Spirit Filled Hearts
About this series
As we return to Sunday meetings we realise that people may have become weary and lost some focus. So in our next series we hope to help people deal well with their internal space as well as grasp opportunities and return to ‘action.’ Of course, these two things are very closely connected as people always live out what is happening internally. By ‘heart’ the Bible means the core of a person’s being; the seat of emotion, desire, thought and decision. The biblical term ‘heart’ relates most closely to the modern idea of ‘mind’.
About this talk
Hebrews 8:10, 10:16
The argument throughout Hebrews is not that the old covenant was bad, wrong or faulty, but that the people failed and were impotent to follow God. But the old covenant pointed to and necessitated the new covenant which was inaugurated through Christ and applied to us by the Holy Spirit. The old was a shadow and a pointer to the reality in Christ.
Hebrews 8 picks up what that new covenant would look like by quoting God’s announcement in Jeremiah 31. The work of Christ would result in a new way of obedience, which, by the Spirit within, fulfilled the intent of the old external law. This is the great experiential privilege of the Christian - to know the life of the Spirit pulsating through us as he assures us of our sonship, sanctifies us, gifts us for service and empowers us for mission.
This covenant is different in 3 major ways that relate to our hearts:
God writes his law inside
God changes our hearts
God writes assurance on our hearts
If the Holy Spirit fills us moves us to live in a Godward direction, how can we cooperate with him in that lifelong process? This is an opportunity to teach how Christians obey God by the Spirit, not by adhering to a written code.
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