Eastridge Church

1.  What we need after the Fall. 

a.  The beginning of that process is call Covenant.

Genesis 15:17-18

17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.  18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram.

Exodus 6:7a

I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.  Then you will know that I am the LORD your God...

b.  The Hebrew term for this love is Hesed.

Psalm 23:6

Surely your goodness and love [hesed] will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Malachi 1:2a, 5

2 "I have loved you," says the LORD...

5 You will see it with your own eyes and say, 'Great is the LORD--even beyond the borders of Israel!'

2.  Gold ultimately catches us in the New Covenant.

Jeremiah 31:31, 33

31 "The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah...

33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD.  "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.  I will be their God, and they will be my people."

Luke 22:19-20

19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me."

3.  Why we need Covenant.

2 Corinthians 3:3-6

3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the loving God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.  4 Such confidence we have through Christ before God.  5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.  6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant--not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

a.  We need to live in a fallen world.

b.  We need to know there is a way out.

c.  We need to see Jesus when he comes.