New Life UMC

•Beautiful One – as disciples we called to learn from and imitate our Lord, Jesus the Christ. He not only saved us for a life after death; but he brings us new life today. When we are hopeless and helpless and all seems lost; we need to repent and trust in God. Jesus showed us that in the garden when he prayed, “not my will but yours be done.” When we are overwhelmed by the suffering of the world and our own sin we need to remember our hope is not in what we see; but in a future without suffering, a future we will live in when Christ comes again. With that hope in our lives we can be truly glad. Ultimately the beatitudes lead us to the Beautiful One, Jesus the Christ, our Lord and Savior.

A Healing, a banquet, a dinner, cost of discipleship, pass the salt. We look at Luke and what it means to New Life and the Finder Five; Family, Friend, the Forgotten, the Forsaken and the Faces in the Crowd.

Audio starts at question #5. To see answers to questions 1-4, download document below (QA 2-16-2013.pdf).

•Covenant & Kingdom Today – we’ve seen how Covenant was present in the story of Abraham and Sarah. We’ve seen how Kingdom was present in the story of Joseph. We saw both working together in Moses. We saw both fully realized in Jesus. Last week I shared how the Covenant became accessible for all people; through the Jesus’ death and resurrection. Through Jesus we can join the Covenant and become Children of God. But that is not the end of the story. We are called into Covenant and Kingdom and today, as we end our series we will see how we can live out both.

oNew Covenant – we have talked a lot about Covenant and Kingdom; what each of these look like and how we see them in scripture. But what we haven’t done is share how the Covenant went from one family, Abraham’s family, to all people. That is the story of Jesus and the Cross. It is a story of Covenant and Kingdom. During the Last Supper, which we believe was held during Passover (the celebration of the Exodus) Jesus took a cup that signified the Covenant and make it something new. Jesus is saying that his blood represents something new, a fresh start to the Covenant God made with Abraham a couple millenniums earlier.

•Identity – today we are going to see how Covenant and Kingdom; both stands of biblical DNA come together in the person of Jesus. Specifically we are going to focus on one part of our Covenant triangle, Identity. We will see clearly how our Identity is formed through the temptations of Jesus. Jesus is able to represent is Father/King and also resist temptation because he has a clear understanding of his Identity; who he is in the Covenant relationship. Let’s hear this story with that in mind.

•Covenant & Kingdom: Moses – That brought us to the end of the first book of the Bible, Genesis and as we move to the second book of the Bible, Exodus we meet an extraordinary individual. This one person has both strands of Biblical DNA: Covenant and Kingdom, written on his heart completely. His story is rather long so tonight we will be covering the first twenty chapters of Exodus. Strap in and hold on tight: here we go!

•Covenant – last week I introduced you to Abraham and Sarah, the first family to join into a covenant relationship with God. Remember when we talk about covenant we mean something very special. When two people entered into a covenant they gave up their old lives and became one; they have new life but new life together. That is the covenant Abraham established with God. Because of the covenant Abraham and all of his descendants became children of God, and heirs to God’s kingdom. This included Abraham’s son Isaac, his son Jacob (Israel) and his 12 sons, including our subject today: Joseph.

•Abraham and Sarah – today we are going to look at the story of Abraham and Sarah, although at this point, Genesis Chapter 12 through 15, they are still Abram and Sarai (we’ll get to that). Abram was a good guy and in Genesis 12:1 God tells him to “go from your country, your people, and your father’s household to the land I will show you.” And Abram did that. Abram and Sarai did as the Lord said. Once they got to that Promised Land God tells Abram (in Genesis 13:15), “all the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever.” Sounds pretty good right? In Genesis 15:1 God tells Abram, “do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” All that sounds pretty good; but there was one small problem.