Celebrating Christ's Covenant
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Introduction
Introduction
Illustration: Taking someone for granted.
Have you ever taken something for granted? Or even worse, have you ever taken someONE for granted?
Common in many relationships. Maybe it’s a boyfriend-girlfriend, husband-wife relationship, maybe it’s a parent-child relationship.
When it’s brand new, it’s exciting, it’s thrilling, it’s wonderful, it’s unbelievable!
But then-honeymoon phase ends. Maybe the lack of sleep sets in, maybe it’s time to change another diaper, or maybe it’s time to take out the trash.
Before we realize it, what used to be so wonderful and special has now become common, and normal, unexciting, and unappreciated.
New couples are told “you may be in love now, but, just wait....”
Just wait… until your first argument...
Just wait… until the honeymoon phase is over...
Just wait… until you have your first child...
Just wait… until you have more than one child...
Then it will be different, then you won’t be so naive and “in love.”
New Parents are told...
Having a baby is so precious… but just wait...
...Just wait until the sleepless nights
…Just wait until they start crawling and walking and climbing and getting into everything!
…just wait until the terrible twos!
…just wait until the teenage years!!
…just wait until they become a threenager, or even worse, a TEENAGER!
It’s almost as if people in new relationships are told, “enjoy being happy while you can because before you know it you’ll be doomed to the unhappiness that is inevitable in every relationship.”
That’s why I always tell my newlywed friends, “the honeymoon phase can last as long as you make it.”
That’s why I always tell my newlywed friends, “the honeymoon phase can last as long as you make it.”
This last July my wife and I celebrated 5 years of marriage and our love for each other is still as strong as ever.
New Christians
When we first come to know the Lord, we’re on fire! We’re telling our friends about Jesus!
When we first come to know the Lord, we’re on fire! We’re telling our friends about Jesus!
We’re volunteering to fill needs in the church, we’re attending every church event faithfully.
But maybe the life-long church members are sitting back and they’re saying, “just wait…”
...wait until the first church conflict.
…wait until they attend their first board meeting!
…wait until the first rumor is spread about them.
…wait until they are judged by someone else for the first time.
…wait until the first untactful comment is said about them to their face.
…wait until they take their eyes off of Jesus and look at someone else.
It’s almost as if people in new relationships are told, “enjoy being happy while you can because before you know it you’ll be doomed to the unhappiness that is inevitable in every relationship.”
Sadly, it can be easy to take someone for granted the longer you know them. But it doesn’t have to be that way. That’s not God’s ideal. God’s ideal is for a husband and wife to always love and cherish one another.
We almost act as if becoming numb to the power of the gospel is something that is inevitable to happen to all, it’s just a matter of time.
Just wait, you too can be a lukewarm Christian! Is that our slogan?
But, Is that God’s desire for us? Is that what He wants for our covenant relationship with Him? I believe the answer from God’s word is a resounding “NO!”
Of course God never wants us to take any of our loved ones for granted, but if there’s any relationship He wants to preserve and keep fresh, it’s our relationship with Him!
Transition: That’s what Thanksgiving is all about. This ought to be a time where we search our hearts and discover what we have taken for granted, discover who we have taken for granted, and allow our hearts to respond to God’s goodness and His blessings with gratitude, praise, and thanksgiving!
- Celebrating Christ’s Covenant
- Celebrating Christ’s Covenant
The Lexham Glossary of Literary Types Psalm, Hymnic
Psalm, Hymnic — (OT) A psalm joyously glorifying God and emphasizing his greatness, power, majesty, kindness, and mercy.
Celebrating Who God is, and What He Has Done
Celebrating Who God is, and What He Has Done
Let all that I am praise the Lord;
with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.
Let all that I am praise the Lord;
with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Hebrew word: barak
Hebrew word: barak
What does it mean to bless the Lord?
To bless, to have a response of admiration and thankfulness. Being grateful, recognizing God as the source of blessing.
Don’t be ashamed to celebrate your covenant commitment with Christ!
This is a call to celebrate complete covenant commitment with Christ!
“All” - Total Consecration to Christ
There is no such thing as a partial Christian.
Steps to Christ Chapter 5—Consecration
The whole heart must be yielded to God, or the change can never be wrought in us by which we are to be restored to His likeness.
Steps to Christ Chapter 5—Consecration
We cannot be half the Lord’s and half the world’s. We are not God’s children unless we are such entirely.
Let all that I am praise the Lord;
may I never forget the good things he does for me.
Repetition - deepens impression. This is his call.
This is a call to celebrate complete covenant commitment with Christ!
Never Forget
We have a tendency to forget, don’t we?
“remember the sabbath”
Life Sketches Chapter 31—Burden Bearers
We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history.
Good things
Author-begins to list these good things.
He forgives all my sins
and heals all my diseases.
Psalm 103:3
“He is the one who...”
Celebrating not just what God does for us, but that he is the kind of God who would do those things for us.
We celebrate his actions, yes, but also His character!
“all” - Transformation
Does it say, “He forgives only 50% of my sins, because I hold on to the other 50%”
God wants you to give 100% to Him because he is eager to make a 100% transformation in your life!
Steps to Christ Chapter 5—Consecration
The whole heart must be yielded to God, or the change can never be wrought in us by which we are to be restored to His likeness.
Steps to Christ Chapter 5—Consecration
God desires to heal us, to set us free. But since this requires an entire transformation, a renewing of our whole nature, we must yield ourselves wholly to Him.
There is no sin that is too big for God to handle. There is no mistake too big for God to forgive.
This is what it means to be in a covenant relationship with Christ.
He redeems me from death
and crowns me with love and tender mercies.
Redemption
The good news, the divine transaction.
God takes our stony hearts, and gives us heart of flesh.
He takes our penalty of death, and gives us love and tender mercies instead.
He takes our anxiety and gives us peace.
This should awaken a response of thankfulness and celebration!
Testimonies for the Church, Volume 2 Chapter 29—The Sufferings of Christ
Many who profess to be Christians become excited over worldly enterprises, and their interest is awakened for new and exciting amusements, while they are coldhearted, and appear as if frozen, in the cause of God. Here is a theme, poor formalist, which is of sufficient importance to excite you. Eternal interests are here involved. Upon this theme it is sin to be calm and unimpassioned. The scenes of Calvary call for the deepest emotion. Upon this subject you will be excusable if you manifest enthusiasm. That Christ, so excellent, so innocent, should suffer such a painful death, bearing the weight of the sins of the world, our thoughts and imaginations can never fully comprehend. The length, the breadth, the height, the depth, of such amazing love we cannot fathom. The contemplation of the matchless depths of a Saviour’s love should fill the mind, touch and melt the soul, refine and elevate the affections, and completely transform the whole character.
We know how to celebrate sports, or maybe our favorite hobby or entertainment, but do we know how to celebrate our commitment with Christ?
He fills my life with good things.
My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!
He is the one who fills our lives with good things.
So this thanksgiving, when you’re thankful for all that you have, let’s not forget to be thankful for the giver of all that is given.
Celebrate what it means to have a complete covenant commitment with Christ!
Counsels on Stewardship Chapter 2—Our Bountiful Benefactor
The power of God is manifested in the beating of the heart, in the action of the lungs, and in the living currents that circulate through the thousand different channels of the body. We are indebted to Him for every moment of existence, and for all the comforts of life. The powers and abilities that elevate man above the lower creation, are the endowment of the Creator.
The Lord gives righteousness
and justice to all who are treated unfairly.
a
He revealed his character to Moses
and his deeds to the people of Israel.
Celebrating the Good News of God’s Covenant Love
Celebrating the Good News of God’s Covenant Love
a
He is a God who cares about injustice. He is a God of justice.
He revealed his character to Moses
and his deeds to the people of Israel.
Psalm 103:
Now, the author of this Psalm calls our attention to God’s covenant people. The Israelites.
The Lord is compassionate and merciful,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
Psalm 103.8
Chesed - God’s loyal love.
God’s covenant character of love.
Faithlife Study Bible Chesed
Chesed is often used as a characteristic of God. God’s chesed is an essential part of His character. When He appears to Moses, God describes Himself as abounding in chesed and keeping chesed for thousands (Exod 34:6–7). His chesed is associated with His covenant love for Israel.
And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
(for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),
Exodus
a
Psalm 103.9
He will not constantly accuse us,
nor remain angry forever.
a
He does not punish us for all our sins;
he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve.
a
For his unfailing love toward those who fear him
is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.
“Those who fear Him”
Yes the sun shines on everyone, but there are special, rich blessings designed for His covenant people.
Can you get your measuring tape out and measure the height of the heavens above the earth?
He has removed our sins as far from us
as the east is from the west.
Can you pay a company to measure how many miles east is from west?
Because His love is immeasurably great, His covenant benefits are immeasurably great!
“more than we can even ask or think!”
The Lord is like a father to his children,
tender and compassionate to those who fear him.
For he knows how weak we are;
he remembers we are only dust.
Dust
This begins to describe a contrast.
The frailty and weakness of humanity, compared to God’s everlasting love.
Our days on earth are like grass;
like wildflowers, we bloom and die.
The wind blows, and we are gone—
as though we had never been here.
The harsh reality of the temporal nature of our lives, if it were not for Christ.
But the love of the Lord remains forever
with those who fear him.
His salvation extends to the children’s children
If there is one thing you can count on, it’s the love of the Lord.
Those who fear him.
Again, this is speaking about the blessing of covenant commitment to Christ.
of those who are faithful to his covenant,
of those who obey his commandments!
Those who are faithful to his covenant.
Those who obey his commandments.
The Lord has made the heavens his throne;
from there he rules over everything.
Celebrating Christ’s Covenant Leads to Evangelism
Celebrating Christ’s Covenant Leads to Evangelism
Praise the Lord, you angels,
you mighty ones who carry out his plans,
listening for each of his commands.
.
Yes, praise the Lord, you armies of angels
who serve him and do his will!
Praise the Lord, everything he has created,
everything in all his kingdom.
Let all that I am praise the Lord.
The ESV Study Bible Chapter 103
The overflow of goodness and steadfast love that God’s works reveal compels his people to call on the angels and all of nature (cf. 19:1) to join in their celebration.
Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations & Quotes Someone Once Said …
Evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where he found bread.—D. T. Niles
Appeal
Appeal
How can you celebrate your covenant commitment with Christ in a practical way?
Spend time with Jesus every day.
Thank Him for the little things. Every day, praise him for a new day of life, what a gift!
Let others know that you appreciate them.
Let others know about the friend that you have found in Jesus.
“If you confess me before men, I will confess you before my Father”