This sermon emphasizes the challenge of transitioning from the old covenant to the new covenant, highlighting the difficulty in letting go of ingrained traditions and mindsets. It stresses the need for believers to be radical in their commitment to embracing the new covenant, even if it means going against societal norms and traditions. The message urges individuals to be spiritually violent in overcoming hindrances and fully embracing the blessings of the new covenant.

Yeah, so one more verse in Hebrews in chapter 8 we read, this is the thing I want to tell you, verse 13. And when God said a new covenant, he has made the first covenant obsolete. Obsolete means it's finished, cancelled and whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. Now that was written maybe 65 AD or 35 years after the day of Pentecost, there was still, you know, the early Christians were all Jewish people. And it's very difficult to give up habits that for years you have had. For example, there are some Christians who don't eat beef, because they grew up among Hindus who don't eat beef and that became their lifestyle. And they thought there's something holy about the cow. But they're Christians now, but they still can't eat beef, because this holy cow is being cut. And so it's very difficult to get this out of the minds of some Christians. I don't blame them, you don't become spiritual by eating beef, but what I'm saying is that there's a mindset that we've got from our culture and from our traditions which is very difficult to break out of. And those early Jewish Christians were all Jewish people who had a certain mindset that you must be circumcised, you must keep the Sabbath, you must pay your tithe. And you don't blame them, they've done that for 40-50 years. And then doing it for 40-50 years and all of a sudden here's a new message saying all those things are over. It's very difficult to give it up. No, no, no, we want this new thing but we want to keep the old also. That's why Jesus spoke about how people try to put the new wine into the old wine skins and he spoke about trying to people putting a new patch into an old cotton dress and the whole thing tears when it's washed. You know that. So it took a little time for these people to get out of this mentality. That's what it says here, it's ready to disappear. But now we're in 2007 AD, but it still hasn't disappeared in some people's lives. Isn't that amazing? The old covenant concept. You really have to fight a battle. You know there's something that Jesus said in relation to, I'll close with this. In Matthew 11, when Jesus spoke about how the new covenant will lift a man higher than the highest person in the old covenant. He also said something else, I want you to notice that. In Matthew chapter 11, Jesus said, Matthew 11 verse 11, I tell you among those born of women, no one has arisen, not even Mary my mother, greater than John the Baptist. It's true. I mean if you if you're one of those who pray to Mary, it's better to pray to John the Baptist. He was greater than Mary by the way. It's what Jesus, Jesus own words. I don't pray to either. I pray to Jesus directly. But he, Jesus said John the Baptist is the greatest, but the least in the kingdom of heaven. That means the kingdom of heaven is another phrase for the new covenant. The least person who enters into the new covenant. Let me paraphrase it like this. John the Baptist was the greatest person under the old covenant. In fact before the old covenant, Adam's time, greater than Abraham. Some people think Abraham was great. He was a great man, but John Baptist was greater. Everybody in the Old Testament, the greatest was John the Baptist and even he is inferior. He doesn't have the possibilities that the least person who enters into the new covenant, that's called the kingdom of heaven. He's less. Think of this, that the possibility we have and we are missing it. It's like you, you know your father is a multi-millionaire and he wrote a big will with so many houses for you and you don't know your will because some lawyer cheated you. You live in a little hut because you've been cheated. But if you know it, wouldn't you go and claim your inheritance? The devil's cheated many, many people the new covenant blessing. They're sitting in that old covenant hut, defeated, worse than John the Baptist, worse than Elijah. When Jesus said, the father has written his will and Jesus sealed it to his blood that I can rise higher than John the Baptist and then he said in verse 12, how to get into this? The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and violent men take it by force. That means, you know a Christian is externally a man of peace. He doesn't fight with anybody. He doesn't fight with the Philistines or the Canaanites or any anybody. He doesn't fight with non-christians. He doesn't fight with people about other denominations. He's a man of peace. But inwardly, he's a man of violence against all the traditions and all the things I've inherited from my parents or from my society or from my church background or whatever it is. I do violence to all those things because I want to possess this new covenant. These old ideas that I've got in my head, I'm gonna do violence to all of them. All traditions and rituals and everything that hinders me from pressing on, I'm gonna do violence to all of that. But you know if you say, no we can't offend anybody. Okay brother, there's not a chance in a million that you'll ever enter the new covenant. You really got to be radical in your mind to get rid of. I'm willing to offend everybody in the world if I can enter the new covenant. I have offended a lot of people in the process. So you got to be violent to anything that hinders you from following the Lord. Really violent. Not physically. Physically a man of peace. Never fight. You won't even raise your voice. But inwardly, you stand against everything that hinders you from being a wholehearted disciple of Jesus. They will possess this new covenant. They take it by force. They say this is my inheritance Satan. You can't take it from me. This land belongs to God. This wretched habit of mine, I'm going to overcome it. I'm going to be violent against that sin and that temptations that's making my home unhappy and my life unhappy and so many other things and making me not of use to God in his kingdom. I'm going to do violence to all that. To the laziness that makes me sleep and sleep and sleep which hinders me from reading the Bible. The habit of watching television and television and television that hinders me from knowing the scriptures. I'm going to do violence to that. If you're not a man of violence, I don't know what it is in your life but I'll tell you this. If you're not a man of violence, you'll never enter into the new covenant. That's completely out of the question. You're going to understand it. But you won't find it. The choice is yours. I hope you'll make a wise choice because remember how close you're going to be to Jesus in eternity depends on that right now. I've made my choice. I hope you make yours. Let's pray. Jesus never told people come on take a decision right now like a lot of evangelists and preachers say today. He said sit down, go home, sit down, count the cost, see if it's worth it before you start building and once you decide it's worth it, then go at it and build the whole building. Don't go halfway through and leave it unfinished. So I want you to think seriously about what you heard today and say Lord I really want to enter into the new covenant. Heavenly Father help us. Maybe there's one or two here Lord I don't know who are really taking this seriously. That would be wonderful. Even if there are one or two here, really taking this seriously in the midst of many who are sluggish about all these things. Lord what delight in your heart we'll find if you find one who really is going to be a man or woman of violence from today. I pray it will be so. Help us we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen.