The Divine Crash

Good morning, I hope you enjoy the end of our “The church is….” series.  We examined the church as a community of Covenant.  You can listen to it at the end of the post or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes. I am going to start posting my sermons on Monday from now on and move my other updates to Wednesdays and Fridays.  This will give me more time to post my sermons and make all my updates a little more evenly spaced.  My sermon notes are below and please enjoy!

Prayer:

Scripture: Jeremiah 31:31-34

We are a Covenantal Community.  This means we are a group of people in a covenant and in covenant with each other.

What is a covenant?

- Stronger than a promise.

- Unbreakable.

- Requires 3 things

1. Request

- Someone has to want something or want to do something

2. Reward/Consequence

- If the covenant is completed there is a reward if it is broken there is a consequence.

3. Blood

- Symbolic of the willingness to do what is promised.  The thought is: If you are willing to draw blood over it you must be serious.

-  It does not require two willing people.  Often a covenant is made when one person decides to fulfill certain obligations at certain times.

- When a covenant is made it is unbreakable.  Just because one side of the covenant fails to fulfill it does not mean the other side is exempt.

- there are several examples of covenant in the Bible.

- Noah

- Genesis 9:1-8

- God will never flood the earth again

- Reward is no fear of a flooded planet

- Blood was everyone who was not on the ark

- Abraham

- Genesis 15

- Make a great nation from Abraham

- Reward is Abraham gets many children

- Blood was the bull that was cut in half and both Abraham and God walked through it.

- Moses

- Exodus 19:4-6

- Make the Israelites a priestly kingdom, God’s favorite, if they follow the Lord.

- Reward is that kingdom.

- Blood is the blood of the Egyptians

- This covenant is for all people if you follow God we will be God’s favorite.

- This is the covenant Jeremiah is talking about.  Says that it wasn’t good enough. That it was with the people and they broke it.

- Job

- 31:1

- Job made a covenant with his eyes.

- Job wanted so desperately to not eyeball a woman that he was willing to draw blood over it.

- Jesus

- Matthew 26:26-30

- Jesus creates a new covenant for the forgiveness of sins.

- Reward is forgiveness of sins

- Blood is Jesus’ own blood poured out on the cross.

- Jesus says this is the new covenant as a reference to Jeremiah.

- Radical statement.  Disciples knew that Jesus was committing treason.

- This is the covenant that is written on the hearts of all people.

- Before they are born

- They can do nothing about this covenant.

- God will keep up his end of the covenant no matter what.

- That our sins are forgiven no matter what they are.

- That no matter what you have done, who you did it with, when you did it last, or how many times you have done it they are forgiven.

Colossians 2:14

- God erased everything you did that you weren’t supposed to and all the stuff you didn’t do that you were supposed to do.  God nailed it all to the cross.

Colossians 1:20

- Through the blood of the cross all things are brought to forgiveness and peace.

- All things is the word PAS Greek for: each, every, any, all, the whole, everyone, all things, everything

So then, we are a covenantal community because we realize that there was a covenant God made with the people that we could never fulfill and so God became flesh, dwelt among us and died for us as the covenant not made with us but made for us that no matter what we are forgiven.

Have you tried to fulfill the covenant written on stone that you can’t seem to get right no matter how many times you promise to never do that sin again?

- Then pray that God bring you close and remind you that there is a new covenant, that has been written on your heart that you are forgiven, no matter what, and when you believe in this new covenant then you are a part of the covenant and a part of the family of God.

Do you believe in the new covenant that Jesus made but find yourself still living like you are trying to fulfill the old covenant all by yourself?

- Then pray that God reveals to you the new covenant that says “I don’t care you aren’t perfect, I love you anyway.” This new covenant says that on the cross Jesus did all the work and so we can relax in the freedom that comes from the new covenant.

Do you find yourself totally unable to believe that someone else would create a new covenant on your behalf and would love you enough to pour out their own blood to save you?

- Then rejoice because it happened.  God loves you so much that God will do whatever it takes to bring you close, to show you a new way of life and a new meaning to everything you could ever do.  Then pray and ask God to show you in a real and tangible way that this new covenant is real and how you can live into it.

Sermon Audio

 

Filed under:
Sermon by RevBT