episode 8 The blessed life

Welcome to the Harvest Chapel PA podcast.

We're so glad you've joined us.

Each week you'll hear powerful messages, testimonies,

and conversations designed to help you grow in your faith

and encounter Jesus in a fresh way.

Let's dive into today's episode.

Once you turn to Jeremiah 31,

it's kind of lay our foundation.

It's gonna be in Jeremiah 31.

This week and next week,

I'm preaching twice here, two Sundays in a row.

Pastor Matt has done an incredible job

preaching on the blessed life.

And he was talking about the Beatitudes.

And he did such a tremendous job.

I watched every one of them.

I've been out preaching in other places,

other territories.

But then I was able to watch online all the things that

he said, just incredible nuggets all through those.

And I thought, man, I'm gonna preach the blessed life

in light of the new covenant.

How many are grateful for the new covenant?

Come on, who had bacon this week?

Nevermind, okay.

But the new covenant,

I'm thankful for the new covenant, man.

It means something.

But listen, when we talk about living a blessed life,

living a blessed life isn't determined

by what you can get from God.

It's determined by your full surrender to God.

The more you surrender,

the more you're gonna live blessed.

And I don't even know if that makes sense.

But in my world, what I understand is

we've counted blessing by accumulating stuff.

Blessing's never measured by accumulating.

I know a lot of rich people that are not blessed.

They're just rich.

I know some people that live on barely get along street,

but they're the happiest people I know.

Why?

Because they're blessed, and they understand blessed.

And that means something to me,

and I think the blessed life is what really, really matters.

It's determined by how much you fully surrender to God.

So with that thought in mind,

I want you to go to Jeremiah 31,

and I'm gonna set the stage right here

for the next two weeks, okay?

He says in Jeremiah chapter 31,

and we're gonna start at verse 31,

reading through verse 34.

He said, behold, the days are coming,

says the Lord, when I'll make a new covenant

with the house of Israel.

How about I say new covenant?

I need you to understand this.

This is 600 years before Jesus is born.

This is 600 years before Christ.

Jeremiah's prophesying about the day that's coming

that a new covenant's gonna be established.

Everybody all right with that?

You need to know, that's 600 year time frame,

roughly, okay?

With the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

Not according to the covenant

that I made with their fathers

in the day that I took them by the hand

to lead them out of the land of Egypt.

My covenant which they broke,

though I was a husband to them, says the Lord, right?

Isn't it interesting that he calls them out?

They broke the covenant, I kept it, they broke it.

You guys see that?

What's he saying?

He said, I'm faithful.

We just sang a lot of songs about the faithfulness of God.

He will never fail, come on.

He'll never fail, he won't.

He won't fail.

God's been faithful even when we weren't.

God's been faithful even when we were faithless.

God was still faithful.

God was good to me when I didn't even know him,

but he was still good to me.

I hope I'm making sense this morning,

but what he's saying is,

I was a husband to them, I was a father to them.

I kept them even though they broke the covenant.

I want you to see this.

Keep reading, watch what happens, okay?

Now, but this is the covenant

that I will make with the house of Israel

after those days, says the Lord.

I'll put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts,

and I will be their God and they will be my people.

Now watch, no more shall every man teach his neighbor

and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord,

for they shall all know me from the least of them

to the greatest of them, says the Lord,

for I'll forgive their iniquity and their sin.

I will remember no more.

Wow, come on.

This is pretty awesome.

You know what God just said?

He said, I'm gonna forgive your iniquity

and your sin won't be remembered.

When?

When the new covenant gets established.

How many understand when he's saying that,

what he's saying is, you come to Christ,

you're squeaky clean.

Can I say this?

On the day that I got born again,

I was a man without a past.

That's the new creation reality.

It's like your past no longer has a voice.

Come on, the old man was buried with him in baptism

and you're raised to a brand new life.

That's the new creation reality

that every one of us has this incredible opportunity

to live in.

So he says, I'm not gonna remember your sin.

I'm not gonna remember your iniquity.

That's pretty huge.

I'm just saying this is good news about the new covenant.

How many know that's what the word gospel means?

Good news.

Want some good news?

He doesn't remember your mess.

What if I did it last night?

He forgot it.

Long as you repented.

Come on.

This is pretty awesome.

This is good news.

Now watch, I wanna take you somewhere

cause it gets better, okay?

I'm gonna take us to Luke 22, okay?

And in Luke 22, and I know I'm trying to go too fast

but I wanna get through a bunch of stuff.

14 through 20, I want you to see this

cause it's powerful.

This is Jesus, it's Thursday night.

Everybody okay?

He's gonna give his life on Calvary on Friday morning

but watch this, this is Thursday night.

He's with the disciples.

They're in the upper room.

It says when the hour had come,

I'm in Luke 22, 14.

When the hour had come, he sat down

and the 12 apostles with him and he said to them,

with fervent desire, I have desired to eat

this Passover with you before I suffer.

Let me stop.

I'm gonna help you understand something.

Every word in your Bible's there for a reason.

With desire, I have desired to eat this,

he didn't say the Passover, he said this Passover.

Why?

He's already eaten several other Passover's with him.

He's about 33 years old at this time.

He's been having Passover meals

since he was old enough to chew on lamb, right?

What's the Passover meal?

You guys know this, right?

The Passover meal was in celebration

of God bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt.

It was instituted in Exodus chapter 12, right?

And what happened?

They slayed the lamb, put the blood on the doorpost

and over the linoleum, right?

And what was that saying?

God said, as long as I see the blood,

I will pass over you.

If there's no blood, what happens?

Death came to the house.

Why?

Because without the blood of the lamb,

there's only death.

Oh, I want you to understand.

This was such a prophetic picture.

And what happens?

The death angel passes over.

So from that day forward, every year at Passover,

they would slay a lamb,

but they were told what?

A spotless lamb and it's prime of its life.

What?

Every Passover pointing up till this time.

Jesus said, with desire,

I've desired to eat this Passover.

Why?

It's gonna be the last Passover of the old covenant.

It's the, come on.

Every Passover was pointing to this moment in time

where Jesus is about to go and suffer.

With great desire,

I've desired to eat this Passover with you.

Why?

This is the last one that was a picture.

Now I'm on the scene.

Everybody got this?

It's really, really huge.

Everything was pointing to this.

Watch, he goes a little deeper with it.

He said, with fervent desire,

I've desired to eat this Passover with you

before I suffer.

For I say unto you,

I will no longer eat of it

until it's fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

Everybody see that?

Come on.

It was pointing to this moment,

but I won't eat another one till it's fulfilled.

Why?

It's gonna be fulfilled tomorrow.

Everybody got that?

That's what he was saying.

Now watch.

And he took the cup,

he gave thanks and said,

take eat and divide it among you.

For this I say unto you,

I will not drink of the fruit of the vine

until the kingdom of God comes.

He took bread, gave thanks,

break it, gave it to them saying,

this is my body which is given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

Likewise, also he took the cup after supper saying,

this cup is the new covenant in my blood

which is shed for you.

Everybody see all the things

that happened right there, right?

Everything that he's talking about

while he's at the Passover lamb,

to Passover meal,

the lamb is still on the table.

You got this, all the cups are there.

There's so much symbolism.

I don't have time to go into it.

I wish I had more time.

But the idea behind it was,

he's saying,

all this stuff was pointing to an event

that's about to take place.

The new covenant is about to be established.

Listen here,

everything God does,

he does by covenants.

I won't say everything he does,

but God does things through covenants.

And the covenants,

he's the covenant-keeping God.

This book is a book of covenants.

God makes covenant with man, right?

God does what he does through covenants, right?

When he says,

this is the blood of the new covenant,

that's not an unfamiliar term to them

because everyone in that room

would have known the prophecy of Jeremiah.

They would have studied that

when they were young kids in school.

They would have known about the new covenant.

Now Jesus is saying,

this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood.

So new covenant is familiar

because the word covenant means something

to the Hebrew people.

It meant something,

they knew that God was the God of covenants.

God does things through covenants.

The first covenant he made with Adam, right?

It's called the Adamic covenant.

And the Adamic covenant gave man dominion

over all the affairs of the earth.

So God establishes the first covenant,

it's a verbal covenant with Abraham,

or with Adam rather,

and it's the Adamic covenant.

The next covenant we have is with Noah.

We call it the Noahic covenant, right?

Come on, who's ever seen a rainbow

and you know that's the sign of what?

Covenant, that God said,

I'll never destroy the earth by water again.

How many know?

He didn't say, I won't destroy the earth.

He said, I won't destroy the earth by water, right?

And that's why we have the rainbow

and we know that's a sign of covenant.

Then we have the third covenant that he makes

and he makes that covenant with Abraham, right?

And he makes this Abrahamic covenant

and once he tell Abraham,

your descendants will be as numerous

as the sand of the sea and the stars in the sky,

right?

He tells Abraham that that's a covenant

that God made with Abraham.

And then we're gonna find now the fourth covenant

he makes with Moses.

It's called the Mosaic covenant.

We would know that's where Moses is on Mount Sinai

and he gets the law from God.

He gets the 10 commandments and the law.

Everybody got this, right?

That's the 10 commandments.

God writes them with the finger and stone

and then come on,

because when he said I'm gonna make a new covenant,

not on tablets of stone,

I'm gonna put it in your minds and in your hearts.

Did he say that?

Why?

Because the one that was in stone,

they couldn't keep.

So it makes a covenant with Moses, right?

The fifth covenant that he makes is another covenant.

It's a different covenant.

It's gonna be the same thing.

It's called the Deuteronomy covenant,

because if you look in the end of Deuteronomy,

Moses reestablishes the Mosaic covenant

with the new generation that's about to go

into the promised land.

Why?

Because if you remember,

you'd have to go to Numbers 13.

I don't have time to go into all this,

but in Numbers chapter 13,

he sent out 12 spies into the promised land.

This is early in that 40 year journey.

It's early, right?

And they go in and they spy out the land.

They come back, right?

And they came back.

Two of them had a good report

and 10 of them had an evil report.

All the people wanted to believe the evil report.

You know what the evil report said?

We're not able to go up.

We're not able to go into that land.

There's giants in the land,

the sons of Anak,

they have walled cities, come on.

We were like grasshoppers in their sight.

Who's read this, right?

And they said, we're not able.

And guess what happened?

The ones who said they weren't able didn't go.

You know who went?

The two that said we're well able

because our God is with us.

Who were the two?

Come on, you guys notice.

Joshua and Caleb.

If you have twins,

you should name them Joshua and Caleb.

That's good names.

Keep that in mind, Matt.

Okay, so.

Okay.

Here's where we're at.

And once you think with me, right?

What?

The power of our words.

That's so strong to get the power of our words

and understand that.

The ones who said we can, did.

The ones who said we can't, didn't.

But the ones who said we can't

convinced all the other ones.

So all those people died in the wilderness

that were over 20 years,

except for the two, right?

So now it's a new generation that's about to walk in.

And Moses reestablishes the covenant of God

with the next generation,

with the new generation.

That's the Deuteronomy covenant, right?

Now they go in, they possess the land.

God has another covenant that he makes.

It's called the Davidic covenant.

It's the covenant that he made with David.

What did he say to David?

He said, there'll be somebody from one of your

will reign upon the throne forever.

How many know Jesus's term?

Son of David.

Come on, there's one who's gonna reign

on the throne forever, a descendant of David's.

Who is that?

That's pointing to Jesus.

And the Davidic covenant shows us where we're at.

Everybody got it?

That's the sixth covenant.

But this that we just read,

this is the seventh covenant.

It's called the new covenant.

How many know in your Bible,

seven is the number of completion.

Why?

Because this covenant completes all the other covenants.

No other covenant's gonna need to be made.

Why?

Because God made this covenant with himself.

We don't even have the ability,

can I tell you this?

You don't have the ability to break this covenant.

You should be happy about that.

That means you can't mess it up.

Come on, I can mess a lot of stuff up.

I can't mess this up.

God made this covenant with himself.

And I think that's pretty powerful, okay?

I'm gonna skip Genesis 15.

I'm going right into Hebrews chapter one.

Let me show you this,

because this is some power.

We're gonna read a bunch of verses.

I'm gonna try to do it justice.

Go to Hebrews chapter 10.

We're looking at 25 verses here.

I'm just gonna preach, you guys okay?

For the law, having a shadow of good things to come

and not the very image of things.

What's that mean?

The law was a sacrificial system.

You need to hear this.

The law was a sacrificial system.

But it was a shadow of what was to come.

How many understand in the Old Testament

we find types and shadows that point to the New Testament.

The Bible tells me the Old Testament

was our school master to bring us to Christ.

So what we found in the Old Testament

was pointing to the New Testament.

So now he says the law having a shadow

of good things to come,

not the very image of the things,

can never with these same sacrifices

which they offer continually year by year

make those who approach perfect.

How many understand what he just said?

We have the law.

It showed us how messed up we were

but could never perfect us.

All the law was doing me

was showing me how sinful I was

but it didn't have a remedy

to get me right with God.

You guys follow?

That's what he's telling us.

He says if it would have made you perfect

then would they have ceased to be offered.

For the worshipers once purified

would have had no more consciousness of sin.

Under the Old Covenant

men had a continual consciousness of sin.

Why?

Because every time they had to make an offering

what was happening?

Every offering was just bringing them back

to the place where they were minded

how sinful they were and how messed up they were.

So now I trespass,

I gotta have a trespass offering

but if I sin against my brother

I gotta have a sin offering.

And there's sin offerings,

guilt offerings, trespass offerings.

Then you got the Day of Atonement

where they gotta go behind the curtain with the veil

and the ghosts get offered

and then there's a scapegoat

and I don't know if you guys know all this or not

and it's okay.

What I'm telling you is they had continual offering

to remind them of how sinful they were.

Why?

That was under the Old Covenant, right?

What he's saying is if that would have worked

then we wouldn't have been reminded

of how sinful we were all the time

but it couldn't purify me or make me right.

Everybody got it?

Now watch, I'm talking about the blessed life

in light of the New Covenant.

Now watch, but in those sacrifices

there was a reminder of sins every year

for it's not possible that the blood of bulls and goats

could take away sin.

It didn't take away your sin, it just forgave you.

Everybody understand?

It was a covering but it wasn't a taking away.

Everybody got this?

Now watch, therefore when he came into the world,

everybody see verse five?

All right, now look at the word he

and see that that's a capital H.

Why is it a capital H?

Because it's talking about Jesus.

When Jesus came into the world, everybody see it?

Watch what it says.

He said, sacrifice an offering you did not desire

but a body you prepared for me.

And burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin

you didn't have pleasure.

Then I said, behold I've come.

In the volume of the book it is written of me

to do your will, oh God.

Woo, come on.

What's he saying?

Every part of this Bible that you hold in your hand.

We say, well the Old Testament was,

that doesn't even count

because now we're New Testament Christians.

No, in the volume of the book,

it's written about Jesus.

When you're reading in Genesis,

he's there in the creation.

When you're reading in Exodus, come on,

he's one, leading them out.

You need to understand.

Deuteronomy, you pick it,

he shows up all through the book.

We find him over and over and over.

Everything there was pointing to Christ.

In the volume of the book it's written of me,

behold I've come to do your will, oh God.

That's huge.

Previously said, sacrifice and offering

and burnt offerings for sins you didn't desire

nor had pleasure in them

which are offered according to the law.

He said, behold I've come to do your will, oh God.

He takes away the first, what's that?

The Old Covenant.

What?

That he might establish the second.

What's that?

That's the New Covenant.

Everybody got it?

He was taking away one to establish the other.

Everybody got it?

Come on.

Why?

He fulfilled every requirement of the Old Covenant

so that we could step into a New Covenant relationship

with the Father.

This is awesome news.

Now watch, let me take you why.

Watch what happens.

By that will we have been sanctified

through the offering of the body

of Jesus Christ once for all.

Everybody say have been.

Do you know what it means it's already done, right?

What's that mean?

He already paid the price.

Everything you need to live and walk in purity,

everything you need to live and walk in holiness,

everything you need to live and walk in a righteous life

has been paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ.

This is what he's telling us.

Now take it a deep further.

Let's go a little bit further

because I want you to see this.

In every priest stands ministering.

Daily, ministering daily

and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices

which can never take away sins

but this man after he'd offered one sacrifice

for sins forever sat down at the right hand of God.

Woo, come on.

What's he saying?

It was a once and done.

He didn't have to go back and redo it.

There's nothing else he needs to do.

Everything we need that pertains to life and godliness

has been accomplished through the blood of Jesus Christ.

Yay.

You know what that means?

That means it's not by what you do,

it's by what he did that really makes the difference.

It's not like I got to perform better

so God will accept me.

No, Jesus performed well

and he accepts all of us on his behalf.

Yay, God.

So many times in church I hear people saying,

well, I'm as good as so-and-so

and I'm as good as so-and-so.

How many understand this?

God doesn't grade on the curve,

he grade on the cross.

Oh, that was really good.

Hang on, that was so good.

He's not graving on the curve.

It's not like, well, you know, you guys get in,

come on, it's great enough on the cross.

Jesus got an A.

Yay, come on.

So he offers one sacrifice for sin for everybody.

Now watch, because it gets even stronger

because he says some cool stuff right now.

Okay.

From that time waiting till his enemies

are made his footstool.

By one offering he has perfected forever

those who are being sanctified.

Wait a minute.

I read over here in verse 10, have been sanctified.

Now I'm reading in verse 14, are being sanctified.

The word sanctified means set apart for sacred use.

I thought if it has been, how can it be our being?

Why?

Because it's both are right.

It's an act and a process.

Jesus did it and we're stepping fully into it.

Come on, how many know 2 Corinthians 3, 18?

We're going from where?

Glory to glory to the image of Christ.

Come on, what's happening?

As we walk out our walk and we're growing in our faith

and we're growing in our understanding,

we're looking more and more like Jesus all the time.

Come on, we're heading into Christmas time.

You're gonna hear a song.

What's it saying?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

But you won't sing that, you're gonna sing

I'm beginning to look a lot like Jesus.

Everywhere I go, come on,

that's what we ought to be singing.

Why?

Because we should be looking more and more

like him all the time.

Glory to glory into the image of Christ.

God's bringing us to that place.

So we find this, this is what he's actually telling us.

And so we're being sanctified.

So it's an act and a process.

But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us

for after he had said before,

this is the covenant I'll make with them

after those days.

What's he doing?

He's quoting Jeremiah 31 that we started with.

Watch.

He says to the Lord, I'll put my law in your hearts

and in your minds I'm gonna write them.

Then he adds their sins and their lawless deeds

I will remember no more.

I gotta stop here.

Aren't you glad he doesn't remember your mess?

Don't you wish your spouse did?

No, nevermind.

Okay.

But here's the reality.

I don't care how bad you messed up in your past.

It's in your past.

You ever watch The Lion King?

You remember when that monkey hits him on the head?

Don't worry, it's in the past.

Come on, we should get hit on the head every once in a while

and remember that's in your past.

Why?

Because the devil will be on your shoulder

reminding you what a mess you were.

The devil will get on your shoulder

trying to tell you that's who you really are.

That is not your identity.

Your identity is in Christ.

And you need to understand.

Come on, I am in Christ and he ain't a mess.

If he's not a mess, you're not a mess.

Do you understand?

We have to get a hold of this.

This has to become our reality.

This is what the new covenant's really all about.

This is what Jesus paid for

and I think he ought to get what he paid for.

So keep reading, watch what happens

because it gets stronger.

He's saying, all the deeds I will remember no more.

Right?

Come on.

Now, verse 18, where there is remission of these,

there's no longer an offering for sin.

If Jesus remitted your sin,

you don't have to keep going to a priest

to offer sacrifices.

Come on.

Why, because your sins have been remitted

through the blood of the lamb.

Jesus already paid the price.

So you don't have to do penance to get in.

You don't have to try to do good works

to prove yourself worthy.

The blood of Jesus made you worthy.

Right?

So now you're not trying to do to become.

That doesn't mean you don't do.

You just do because you did become

and it's changed your DNA.

The good works I do

aren't because I'm trying to get somewhere.

The good works that flow through me

are because why?

Because Jesus lives inside of me

and it's the natural response of Christ in you.

That's the hope of glory.

If we can get a hold of this,

it'll shift our perspective.

I'm gonna take us a little deeper real quick.

Okay?

I want you to see, keep reading.

Watch what he says.

Now, therefore, brethren, therefore what?

Because he doesn't remember our lawless deeds,

because it's all been paid for,

because we're squeaky clean because of him.

Everybody got this?

Therefore, brethren,

having boldness to enter into the holiest

by the blood of Jesus,

by a new and living way,

which he consecrated for us through the veil,

that is his flesh,

and having a high priest over the house of God,

let us draw near with a true heart

in full assurance of faith,

having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience

and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let me stop right here

and let me tell you what he just said.

Because Jesus lives in you,

because you know,

come on, that you've been born again.

Right?

You can have a boldness to come before the Lord.

You don't have to do it timidly.

You don't have to do it backward.

You don't have to feel intimidated.

Why?

Because Christ lives inside of you.

Your yes to God actually meant something in heaven.

Jesus is now living inside.

Can I say this?

It ain't just Jesus in you.

The Father's in you.

The Son's in you.

The Holy Spirit's in you.

That you are a powerful being on the planet

because Christ is inside of you.

The Father, Jesus said when I come,

He said when I come,

I and the Father will come and make our home in you.

And then He said when He, the Spirit of truth has come,

He'll be with you because He'll be in you.

The Father's in you.

The Son's in you.

The Holy Spirit's in you.

You should have a boldness

to come before the throne of grace.

Why?

Because that's where we find our help.

That's where we find our strength.

So we can come with full assurance of faith.

That means when we're praying,

we're actually believing something's happening.

We can't keep praying, crossing our fingers

and hoping maybe something will happen.

Maybe God will be in a good mood today

and answer our prayers.

Let us draw near with a true heart

and full assurance of faith.

When I pray, I expect stuff to happen.

We get people healed and people are like,

oh wow, that was awesome, that surprised me.

I'm anxious for the day when we pray for somebody

and they don't get healed

and we're more surprised that they don't get healed

than if they did.

Because we should be in such a place of faith

believing that God is who He says He is

and He'll do what He said He'd do.

We have our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience

and our bodies are washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the confession of our faith.

He says here, let us hold fast the confession

of our hope.

What?

Without wavering.

What's that mean?

That means you can't lose it.

Don't be up one day and down the next

and in one day and out the next

and oh, this is a good day

because here's what happens.

When good things are going on, our hopes are up.

When things are challenging, seems like our hopes get down.

What if we just kept our hopes up

no matter what was going around us

and we weren't moved by our circumstances

and living by our emotions?

Come on, He didn't say the just will live

by your emotions, the just live by...

Come on, man.

So we hold fast the confession of our hope.

Can I say this?

In the King James, it says let us hold fast

the confession of our faith, but here's the deal.

Faith is the substance of things.

So faith and hope are kissing cousins, man.

If you don't have faith, what's hope gonna attach to?

Hope attaches to faith, come on.

So here's where we're at.

Let's hold fast the confession of our hope

without wavering.

Why?

Because He who promised is faithful.

When Pastor Matt saw that this morning,

I thought it was so powerful

because it fit exactly where we were at.

I actually was behind him

because if he didn't say it, I was gonna

and he jumped right on.

You're hearing God, boy.

Good job.

Okay, so, but in the midst of that,

what I'm telling you is that God was moving

and I thought, man, what an opportunity

because we just prayed He'll never fail.

He'll never fail.

He who promised is faithful.

Then I guess we oughta believe Him.

I guess we oughta believe Him.

Do you know the Titus chapter one verse two says,

God cannot lie?

It didn't say He will not, He said He cannot.

That's a difference between will not and cannot.

That means it's an impossibility.

It's beyond His DNA.

He who promised is faithful.

So what, because of that,

let us consider one another to do what?

To provoke one another.

Well, we can do that.

But He didn't say provoke one another to anger.

He said provoke one another, right?

Let us consider one another

in order to stir up love and good works.

How powerful is that verse?

To stir up love and good works.

We oughta be encouraging one another.

That's for the next verse.

What's the next verse?

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together

is the manner of some is.

I'm gonna quote it in the King James,

but exhorting one another.

The word exhort means to lift up and encourage.

Come on, let's not forsake

the assembling of ourselves together.

There's a reason we come together on Sundays.

What is it?

It's right here.

Exhorting, what's it mean?

To lift up and encourage one another

even so much the more as you see the days approaching.

When we come to church,

who's ever been to church and after a sermon

you felt like you got beat up?

Come on, man.

You shouldn't be getting beat up.

You should be getting lifted up.

We should be encouraged.

We oughta be encouraging one another.

We oughta be lifting one another up.

We oughta be exciting one another.

Why?

Because the day's approaching

and the day approaching's exciting to us.

Why?

He's coming.

How many actually believe He's coming?

There's things that are happening every day.

There's just been a Middle East peace treaty signed

and I'm like, oh my goodness, okay.

And all I know is this,

the wheels are turning and Jesus is moving

and God's on the move.

And how many know there's a revival

in the land right now

like we haven't seen in my lifetime?

People are after Jesus

and you and I represent Him everywhere we go.

We oughta be encouraging one another,

provoking one another,

lifting one another up and encouraging one another.

Phew.

Whew.

It's a pretty awesome day, man.

So I see this and I think

the old covenant was a sacrificial system.

How did it play out?

Matthew 27, let me take you through quickly.

27, 33.

Yeah, I'm gonna read it.

Let me read this to you real quick.

When they come to a place called Golgotha,

that is to say a place of a skull,

they gave him sour wine mingled with Golgotha drink.

When he tasted it, he wouldn't drink

and then they crucified him and divided his garments.

I can stop right there.

How many know he was the sacrificial lamb?

This is how this system played out.

He became the lamb.

When John the baptizer first saw him,

what did he say?

Behold.

It's God's lamb, the spotless lamb,

the lamb without spot and without blemish

who would be taken out in the prime of his life.

Come on.

With fervent desire of desire to eat this Passover,

every Passover was pointing to this moment

right here in Matthew 27 and they crucified him.

Everybody see it?

Now watch,

because you need to understand what was happening.

I want you to understand that on the day of atonement

when the sins of Israel would be forgiven,

I don't have time to go into it.

I was planning on doing the history

and I don't have time,

but I want you to see this.

On the day of atonement,

the high priest would take the blood of an animal,

go behind the veil.

Real quick guys, I gotta help you understand.

You need to understand this.

When you walked into the temple, right?

Whether that was the old temple or the new temple,

whatever it was, it didn't matter.

You walked in,

you're gonna have the outer court out here.

Well, Gentiles could be out here,

but that's all the farther they could go.

Then you're gonna come up the steps

and you're gonna come a little bit further in

and it's called the inner court.

And women could be in that part,

but they couldn't go any farther.

There's gonna be a railing there

and on the other side of the railing

was called the court of the men.

Only Jewish people were allowed.

Women and the men, only Jewish people.

The women could go this far and then they had to stop.

The men could go a little bit further, right?

That's called the court of the men.

Now there's a large rail there, right?

And on the other side of that

was the court of the priests.

Who were the priests?

You guys know the Levites, right?

Come on, it's the Levites

are on the other side of that rail.

And the priests would be there

and there'd be different priests

who would be sent in to minister by course

and that's a whole nother message.

But they'd be on that side, right?

So if I'm a Jewish man, right?

I'm gonna bring my lamb or my goat

or my turtle doves or whatever.

I'm gonna bring it to that rail,

but I can't go past that.

I'm gonna hand it to a priest.

That priest is gonna take it.

And now there's a veil there.

It's called the Kaluma veil, right?

A-A-L-U-M-M-A, if I remember right.

The Kaluma veil.

And it would be like similar

to your living room curtains.

Everybody got that, right?

And that there on behind that

there's gonna be two fires that are burning, right?

And that's where they offered

the morning and the evening oblations, okay?

And we got in Leviticus,

the fire should ever be burning.

It'll never go out.

They would keep the fire

and they'd have to tend the fire.

There's about 27 sermons in that, right?

But what happens is there's another veil behind that,

right?

And it's called the Catapatasma veil, right?

That Catapatasma veil,

this was called,

you had the court of men,

you had the court of priests.

Then when they made the offering,

it was in the holy place, right?

But behind that Catapatasma veil,

it was called the most holy place.

Everybody with me?

What's in the most holy place?

The Ark of the,

come on, it's where the Ark of the Covenant is.

And once a year,

the high priest would go behind the Catapatasma veil.

Now that Catapatasma veil was

60 feet high,

30 feet wide,

and the width of a man's hand.

So it's about six inches thick.

This is not your living room curtain.

Everybody got it?

Imagine a curtain six inches thick.

I don't even know if you can understand that.

That's huge, right?

But that's the dimensions we have for it.

30 feet wide,

60 feet high,

and six inches in width, right?

That's a pretty big deal.

And once a year he'd go behind there

and he'd offer that blood on the mercy seat

for the sins of Israel, right?

Now, what we're finding is Jesus as God's lamb

gets crucified at Golgotha.

Read the next couple of verses.

Let's just look.

Verse 45.

Now, from the sixth hour to the ninth hour,

there was darkness over the land.

How many know?

The sixth hour is noon

because their day starts at 6 a.m., right?

So the sixth hour from noon till three o'clock,

it's pitch black, right?

There's a great eclipse that has happened, right?

Jesus is hanging on the cross.

He's gone there as the sacrifice.

But he's also gone there as your great high priest, right?

And what happened?

He went behind the veil of darkness

to offer the sacrifice.

Why?

Because on the day of atonement,

when they offered the sacrifice behind the veil

to put the blood on the mercy seat,

when he came back out,

they knew their sins of all of Israel

had been forgiven from that past year.

Yay, God.

Now, our great high priest

goes behind the veil of darkness

offering the sacrifice of his own life

and watch what happens

because I wanna take you one step further.

Look at verse 50, okay?

Because it's kind of powerful.

Jesus cried again with a loud voice

and yielded up his spirit.

We don't have it recorded here.

We have it recorded in the other gospels.

The two final things Jesus said is what?

Father, no, not father, forgive them.

That's gonna be early, right?

Into your hands, I commend my spirit.

But what does he say just prior to that?

It is finished.

Come on.

What was he saying?

Everything that needed to fulfill the old covenant

is now finished.

The sacrifice has been made.

The high priest has gone behind the veil of darkness.

It is finished.

Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit.

And you know what?

Let's read the next part

because I think it's huge.

Now watch.

Then behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two

from the top to the bottom.

Woo, glory to God.

Wait a minute, what veil?

The catapetazma veil.

The one that was 30 feet high,

60 feet high, 30 feet wide,

six inches in width is torn.

Not from the bottom up, but from the top down.

It was like God took his hand

and chopped right through the middle of that thing

and said, there's now no more separation

between me and my people.

The old covenant has been fulfilled

and the new covenant is being established

and men and women can now come before me as their God.

I'll be your God and you'll be my people.

That's this new covenant that we live in.

The high priest offered the sacrifice of himself

to the Father.

How cool is this?

What's that mean?

The rending of the veil declares no more separation.

We have union with God.

This is our covenant.

This is our privilege.

You never have to feel distance or separation with him.

That's pretty awesome.

Come on, have you ever been in that place?

God, you feel a million miles away.

Can I tell you something?

Your feelings are lying to you.

You've heard me say it, I'm gonna do it again.

If I had a friend who lied to me

as often as my feelings,

they wouldn't be my friend very long

because your feelings lie to you all the time.

We have union with him.

It's so powerful.

John 17 nails it really big

but I wanna take us to Colossians 1.

Let me close this thing.

I'm gonna land a plane.

Colossians chapter one.

Man, this is good stuff.

I'm excited about it.

Verses 19 to 23, you gotta catch this.

It pleased the Father that in him, that's in Jesus,

all the fullness should dwell.

And by him, what?

By Jesus, to reconcile all things to himself,

by him, whether things on the earth

or things in heaven, having made peace

through the blood of his cross.

If you don't have peace,

it's because you don't understand the power of the cross.

The cross has declared peace.

Do you remember the cry of the angels

when Jesus was born?

Peace on earth.

Good will toward men.

Why?

Because they knew what was coming.

Peace on earth.

Good will toward men.

He's called the Prince of peace.

So now God has made peace, right?

Reconciled all things.

Say all things.

All things.

You know what that means?

All things.

Yeah, it's what it means.

Reconciled to him.

What's reconciled mean?

We're back in right relationship.

This is amazing.

So now having made peace through the blood of his cross

and you, now watch, this is really huge.

I want you to see this.

Throw that up there.

And you who were once alienated

and enemies in your mind by wicked, wait a minute.

Every word in your Bible is there for a reason.

Why?

Because you were never alienated in his mind.

You were only alienated in your mind.

I'm gonna use Kevin because he's sitting right here.

But if Kevin messes up tonight,

he may feel distant from God.

He may feel alienated from God.

Why?

Because he messed up.

He sinned.

Can I say this?

Sin never changed God's mind about Kevin.

It just changed Kevin's mind about God.

Do you understand what I just said?

It didn't change God's mind about Kevin.

It just changed Kevin's mind about God.

We were alienated and enemies in your mind, right,

by wicked works, yet now he has reconciled us.

Everybody say reconciled.

That means he paid the bill.

Come on.

Why?

Because you had a bill you couldn't pay.

And he paid a bill he didn't owe.

He paid it all fully and completely.

Why?

That's what this new covenant's all about.

That's why it's important to get your mind renewed.

You guys with me?

Because when your mind's renewed,

you're gonna think differently.

Trying to help us see through the right lens.

If I see correctly, I'll think correctly.

But if I don't see correctly,

I'll never think correctly.

If I'm not thinking correctly,

I'll never respond to life correctly.

But if I can see right, I'll think right.

If I think right, I can respond right.

I just gotta see right.

It's in the book.

He reconciled us in the body of his flesh through death

to present you.

I want you to see this.

This is you.

Present you.

How?

Holy, blameless, and above reproach in his sight.

Holy smoke.

He sees me holy.

He sees Tom Phillips blameless.

He even sees Marilyn above reproach,

and that's a stretch.

No, I'm just kidding.

But it's in his sight.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

That's a big deal.

I'm gonna say this, this is gonna sound hard.

I'm not trying to be hard.

It doesn't matter how your neighbor sees you.

I want you to present Jesus

in a way that they see Christ in you.

But I gotta say this.

You can live super holy and super right,

and people will still find fault with you.

How do you know that?

I read a book about a guy who got crucified,

and he did nothing wrong.

Come on.

He sees you holy, blameless, and above reproach

if indeed you continue into faith,

grounded and steadfast,

not moved away from the hope of the gospel,

which you heard.

What's he saying?

Stay grounded, stay rooted and grounded into faith.

Don't get moved.

Keep the hope of the gospel alive in you.

Stand with me all over the room, I gotta quit.

I'm not done, I'm just quitting.

When you see yourself through the right lens,

you're gonna walk with more confidence.

I'm gonna say this.

When you see yourself through the right lens,

you're gonna walk with more confidence.

You're gonna speak with more authority.

Come on, you're gonna pray

and actually expect mountains are gonna move.

You're gonna have faith to move mountains

when you see yourself through the right lens.

The new covenant lens is the lens you need to look for.

You need to see through the new covenant

to understand what this thing's really about.

Your faith is gonna move mountains.

Grace and mercy aren't just gonna come to you,

they're gonna actually flow through you.

Grace and mercy, you received it freely.

You have received freely, you're gonna give.

It's gonna be part of the DNA of your life.

Come on, man, love's gonna bubble up in you

like a babbling brook.

Can I say this, man?

Joy isn't something you're gonna pursue,

it's something you know you possess.

Joy is mine.

It's gonna matter.

I wanna live this thing, man.

I'm gonna walk this thing.

Some will challenge us today, man.

Can I say this?

Because this was in my heart.

I wrote this this morning right in the bottom of my notes.

It's time to rise up and break any agreement you have

with fear, insecurity, or a low self-image.

You're a new covenant child of God.

Come on, I'm gonna say that again.

It's time to break your agreement with fear.

It's time to break your agreement with insecurity.

It's time to break your agreement with low self-image

because God is in you.

And he's not just a little bit in you, he's big in you.

He's bigger in you than you understand.

Are the kids upstairs, huh?

No, okay.

Here's what's in my mind.

I don't have time to do it,

but if I had an eight-year-old on the platform with me

who just got born again, and I'm 66 years old,

I've been walking with Jesus for about 45, 46, 47 years.

Do you understand that that eight-year-old,

I'm not more saved than they are?

The same God that's in me is in them.

I might have some history with God that they don't have,

but I'm not more saved, I'm not more filled.

Come on, do you understand that when you said yes,

you got as filled as the next guy?

Come on, I got some heroes in the faith,

but they don't have more Holy Ghosts than I do.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

Come on, Christ is in you.

It's time to break your agreement with fear,

insecurity, low self-image, you don't need that, why?

Because Christ is in you, and that's the hope of glory.

It's time to declare, I am who God says I am,

and I have what God says I have.

So it doesn't matter what challenge you're walking through,

whether it's physical, financial, spiritual,

mental, emotional, relational, listen to me.

I need to do this, man, I'm trying to quit,

I promise.

Remember when Jesus got baptized?

Come here, Ronnie, quick, up here, jump,

you can jump, you're a big jumper.

Oh, he's got a bad knee, and he even got up there anyway.

Look, John the Baptist baptizes Jesus in the water,

goes down, goes back up.

The heavens open, the Father speaks,

the Holy Spirit lights upon him.

You guys remember this, like a dove.

What did the Father say?

This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well-pleased.

Do you understand?

Ronnie is a beloved Son in whom he's well-pleased.

Ronnie'd be like, you don't know me,

you don't even know what I'm going through.

And Christine is down there going, yeah, right.

But the reality is there's a beloved Son

in whom he's well-pleased.

Now, you might not think you're a beloved Son

in whom he's well-pleased,

but he thinks you're a beloved Son,

and I think his thoughts ought to trump your thoughts.

See, I don't want one thought in my head about me

that's not in God's head about me.

Well, that was really good.

Okay, now watch.

If that's Matthew, at the end of Matthew chapter three,

chapter four starts out and says Jesus was led

by the Spirit into the wilderness

to be tempted of the devil.

Everybody know that, right?

And what was the first temptation?

If you are, what?

If you are the Son of God,

command these stones that they be made bread.

What word was missing?

Beloved.

Because he doesn't care if you know you're a son,

he wants you to think God doesn't love you.

If I can keep that beloved part out,

but what if we woke up every morning and went,

Father, I thank you that you love me,

that you're for me and you're not against me,

that you're with me every step of the journey.

God, I thank you that you live inside of me

and people are gonna be blessed today

because I'm gonna manifest Christ on the earth.

What if we actually lived with that mentality

and that was part of our DNA

and that was part of who we really are

and we walked this thing out with so much sincerity

that the people around us saw Christ in us.

Why?

Because I'm a beloved son.

What if we woke up every morning

under this new covenant reality?

Why?

Because that's how you live the blessed life.

You keep this new covenant reality in your mind.

I am a beloved son in whom he is well pleased.

Thanks, amen.

Bow your head and close your eyes

while Ronnie gets down.

Father, I just thank you.

You don't call us just your children.

You call us beloved children.

We're beloved sons and beloved daughters

in whom you are well pleased.

And I thank you for the new covenant reality

that we can live and walk in.

I thank you that you're with us

every step of the journey.

I thank you that there's the promise

and the hope that we have.

I am who you say I am and I have what you say I have.

And I declare your goodness over my life right now.

I thank you for the new covenant relationship

that we as your children have.

We can live a blessed life because we're new covenant kids.

And God, we're gonna walk in the light of that new covenant.

And we're gonna declare it over our finances.

We're gonna declare it over our family.

We're gonna declare it over our health.

We're gonna declare it over our emotions.

We're gonna declare it over our thought life.

God, every part of us is immersed

in this new covenant reality

because we are your children whom you are well pleased.

So Father, we receive that today

and thank you for your love and your grace

in Jesus' name.

And the church shouted amen.

If you're part of the prayer team this morning,

I need you up front.

If you're here this morning

and you need prayer for healing,

you need to respond to this sermon.

Maybe there's something that really touched your heart

and you want special prayer.

Maybe there's just something going on in your life

that you need God to move.

The prayer team's here to pray with you

and bless you and help you.

Every one of them's trained

and ready to meet you right where you're at.

So if you want special prayer,

I'll invite you to come.

Other than that, thanks for meeting us.

Thanks for being with us.

It's a pretty exciting day in the house.

We'll start the next service in a little bit.

Amen.

Thanks for being with us, guys.

Bless you.

Thanks for listening to the Harvest Chapel PA podcast.

We hope this message encouraged you

and drew you closer to Jesus.

So stay connected with us at HarvestChapelPA.com

or follow us on social media at Harvest Chapel PA.

We can't wait to be with you again next week.