Covenant God

(Hebrews 8:10) This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 


1. Bloodshed. 


(Colossians 2:11 NLT) When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature. 


2. Name change. 


(John 14:13-14) And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. 


3. An outward sign. 


(Genesis 9:16-17) “Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” 


So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.” 


4. A meal. 


(Luke 22:19-20) And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 


In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” 


5. An exchange of everything.


(Matthew 10:39) Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 


TWO COVENANTS 


(Hebrews 8:7-9) For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. 


But God found fault with the people and said: "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 


It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. 


 The Old Covenant is external. The New Covenant is internal. 


(Hebrews 8:10 NLT) “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…” 


 The Old Covenant has a master. The New Covenant has a Father.



(Hebrews 8:10 NLT) “…I will be their God, and they will be my people.” 



 The Old Covenant has guilt. The New Covenant has cleansing. 


(Hebrews 8:12 NLT) “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.” 


(Matthew 7:21-23) “Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 


Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 


Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'”


Video
https://www.churchofthehighlands.com/media/message/covenant-god

Discussion Guide
https://www.churchofthehighlands.com/files/groups/guides/11-6-11.pdf


Chris Hodges, Church of the Highlands

Blood is Thicker Than Water

(Malachi 2:13-16) You flood the LORD’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer looks with favor on your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. 


You ask, “Why?” It is because the LORD is the witness between you and the wife of your youth. You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant. Has not the one God made you? You belong to him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek?


Godly offspring. So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth. “The man who hates and divorces his wife,” says the LORD, the God of Israel, “does violence to the one he should protect,” says the LORD Almighty. So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful. 


COVENANT 


 Covenant – a solemn agreement between two parties for the purposes of creating and maintaining a successful relationship. 


BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER 


(Luke 22:20) In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” 


 Covenant is based on mutual commitment. 

 Contract is based on mutual distrust. 


(Romans 12:5 NLT) “…Since we are all one body in Christ, we belong to each other, and each of us needs all the others.” 


 Covenant surrenders rights and assumes responsibility. 

 Contract protects rights and shirks responsibility. 


(1 Corinthians 13:5) “(Love)… keeps no record of wrongs.” 


 Covenant has the interest of the other in mind. 

 Contract has personal convenience in mind. 


(Philippians 2:4) “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” 


THE DILEMMA 


 I can’t do it! 


(1 John 4:19) We love because he first loved us.


Video
https://www.churchofthehighlands.com/media/message/blood-is-thicker-than-water

Discussion Guide
https://www.churchofthehighlands.com/files/groups/guides/10-2-11.pdf

Chris Hodges, Church of the Highlands

The Light Shines On

Grace means condescending favor.  God reaches His hand down to you from heaven to save you through Jesus Christ. Jesus overcomes your failures by His grace.

Jesus was from the racial lineage of Abraham and royal lineage of King David. 

How did people get saved in the Old Testament?  They were saved by looking forward to the Grace that is found in Jesus Christ. 

The Old Testament people were unfaithful.  Abraham lied about his wife being his sister in Egypt. 

David had an affair with the wife of Uriah, Bathsheba, and killed Uriah for it. 

Jesus can overcome your unfaithfulness, too. We are not saved by our good works, but it is through the grace that can be found in Jesus Christ. 

1. Jesus can overcome your failures by His Grace.

Romans 3:23 (ESV)

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

2. Jesus can overcome your unfaithfulness by His faithfulness. 

2 Timothy 2:13 (ESV)

if we are faithless, he remains faithful—

for he cannot deny himself.

Covenant means to cut.  There are both conditional and unconditional covenants.  Unconditional covenants were made to Abraham and David.  

God will honor His covenant even if people do not.  He said this to King David.  

2 Samuel 7:12-16  (ESV)

12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 

13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 

14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men,

15 but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 

16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’”

God's covenant with Abraham included land (Genesis 12:1), people, (Genesis 12:2), and blessings (Genesis 12:3).  It was a personal blessing.  It was a national blessing.  It was a universal blessing.   In you, Abraham, all the families of the earth will be blessed. 

The first covenant leads us to the second covenant.  There has never been or will be a way to get to God except through Jesus. We can never earn or merit God's forgiveness from our sins. You can't. Jesus did. 

3. Jesus overcomes your past by giving you His future. 

Hebrews 6:19  (ESV)

19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain,

Hebrews 10:23  (ESV)

23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

1 Peter 1:3 (ESV)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

What man cannot produce for himself.  God can produce through His Son.  What man cannot purify for himself.  God can purify through His Son.

John 1:14 (ESV)

14 And the Word (Jesus) became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

2 Corinthians 1:20 (ESV)

For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.

God has already said yes to be your Lord and Savior if you'll let Him.  Won't you say yes back to Him?

Darryl Craft, Whitesburg Baptist Church

http://www.whitesburgbaptist.org/sermons/the-light-shines-on-men/ 

Defeating Giants Using God's Name

A giant is a situation in your life that is bigger than you. 

It invokes fear.  

It just doesn't go away. 

We all face them. 

It stands between your past and your future.

It makes it appear that God's past promises won't come true. 

How did David kill Goliath? 

What do you have in your arsenal to kill your giants? 

Repetition in the Scripture is a clue to pay close attention too. 

Look in the two passages below for the repetition.
  

1 Samuel 17:26 (NIRV)

26 David spoke to the men standing near him.

He asked them, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine? 

Goliath is bringing shame on Israel. 

What will be done for the one who removes it?

This Philistine isn’t even circumcised. 

He dares the armies of the living God to fight him. 

Who does he think he is?”

1 Samuel 17:36 (NIRV)

36 In fact, I’ve killed both a lion and a bear. 

I’ll do the same thing to this Philistine. 

He isn’t even circumcised. 

He has dared the armies of the living God to fight him.
  

David saw that the giant didn't have a relationship with God because he wasn't circumcised.

He looked past the 9 foot giant and saw that the giant did not know God. 

What we are looking for is not what is seen, but what is not seen. 

We need to look behind the curtain.
  

2 Corinthians 4:18 (NIRV)

18 So we don’t spend all our time looking at what we can see. 

Instead, we look at what we can’t see. 

That’s because what can be seen lasts only a short time. 

But what can’t be seen will last forever.   

You always look at the spiritual first then work your way back. 

What was it about circumcism that got David's attention? It was a sign of a covenant or relational bond with God. 

It is a mechanism that God uses to funnel His manifestations.

You might be in it, but you must be under it.  


It is like an umbrella.  

You may have it, but you have to open it and put yourself under it. 

You have to be beneath it for it to protect you.

We must be under divine alignment. 

The problem is not power, but an alignment issue.

David was aligned with the covenant and opened his covering.  

It changed his perspective.  

David drew from the victories from his past.  

He had killed the lion and the bear.

David went on the offensive and not on the defensive. 

For God to move, David had to move. 

We must walk by faith not talk by faith.  

God wants to see motion.  

We move.  

God backs us. 

The word of God is shared with everybody, but God's special word for you is given to you through the Holy Spirit. 

1 Samuel 17:45 (NIRV)

45 David said to Goliath, “You are coming to fight against me with a sword, a spear and a javelin. 

But I’m coming against you in the name of the Lord who rules over all. He is the God of the armies of Israel. 

He’s the one you have dared to fight against.

Name has to do with identity.   David came against the giant in the name of the God of armies. 

Tie your need to God's name as revealed in God's word. 

We have somebody bigger than the giants that we face.  

Some Old Testament names of God...

http://storage.cloversites.com/capitalcommunitychurch1/documents/Name%20Of%20God%20-%20Charts.pdf 

Notes taken from Tony Evans, Guest Speaker at Gateway Church

http://gatewaypeople.com/ministries/life/events/session/2018/10/06/defeating-the-giants-in-your-life        

The Perfect Marriage

Why does Satan hate marriage so much?  

These words are God's answer to marriage and divorce. 

These words are not meant to discourage but to encourage.  God is wanting to work in our lives.   

Matthew 19:3-8 NKJV

3 The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?” 

(Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?)

4 And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read (the Bible) that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ 

5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined (yoked together like two oxen working together) to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 

(Do you think that Jesus exaggerates about them being one flesh?)  No!  

6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” 

(Jesus's answer to their question was no.) 

   

John 1:17 NKJV

17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

In the Bible, Moses represents the law, but Jesus represents grace.  We would think that the law says that you can't do that, and grace would say that it's okay, but it's just the opposite.  Grace says no.  You're in a covenant with God and your spouse in your marriage. You must work it out.   

1. Marriage represents God.

This was their second question...

7 They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?”

This was Jesus's answer to their second question.  

 8 He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

In every divorce there is at least one person with a hard heart. In Moses day, men were marrying second and third wives, but not divorcing their previous wives and not caring for them.  

Their previous wives weren't able to take care of their own needs in their primitive society; therefore, Moses was saying to give them a document of divorce for them to remarry for their own survival. 

Genesis 1:26 New King James Version (NKJV)

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 

27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Here is God's Trinity represented by using the word "us".  Both male and female together is the image of God because it reflects God's Trinity. It is not any man and any woman, but it reflects a marriage of a man and a woman. Marriage is the image of God on the earth.  

Satan hates marriage because it is the image of God on the earth.  Satan did not attack Adam.  He attacked marriage because it is a reflection of God's image upon the earth.  

If the Trinity is 3 persons in 1 and marriage is 2 persons in 1. How can marriage reflect God's image?  The three persons in marriage is the husband, wife, and God Himself.  These 3 persons in 1 is marriage. That's the only way that marriage works. 

The husband and wife are individuals in unity.  In the Trinity, there are three individuals in perfect unity. 

2. Marriage represents Christ and the Church.

Ephesians 5:31-33 NKJV

31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. 

33 Nevertheless let each one of you (a picture of Christ) in particular so love his own wife as himself , and let the wife (a picture of the Church) see that she respects her husband. 

Suppose your trying to lead someone to Christ and they ask how will God treat me?  Say God is going to treat you in the same way that I treat my spouse.  Our marriage is an earthly representation of Christ to His Church. 

Jesus got upset about divorce. Would it be okay for the Trinity to get divorced? There is no male or female in Christ (Galatians 3:28). God plays no favorites.

3. Marriage represents covenant.

Malachi 2:14 NKJV

14 Yet you say, “For what reason?” Because the Lord has been witness Between you and the wife of your youth, With whom you have dealt treacherously;Yet she is your companion And your wife by covenant.

In a contract, you are trying to protect your rights and limit your responsibilities. In covenant, we give up our rights, and we pick up our responsibilities. 

If a lost people asks, how can I know how God will take care of me?  Tell them that they are making a covenant with God.  You can say look how I and my wife take care of each other because we are in a covenant too.  

Marriage is an example of the new covenant not the old.  In the old testament, God's part was to protect, provide, and bless.  Your part is to be perfect. 

God was giving us the standard of perfection to get us frustrated enough to come to Christ. God never wanted a legalistic relationship but a loving one. 

In the new testament or the new covenant, God's part was to protect, provide, and  bless. Your part is to trust Christ to live for you the life that you could never live, and to die for you the death that you should have died.  That's how we come into the new covenant with God. 

That's how covenant works with our spouse.  We keep our part whether they do or not.  Say Holy Spirit what are you saying to me in these words?  

It's okay for us to struggle.  We live in a fallen world and Satan is attacking us.  Say Lord, we give to you our lives and our marriage as Lord and Savior.  Only you can save us. You are the only one who can.  

Notes taken from Robert Morris, Gateway Church, The Blessed Marriage.

http://gatewaypeople.com/ministries/life/events/blessed-families-a-gateway-series/session/2018/10/20/the-blessed-marriage