Getting To Know You

• 22nd Sunday after Pentecost
with Jeremiah 31:27-34 and 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
www.FirstChurchBville.com    @FirstUMCBville   @kerrfunk

• Getting to know you, getting to know all about you…
(The King and I, 1951, R&H. Julie Andrews)

How do people get to know one another?
Shared experiences. Working together.
Talking. Personal interactions…

We’ve been getting to know each other these three years.
And we can do more.

• We’re in election season, getting to know candidates,
getting to know our fellow Americans,
and astounded at the polarity and depth of division.

• Last week’s Jeremiah passage:
The people have been relocated.
God tells them to settle in.
Abide in me in spite of circumstances.

This week: There are good plans for your future.
I will make a new covenant, written in peoples’ hearts.
They will know me.
Getting to know you.

• The Abraham covenant: Land, people, blessing.
It’s all on God, literally.

• The Mosaic covenant: the 10 Commandments / the Law.
There will be blessing if upheld by people.
Given in midst of rescue.

• The Jeremiahic covenant / New Covenant:
I will be their God, they will be my people,
I will engrave instructions on hearts.
They will know me. I will forgive them.

This is new. This is knowing in the depths of being. 

It is God’s gift.  

• 2Tim reading like last week, abide in God.
Be strong. Keep control.

• Hymn 382 Have Thine Own Way, Lord

2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 (Common English Bible)   

¹⁴ But you must continue with the things you have learned and found convincing. You know who taught you. ¹⁵ Since childhood you have known the holy scriptures that help you to be wise in a way that leads to salvation through faith that is in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ Every scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for showing mistakes, for correcting, and for training character, ¹⁷ so that the person who belongs to God can be equipped to do everything that is good.

4 I’m giving you this commission in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is coming to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearance and his kingdom. ² Preach the word. Be ready to do it whether it is convenient or inconvenient. Correct, confront, and encourage with patience and instruction. ³ There will come a time when people will not tolerate sound teaching. They will collect teachers who say what they want to hear because they are self-centered. ⁴ They will turn their back on the truth and turn to myths. ⁵ But you must keep control of yourself in all circumstances. Endure suffering, do the work of a preacher of the good news, and carry out your service fully.  X

Jeremiah 31:27-34 (Common English Bible)    

²⁷ The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will plant seeds in Israel and Judah, and both people and animals will spring up. ²⁸ Just as I watched over them to dig up and pull down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring harm, so I will watch over them to build and plant, declares the Lord. ²⁹ In those days, people will no longer say:

Sour grapes eaten by parents leave a bitter taste in the mouths of their children.
³⁰ Because everyone will die for their own sins:
    whoever eats sour grapes will have a bitter taste in their own mouths.

³¹ The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. ³² It won’t be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant with me even though I was their husband, declares the Lord. ³³ No, this is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my Instructions within them and engrave them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. ³⁴ They will no longer need to teach each other to say, “Know the Lord!” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord; for I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sins. X