Covenant Mobile
Covenant: Some things aren't meant to be broken
Sunday Morning Service Message
Locations & Times
Covenant Church of Mobile
7150 Hitt Rd, Mobile, AL 36695, USA
Sunday 10:30 AM
What in tarnation is covenant anyway?
Gen. 15: 8-18 Covenant with Abraham
8 But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, how can I be sure that I will actually possess it?” 9 The Lord told him, “Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 So Abram presented all these to him and killed them. Then he cut each animal down the middle and laid the halves side by side; he did not, however, cut the birds in half. 11 Some vultures swooped down to eat the carcasses, but Abram chased them away. 12 As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a terrifying darkness came down over him. . . . .
17 After the sun went down and darkness fell, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses. 18 So the Lord made a covenant with Abram that day
b’rith (Hebrew for covenant and indicates a ceremony)
Nature of this relationship is hesed (Hebrew for Covenantal love, steadfast, unfailing, ever faithful, self-sacrificing, “never-gonna-quit-on-you” love)
This is the nature of God and the nature of His covenant with us.
This relationship existed in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit before God ever made anything. This word, Hesed, describes the relationship of and within God's nature.
In the New Testament John the disciple that Jesus loved described it this way: God is love.
So before God ever made Covenant with mankind or any man in any way God's nature was already “hesed.” This means that when God makes Covenant the nature of the steadfast love, this love for a thousand generations, this connecting in order to benefit another even at his own hurt, already existed in the heart of God. This is included in a God-made covenant because it is his nature.
Before creation, this nature was already in the heart of God so strongly that it was like it is already done.
Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God almighty who was, who is, and who is to come.
God has not changed, His ways have always been compassionate, gracious, etc.
The essential element at the heart of all the covenant is this promise: “I will be their God and they will be my people.”
In other words, I am connecting, linking, binding my nature to you.
God bonds with us!
Heb. 8
6 But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises.
7 If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it. 8 But when God found fault with the people, he said: “The day is coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. 9 This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand
and led them out of the land of Egypt.
They did not remain faithful to my covenant, so I turned my back on them, says the Lord. 10 But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their minds,
and I will write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
If we go back to Mount Sinai where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, he first spoke them from the mountain with a voice of thunder and shaking and fire and smoke. The people were scared and said to Moses do not let God speak to us directly. Let him speak to you and you tell us what he says.
The Hebrew people did not want to have a direct relationship where God spoke to them, so that they heard God for themselves.
They wanted a ricochet relationship.
They wanted everything bounced off Moses.
But ricochet loses power. A direct hit of God’s word in your heart brings transformation of mind and heart. That is what God is after.
But God desired to have a personal relationship so that everyone should know the Lord from the least to the greatest.
11 And they will not need to teach their neighbors,
nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already.
12 And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”
13 When God speaks of a “new” covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear.
God wants direct relationship with you. God wants direct communication with you. The nature of God’s relationship and communication with you is described best in an Old Testament, Hebrew word Hesed. It is the nature of God, the nature of Covenant.
This nature of God, Hesed, is translated as Mercy as loving-kindness
as steadfast love as faithful love as love that lasts for thousands of generations.
This is the kind of relationship that God desires with us so that we can be blessed and so that we will benefit and so that we will demonstrate his goodness and likeness and Glory.
We get the benefits; He gets the glory, honor, power, authority.
Closing;
The essential element at the heart of all the covenants is this promise: “I will be their God and they will be my people.”
So I ask you today, “Is He your God; are you his people, are you one of his people?”
1 Cor. 6:19-20 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.
Gen. 15: 8-18 Covenant with Abraham
8 But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, how can I be sure that I will actually possess it?” 9 The Lord told him, “Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 So Abram presented all these to him and killed them. Then he cut each animal down the middle and laid the halves side by side; he did not, however, cut the birds in half. 11 Some vultures swooped down to eat the carcasses, but Abram chased them away. 12 As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a terrifying darkness came down over him. . . . .
17 After the sun went down and darkness fell, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses. 18 So the Lord made a covenant with Abram that day
b’rith (Hebrew for covenant and indicates a ceremony)
Nature of this relationship is hesed (Hebrew for Covenantal love, steadfast, unfailing, ever faithful, self-sacrificing, “never-gonna-quit-on-you” love)
This is the nature of God and the nature of His covenant with us.
This relationship existed in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit before God ever made anything. This word, Hesed, describes the relationship of and within God's nature.
In the New Testament John the disciple that Jesus loved described it this way: God is love.
So before God ever made Covenant with mankind or any man in any way God's nature was already “hesed.” This means that when God makes Covenant the nature of the steadfast love, this love for a thousand generations, this connecting in order to benefit another even at his own hurt, already existed in the heart of God. This is included in a God-made covenant because it is his nature.
Before creation, this nature was already in the heart of God so strongly that it was like it is already done.
Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God almighty who was, who is, and who is to come.
God has not changed, His ways have always been compassionate, gracious, etc.
The essential element at the heart of all the covenant is this promise: “I will be their God and they will be my people.”
In other words, I am connecting, linking, binding my nature to you.
God bonds with us!
Heb. 8
6 But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises.
7 If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it. 8 But when God found fault with the people, he said: “The day is coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. 9 This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand
and led them out of the land of Egypt.
They did not remain faithful to my covenant, so I turned my back on them, says the Lord. 10 But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their minds,
and I will write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
If we go back to Mount Sinai where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, he first spoke them from the mountain with a voice of thunder and shaking and fire and smoke. The people were scared and said to Moses do not let God speak to us directly. Let him speak to you and you tell us what he says.
The Hebrew people did not want to have a direct relationship where God spoke to them, so that they heard God for themselves.
They wanted a ricochet relationship.
They wanted everything bounced off Moses.
But ricochet loses power. A direct hit of God’s word in your heart brings transformation of mind and heart. That is what God is after.
But God desired to have a personal relationship so that everyone should know the Lord from the least to the greatest.
11 And they will not need to teach their neighbors,
nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already.
12 And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”
13 When God speaks of a “new” covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear.
God wants direct relationship with you. God wants direct communication with you. The nature of God’s relationship and communication with you is described best in an Old Testament, Hebrew word Hesed. It is the nature of God, the nature of Covenant.
This nature of God, Hesed, is translated as Mercy as loving-kindness
as steadfast love as faithful love as love that lasts for thousands of generations.
This is the kind of relationship that God desires with us so that we can be blessed and so that we will benefit and so that we will demonstrate his goodness and likeness and Glory.
We get the benefits; He gets the glory, honor, power, authority.
Closing;
The essential element at the heart of all the covenants is this promise: “I will be their God and they will be my people.”
So I ask you today, “Is He your God; are you his people, are you one of his people?”
1 Cor. 6:19-20 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.