What’s God’s plan?

Main Point: God graciously makes covenants with His people to establish His kingdom.

Discussion

What were your biggest take aways from the readings this week?

What are two questions you have coming into this week’s group session?

Prayer Assignment

Sovereignty of God and Sabbath

What was your experience?

Was this assignment difficult? Why or why not?

What did you learn about God and about yourself?

How can you incorporate this spiritual discipline in everyday life?

Does anyone want to reshare their “Life Story”?

How would you define the word “Covenant?”

What are some of the covenants in Scripture you’re most familiar with?

Read Genesis 12:1-3

Read Genesis 15:1-6

Read Genesis 17:1-14

Are you one of Father Abraham’s sons?

Doctrine of Covenant

A covenant is an initiated promise.

A covenant is a much more secured promise.

There’s clear consequences if a covenant is broken.

God is breaking into redemptive history and offering Himself through a promise that He is going to keep.

Genesis 12-17

God is going to be the one who 1. suffers the consequences for the promise and 2. keeps the promise

When God tells Abraham, “I will bless you” this is in staunch contrast of the cursings repeated 5 times through Genesis 3-11.

This is a total turn around

This is not the first covenant

Genesis 3:15

He makes a covenant with the serpent—it’s head would be crushed.

Genesis 9:1-17

God will never flood the earth again.

What is God promising?

God promises very specific things, but what He’s promising so far is better than what we often think He’s promised us.

What He has promised is to bring His Kingdom back to earth.

He gives it in Genesis 1, we lose it in Genesis 3, the rest of the Bible is God bringing His Kingdom through His promises.

He is not going to bless us materialistically, He is going to bless us with His very presence.

His “Kingdom” is Him.

He is the blessing.

The presence/relationship with God is what He has promised.

God’s covenant is Him intentionally binding Himself to us as His people.

This shows us the depth of His commitment.

If we believe God’s Word and want to understand it, we have to start with covenant.

Individual promises vs. Covenant

When we talk about God’s covenants, we’re talking about promises made to His people.

This is more than just an individual endeavour. It’s much bigger than us.

We want to delight in the promises made to all believers—not just us.

Genesis 12:1-3

What promise does God make to Abraham?

How must Abraham trust God to see this promise fulfilled?

Genesis 15:6

Why was Abraham credited with righteousness?

What moments of both faith and doubt occurred in Abraham’s life?

What are the stupilations and blessings of God’s covenant with Abraham?

What do they reveal about God’s character?

Covenant theology vs. Replacement theology

What do the covenants have to do with the Church today?

Has the Church replaced Israel? Why/why not?

Is Israel the geographical place?

Do we Gentiles have any right to the promises made to God’s Israel?

Romans 11:13-36

How does Jesus bring Gentiles in? *Let’s see whose been listening to sermons

Ephesians 2:11-3:6

2 Corinthians 1:20 ESV

20 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.

Jesus is the King who comes to bring about God’s covenant promises and to bring them to fruition and fulfillment for the Church.

With Jesus’s genealogy, He is not just the son of David, He’s the son of Abraham.

The promises God makes to Abraham find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

Our ultimate hope lies in Jesus Christ, who meets God’s righteous demands and acts as our obedient covenant-keeping respresentative.

Through His obedience to keep God’s covenants, we can be saved.

When Israel sinned/broke God’s covenant, the covenant didn’t go away—God’s Word remains the same!

God doesn’t throw away the covenant because they broke it—His plan of redemption involves a perfect covenant keeper who will uphold the other end of every bargain—His Son.

Jesus upheld our end of the deal.

Jesus is the eternal Son of God, who made the covenant with the people who will uphold it for the people.

In His divinity as the Son, He participated with God the Father and God the Spirit to make the covenant with the people.

In His humanity, He participated as the people’s representative to uphold their end of the covenant.

He is the fulfillment of both sides.

God is with man in the person of Jesus Christ.

Man is with God because Jesus is fully human and fully God.

Pause and reflect

Israel heard this post-exodus. What do these promises do for the people of Israel who are hearing these promises centuries after they were given?

They are called out to receive the words of God and to worship God as they were created to all along.

Abraham was a pagan in Ur, a place where physical idolatry was very present.

He was called out of his country to receive God’s promises.

This is exactly what is happening for Israel.

They’ve been brought out of a foreign land and given the promise of God—God’s Word.

This is a reset for them.

Israel was brought out of slavery in Egypt, looking at the wilderness journey ahead asking: Will God keep His promises?

Will God keep His promises?

Discussion

Why is it important for us to know what God promised Abraham?

How would you tell someone how Jesus fulfill the covenant promises made to Abraham?

Pre-Work 11.19.25

Turn and Tell: With whom can you share something you learned in this session? What do you plan to share with them?

Continue Prayer assignment

Be prepared to read it next week

Read Exodus 1-20.

Memorize the 10 Commandments

Read “Covenant with Moses: The Kingdom Kept” in Remember and Rehearse

Christian Formation Assignment: “Prayer”

One of the richest ways tfor us to live out both our doctrine and affections in the Lord, rightly view ourselves, and effectively love our brohters and sisters is through prayer. Pray is a multi-faceted practice; there is room for both intimacy and reverence, both individual and community focus, bot communion with the Lord and requests for the Kingdom.

The reigning King of all creation bends His ear toward us, His children.

Assignment

In order to strengthen your understanding of prayer, you will carefully craft your own written prayer. The goal with this assignment is that you will pause, examine your prayer life, and exercise different muscles than you’re used to. Additionally, I want you to begin thinking about your prayer like the psalms—written from an individual perspective but in a way that can benefit the community and be used together in a gathering of the saints, whether that’s with a few friends or in a Sunday service.

Expectations:

Spend time reading through prayers that model and give careful though to writing your prayer.

Pick a genre of prayer (praise, confession, thanksgiving, confidence, lament, remembrance, etc.)

Pick a topic (creation, providence, salvation, peace, work, parenthood, anxiety, marriage, the Lord’s supper, baptism, mission, etc)

Limit the length of your prayer to a paragraph at most; it can even be just a few sentences. Work on the economy of words—few, but rich.

RESOURCE: VALLEY OF VISION