We Are Builders - Altars of Covanent

INTRODUCTION – GOD IS A GOD OF COVENANTS

Good morning and welcome to Living Faith Church. I am so excited to be able to worship Jesus Christ with you on this amazing Sunday. If we have never met before, my name is Aaron. My wife Stella and I are honored to be able to serve on the Pastoral team at LFC. Today we are starting a brand new teaching series that I am really excited about called We Are Builders.

When I open my Bible, I don’t just see a collection of stories or moral lessons. I see a covenant book. From the first page to the last, it’s God revealing Himself as a covenant-making, covenant-keeping God.

In the ancient world, covenants were solemn agreements—binding promises sealed in blood. Whenever God revealed Himself to His people, He didn’t just give suggestions; He bound Himself to them by covenant. And when people responded, they often built an altar—a visible marker that said, Here I met with God; here I surrender to His promise.

Jacob made an altar at Bethel

Moses built an altar at Mt. Sianai

David built an alter at Araunah’s Threshing Floor

Today I want to invite you to build, or rebuild, an altar of covenant in your own life.

THE BIBLE IS A BOOK OF COVENANTS

It is easy for us to look at the Bible as just an arrangement of key figures, kings and kingdoms. But it is so much more than this, the Bible is also, and even more importantly, an arrangement of covenants.

Genesis 1–3 → Covenant of Works / Grace announced

Genesis 6–9 → Noahic Covenant

Genesis 12–22 → Abrahamic Covenant

Exodus–Deuteronomy → Mosaic Covenant

2 Samuel–Kings; Psalms–Prophets → Davidic Covenant

Gospels–Revelation → New Covenant fulfilled and consummated

It may be easy to overlook this fact, but this fact changes everything. We don’t make a lot of covenant relationships today, we make contracts. Contracts and Covenants are fundamentally different, and if we read the works of God from a contractual mindset we miss the power of the Gospel message.

Contract: A legal exchange of goods or services, enforced by law.

Covenant: A binding personal commitment of loyalty and love, sworn before God, often sealed in blood.

Contract: Built on mutual distrust — it exists to protect me if you fail.

Covenant: Built on mutual trust and faithfulness — it pledges loyalty even if the other struggles.

Exodus 24:8 NASB95

8 So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

God made this covenant without Israel making a sings promise.

Contract: “I will, if you will.” Conditional and transactional.

Covenant: “I will, even if you don’t.” It’s about steadfast love

Romans 8:39 NASB95

39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We live in an age of contracts.

If you hurt me - I’m not your friend

If you are unfaithful - I leave

If you cheat me - I break my contract

If I don’t like how you do business - I quit my job

Contracts protect my rights; covenants surrender my rights for the sake of the relationship

But to ensure your salvation, by grace, through faith, God did not write contracts, He established covenants. Let me show you something I find thrilling:

Before there were ever the covenants with Noah, Abraham, or Moses, Scripture points to three primal covenants—what I like to call “the covenants written on the hard-drive of creation.”

1. Covenant of Redemption – The Eternal Plan

Before Genesis 1:1, before God spoke light into existence, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit entered into an eternal agreement:

the Son would redeem a people

the Father would give them to Him

the Spirit would apply that salvation

Jesus alludes to this in John 17:4-6

John 17:4–6 NASB95

4 “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. 6 “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.

This covenant shows us that redemption was not God’s plan B after the fall—this was the plan from eternity.

Ephesians 1:4 NASB95

4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love

2 Timothy 1:9 NASB95

9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,

Titus 1:2 NASB95

2 in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago,

This is a true covenant of redemption. God chose to redeem you through Christ, before you ever proved yourself faithful, worthy. Before you were even born, He chose to redeem you.

2. Covenant of Works – The Creation Covenant

The second covenant we find is found in Genesis chapter 2. When God placed Adam in the garden, He set a conditions for Adam to live under.

Genesis 2:16–17 NASB95

16 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

Life for obedience

Death for disobedience

Adam stood as the representative head of the human race. This covenant reveals God’s righteousness and our human obligation to obey Him.

3. Covenant of Grace – God’s Answer After the Fall

The moment Adam fell, God revealed His grace:

Genesis 3:15 NASB95

15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”

The covenant of grace is found in the promise of the Seed who would crush the serpent’s head. That seed spoken of is Christ Jesus - Yes, Christ is in Genesis. This covenant of grace is the golden thread running through the entire Bible—one gracious promise unfolding in different administrations.

These three covenants form the backbone of every covenant in Scripture, and covenants today.

II. KEY ALTARS OF COVENANT IN SCRIPTURE

Every altar in Scripture reflects one of these realities: God’s eternal redemptive purpose, humanity’s failure under the covenant of works, or God’s gracious provision through the covenant of grace.

Noah’s Altar –

In Genesis 8 after the floods had receded the ark finally rested on dry ground. Noah’s first act after deliverance is to build an altar.

Genesis 8:20 NASB95

20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

Moses’ Altar – Exodus 24:4-8

Centuries later, at Mount Sinai, Moses builds an altar at the foot of the mountain. He sprinkles blood on the altar and on the people, saying,

Exodus 24:4 NASB95

4 Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. Then he arose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.

Christ’s Altar – Luke 22:20; Hebrews 9–10

There is no greater altar of sacrifice in the whole of history than that of Jesus on the cross.

Just as Isaac carried the wood for the sacrifice on his back, so Jesus also carried the cross on His back.

Just as a Abraham found a lamb caught in thorns, so Jesus to wore a crown of thorns on His head.

When Paul wrote to the corinthian church, he quoted Jesus saying: 1 Corinthians 11:23

1 Corinthians 11:25 NASB95

25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

III. GOD’S ALTAR CALL – OUR RESPONSE

Altars are never just about God’s promise; they call for our surrender. Each and every altar we find in Scripture is a response to God promise covenanted before the foundations of the earth. They don’t make the covenant, they say yes to it with sacrifice.

To Give Him Our Bodies For Worship

Romans 12:1 NASB95

1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

To Bear Our Cross Daily

Luke 9:23 NASB95

23 And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.

To Live A Life of Worship

Hebrews 13:15 NASB95

15 Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.

PRACTICAL CALL: BUILDING YOUR ALTAR OF COVENANT

I want to get very personal here.

Where is the altar in your life? I’m not talking about a pile of stones or a wooden table. I mean that place where you meet God in surrender and affirm to live in covenant with Him.

For some of you, the altar needs to be rebuilt in prayer.

For others, it’s an altar of obedience in an area you’ve been holding back.

For others still, it’s an altar of forgiveness—laying down resentment that’s been poisoning your worship.

Parents, maybe your altar tonight is about leading your household under God’s covenant promises.

God is a covenant-keeping God; He’s inviting you to become a covenant-keeping people.

Salvation Response

For some of you, today is a day to respond to Gods covenant of Grace by laying your life down on the altar of sacrifice. Meaning, you stop living for ultimate control, and allow God to be in control.

Mark 8:36 NASB95

36 “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?

Don’t forfeit your soul for pride, for resentment, for fear. Give God your life, and let Him lead you to real life. Romans 10 tells us that real life begins with declaration of faith.

Romans 10:9 NASB95

9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

We know that sin leads to death – you’ve felt the sting, and pain of sin. The good news is this, Paul calls God’s gift of life a “free gift”. I want to pray with you right now to receive this gift. If you would say, I want God’s forgiveness, I want to accept this gift of life, I want Jesus to live in my heart, raise your hand so I know who I am praying for.

KEEP YOUR HANDS RAISED HIGH - I HAVE A PRAYER PARTNER COMING TO PRAY WITH YOU

“Heavenly Father, I trust You to save me through Your Son, Jesus. Forgive me for all of my sins. Make me brand new. Because You died for me, I want to live for You. Fill me with Your Spirit, so I could follow You. Jesus, You’re now my Lord and the Savior of my life. Take my life. It is Yours. In Jesus’ name, I pray.”

V. COMMUNION – A COVENANT RENEWAL CEREMONY

At this point in the service, I love to move us to the Lord’s Table because communion is the church’s altar of covenant renewal.

“Every time we take the bread and the cup, we stand again at the altar of the New Covenant. We remember that the body of Christ was broken, the blood of Christ was shed, and we renew our surrender to the One who gave Himself for us.”

Scripture reading: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 NASB95

23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.

The bread and the cup aren’t mere symbols; they’re God’s covenant sign to us and our covenant ‘yes’ back to Him.