In this sermon, the speaker shares the story of Louis Zamperini, a former Olympic runner who became a prisoner of war during World War II. Zamperini endured unimaginable suffering and torture at the hands of his captors, leading him to develop intense hatred and a desire for revenge. However, his life took a dramatic turn when he attended a Billy Graham crusade and encountered the message of forgiveness and redemption through Jesus Christ. This encounter ultimately transformed Zamperini's life, leading him to find healing and freedom from his nightmares and addictions.

There's a controversy in literature. Did Shakespeare really write Shakespeare? William Shakespeare is the most famous playwright in the English language, and when we were in high school, usually you had to work through some of that stuff. At least you used to have to, and make believe you enjoyed it, some of it at least to me. But there's a whole school of thought that Shakespeare never wrote Shakespeare. There's a line of investigation that has gone along this way, that the William Shakespeare people can find from that time. He could barely sign his name for any document, and thus he could have never written Macbeth and all these other things. Others say, no, it is Shakespeare. And by the way, there's more proof of the validity of the New Testament documents than there is for Shakespeare. Did you know that? There are more copies of the original for the Book of Galatians than there is for one of Shakespeare's famous plays. No one has the original documents, but even the copies of it, they're fragmented, there's differences in them, and there's so few copies compared to the multitude of copies we have, giving us what Paul wrote to one of those churches. But that's a mystery. Did Shakespeare write Shakespeare? There's a similar mystery in the Bible of who wrote the Book of Hebrews. It seems like every book in the New Testament, we're pretty sure that Mark, Matthew, Luke, John, they all wrote that. But when it comes to Hebrews, there's no sign off, no name given, and there's been a debate over the centuries who wrote the Book of Hebrews. For a long time, it was considered, because of his numerous letters found in the New Testament, that the apostle Paul wrote it. But the style of the Greek in the Book of Hebrews and certain things that he says have led most people, the experts, the commentators to say, no, Paul did not write that. He would have never said that. The style is different. The choice of words is different. Others have guessed that it was Luke, because he traveled with Paul, but Luke was a Gentile. It's most likely that he would have never written that letter of Hebrews addressed to Jewish believers. Others have thought Apollos, that wonderful, eloquent, fiery preacher that we hear about in the Book of Acts, that he wrote it. But as of today, really, there is no agreement of who wrote the Book of Hebrews. That it's inspired and a blessing to us, yes. But who wrote it, the authorship is unsure. The reason Hebrews was written was to tell Jewish believers not to feel bad about leaving the practice of Judaism now that they became Christians. That the covenant and the promises and the way of living that the Jews had back in the Old Testament has been superseded by a better way, a new covenant. That Moses was the symbol of the old covenant, but Jesus is the symbol of a new covenant, a new agreement. Covenant means contract or agreement, or really it means a handshake. And God had made a covenant, an agreement with the Jewish people in the Old Testament. And now the writer telling us in the Book of Hebrews, telling the people that he was writing to and now telling us, this is better, much better what we have today than what they had in the Old Testament. And that leads us to this truth that I want to give you, a much better way is the name of this message. I want to talk about the fact of the two covenants, what they are, the two different agreements. Because unless you understand that, unless you have that in the back of your mind, when you read the Bible, you can really go astray and be confused even at times. Because of the different aroma that's in the Old Covenant than there is in the New. For example, among the Jewish people as a nation, God gave several grounds for capital punishment. We don't find that in the New Testament. They conquered land in the Old Covenant. It was about a land. In fact, most of the Old Covenant is about a promise of possessing land. There is no promise focused on primarily in the New Testament about land, possessing land. We're looking for a new Jerusalem. We're looking to go to heaven. Nothing here. Nothing here is the promise there. They had sacred places in the Old Testament. There are no sacred places in the New Testament. Where Calvary is, where the mountain, where the hill that Jesus died on, not even mentioned. The upper room where the spirit came down, they don't even talk about it. It's like no one's going back there. Oh, this sacred ground. There is none of that thinking anywhere found in the New Testament. The New Testament, the New Covenant. So the writer to Hebrews, whoever he is, is saying, so Jewish believers, don't feel bad because remember, Jesus is better than the angels that were used to convey the Old Testament to Moses. Jesus is greater than Moses. Moses was the main man in the Old Testament, and then he shows how Jesus is so much greater than Moses. And then he says, you've been used to a high priest from the tribe of Levi, Aaron, the high priest, but we have a better high priest. See, that priest made mistakes. That priest had to offer a sacrifice for himself because he sinned, but we have Jesus as our high priest, the priest who's between God and the people. He's saying, don't worry, don't. No, no. We have a better priest. We have a better priesthood. We have someone you can go to any day, any time. Wouldn't it be terrible if you had a call? By the way, there's no priests in the New Testament. There's no priest. There's Jesus as the high priest. So the whole concept of the priesthood, there's a priesthood of the believers, but nobody in the early church were priests. There were apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists. There were no priests. That's a development of Roman Catholicism, but it's not found in the New Testament. So he's proving Jesus is better. We're in a much better day. So you got to understand that you're not leaving something that you're going to lose out. You're just gaining. You're gaining. And now he's talking about Jesus being a better high priest because like today, what if you had to reach a priest and he's busy or he fell asleep or he had an accident? How many are happy we have a priest that can be reached 24-7 waiting, making intercession for us and so on and so forth. And then in chapter eight, as he's talking about Jesus being a better priest, he uses that to slide into maybe some of the most important sentences in the whole New Testament. And if you and I don't understand them, it's much to our loss. I said to one of the greatest Bible teachers in America yesterday on the phone, I said something and he agreed. I said, I believe 90% of all Christians are not living in the new covenant with all of its promises and privileges. We're not taking advantage of it because we don't know what it is. Or if we know what it is, we're afraid to believe that it's that good. So let's see what we can come up with here in Hebrews eight. Let's look at it. But in fact, I'm picking up the argument in midstream. But in fact, the ministry Jesus has received as a priest is as superior to theirs, the other priests, as the covenant, the handshake, the agreement, the contract of which he is mediator is superior to the old one. Ah, the old one, that's the law. Since the new covenant, that's the covenant of grace or the gospel is established on better promises. Since the new covenant is established on better promises. For if there had been nothing wrong with the first covenant, something was wrong with it. No place would have been sought for another. If the old covenant that was given to Moses was so perfect and good, God wouldn't have had to have another one come in. So this new one is better than the old one, which was inferior. But God found fault, not with the covenant or his laws. He found fault with the people. And he said, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. Now, Israel and Judah, they're obviously its first meaning is the Jewish people. Israel's first use in the Bible, that was Jacob, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob's name was changed to Israel when he wrestled with the angel and he prevailed. Then Israel is used as the name for the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Jewish people. Then the word Israel is used as the northern kingdom after the civil war under Rehoboam and Jeroboam, where the northern kingdom was called Israel, the southern kingdom was called Judah. So you had a king of Israel, king of Judah. But then in the New Testament, it says that all those who believe in Jesus, who have the same faith as Abraham had, they are the Israel of God, the chosen people of God. So there's a spiritual Israel that's referenced too. So this promise is not just to the literal descendants, the Jewish people, but it's to all those who will believe, Jew and Gentile, as we see in the New Testament. It will not, this new covenant will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt. So this new covenant that I'm going to just describe quickly, it's not like the old one. That's interesting. What was the old one and what's the new one? And what's the difference? Because I don't want to be living in something that's passed away, as many of us unfortunately do. It's not like the old one that he gave to Moses when they came out of Egypt, because nothing was wrong with the commands, but they did not remain faithful to my covenant and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and I will write them on their hearts. I'm not writing anything more on a stone. I'm not putting anything on paper with ink. I'm not just giving you even those New Testaments. No, I got something better than that, God says. I'm going to take my laws, my ways, my love, my holiness. I'm going to write it on your mind and put it in your heart. It will not be outside of you. Now it'll be inside of you through the spirit. I will be their God and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor or say to one another, know the Lord, because they will all know me. There'll be no no teacher guru that will have to represent us to God and you are just living down here and there's a guy close to God and we all depend on him. That day is over. Everybody can know God in this new covenant. How many say amen to that? That is so good. From the least of them to the greatest. For, notice this is what comes first. That's why the word for. For, why is all that other stuff possible? For I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more. By calling this covenant new, he has made the first one obsolete and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear. Now, in fact, ladies and gentlemen, after Hebrews was written in the year 70 AD, God made a final end of the old covenant, at least to the Jewish people in worship, because the temple was destroyed in 70 AD. And when the temple was destroyed, the whole foundation of sacrifice being offered, blood sacrifice being offered was taken away from the Jewish people because there was only one place they could sacrifice in the temple and now they didn't have the temple anymore. For some time after that, because they knew that God's promise was without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin, they actually would kill pigeons and small animals in synagogues when they were scattered throughout that part of the world. But then people said, no, that's wrong. You can't make a sacrifice except in the place God gave you and that place is taken away and there's a mosque right now in that spot. So there's an old covenant, there's a new covenant. The new covenant is not like the old. Oh, I want to know how it's different. There's a difference between the New Testament and the Old Testament. We have to know what that difference is. We also know that the new agreement, the new handshake, the new compact, the new contract God has made with his people, Jew and Gentile, is better than the one he made with the Jewish people. It's new, it's different, it's better. And the old one has passed away. How is it so much better? Why is it different? Well, it's different because it's more spiritual and it's better because it treats spiritual, invisible, interior matters and eternal matters. It talks about heaven and eternal life. While there's hints of eternal life in the old covenant, they touch on it, especially when God anoints David and some of the psalmists and some of the prophets, they'll reference living forever, but not at all like in the New Testament. The Old Testament was very superficial and physical and temporary and earthbound. Get a land, be victorious over enemies, have a house, grow some figs, have a lot of children, live a long life, end of story. That's blessed. That's not found in the new covenant. Some of God's choices people were killed in the prime of life as martyrs. It's totally a new covenant. And the great hope of the church is not a fig tree and a long life. The hope of the Christian is we're going to live forever. How many say amen? We're going to live forever in heaven. Our hope is not Jerusalem or Brooklyn, although I like Brooklyn. It's the new Jerusalem. It's a new heaven and a new earth. It's not earthly riches, it's spiritual riches. Don't lay up for yourselves treasures here on earth, but lay them up in heaven. You're not going to find that in the Old Testament, in the old covenant. It was preparatory. In fact, the great object we learned of the Old Testament was to show people the sinfulness of sin, how sinful we all are. That was the purpose of the law. What was wrong with the law and that old covenant? It was mainly this, the 10 commandments, while true, don't give you any power to obey them. You can read them from now till midnight. It won't help you obey them one iota. There's no power in the law. It's just a command. Your conscience says yes, but where are you going to get the juice to do it? All people did in the Old Testament was make new promises, offer animal sacrifices, which were inferior. Why were they inferior? In God's sight, no animal blood could really wash away sins. It was prophetic. It was a type. It was a symbol of Christ to come. It could never clear the conscience of people. People in the Old Testament were living with that consciousness of sin. Why? Because the blood of bulls and goats can't clean your conscience. You're living with what you did eight years ago, eight months ago, eight days ago, and you can't shake free from it. It was preparatory. That's why the writer is saying, now a new and better and different covenant has come. A different way that God is dealing with his people. What was the old covenant? The contract made with Moses basically positioned on. It was positioned on this. You do, and then you'll get. You obey, and then you'll be rewarded. Thou shall not. Thou shalt. You should. You should not. Obey, and you'll get this. Disobey, boom, you're going to get whacked. That was the law. Under that compact contract covenant, there were never a people who really lived for God. You study carefully the Old Testament. Oh, there were a few choice saints who had faith in God and walked with the Lord, but for the most part, the people would turn to idols at the drop of a hat. They would be running after every false God, even though they had seen God open the Red Sea. I imagine Moses disappears up on a mountain for 40 days, and they make a golden calf, and when he comes back, after they saw all that God had done, how could you do that? Because the covenant is ... The law was good, but there's no power in the covenant. Always remember that. You need to teach your children what's wrong or right, but by telling them what's wrong or right doesn't give them the power in itself to avoid the wrong and do the right. Most of America, if the polling is irrefutable, most of America says, are you going to heaven if you believe in it after you die? Yes, I am going to heaven. Why? Because I try to live a good life. Who goes to heaven? People who live a good life. That's totally old covenant, not new covenant. In fact, no one has led a good life only if you compare yourself with Tom, Dick, and Harry, but how about comparing yourself with God? No, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. One of the purposes of the law we've learned is to close every mouth so that we all stand guilty with no excuse before God. Why is that important? You only can understand the new covenant when you first come to the end of yourself through the first covenant. When you give up and quit trying and you're humbled, now God can teach us. Teach us what? This is the new covenant I will make. Remember the old covenant was, Daniel, you do this, you do that. In this covenant, God does everything. God does everything. There was no you anywhere found in there. In that day, I will make a new covenant with my people, says the Lord. What's the first thing I have to do? I will forgive their sin and their iniquity. I will remember no more. I'm going to send my son and he's going to die. He's going to shed his blood for the sins of guilty people. And merely by trusting him, I will be able to apply that blood. Notice Jesus is the mediator. Jesus is the one who makes the covenant possible by going on the cross, living a perfect life, and then dying for the sins of the world. He makes God able to forgive us. God can't just whistle at sin and say, let's forget you did it. No, no, no, no, no. God cannot do that. Every sin has to be punished. And God put the sins of the world on Jesus and punished him in our place so that we could be set free. God did that. You can't erase your sins. Haven't you ever tried? My tears, your tears won't erase your sins. My tears can't erase my sin, but I feel so bad. Feeling bad, won't do anything. Will not erase it in God's sight. No, Jesus was the one who linked man with God, became like us, loves us, draws us with his love, but satisfies everything that God demands. What a wonderful savior we have. Amen. So the Bible tells us that we now have the ability to have every sin through the new covenant obliterated. There's no sin that you've ever done that is in God's sight today. It's been obliterated, totally erased. For their sins I'll forgive and their iniquities I will remember no more. Not only obliterated, but God says, I will so wipe it away in this new covenant because of what my son will do for his people that I will remember their sins no more. I was in a meeting preaching in Seattle and it was communion service and the pastor's wife was leading beautifully as she always does. And she started this communion song that I had never heard before. Blood of Jesus shed for me. Precious blood now covers me. The only view God has of me is through the blood of Jesus. God says, I'll make a new covenant where my people will be guilty no longer. I will wash away their sins. I will forget and obliterate even the memory of it. And what does the devil do? He tries to come as a condemner and accuser and get us conscious of sins that God has already forgiven and forgotten. And when you and I live with the consciousness of what we did three years ago, but repented of, and it's been washed away by the blood, do you realize we're remembering things that God has forgotten? God has forgotten to say, what are you bringing that up? I not only forgave you, I forgot it. And now what are you thinking about it for? But it's logical for us. I did it and now I got to get punished for it. But in the new covenant, God says, no, this covenant is going to express my love. It's going to be my grace that not only will sins be forgiven, but they will be forgotten. How many believe today because of Jesus, not because of you, not because of me. How many believe your sins are not only forgiven, but they have been forgotten by God. Wave your hand at me. Wave. How many are happy for it? Let's put our hands together and clap. Come on, let's clap for the promise of God through Jesus Christ. So if you're going to live in the new covenant, when the devil comes, resist the devil and he'll flee from you when he comes with, yeah, but look what you did. I resist you in the name of Jesus. The blood of Jesus is against you, Satan. Don't tell me what I did. Christ died for it. He paid for it. God doesn't even remember it. Praise God. I stand on this word. In that day, I'll make a new covenant with my people and their iniquities I will remember no more. This in the old covenant was unheard of. No one knew what it was. How could the blood of a bunch of animals ever do that for your conscience? Ah, but the blood of Jesus washes your conscience clean. Just think of some of the things you and I have done in the past. Let's do real talk. Some of the mistakes we've made, some of the sins we've committed. If it wasn't for the blood of Jesus, we'd be tormented day and night in our conscience. Am I right or wrong? But it's not only been washed away in his sight. He has the ability to cleanse our conscience so we can rejoice and sing holy, holy, holy is the Lord. Secondly, because I forgive their sins, I'm going to do something else in that day. I am going to write my laws in their minds and put them in their hearts. Putting it on stone didn't do it. I'm going to put it inside of them. What does that mean? Through the Holy Spirit, I'm going to make them have new instincts and new desires. I will do it, not them. I will change them by living inside of them. I will forgive them of their sin because of what my son does. I will provide that. I will do that. They don't have to bring any animals. I give my son once and for all, and they will be clean. Now I'm going to put my spirit inside of them, and I'm going to put my law through that spirit in their minds. I'm going to write my ways in their hearts. I'm going to change their desires. How few of us believe that God can do that. We're struggling with, I promise I'll be different, God. With what? Tell me with what are you promising? Haven't you failed enough times like me to know you can't do it? Don't I get an amen from anyone in this building? If we're going to talk real, let's talk real. With what? With what is Pastor Hammond going to live the Christ life? With what? There's only one person that has ever lived the Christ life. That's Jesus. So God has said to make you different, I'll put my spirit, the spirit of Christ in you, and now you'll be different because it won't be you. It'll be me inside of you. For this covenant, I will accomplish. The other one was based on you, and look at the mess you made, but now I will do this for you. Not only forgive your sin, but I'll put my spirit inside of you. I hope in the months and that come, I can show this documentary, which is the other side of the, the best side of the story left out on this great book, Unbroken, which has been turned into a movie, which Angel Jolie has directed. It's the true story of Louis Zamburini, who was a great runner out of California and in the 1936 Olympics in Germany, where Hitler was, where Jesse Owens, the great African-American sprinter, won three, four gold medals, much to the chagrin of Hitler, who was saying the Germans were the super race. Louis Zamburini was just a teenager and running a long distance and winning awards and medals, became famous as a runner, went to college on a track scholarship, USC, I believe, and then Pearl Harbor hit, and America was dragged into the war. He ended up flying in the, over the Pacific and his plane went down. It was hit, or it was a faulty airplane, of which there were many, and the plane went down, and he ended up in a raft with two other guys, and they floated in the Pacific Ocean for 47 days. They ended up getting down to 80 pounds at one point in this ordeal, fighting off sharks. You want to not be able to sleep, read that part of the book, and you won't sleep so well. They saw an airplane coming, thought it was an American, turned out it was a Japanese airplane, which strafed them and almost killed them. They had to jump out of the raft so they wouldn't get hit by the airplane, and as they jumped into, out of the raft, the sharks were waiting in the water. So they had the sharks in the water, they had the airplane overhead. This is a great choice to make on any day of your life. Somehow they ended up after a horrible storm on an island controlled by the Japanese, where they were tortured, but he, and then was going to be killed, but he was famous and he was known in Japan from his running, so they shipped him to a place where he could be a trophy for them, where he was for years tortured and living in conditions and tortured physically in ways that it makes very hard reading. Well, that part, I guess they put in the movie, it's certainly in the book, and there was one Japanese torture guy, officer, who they called the bird, and the bird just had it in for Zamperini, just had it in, he just made up his mind, I'm going to kill this guy, I'll break him, I don't care what medals he won, I will break him, and would just beat him. If he looked at him, he looked at him, when they said, what are you looking at, and beat him for looking at him. When he looked away, the next time the officer came by, he said, why don't you look at me when I walk by, and he beat him for not looking at him. He beat him unmercifully, it makes hard, hard reading. He began to hate this man, hate him, he wanted to kill him, obviously, down 80 pounds, 86 pounds, so emaciated that the pictures that I hope to show you from this documentary, awesome. Out of nowhere, the war ends, and he somehow has survived, his family thinks he's dead, they've shipped his stuff back to the family, but now, after recouping some of his strength and weight, he ends up being sent home to California, but he can't sleep at night, because the nightmares are just killing him, just nightmares, nightmares, nightmares, the bird, the bird, the bird, the bird, hitting him, breaking his teeth, smashing him, blood everywhere, just looking for him, torturing him, seeing death, seeing eating rats, eating every kind of filthy thing just to survive, sharks attacking him, being strafed in a raft that he's hanging on to. Well, he gets back, and he marries this beautiful woman, and it sounds like, wow, what a story, but the nightmares don't stop, they get worse, and now the nightmares are getting worse and worse, and now he's being tormented, so he starts to drink, and the only way he can forget everything that happened to him is he drinks, he drinks, he drinks, he drinks, but inside, he still is raging. If I can only find the bird for years, he was my, just stalked me 24-7. If I could just find him and strangle him, I would get some relief. He's drinking so bad, his wife says, I'm gonna leave you. He doesn't want that, but he can't stop drinking. One day, someone invites her in 1949 to a Billy Graham crusade. This young, handsome evangelist is preaching in California at the largest tent in that time, 6,500 people could fit under this tent. He was unheard of then, and she goes and receives Christ as her Savior, and she starts to tell Louis Zamparini, listen, you gotta know about this Jesus, and he sees a change in her, but he says, look, get out of here. She takes him one night, and he stays, and then he just rages out, and he says, listen, I don't care if you divorce me or whatever you do, I'm never going back there. I will never go back there, but she won't give up. She keeps praying, says, come one more time. He comes, and he hears the gospel that Jesus came and died for the sins of the world, that the new covenant not only includes washing away past sins, but includes a new beginning in your mind and your heart. You can be a new creation. That's what Jesus meant when he said, you must be born what? Again. Zamparini goes up there, handsome soldier, and receives Christ as his Savior. Immediately, the hate that he has toward the Japanese, and especially toward the bird, it's gone. The nightmares cease. Never had another nightmare the rest of his life. For in that day, I will make a new covenant with my people, says the Lord. I will not only forgive their sin, but I will go inside of them by the Spirit, and I'll give them a new mind and a new heart. He ended up going back after he grew in the Lord, and sharing the gospel with Japanese prisoners of war, the same people who had tortured him, and shared the gospel, and led them to Christ. Who could do that but Jesus? Who could do that but Jesus? You think going to church will do that? I want to close on this note. This new covenant, and this thought of Jesus being a relationship with Jesus, bringing intimacy in our life. In that day, no one will say, oh, pastor Simbala knows the Lord. He'll represent us to God. No, everyone will know the Lord. For I will be their God, and they will be my people. I'll supply everything they need. They can know me, and have communion with me. I'll put my spirit inside of them. They don't have to try to be different. I'll make them different. They don't have to try to erase their sins. I will wash their sins away, for this covenant is not like the covenant I made with Moses. This is a new covenant, a better covenant. So how about this? One of the ways you know that you really are a Christian, and that Jesus has forgiven your sin, is because the Spirit has come inside of you, and you have different desires. You have different longings. Maybe for some of you, five years ago, read the New Testament this year with the church. Get out of here. I don't want to read that, but now you want to read it. Guess who put that desire in you? The Holy Spirit. But if you have no change, if you have no different mindset, if you have no different longings, then you really got to examine yourself to see whether you be in the faith. Do you really know Jesus? Not about Jesus, but do you know Jesus? Do you really know Jesus? I'm not talking about church. I'm not talking about the Brooklyn Tabernacle, white church, black church, charismatic, Pentecostal, evangelical. I'm talking about a relationship with Jesus. You don't want to go into 2015 not knowing Jesus, because he's the answer for every question in your life, for every problem in your life. But to those of us who are Christians, are we appropriating everything that God has provided for us? Look at me. Be real. Are we living this way? Many of us are back. Well, I believe God forgave my sins. I know I couldn't do that. I know I didn't die on the cross, but now I'm going to live a good life. Oh, no. No, no. Listen. Tyron is saying, I'm going to live a ... God, you did that. Now I'm going to try with all my might to make you happy. And God says, don't try. I'll do it. Like I washed away your sin, I'll give you the love. I'll give you the patience. I'll do everything. Just trust me. Just trust me. Have communion with me. Take advantage of what I'm offering you. And laying in bed last night, I believe God woke me up at what? Three, four in the morning. I was tossing and thinking all about this message that I wanted to preach and make it a blessing to you. And I started to ask God, God, why is it that so few of us don't take advantage of the promises that God has given us? We can have communion with him. We can have a new mind, a new heart. We can live with no condemnation. God has obliterated all of our sins. Why don't we live that way more? Why don't more Christians live that way? We have the spirit within us. If you've been born again, the spirit's within you. Oh, yes, he is. Why aren't we living up to those? You say, well, what's the condition of the new covenant? It's faith. It's belief. The old one was do. This one is believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. The just shall live by what? Faith. Not by trying, by trusting. The just shall live by faith. But I said to the Lord, but a lot of people say they believe. We believe in our heads. I believe in my heads. We believe partially in our hearts or a lot in our hearts, and we believe, and yet there's no progress. We're on a treadmill. How many of you here today, I don't want to live that way in 2015. I want you and I to go to another level with God. Do I get an amen? So how do we get off the treadmill of half Old Testament, half new, little Jesus, lot of Moses. But I heard that in church. I don't care what you heard in church. I heard all legalism in church, but I want to go by the Bible. And here's what I felt the Lord speak to me. And it's true. It's irrefutable from scripture. The only faith that appropriates and takes advantage of what I'm talking about is the faith that makes you ask God in prayer for what you need. Listen, unless the faith leads you to pray and to ask God, you'll never experience all God has for you. How does anyone get converted? I know Christ died for our sins. I got that. Christ died. He died on the cross, but how do you get saved? By merely believing it? No, you have to say to God, God, have mercy on me. Forgive my sins. I believe in your son. God says you can become a new creation. How do you appropriate these other things that God has for us? How do you appropriate the patience, the calmness for those of us who you go off with your temper and you get upset, you have a nasty little attitude, negative attitude in life. How do you become sweet by trying to be sweet? Never. By going to God and saying, God, I know your spirit lives in me. I give you my nastiness. I give you my petty little argumentative ways. I want to be what you want me to be. I want to be like Jesus. Make me like Jesus. I'm collecting on your new covenant. You promised you would do it. Now do it. I'm asking you. I'm not just believing in my head. I'm asking you. For example, I close. Let's say I have $10,000 in the bank. I know it's in the bank. I got a, let's say a bank book, something that proves I got 10,000 in chains. So my sister says, Pastor Simba, could you help me? I need $500. I got that for you. Good. Could you give it to me? No, I got it for you though. I got 10,000 in the bank. I can spare that 500. Okay. She sees me next week. I don't do anything for her. She goes, Pastor Simba, you said you would help me. You have the 500. Yeah, I got 10,000 in the bank. I don't got 500. I got 10,000. I can help you. I roll that way with you here and help you. So, okay, but where's the money? I told you I got 10,000. Until I go to the bank and ask them to give me that money, even though it's in my account, I'll never have it. God has put in our account everything we need. All you have to do is go. Don't sign your own name. Sign Jesus when you withdraw it. Say, God, I need that mercy. I need that patience. I need for you to erase that junk from my mind. God, I need you to give me strength over that habit. I know it's mine because you gave it to me. You said you would write your law in my mind and you would put your spirit in my heart. I know it's mine. It's part of the new covenant and Jesus provided it. Now I'm asking for it. I don't want to just know about it in mi cabeza. I want it. I want to experience it. So I'm going to ask you, let's close our eyes. Jesus, this is so applicable to every one of us here, starting with me. So there's no room for an altar call, for just a couple of us to say, yes, I need God. God, we all need you. I'm asking you to give us revelation by your spirit so that we would understand that there's a new way better than the old way. Not self-effort, but the grace of God, your spirit, the blood of your son, washing away all of our sins, obliterating not only the presence of it, but even the memory of it. Cleansing our conscience, making us strong where we've been weak, but it's not I, it's Christ in me. Help us to come to the end of ourselves so that besetting sins won't be beating on us all the way to the new year. Help us to go to the bank every hour, every day, every minute if we have to. Help us to withdraw what we need. You provided it. You said in your word, you would never violate your word. Everything we need for godly living, you have provided, but we're not taking it out. We're not withdrawing it. But we come today with the name of Jesus on our lips. We ask you to do a new work in our lives, not because of who we are, but because of who you are. You are awesome, God. Help us to not live half under the law, half under grace, but help us to come boldly every hour that we needed to the throne of grace, to receive mercy and grace to help us in our time of need. Free us from this trying spirit, this struggling spirit, and move us into a trusting spirit with open hands receiving all that you have provided for us. Lord, starting today, we will take advantage of all that Jesus has provided, not some of the things he's provided. Give us faith. Give us the ability to ask so that we can have everything that we need spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically. You said you would supply our every need. Thank you for Jesus. Everybody, let's put our hands together and just thank God for Jesus. Let your blessing be upon your people. Give us the beautiful rest of the day. We ask this in Christ's name. And everyone said, Amen. Everybody stand up. Give somebody a hug, everyone.