minds, for our souls, but New Covenant Nuggets.

I was watching a reality program called Homestead Rescue as a family from Alaska as a father and a son and a daughter and people write them letters who are homesteaders are having difficulty and they go to their rescue and they spend five days there to teach them new skills and to look at their homestead and see what are the problems and help them fix a few things.

And this particular episode was interesting because this family had only five acres and they had a mountain.

So they had the downstairs and they had the upstairs and it was real hard to get between the two.

The upstairs was flat and they could put a garden up there.

But how to get up there, how can you plant it, how can you tend it?

You gotta climb a mountain every time.

So he, you know, leaves to equipment.

He's got partners and they all over the country and they give him, you know, donate bulldozers and excavators.

So he got this equipment, this front end loader, and he built a road.

And as they were building the road they got down to bedrock on the side of that mountain and they cracked that bedrock open.

It was in the way of the road and they discovered that they had some gold in that rock, in that bedrock.

They had gold, and so they were able to build a sluice.

They and by the end of the program, at the end of five days, they were actually panning for gold on the river or the creek that went through their property and they were getting gold that was gonna be able to be taken and turned into cash.

I mean, this is a cash crop for a little five acre homes.

It was quite a thing.

And so my you know my point is that when victory seems delayed, or when you know, or even lost, we have to dig down into the bedrock and find and retrieve the riches that are hidden there for us.

I mean, god has got anchors for our hope.

He doesn't want us to lose hope.

The devil has no new tricks.

He comes against your mind or your soul.

He tries to get you to lose hope.

You know, faith is the substance of things hoped for.

If the devil can attack your hope, then you don't have anything for faith to take hold of, and so then you begin to suffer.

So I think about 1 Peter 1.7, you know, the trial of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes.

You know, yeah, we would, we would chip out, we.

You know, if we had gold on our homestead, we'd probably, we'd probably chisel down there and see if we could get some gold nuggets out of it.

Well, you know, we may not have a, a mountain, we might have a.

We have a mountain that we need to move, you know, and it's it's the nuggets that we can dig out of our faith that can move that mountain.

Hallelujah, come on, lift your hands.

Father, I thank you tonight for new covenant nuggets.

You know, I've been preaching a lot on the covenant lately and the devil just lies.

He's a liar.

He's trying to tell you you're never gonna get your healing, you're never gonna have your finances in order, your marriage is never gonna be straightened out, your children are never gonna be normal.

Listen, I'm telling you, the devil's a liar.

And so we've got to have those, those anchors for our soul, those new covenant nuggets.

I do.

We read two there in that verse, verse 10, number one God's not a liar.

You can just tell the devil to his faith.

You know what?

God's not a liar.

He told me something different.

And then the other thing is God is not unfair.

God is always fair.

You know God.

I like to say it this way God keeps the books, he watches you, he records every good thing you've ever done for anyone when you work by yourself, and nobody knows it.

But God, let me tell you something he doesn't forget it and he records it.

Maybe pastor doesn't know, maybe nobody else knows what you did for him, but I'm telling you, god knows and he's not unfair, he's not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love.

So, abraham, you know, we studied about him lately and when we were teaching about El Shaddai.

Abraham had many temptations.

I mean, he was a very successful guy in many ways.

But you know, you know the story in Genesis 12, when he was 60 years old.

In Genesis 12, god came to him and said leave your family, leave your land, and I will make of you a great nation.

I will bless them at bless thee and bless and curse those that curse thee, and I will give you many descendants.

I mean, he promised him that when he was 60.

And then he wound up going to Haran, which means parched ground.

He had a detour.

I don't believe it was ever God's plan for him to be in Haran, but he was there 15 years.

He finally you know, his dad dies and he leaves there.

And now he's 75 years old and he gets out and God appears to him and he said, abram, I'm your exhield and you're exceeding great reward.

And he said you know, I'm gonna multiply you like the stars of the heaven.

He said how can I know?

How can I know this?

See, because he'd had 15 years since God spoke to him the first time and nothing had changed.

He hadn't had any children, his wife couldn't have children and he had no seed.

He had no multiplication of you know, he had financial success and that and so forth, he was very rich in cattle, silver and gold, but he didn't have any descendants.

And so he said how do I know?

And so God cut the covenant with him.

God cut the covenant with him, and the Bible says by two.

Then the verses that we just read in the King James.

It says by two immutable or unchangeable things God, who cannot lie.

Well, those two things were what His promise and his oath.

He promised it, yes, and then he swore by himself he made the promise in the blood.

In other words, he obligated himself through a covenant.

And so, as we've discovered, a covenant is an exchange between two parties.

Everything you have belongs to your covenant partner and everything he has belongs to you.

You have an exchange, and so they would have this ceremony that would solemnize the cutting of the covenant, where they would exchange coats which is a symbol of your authority weapons, and then they would exchange the blood.

They would cut themselves and they would.

There were various ways.

Sometimes they would join the cuts like they cut their wrist.

They would that's the beginning of our handshake Sometimes cut the palm, but sometimes they would hold their hand up and the blood would run down their arm and they would catch it in a cup and they would blend the blood and put wine with it and drink it.

All kinds of ways for them to make a solemn occasion out of this covenant, because it was permanent and it was by death and so it was a both parties in this covenant gained.

It was never to the disadvantage.

You know, like the farmer, he would exchange the weapons.

So if the farmer cut the covenant with a warrior, the warrior would give his sword.

So the farmer's got a sword.

He doesn't have a whole lot of use for it, he doesn't know how to use it, but he's got it and it reminds him that if he ever needs protection, his covenant partner is gonna come to his aid.

We ought to.

You know, this country ought to be coming to the aid of Israel right now, and I think we are.

We've had some good announcements, but I'm waiting to see what.

Let's make sure that they deliver on what they promise, and then and so on the other side of that equation, you've got the warrior who doesn't have time to grow food, and the farmer gave him his sickle.

He has no use for a sickle, but it reminds him every time he sees it that he doesn't have to worry about food because his partner is gonna he's gonna grow all the food he can eat.

All he's gotta do is go by there and pick it up.

Yeah, sometimes the farmer would deliver it to him If he was too busy to come.

So you see, it was a win-win situation.

And so in that ancient civilizations they were so familiar with covenants.

As I pointed out, we were weak on covenants.

In the Western civilization, the more civilized we are, the further we get away from blood.

The further we get away from keeping our word, the further we get away from honoring what we say.

You know, my dad used to say my word is my bond.

It's pretty much worthless anymore.

I mean, it's gotten to so bad you can't believe anything.

Most people say that's a shame.

So 25 years later, say it started when he was 60, and then he renewed it when he was 75, then another 25.

After that Isaac showed up praise God.

God was faithful and Abraham had or Abraham.

He became Abraham and he had these anchors to his soul, to his thinking.

Well, in Hebrews 8.6, we have a better covenant found upon better promises than Abraham.

Now I like let's look at 1 Corinthians 11.

Sometimes when I'm reading the communion scriptures, when we're receiving communion, I'll read them out of 1 Corinthians 11, because Paul received the same thing as Matthew did.

He went to heaven and God showed him the covenant of the last supper and showed him this covenant of breaking of bread.

And he said in verse 23, verse 11, chapter 11, for I've received to the Lord that which also had delivered unto you.

So he received it directly from the Lord when he went to heaven, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said take and eat.

This is my body which is broken for you.

This doing remembers of me.

And then, after the same manner also, he took the cup which he had sucked, saying this cup is the New Testament in my blood.

And the Amplified says this cup is the New Testament, ratified and established.

Ratified and established in my blood.

It's ratified and established in my blood.

See, I like that so powerful.

And so that blood went behind the veil.

We just read that here in Hebrews, and in Hebrews 9, 12, it says that blood went behind the veil into the Holy of Holies with Jesus.

See, jesus went back behind the veil, not without blood, see, he went with the blood.

He took the blood that he had shed on the earth and it's there today, it's behind the veil, it's in the Holy of Holies and he is our mediator, a mediator's a legal standing with God, the Father, and so that anytime we as covenant partners, god Jesus is our mediator and he'll say Father, there are sons and daughters.

They have made a demand on the covenant.

They've unearthed a new covenant nugget.

Here's my blood that has established and ratified that covenant.

We cannot not grant their request.

Hallelujah, oh, we've got strong consolation.

The King James calls it.

We have strong consolation in that, praise God and an anchor, and that hope is an anchor to our soul.

See, your soul is where you have the battleground.

The soul is where your mind is assaulted.

You know the devil can't really touch your spirit.

What can touch your spirit?

Well, if he messes with your mind very much and you don't do anything about it, you don't discipline your mind, you don't have an anchor there.

You can start talking wrong and then once you start talking wrong now you're gonna mess your spirit up, you're gonna cause trouble in your dirt.

Your dirt is gonna be introducing, you're gonna be introducing thorns and the cares of this world, or the seafel, or the riches, the lust of other things entering into your spirit and it chokes the word from producing in your spirit.

So know, the devil can't touch your spirit, but you can mess your own dirt up with a wrong confession.

So we're talking about these anchors of hope that we saw there.

In the contemporary English version of these verses in Hebrews, chapter six, that we read, and the first one we talked about the coats.

We exchanged coats.

Well, the Bible says in Ephesians, chapter six, verse 11, take upon you the whole armor of God.

You talk about an armor, you talk about a coat.

In the old days, in the ancient civilizations, the armor was called a coat of mail.

It was made out of metal, woven metal, a coat of mail.

So when we exchanged coats, as it were, in the new covenant, we were able to take upon you the whole armor of God.

It's God's very armor and we can wear it.

He gave us his armor.

How many of you know?

God doesn't need any armor.

He's his own armor, you know.

But he had some armor give us.

It's called the armor.

Take on the whole armor of God.

It's listed there in Ephesians, chapter six.

And so the first anchor of hope is that we have God's own authority, matthew 28,.

All authority in heaven and earth given unto me, go ye.

Therefore, we have delegated authority.

Ephesians two, six.

We're seated together with him in heavenly places in Christ.

That's the ultimate authority.

Is your seating.

Your seating is where, far above anything, the devil can throw at you, far above anything down here on the earth.

We are seated in high places, the highest place there is.

In any warfare, the most desired position is high ground.

We suffered in the Pacific war these different islands.

You know these different islands.

They would attack these islands and the Japanese had high ground most of the time to begin with, and it was.

It was tough because they would rain down, mortar fire, machine gun fire.

I mean, you know we're way down here, they're way up there.

They can see us better than we can see them.

They're dug into the side of the mountain.

It took weeks and weeks and many deaths for us to conquer those islands because they had the superior ground.

Listen, we've got the ultimate high ground.

We're seated together with him in the heavenlies.

Praise God.

We can just say poor devil, amen, all right.

So we exchange weapons, number two, and we have God's own weaponry.

We have God's own weaponry, mark, chapter 16.

Mark 16 · chapter mention

These signs shall follow them to believe in my name.

In my name, they shall cast out devils.

In my name, they shall lay hands on the sick and they all recover.

In my name, if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them, hallelujah.

And so that name of Jesus, we have the exclusive right to use that name.

You talk about a mighty weapon that we have been given to us.

Another weapon is the Word of God.

Ephesians, chapter six calls it the sword of the spirit, verse 19,.

It's the only offensive weapon in the armor of God.

And so we have God's own authority, we've got God's own word, which is a sword of the spirit.

And then, lastly, we have the Holy Ghost.

Jesus said in Acts 1-8, you shall receive power, supernatural power.

That word power, it means super dunamis.

You shall receive supernatural power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you.

And so we have these mighty weapons.

Second Corinthians, 10, verse four says the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but they're mighty, through God they're mighty.

So let's dig down when our mind is under attack, let's refresh our mind to the idea that we have God's own authority, that we've got God's own weapon, weaponry.

And then, lastly, we have the blood of Jesus.

You know, there's an exchange of blood, and now the blood of Jesus runs through our, literally through our veins.

I mean, you know, yeah, we've got the same blood we were born with, but as far as God is concerned, we've been born again.

So we can say, literally that we're part of the household of God.

So our blood is no longer this earthly blood.

We've exchanged blood, you see, and that blood says that our enemies are his enemies.

So I always like, when I'm facing any kind of problem, I'm always telling the devil oh, you jumped on the wrong donkey.

You didn't attack me, you attacked God.

You didn't attack me, you attacked God.

That's what you just did, because you know my enemies are his enemies, so you're an enemy of God right now.

He gonna deal with you.

Oh, thank God.

Let's lift our hands right now.

Thank God, we have these anchors of hope, these new covenant nuggets.

Sometimes we've got to dig down when we're facing tough times.

We all do.

We all go through things.

Let's dig down and encourage ourselves with these truths so that we'll have this anchor that we need for our soul and let's continue walking by faith and not by sight.

Praise God, new covenant nuggets.

Lift your hands and receive tonight.

Praise God, I trust you got something out of it this little encouragement, and I preach myself happy Hallelujah.

Glory to God.