Week 1: The story you live in determines both your purpose and how you process your pain
Week 2: God’s purpose for all creation is to take part in His glory and for us to be reflections of that Glory
Covenant
An agreement enacted between two parties in which one or both make promises under oath to perform or refrain from certain actions stipulated in advance
Contract VS Covenant
- A contract is an agreement for Goods or services; a Covenant is an exchange of “PERSON” with no condition.
A contract says…
- “What’s in it for me?” while a covenant says, “What can I give or sacrifice for the sake of the other?”
Contract says…
- As long as you do…
- As long as you look…
- As long as you act…
Covenant says…
- I will regardless if you….
- I still… even if you don’t…
God is a GOD of COVENANT
OLD TESTAMENT = OLD COVENANT
NEW TESTAMENT = NEW COVENANT
God’s covenant with NOAH
Genesis 9
12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all future generations: 13 I have placed my bow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
God’s Covenant with Abraham
Genesis 12
1 The Lord said to Abram: Go from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
Times passes…
Genesis 15
1 After these events, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield; your reward will be very great. 2 But Abram said, “Lord God, what can you give me, since I am childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 Abram continued, “Look, you have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house will be my heir.”
Get some animals and split them in half…
Ancient Times COVENANTS
- two “lesser” would walk through together
Not what God does…
Genesis 15
17 When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the divided animals. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I give this land to your offspring…
God was saying…
“if I or you break this covenant, let me be like these animals, killed and split apart on the ground.”
Jesus on the cross is God holding true to His covenant with Abraham
2 things we need to know about Covenants:
1: Covenants are vehicles for BLESSINGS
- Faithfulness
2: Covenants are vehicles for CONSEQUENCES
- Breaking a covenant is severe
3: Covenantal Love is a DECISION
John 3
16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
We live in a NEW COVENANT instituted through Christ Jesus
Luke 22:20
20 In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
Given a new opportunity for salvation through Grace in faith apart from the law
- For all the world – not just the jew
God has given us a picture of What Covenantal love looks like
The Bible begins and ends with a picture
- Marriage
- Adam and Eve
- Christ and the church
Christian marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman that reflects God’s covenant with the church.
Ephesians 5
24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives are to submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. 27 He did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless. 28 In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, 30 since we are members of his body. 31 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. 32 This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church.
Because Christian MARRIAGE is a Covenant, this means…
1: Christian Marriage is Transcendent
- God Authors, God ordained.
- Marriage God’s Idea
- God will for marriage -> Courts for divorce
God authored, and God Defined
- We don’t get to redefine what God has already defined
A Transcendent marriage has 3 components
REFLECTION
Established by God in Genesis
- Let US make man in our Image…
Reflect God to one another
- Man -> Women -> Child
- Reflecting the trinity
REPLICATION
- Be fruitful and multiply
- Growth
RULING
- Let them rule/have dominion
- Proper order
- Man -> Women-> Child
God asked, where are you ADAM…
2: Christian Marriage is Generational
- Not just about you
Nehemiah says
Nehemiah 4:14
…“Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the great and awe-inspiring Lord, and fight for your countrymen, your sons and daughters, your wives and homes.”
Covenants carry either BLESSINGS or CONSEQUENCES
Every measure metric of value is better in marriage
- Mental health
- physical health
- wealthier
- lower anxiety
- etc
The story the Bible is telling is…
- Marriage matters because
- Covenants matter
and
- Covenants matter because
- God has made one with me, and you
The Bible is a covenant
- A promise that God will fulfill
Are you taking part in God’s covenant?