Covenant Of Convenience
COVENANTS OF CONVENIENCE
OR
COVENANTS OF PROMISE
September 30th & October 1st, 2000
Galatians 3
16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds", meaning many people, but "and to your seed", meaning one person, who is Christ.
17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.
18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.
Galatians 4
22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.
23 His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.
24 These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar.
25 Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.
26 But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.
27 For it is written: "Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labour pains; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband."
28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.
29 At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now.
-There is a great message here comparing the law with the promise. The law is what you do through human effort and the promise is what has been done through God’s effort.
-We are heirs according to the promise. We are children of promise.
-Jerry Lillard preached that message and it was good. I want to focus on another aspect of this:
COVENANT OF PROMISE VERSUS COVENANT OF CONVENIENCE.
-Let me tell you why I am doing this…people are losing the fabric and stability of their lives because they are living in covenants of convenience instead of covenants of promise.
-That is true with God/in marriage/with churches/in business/etc.
-A covenant of convenience is based on doing all the right things.
-A covenant of promise is based on the integrity of your character.
EXAMPLE:
WHEN I WAS GROWING UP WE RODE IN RODEOS. OF COURSE THAT WAS ADAPTED TO A 10-11 YEAR OLD. WE RODE BURROS, PONIES, STEERS, ETC. I HAD GRADUATED TO COWS WHEN I SPENT 8 WEEKS IN THE HOSPITAL WITH A BROKEN LEG AT AGE 11. I LATER RODE HORSES AND STAYED ON BECAUSE I GREW UP WITH HORSES AND WASN’T AFRAID OF THEM. I WAS ALWAYS AFRAID OF COWS AND BULLS BECAUSE I SAW PEOPLE GET HURT AND EVEN DIE RIDING THEM. I WOULDN’T COMMIT BECAUSE I WAS AFRAID. I WAS FOCUSED ON HOW TO GET FREE WITHOUT GETTING HURT. I SHOULD HAVE JUST WENT FOR IT BECAUSE I GOT HURT GETTING LOOSE. RIDING DOESN’T HURT YOU…IT IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU TURN LOOSE.
-That is what I mean by a covenant of convenience…you are looking for a place to turn loose.
-It is a disgrace in Biblical terms to break covenant.
-We need to make some commitments today to check our covenants to see if they are based on convenience or our promise based on integrity.
Webster’s defines convenient as “easy to do”.
-The covenant of promise is based on God’s commitment to Abraham and us.
-He swore by Himself and refused to accept our rejection of Him.
-Let’s apply that principle to our covenants.
-How can we test our commitments/covenants and see if it is based on promise or convenience.
1. OUR COVENANT WITH GOD
Isa 24:5 The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant.
Jer 31:33 "This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
Jer 32:40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me.
Heb 9:15 ¶ For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance--now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
-God made a promise to Adam and Eve and carried it through to Abraham/Jacob/David/JESUS.
-Jesus made a covenant with us based on His blood.
-He gave His life for us and to us so we could have a relationship with Him.
-It isn’t based on what we do but what He did.
-How do we respond to that? WE SAY YES.
2 Corinthians 1
18 But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not "Yes" and "No".
19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by me and Silas and Timothy, was not "Yes" and "No", but in him it has always been "Yes."
20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God.
-We need to respond with the same level of commitment to God.
-We talk about doing what is easy and that isn’t scriptural.
-There is a little phrase “TRY GOD”.
-I reject that…I don’t say TRY GOD…. I SAY ‘BE A CHRISTIAN’!!!!!
-Give Jesus your life…it is worth it.
-Don’t add God to your life.give Him your life.
-Someone said with some Christians instead of WELL DONE FAITHFUL SERVANT God may just say “WELL”.
-Be a radical. Live life to the extreme. Seize the day. Make a commitment!!!
2. MARRIAGE AND FAMILY
-Remarkably we are living in a time when men and women are abandoning their families to do their own thing.
-Even women are leaving children to go off into a fling. Almost without exception they are waking up in about two years saying, “what have I done?”
Proverbs 2
16 It will save you also from the adulteress, from the wayward wife with her seductive words,
17 who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God.
18 For her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead.
Malachi 2
13 Another thing you do: You flood the LORD's altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands.
14 You ask, "Why?" It is because the LORD is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.
15 Has not [the LORD] made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.
16 "I hate divorce," says the LORD God of Israel, "and I hate a man's covering himself with violence as well as with his garment," says the LORD Almighty. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith.
17 You have wearied the LORD with your words. "How have we wearied him?" you ask. By saying, "All who do evil are good in the eyes of the LORD, and he is pleased with them" or "Where is the God of justice?"
-We enter into a marriage covenant.
-When you marry them you do it because they are wonderful. Then you begin to realize they aren’t perfect at all.
-Covenant is for hard times/not easy times.
-People will come to me in desperation when the shoe finally drops and want to see me in the middle of the night.
-They will get back together; go to church, read their Bible and work like mad to put their marriages back together.
-Then a year later you are looking for them and they say well pastor we go to the lake now every weekend. Before you know it..they are in the same mess again because they are in a covenant of convenience.
-A covenant of convenience is like a covenant of law…. based on doing all the right things.
-A covenant of promise is based on the integrity and commitment of the giver.
-The world around us is in a mess because of the covenant of convenience.
-The Bible Belt is plagued by divorce. That is because of a bunch of mamby pamby Christians who claim to know God and be married but they are still weighing up their options.
-Marriage is the death of two wills and the creation of a new one.
-Anyone can get a new wife or husband.
-It takes a person of real character and integrity to stay with the same person for a lifetime.
3. CHURCH
-If you are a covenant partner you are in a covenant with a community of believers located in Warrenton, Missouri.
-That has consequences for good and bad. We are placed together in a community.
1 Corinthians 11
17 ¶ In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good.
18 In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it.
19 No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God's approval.
20 When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper you eat,
21 for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk.
22 Don't you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? Certainly not!
23 ¶ For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night 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, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me."
26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
27 Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.
28 A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.
29 For anyone who eats and drinks without recognising the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.
31 But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment.
32 When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.
Ephesians 3
14 ¶ For this reason I kneel before the Father,
15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.
-We are a family of believers.
Ga 6:10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
(NIV)
-We need abandon the buffet mentality and be a part of a church.
-Stop grazing and get planted somewhere.
4. FRIENDS
Malachi 2
10 ¶ Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking faith with one another? (NIV)
10 ¶ "Do we not all have one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously each against his brother so as to profane the covenant of our fathers? (NAS95)
Psalm 55
20 My companion attacks his friends; he violates his covenant.
21 His speech is smooth as butter, yet war is in his heart; his words are more soothing than oil, yet they are drawn swords.
-We lack real friendship because our relationships are based on convenience rather than promise.
5. COUNTRY
-Like it or not: OUR COUNTRY IS FOUNDED ON A COVENANT
-The Mayflower Compact is the basis of the government.
-That is the situation…. I’m challenging you and me to turn our covenants from covenants of convenience to covenants of promise.