Practically Living Out The New Covenant — Sandeep Poonen

Living Between the Old and New Covenants

Practically living out the new covenant when speaking on the new covenant and wanted to share Practical ways in which you live out the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant. So I'll go through it some of this a lot of this is repeat.

But I wanted to kind of give you practical ways in which you live it out between the old covenant and the new covenant and We can ask ourselves which covenant are we living in? Next slide, please. The top benefits and blessings if you're living in the old covenant we are asking God for health wealth Prosperity and I can go and find it in the Bible.

I find a lot of them in Psalms. I find a lot of them in Deuteronomy and some of the Old Testament books and I can claim it in Isaiah to Jeremiah some of these ones. I can I claim it and say Lord you said it in your word.

So you must heal me. Or you must Give me this new job with better money or this and that all those prayers. How are rooted even if we go to God in it in a mindset of the old covenant in? The the mindset of the new covenant is An agreement it's an agreement between God and man and if it is an agreement between God and man We're talking about things that God Guarantees.

What does God guarantee? God guarantees the divine nature. God doesn't guarantee health wealth other things. God guarantees that through his promises. He may give me the divine nature. So I need to reduce the number of prayers.

That I have the guarantee they're going to be answered. God you're gonna heal me of this God. You're gonna give me this on this earthly realm. Because there's no guarantee of that. But I don't have to drop don't have to drop even the slightest ounce of faith when it comes to spiritual things.

To know God there's no debate. I don't have to plead with God. When it comes to the divine nature, I don't have to beg God he wants to give it to me and A spiritual person will take whatever the Lord gives him on this physical realm.

Whatever health or lack of health he gets. Whatever financial gain or lack of gain he gets. He knows that God will give him what he needs as it relates to food and clothing and to be able to survive on this earth.

But he has no shortage of faith when it comes to spiritual things. So let's remember that when we ask ourselves Lord, do I have faith? My question is what do you have faith for? What do you have confidence for if it is for your spiritual life?

There should be hundred percent guarantee confidence then Lord. Let your will be done. I But Lord your will be done. This is the difference between an old covenant person and a new covenant person. A new covenant person has spiritual good in mind and Everything is geared towards that so they go to God with hundred percent certainty that God wants to get rid of their unforgiving attitude and There's zero Unbelief as it relates to that or a lukewarmness towards God.

There's a Zero doubt about whether God wants to help him with it and The fault is always with me. If I go to God for spiritual benefits, and I'm not receiving it. It's not God's fault. It's a guarantee God wants it to give it to me and a lot of us.

I think we're surrounded by Christendom well-meaning, but I think misappropriate old covenant prayers and And make us doubt God because God never promised it in the new covenant. God never promised us fancy lives or Healthy lives.

Some of us are going to be sick with some sicknesses for the rest of our lives. This is not a shortage on God's ability to heal us. God's never guaranteed it, but he has guaranteed us. I Think we can we can partake of the divine nature.

So that's what we need to claim in the new covenant. One of us may already feel I don't know if I want this life. We've been sold a bill of goods. We've been sold a religion that maybe said God will help me and all the great things I want to accomplish on this earth.

Not at all but if I reset all of my goals and say God the only thing that you promised me in the new covenant was the divine nature and That I may know you and that's the only thing I'm gonna go to you for Lord and say you got you guaranteed to me.

Freedom From Sin in the New Covenant

I want to have it. We'll find that we live happy lives. Next line. Sin. The difference between all covenant and sin. There's no excuse for any sin. No excuse. What is sin. Romans chapter 3 verse 23 to fall short of the glory of God in any way?

Internal and external absence. Presence of some sin or absence of good. I didn't do anything wrong, but I didn't say the right thing that God wanted me to say. That's also falling short of the glory of God and in the old covenant We are mostly worried of whether I had a good reputation in front of people.

Thou shalt not commit adultery. Commit murder. Don't bear false witness. Most of the nine commandments were external. A lot of the old covenant life is a Christian life that is mostly worried about the external.

A New covenant life is a life that says Lord if I had even a small wrong in my motive. Even when I said the right thing I'm guilty of the worst sins as we heard in the message that we heard earlier this week if I commit if I show partiality James chapter 2 verse 9 I'm as guilty as the one who commits adultery.

Who in this world thinks that committing part and showing partiality to it. Somebody who's richer or somebody who's more famous is? As bad as sin. That's committing adultery. New covenant is to say Lord.

Becoming Like Jesus Through Faith

There's no excuse in either for any sin any thought motive or action. Next slide, please. What is the goal? What is the goal of your life? The old covenant was to obey the Mosaic law. The new covenant is to be just like Jesus and to be just like Jesus is to have the glory of Jesus.

The glory of Jesus was when he accomplished Whatever God gave him to do that's what it says in John chapter 17 verse 4 and The glory of Jesus is his love is the love of God and the glory of Jesus is that I might love One another as God loved me.

Those are the two things about the glory of Jesus. I see in John chapter 17 in his prayer Lord I've glorified you because I've accomplished everything that you asked me to do now Lord Jesus help them to see my glory and The glory that I have is that I was loved by the father and that you and I are one and that We may love one another.

Those are the two glories that I see about you is absolutely loved by the father and a desire for unity. Next slide please. Now look a lot of these we've gone through before I'm trying to cover it. This is material that will be available to you.

But I'm trying to highlight some of the differences and ask myself look. I know how the Old Testament. I know how Daniel lived because he's under the Old Covenant. My question is am I living According to the Old Covenant, even though I claim to be in the New Covenant or the new agreement.

How do I get to be like Jesus? This is critically important. And we've talked a lot about this. From a long for a long period of time. It's not based on human efforts. It's based on faith that God will do it.

Look. When we looked at it when you said in the very beginning that the the The whole purpose the greatest blessing of the New Covenant is his nature. I have to see that what God is telling me is. It's like a man going to an ant.

Listen to me carefully dear brothers sisters. It's like man going to an ant and telling an ant. Behave like a human being. What chance does the aunt have. What chance does the ant have? One in a million.

One in a billion. Can you imagine an ant. Sitting and just pondering life like we do. I'm gonna take the day off and just sit by the lake and take my journal and think about life with my coffee. Can you imagine an ant doing that?

That's what's in our nature. So when we reduce the Christian life to doing good works. To doing good things. Then I find that there are some animals who I can train to act like humans. I can get in a monkey.

I can get a monkey to type some things on the keyboard. We may actually be able to type a letter decently. I May be able to get an animal to go bang on a drum and run around like us in a circus looking very human like.

It's not their nature though. So we have to grab a hold of that what God is asking us to do is like asking an ant to behave like a human being. That's much more than just actions. What is a man like. What is a woman like.

Can I get an ant to like what I like? What's the chance that I can like what God likes? This is far greater than doing obeying the commandments. This is it's a completely different league. So the sooner we get to the point of saying Lord has no chance.

It's impossible. That's when faith can come in. Faith can do what we cannot fathom with our human minds. I spoke some I don't know. It was a year ago or more than that that I'm like a fruit fly. Gravitates to the garbage.

And you're gonna hug now tell this fruit fly. Don't gravitate to the garbage. Hang out among the flowers be like a butterfly. What chance does the fruit fly get have to do that? You can be pretty like a butterfly one day.

Different nature. We have to see that and what God is asking us is to have a completely different nature. So we don't have to get frustrated ourselves when we try and we get angry. Oh, we try and we can't forgive as easily as we should.

The problem is not nurture. It's nature, you know, the big debate in the human world is how do you end up with good kids? Is it nature or nurture? And it's a Complicated thing. Some say it's both one of the big challenges that we as Christians need to understand.

There's no nurturing you into the kingdom. There's no such thing as let's nurture us into being good Christians. It's not a nurture issue. It's a nature issue. And we have to cross out trying to nurture our Christian our children to be good Christians.

It's not a nurture issue. It's a nature issue. I got a look at my beautiful daughter and look at my cute little boys and say there's a nature that's filthy in that. As cute as they look as sweet as they sound there's a nature that's Fundamentally corrupted and I have to have faith and I have to pray for my children that a fundamental change in nature may happen.

Parents that's what we need. We have to do the best we can to teach them good character values and all of that. But behind all of that I can dress them up in the nicest Behavior and clothes and send them over my boy and girl to hell.

If there's not a nature transformation dear brothers and sisters, we need a nature transformation, too. And our whole pursuit of life is a nature transformation. We need faith and out of that faith comes fruit.

It's like a vine bears fruit just like an apple tree bears fruit. It's not works. It's just the matter of being connected to the tree. Another way of looking at is worship. It's we worship God we worship God and out of our worship service just comes out.

I Have to ask myself if fruit is not coming out. I have to ask myself if service is not coming out of my life. But the answer is not just start producing fruit. The answer is not just serving. No, the answer is Lord if I worshipped you service will come out.

If I did have faith in you fruit will come out. So a fruit is not coming out of a heart of service for you is not coming out Lord. There's something wrong. I don't have faith. I Don't have worship. Otherwise service will come out.

It's the natural reaction to the action of worship service will come out. But we don't have to put the heart of the car before the horse we don't try to serve our way into worship. No, we have to worship God.

The Church as God's Holy Place

We have to seek God for faith. Lord. I can't Have the nature of God, but that's what I want. Then love comes up as we partake of God's nature next slide, please God's holy place. Let's stop calling Israel the Holy Land.

Let's refuse to buy into the Christendom. It says well, let's go visit the Holy Land. Every everywhere we see that written in any literature we get say that's a lie. That's a lie. It's not the Holy Land and let me tell myself whenever I read that says Israel is the Holy Land.

Now no, no, no. No, this is the Holy Land. My body is the Holy Land. My life is the Holy Land. That's where the Holy Spirit has come to dwell and the church. Local and global Church local and global and I separated this out into two parts.

It's the local church and the global church. Because I think it's so easy for us to think of the church just expansively as global. It's first the local church it's predominantly the local church, that's the Holy Land and Some of us are good at making our individual lives the Holy Land.

But our eyes have been blinded to seeing that the local church is The Holy Land and our eyes need to be opened Lord. I have not done your will. I have not accomplished your purpose if I see my body as the Holy Land, but I don't see the local church as The Holy Land if I am NOT radically committed To giving my whole body to you every day Lord.

I have not seen you my body as the Holy Land, but Lord if I've also not Radically committed to becoming part of a local church. I am blinded To what the true Holy Land is. This is one of the truths that we have heard because of the new covenant that we have been taught through my father.

That it's not good enough just to have your body as the Holy Land you we must Not just attend a local church, but see that the local church is a Holy Land. Bunch of Holy Lands that God is trying to build up and God's asking me to play a part to build up other people's Holy Land.

The Flesh as the Believer's Primary Enemy

I have to see that my eyes have to be Gripped with that next line, please my enemies. We know what our enemies are in the old covenant all kinds of a tights, you know Malakites it tights Jebusites all kinds of Philistines and other things like that.

What is it in the new covenant? There's one enemy only one enemy. Sin, and I actually flipped it around. Do we have the new version? Okay. Let's take the let's take the time to swap out the old version to the new one because in the new version.

What I did is I put my flesh at the top. You know a lot of Christendom thinks that the devil is your number one enemy. I don't absolutely believe that the devil is our number one enemy. I don't believe that because God's taking care of that enemy and defeated it very easily.

All I've got to do is resist the devil and he says he'll flee from me. But he tells me with my flesh. I have to crucify my flesh. Over and over and over and over and over again and what's the difference between resisting and crucifixion?

That's how much more difficult my flesh is my flesh inside of me. Much harder and You ask yourself. How much are you afraid of the devil or how much are you afraid of your own flesh of your selfish? Will and that'll show you how we may be bought into all covenant mindsets to oh Don't go near that the devil is near there.

Not the devil come in. Oh, he's trivial and an enemy if the devil comes in. It's very easy for me to get rid of him. Just resist him. The real enemy is within me when I'm dealing with my marriage issues.

The biggest enemy is my flesh. Still think about the old one then after that comes the world system that is influenced by the world by the devil and Then the last one is the devil himself. He's of course an enemy.

We wrestle not against flesh and blood. We don't wrestle against other people. But when principalities and powers as we are seeking to advance God's kingdom are wrestling. We go against the kingdom of God the kingdom of God goes against the kingdom of darkness.

But our primary enemy is our flesh is our selfish will. Once my mind is gone around it. I won't be worried about what Christendom is doing badly out there. I won't be worried about what my boss is doing to mess me up out here or my neighbors doing something to mess me up.

I'll be most worried about the greatest enemy to God. That exists. That's my flesh. Have I seen that? Every day I wake up and say Lord. I got a Drink of your loving-kindness because there's this enemy inside of me.

Unbelief as the Root of Sin

Whether or not whether or not I got a horrible Email or not from my boss the worst enemy inside of me is my flesh. Shall we keep going? What are the worst sins? Disobeying the Ten Commandments the worst sin that I can do in the new covenant is unbelief and Again in the new slides.

I basically said what unbelief is God, I don't believe you. I don't need you. I don't trust you. One of those things God, I don't believe you or I don't need you or I don't trust you. It's because I have that subtle statement.

That's why pride comes in. I Don't need you. That's why self-pity comes in because God I don't trust you or I don't believe you hypocrisy comes in. Or I don't need you. Legalism self-righteousness all of these come in because we say God I don't need you.

I don't trust you. I don't believe. We have to see that. This is the root. Behind some of the our biggest problems in life is because of a spirit of unbelief. It is never God's fault. It is always my spirit of unbelief through my pride through my self pity.

That is why I've talked about self pity and discouragement as being such a horrible sin. But I get into a bad mood. That is such a direct slap in the face to God. I have to see these things and say Lord.

I want to be freed From this that is why when I see that I see that God Jesus was so strong against unbelief and he was so easy on adultery. Think about that. Did he wink did he say adultery is okay. Not at all but relative to adultery unbelief was such a stink in his eyes and It's Christians people close to the very truth who are the most guilty of unbelief.

Scripture, Obedience, and the Life of Jesus

Next slide, please. God's Word. We're able to swap it out. Any of us. That's not the new one. No, is it it's not done. Okay, focus on the spirit not the life of G focus on the letter or focus on the spirit the life of Jesus.

How do I interact with God's Word? We heard today about eating God's Word. I We have to fear that we know God's Word and it's just knowledge. The reason for God's Word is so that I might have the life of Jesus.

That I might have the life of Jesus. John chapter 5 verse 39 said. You search the scriptures because you think you think in them that you have life, but you're unwilling to come to me. That you might have life.

Do I know the scriptures or do I have the life of Jesus. If I if I know the scriptures and I don't have the life of Jesus I've lost it. It's been worthless. It's no point me knowing all the scriptures.

It's no point teaching our children all the words about scriptures. We don't have the life of Jesus. The Old Covenant we obey based on fear thou shalt of his. God will punish you. The New Covenant. We are obedience that's based out of the father's love.

It's love based. It's because God loves me. That's why I obey him. Because I he loves me. I love him and I obey him. There's a fundamental difference now again. These are all ways in which I have to go back and ask myself Lord Jesus.

Am I living in the Old Covenant or am I living in the New Covenant? Am I obeying you because I got scared because the last time I disobeyed you for three months. You gave me a health scare and I had to go to the doctor.

The last time I wasn't living right you did something to my job. I lost my job. One of my children got something and if that's the way I interact with God, it's an Old Covenant mentality. And I'm not saying that that's wrong.

God may need to do that to pull me out of my to get me to my senses. But God doesn't want me to live that way in the New Agreement. That's how he deals with prodigal sons that are out there. That's how he'll deal with hypocrites who are not living true lives.

But with the children of God who are walking with God. God says you obey me because you love me. I'll correct you. But I'm gonna be full of love and you obey based on a love that you have for me and I have to ask myself Lord every day am I responding because Of who you are and what you've done for me.

Otherwise, let me reset. As we heard from Jeremy we start off our day with the spirit of coldness. Well That's for sure. But you may start out with the spirit of hotness because you brought the Lord in but by 11 o 'clock, it's cold again.

Then you need another baptism of fire into the heat of the love of God and at 2 o 'clock again Obedience based on the father's love we have to keep coming back to saying Lord I'm not doing this out of rote and we have to keep pulling our hearts back to say Lord I want to come back to your love.

Jesus never sinned because he was Always immersed in the love of God always. We sinned because we don't know love because we don't know the love of God. Next slide, please worship. We know this a lot.

What is worship? It's not clapping. It is not singing. It is not music. It is not emotional. It is not crying it is not feeling the Holy Spirit because we say everybody be quiet and Let the Lord speak to you and you suddenly start to feel your the hair on the back of your neck.

Stand up and you say that's the Holy Spirit. No, he isn't it isn't. I'm not saying the Holy Spirit can't move the hair follicles in your back of your neck. He surely can do that. He can surely put a tongue of fire on top of your head, but let's not use that as the marker.

Let's not use that as the test. My hair stood up. Because we all know just a little bit of electric. See we'll get my hair to stand up. It's not the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit changes my heart and gives me a desire to obey and He allows my inside to match my outside and my outside to match my inside.

So we worship in spirit that means in our hearts and we worship in truth. Mm-hmm fellowship the next one. How do we have fellowship? Is it based on culture? Is it based on common interests or is it based on a relationship those have a relationship with the father and the son.

Next one prayer and fasting. There's a big one we have to change our mindset about prayer for sure. We we Exalt it is in our nature for us to think really highly of a person who spends four five hours in prayer.

We think it's a big deal. It's not a big deal. It's a it's a Horrible disobedience to God's Word to pray for five hours. Why. Because what does God's Word say? Pray without seizing. So why did you stop after five hours is my question?

Why did you stop after ten hours. Because you define prayer as kneeling down and being quiet and by yourself. That's again. We have to redefine the word prayer based on what we see in Scripture. God says very clearly pray without seizing.

So I'm not trying to go from 15 minutes of prayer with God to 30 minutes of prayer with God to two hours to pray With God to eight hours of prayer with God every day. Again this is so built into our mindset and Christendom has not done any good with it.

And we have to recognize that the commandment of God is pray without seizing. Then I can think that prayer is like breathing. Prayer is like breathing then I do that all the time. So my prayer life should be like my breathing life.

Along how many of us can go five minutes without breathing? How many of us can go 20 minutes without breathing? You'll say Sandeep. I don't pray always. Well, that's the commandment of God. Let's reset our Christian life and start to live slowly.

One day at a time saying Lord. I want to try to obey these verses. Pray without seizing. I want to have a heart of prayer. Breathing in your promises. Constantly. As often as I can remember in the middle of work, but I don't even realize it.

I'm breathing. Most of the time I don't even think about it. I'm breathing and God says I Want to take you out of this womb where you're not breathing. You're being fed by the placenta now you come out into this world and I cut off the umbilical cord.

Not just got to breathe the love of God. Breathe in the love of God live in the love of God. Remind yourself often about the love of God. That's what prayer is. How long is the Lord's Prayer? Four hours long.

30 seconds long Mass. The greatest prayer of all time. 30 seconds. That's it. Disciples just got ready to pray and then it was over. That's it. That's all you got God. That's it. Yeah, pray without seizing.

Giving, Freedom, and Consecration

Fasting to not as a show in secret. Next slide, please giving in the old covenant. There was an average of over 20 and give to the Levites every year. They had to give for the festivals everywhere a year.

They had to give to the poor every third year so the average of over 20 and Was given based on one's increase and to be obeyed strictly. The new covenant is a 20 percent 10 percent 100 percent and we give based on ability and for needs based on ability and we give secretly and Cheerfully, what do you when we think about these things like worship and we think about fasting and Prayer and Giving this last slide in this light.

This is where a lot of people who know the new covenant but are carnal. Will say see. I don't know how to pray four hours. I don't know how to pray a long period of time. I don't know how to fast like the old and old covenant did.

Do you find that they never fast? Even though Jesus says when you fast and Jesus said when I leave this earth, my disciples will fast carnal Christians. But don't really pray much. Don't spend any time with the Lord one on one.

Don't have any time of conversation with the Lord in secret. Don't have any kind of giving reputation before the Lord not before man. Say look I the tithing is done. So I'm not gonna give. I'm gonna take care of my family first.

I'm gonna just take care of all my needs. How are we different from the heathen? Well, cuz you know, we're living in the new covenant now. I don't need to give. I don't need to fast. I don't need to pray like they prayed like Daniel prayed three times a day.

And this is where God exposes our hearts from being carnal. Using the new covenant as a license to sin. These are ways in which it happens. I know what happened in my life and I had to adjust myself. Am I just an old new covenant person using the advantages of it?

Disobeying your law. You're so being the heart of your command Lord. I have a heart of giving. Have a heart of fasting. Have a heart to pray. Next slide, please. In this whole area and this is the final slide in all of these areas you talk about.

God gives us freedom not to give 10 or 20 God says you have freedom. 100 belongs to me. Eating. You don't have to eat pork. You give the whole covenant. So you can't eat pork. You can't eat this animal.

God says free. Every food is now clean. But watch what you eat. Don't be a glutton. Be careful how much you eat. Don't keep on eating and eating and eating have smaller portions. See that so because of the freedom God gives us in the new covenant.

Some of us just become gluttons. Here's here's another one that I didn't mention Sabbath. God said the Sabbath is gone. Every day is holy. Well now every day has to be holy which means what every day should be like the Sabbath consecrated to the Lord.

Most of us tend to think Sunday is a little bit more important. We so we destroy the old covenant and live with the freedom of the new covenant without really realizing the real Spirit of the new covenant is that every day should be like the Sabbath.

Every day should be consecrated. And as I think about these things, I see how the Lord has to restore me To the true meaning of the new covenant. Lord, I you took away the Sabbath. Thank you Lord that I don't have to make Saturdays.

There's a day where I don't lift this or do that. But Lord you made it you wanted me such that in every day of the week I lived with you in a Sabbath relationship. Or I don't try to earn my favor, but I live in a life of rest with you every day.

Or I live in your love. Lord you've freed me from this from the law of giving 10 or 20 Lord, but I don't want to just now hold on to my money and do whatever I want with it Lord. 100 of it is yours.

What do you want to do with 100 of my bank account 100 We won't just be able to spend it on whatever we want Lord. My food intake is yours. You freed me from having to not eat this animal animal can eat whatever I want.

But everything that I put into my body my body is yours. I want to treat it with reverence this body that you've given me. I want to treat my time With the reverence that you've given it. I want to treat the money with the reverence that you've given it.

Growing Loyalty to Jesus in Family and Church

So this is the final slide. Personal external holiness, but an up-and-down relationship. God Elijah had it. David had it. John the Baptist had it preaching great messages, but then once he's in prison His circumstances changed the greatest man in the Old Covenant saying sending a message to Jesus.

Are you really the one? Instead we need to have a growing loyalty to Jesus growing Loyalty to Jesus. That's what devotion is loyalty. We must get offended more When Jesus's name is dishonored in our lives and our family lives.

We must be horribly bothered when we are not on fire for God. Or when our family is not on fire for God, it should bother us in the Old Covenant. The important thing was to raise God-fearing children as far as I could tell.

I mean, this is not I don't know how big a deal it was, but definitely in the culture it was the New Covenant. God wants us to be disciples and disciples in private with family at Work in every area to be disciples and the reason I use the word disciples in Luke 14, it talks about three Requirements of discipleship which we don't we know already that you must hate father mother brother sister and in your own life.

You've got to take up your cross. That means you've died yourself life and you have to hate all your possessions. Nothing should possess you. Those are the three requirements of discipleship that God mentioned and we need to be disciples in private.

No family member Can come close to our loyalty to Jesus. No possession can possess us and no preference of anything of our selfish will can come in between us and our loyalty to God. That's what it means to be a disciple in private life.

But I also wanted to underline what it means to be at family life as well. Because as I mentioned the burden of my heart is that we as NCCF will have better family lives. We need to be a disciple. Let me ask you this.

Husbands and wives. I Want I want to do this all as a exercise for all of us who are married. I Want a husband's because this may apply to us more because our wives may be more scared of us. I Want all of us to be able to ask our wives a simple question.

Do you think I love my family more than I love you? Do you think I prefer your my mother or my father or my uncle? Or my own brother more than I love you. What do you think and allow my wife to say whatever she wants and God help Her tell you the truth.

I wonder what she will say. But definitely flip it around wives if you want to be godly ask your husband that. Do you think that I love any of my own family including my own children more than I love you.

Do you honestly think that I want your honest 100 feedback and if you'll give it to me, I will repent. You have to live before God don't just use this as no way to get rid of me or to Poke me, but if you honestly think that I love my parents or my brothers or Anybody in my family more than I love you.