Wilderness pt3 "Covenant"

Hey before we get started. I wanted to say that the service opportunity yesterday at the park was awesome. This might need to be turned down just a little bit.

and then I don't know if you guys know but we There's been some visitors here for a few weeks Connor and Rena. They are the really tall beautiful people that kind of sit right there every once in awhile, and they just kind of walked in a few months ago 4 months ago, and then they've been visiting. And they invited us to their wedding yesterday was their wedding and they got married yesterday and now they're on their honeymoon and hopefully we'll see them when they get back as mr. And mrs. Connor and Rena meet and then we are John and Lauren and Jen and I are at the reception and we sit down at this table and we strike up a conversation with Mike and Megan who are now to visit and we're just talking and we're like, hey and Lauren made a new best friend and it's great, but it's just so refreshing to see people and be able to talk about Jesus with people and I open up those conversations. And so I'm I pray that we can continue that more and more. We are going to continue this series that we've been doing call Wilderness and Wilderness is

The idea behind the whole series is that when God brought the Israelites out of Egypt. He brought them into the Wilderness and we like to think that that the plan was to go from Egypt to the promised land, but that wasn't the plan the plan God's plan from the beginning was to take them from Egypt Into the Wilderness and spend time in the wilderness to teach them Wilderness lesson before going into the promised land. Now, we know that that that lasted a lot longer because of their rebellion and all their bad choices, but the plan all along was to spend time like at least a full year maybe a year-and-a-half some theologians even think it might be two years of just in the desert like from from Egypt crossing the Red Sea in to sign and I spending a lot of time there and then moving on And so this is where we find a lot of the giving of the law that we can see the Ten Commandments here. We see the Sabbath that's what we looked at last week. We also see the Priestly duties and we see the Tabernacle all that happened in this time. And so like I said, we're not going to go through this verse by verse chronologically or in order until we started all our intros at the park was just talking about how much time it took and how like some lessons don't come quick and then a couple weeks ago. We did part 2, which was the Sabbath which is interesting because if you come out of Egypt and your whole life and life of your parents and grandparents and great-grandparents has all been working and making bricks at slaves there then the idea of coming out and being told and commanded to stop or you're not going to take a break and rest and rest is important to this new character that you're learning as as who God is And not the god of the character, but you are learn as a freed slave your learning who God is and so he's it's the strain. So and what we're going to look at today is the next part of that which is the idea of Covenant. And I've got like to kind of book and point them in like really one little very long point in the middle and that's going to be the whole sermon but the idea is that I want us to start thinking when we read the books of Genesis and exodus. I want us to start thinking like as one of those newly freed slaves. It's coming out of Egypt and all you've ever known is this idea this one way of thinking and now Moses is here and he's like, I'm going to teach you who got his I'm going to teach you how to be totally boring. And so I just got the three quick points the first one kind of goes along with it. It's just the radical notion of what Covenant is and we're going to talk about what is covenant in the second point. This point is where I want to talk about how like if you were one of those people if you are one of those freed slaves,

And you're just learning. the idea that God wants a relationship with you would have to be completely foreign to them. it's a Moses comes and says and I hope I don't like Bible nerd out too much today, but but I do want us to learn a little bit about like When did The Book of Genesis come on the scene and like did God give them that at Sion? I did that did that exist in the oral tradition before that through slavery one idea is that throughout the slavery in Egypt? All of that was pretty much lost like they knew some that you may be grew up hearing about Abraham Isaac and Jacob. But there's a good chance. You didn't know any of the the stories that we now take for granted. You were born and raised in. In a foreign land in slavery until then Moses comes in and freeze you and takes you out into the Wilderness and then at cyanide you have this amazing interaction with God where all the people are like all I'm not even going near that mountain. That's crazy you go and talk to him and then just come back and tell it and do some people think that God maybe even gave Genesis at Mount Sinai, which is awesome to think about because now you're down here after all the hullabaloo settled down and Moses like I have something for you. I have your history. And all you know is your life experience in your lineage in Egypt, and then Moses is like no no, no. No, there's way more to you as a people then you've ever thought possible. And so the idea that God wants a relationship with you would be insane like no one would even think that growing up as you would probably be familiar with Egyptian. God. And that would make more sense to you because that's everything. You see. That's all you ever know. And so for Moses to say no we're going to learn about this concept of Covenant and that's part of who got it. You just blow your mind. And so then it's reinforced over and over and over through Genesis and into Exodus and numbers and on. I read a thing about the Egyptians and their gods and it kind of blew me away. I mean just read it to you. It said the ancient Egyptians understood their relationship with the gods as one of reciprocity. They believed that the gods have created the world and everything in it and that they were responsible for maintaining order and balance in the universe in return the Egyptians believed that they had a duty to worship the gods and uphold the principles of cosmic order and all that gyptians believed that the gods were present in all aspects of their lives from the Sun that Rosie today in the Nile river that flowed through their land. They worship the gods through a variety of rituals and offerings including prayers sacrifice of the most important religious ceremony in ancient Egypt was the said Festival which was held to celebrate the king's Jubilee at to renew his power and authority. The Egyptians believed that the gods would reward them for their worship and obedient. They believed that the gods would protect them from harm Grantham good health and prosperity and help them to achieve a successful after the ancient Egyptians relationship with the gods was complex and multifaceted. It was a relationship of fear and awe of gratitude an obligation and of Hope and expectation. It was a relationship that shape the Egyptians worldview and their understanding of their place in the universe.

But here's what I want to get at. I'm not going to do it now, but I reread that whole paragraph but instead of saying God I just changed it to God.

Just combined all the Egyptians Gods into 1. Thing man. It sounded a lot like us today.

There's not much difference between what I just read an American Christianity, except we only we will singular eyes it. But we still see almost as reciprocity like I need to worship you in order to be blessed and I need to offer sacrifices in order to for you to love me and and I live in some sort of fear and all but also obligation and hope and that's all the way we treat God. When we lose sight of the radical notion of what Covenant is. But my fear is that exactly what 400 years of slavery did the Israelites in Egypt. We kind of have done that and so when we have conversations about Covenant relationships, it seems weird and foreign to us. We're not practice discussing Covenant relationship. It's okay. I just wanted to show you in in Genesis. There are the Big 4 covenant. And even in the Jewish tradition. These are kind of like the big first four and it's the adenta Covenant which is what in the garden when God is talking to Adam and Eve and then the way a covenant and that's with the rainbow and then to Abraham it can covenants one was where he they split open his animals and walk through the middle of them and then the circumcision in Genesis 17, if you had no idea about any of this and you are now a newly freed slave wandering around in the wilderness and Moses is like hate this is part of our history. This goes back hundreds of years back a long time. God has been doing this with us forever.

And then he would go on to introduce a New Covenant but I want us to appreciate how crazy it probably sounded to them then and how maybe we're kind of like that also. My question is just like have we we also lost our connection to Covenant?

I don't ask for a you no feedback much from the the pulpit but what's what's up? What's the only real Covenant relationship we deal with now and modern day. marriage

How is our marriage rates doing in America?

So so

it's the idea that I don't even think that we really liked. You know when I can come in at your like marriage, but I don't think we really dead it. And I'm not going to like, you know blow anyone's mind up here this morning. I'm just I'm just trying to get a disconnect. Have we gone down the same path in our modern society? The Israelites went down through there slavery in Egypt and do we need to reconnect to the idea of what is a covenant relationship? Can I have a covenant relationship with God? We're going to talk about that.

Is 0.2. It's just a relationship. when we talked about Covenant you like I almost always say Covenant relationship. Because when we when we forget that Covenant is relationship, we do some weird things to it. The biggest is probably that we kind of equate it to a con. And we have to be very careful that we do not think of the Covenant as a contract if I were going to if I were going to hire like anyone Jade server Simon or web or someone to do work for me and I was maybe afraid that they might not uphold their end of the bargain. I'm like, well, maybe we should put something down on paper. And we call that a contract now does a contract guarantee that they'll do the work? Do the contract guarantee that they'll charge you the agreed-on price and guarantee anything what it does is it provides proof that we agreed on something in case you don't have to go to court? So I contract is built on the basis on the foundation of a lack of trust on some degree. When trust is low people are like I want a contract for some level of protection because I don't trust you. No, worst case scenario you run off with my money. I want to be able to see you and show this piece of paper to a jug knot the contract. And so the Covenant is a relationship. What type of relationship is actually based on. You don't enter into a covenant relationship with someone you don't trust.

And so that's what's funny is now we have contracts attached to our covenant with a fake prenups and all that stuff or like I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, but would you prefer? But we have we have to realize that a covenant is something different. It is a relationship and do everything if you ever think about God's relationship with the people of Covenant relationship and you remove the relationship. It starts to break down into some to some really weird ways. There are some Wilderness covenants. I wanted to look at These are the main three. The first one is the to Mosaic Covenant. The first one is kind of with the giving of the law and exodus 10:19 commandant and that's where God like you are going to be a people and this is my Covenant with you and law saying the laws was like the sign in the ritual and all of that but also Sabbath was a huge part of Exodus 34 God makes a New Covenant with the people with Moses and and that's about taking the phone is like I'm going to I'll drive out those Nations ahead of you actually says I'll make this Covenant with you and we'll look at that in a little bit and then later in Leviticus. We read about the Priestly Covenant with Aaron and his descendants and you're going to you are going to be set aside and you are going to observe these things in and I'm going to make a covenant with you and your your descendants. So this is all fresh and new in the minds of these newly freed slaves. Let's look at the one in Exodus 19. I the Lord your God. This is in the Ten Commandments. I the Lord your God am a jealous God punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my command.

Now in our very individualistic Society we can be like, what will how can you punish a kid for the sins of the parents? And I don't I don't really interpret this necessarily that way we see throughout the rest of the Old Testament the country can kind of change on a dime if they obey. What I love about this verse is the ratio. Kindness and compassion in love to discipline of Correction in and and anger and it's the ratio of 1000 to 3. And when we see God through the lens of his is he a jealous God and fire and brimstone Blitz part is part of who he is. But we have blown up that three and forgotten the thousand and we think of God in the Old Testament just mean God is angry guy. What God describes himself as I shall love with thousand generations, and I do punished to the third and fourth generation. But he's trying to reinforce over and time again that this is not just about the rules that you have to follow to please me. That's that's the other way. That's the way we brought you out of. This is a relationship. You need to get in touch with how much I love you. And it's very hard for us to do that. Here it is an exodus 34. This is the the next Mosaic Covenant. He passed in front of Moses proclaiming the Lord the Lord the compassionate and gracious God slow to anger abounding in love and faithfulness maintaining love 2004 giving wickedness rebellion in sin. If he does not leave the guilty unpunished he punishes the children and their children for the sins of the parents to the third and fourth generation. Just mirroring what we read Moses bow down to the ground at once and worship Lord. You said if you have I have found favor in your eyes, then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people forgive us our wickedness and our sin take us as your inheritance. Then the Lord said I am making a covenant with you before all your people. I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world the people you live among. We'll see how awesome is the work that I the Lord will do for you. Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the amorites Kane and I tipped ice Paradise device in This is idea that I am establishing something special. And we need to connect with the specialness of that relationship with God. We can make the same mistakes that they made which is so I'm just going to turn it into this checklist the thing I do. And we we ignore the depth in the Beauty and The Marvelous Miss of the relationship that God is trying to do through us and with us. In the last I just want to read some in Leviticus. I'm not going to put it all up on the screen. It's kind of long. But what happens here is this is later. And yeah, we see a mirroring of the Ten Commandments. And we see the the seed planted in this verse that will see all the way through to the New Testament. And so I'm just going to read it says the Lord said to Moses speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them be holy because I the Lord your God and holy each of you must respect your mother and father and you must observe my Sabbath's I am the Lord your God do not turn to Idols or make Metal Gods for yourself. I am the Lord your God when you sacrifice of Fellowship offering to the Lord sacrifice it in such a way that it will be accepted on your behalf. She'll be eating on the day you sacrificed it or on the next day anything left over until the third day must be burned up. When you reap the Harvest of your land, we looked at this recently when you reap the Harvest of your lands are not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your Harvest do not go over your Vineyard a second time or pick up the grape soda falling leave them for the poor and the Foreigner. I am the Lord your God. This is where all of these start to deal with our relationships with other people. Now God is giving us rules that govern our relationships with each other. Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not deceive one another do not swear falsely by my name or so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord You're not defraud or Rob your neighbor do not hold back the wages of a hired Worker Overnight. Do not curse the deaf for stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God, I am the Lord Do not pervert Justice do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great but judge your neighbor fairly do not go about spreading slander among your people. Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor's life. I am the Lord do not hate a fellow Israelite in your heart rebuke your neighbor frankly. So you will not share in their guilt. Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord keep my decree.

It's very easy for us to think of God in this angry kind of way or reduce our relationship down with that. So these rules we have to follow you have to do and I'll do the right thing. But when you look up here under the hood and you see it's all relational. God is talking about how much he loves us and wants a relationship with us and then he puts that on us to love and care for one another. And he wants to protect the relationships that people have with each other. So this is it's in Leviticus that we see the love your neighbor as yourself scripture.

But my fear is that it's so easy to lose sight of this beautiful death of relationship much like a wedding a covenant relationship.

So I just asked us to do I see God as a got a relationship and intimate or is it God is God remove God angry as God just care if I'm following the rules. God is like quotes. Keren. and then when we connect with that relationship, what can we do to actually cultivate that relationship and I use the word cultivate very specifically because I don't want to give you the impression that you have to like. Our relationship with God requires a certain amount of work on our side. I don't want you to think that it's very like worked based in that way. But when we think about like you if you had a guard and you got up to go out and work in the garden, it's not transactional you're cultivating an environment where the things the life can flourish and in our relationship with God. There's there might be some work, but it's not like an item that you have to do. So that God will not be angry with you. It's things that we can do to cultivate a relationship. And the relationship that includes his desire to protect other relationships. If you want to look in the New Testament the parable of the sheep and the goats amazing and very convicting parable about how Jesus is like the way you treat each other very personal. And so this idea of Covenant like the Moses is introducing to the people in the wilderness. Strange doesn't make much sense. But that's part of why he had to bring them out. If you took them from one peg and nation and plop them into the the promised land and now they have to figure all this out while they're surrounded by other people. I just knew that wasn't going to work brought them out into the wilderness.

We're going to take communion here in a little bit. But this idea of covenants goes on and on through the Old Testament. And they understood. In the same way that if if there was a guy here and he had a girlfriend. And he caught and then he tried to call his girlfriend like his wife. That would be a giant red flag, you know, everybody know there's a difference between a girlfriend and a wife. There's a relationship and then there's a covenant relationship.

In the same way. I want us to explore the depth of relationship with God. Do we need spend more time thinking? Do I just have a relationship with God guide your girlfriend that was super weird. But what do you have like do you feel confident that your relationship is next level? Or is it just very base? And that's why I want to bring us to Jesus. Because Jesus introduces a New Covenant with his disciples and we are the beneficiaries of that. We see this at the Last Supper and so we're going to read this and then I meditate on it and take communion. in Luke 22 This is the the flute version of The Last Song. starting a sports team when the hour came Jesus and his Apostles reclined at the table and he said to them I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer for I tell you I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God after taking the cup he gave thanks and said take this and divide it among you for I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes

I need to 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.

Matthew version that talks about for the Forgiveness of sins

But Jesus says this is a new covenant that we are establishing right here. Which is another further proof that Jesus was not just a wise Rabbi no wise Rabbi would ever dare. introduce a covenant between God and man that might be the most Blasphemous thing. He ever said that in the I am statements, but like for Jesus to save this isn't new. We'd appreciate like a gravity of that.

And it's the Covenant of Jesus's blood which is going to be bored out for the sins of man.

I want us to ask ourselves. Have I accepted that Covenant?

Am I in a covenant relationship with God through Jesus?

We do a lot of us just grew up going to church. And we this is very familiar to us singing and praying and even the bread in the juice and and you can do all of that your whole life and never be in a covenant relationship with God. There is no common law marriage to God. Where you're just like what we put in enough time. We lost enough hours. I think we're good, right?

It's not it's not I mean that's not in the Bible.

And we end because we can it so easy for us to lose sight of a covenant Covenant relationship Covenant ritual and the idea of like and this is serious.

It's easy to live. Our whole lives is very churchy people. And never be in a covenant relationship with God through Jesus.

And so my prayer is we're going to take communion. My prayer is that we can think about if your if your relationship with God had a status update on social media.

When your friend if your friends changed it from single to married you would be like what?

And if you found out that that was not true that that was done flippantly as a joke to be like you be offended, but that's don't why are you doing that?

And yet it's easy for us. Just like the Israelites coming out of slavery easy for us to lose all connection to the seriousness and majesty and beauty of Covenant relationships. We are going to continue through the Wilderness at some of the lessons that they had to learn next week. We're going to look at the priests. Why did God do that? But God was trying to help them see the thing. We said a couple weeks ago was like man, it's easy to take the people out of Egypt was a lot harder to take Egypt out of the people how the Wilderness was that time to like reset recalibrate and help them understand. I am God. I'm not like the God, you know. We're going to do things very different. And as we take communion today, I pray that you can internalize that and bring that to the present-day bring that too right now and just meditate on your relationship with God is God this relationship on the side is God this casual come and go take it or leave it relationship. Where is God as deadly serious? As the ancient covenants work. I'm going to pray and then we'll take him in.

I got thank you so much for just the way that you partner with people come alongside people in and teach Humanity.