The Covenant
Notes
Transcript
The reading and praying marathon was absolutely amazing
We pray for 72 straight hours
What a great time of fellowship and seeking the Lord
We read for 77hrs and 58 min straight
What a great time of speaking the Word of God
There was power when we read and when we were praying
So this morning there was a lot of questions about what we would do for the sermon
Would we discuss the upcoming election and show you through the Bible your response to this election
How we are to respond wether you win or lose in the election
That we are to pray for our elected officials wether you voted for them or not
Then I thought maybe we could share about what happened these last few days
How we started this and it was exciting and then some of us got delusional, and we had fun and we worshiped, and we read, and read some more, and we prayed, and we prayed some more
We started with just a few small prayer requests on a white board and that turned in to taking the one downstairs, and then hanging paper from the ceiling and filling them up with prayer requests and praises
How we some of us were very nervous to read the names of the Bible
And probably most of us mispronounced them
How you enjoyed your reading so much that you did not want to give them up even when it was your wife
But you did anyway
You all became very possessive of your reading time
How you let me sleep in when I should have gotten up and been praying and reading
How no one else’s car got damaged except my truck only to have it completely fix before we finished
This was such a great thing you all accomplished
How some of you have already asked if and when we would be doing this again
If you will recall the reading was done in response to
10 All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.
How we live in a generation just like this
How the current generation does not know the Lord or does not know the work of the Lord
I believe our generation is described in
The generation that God has handed over to the desires of their own heart because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie
This is our world right now and church we had a response to this
Just like King Josiah did
Our response was to READ the entire Law aloud
So that this generation could hear
It was brought to my attention that our recording of this may be used in the end times if the written word is no more, they can simply listen to our recording
But Josiahs response to having found the Word of God was to read it aloud
We did that
But that wasn’t all that Josiah did
1 Then the king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. 2 The king went up to the house of the Lord and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests and the prophets and all the people, both small and great; and he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the Lord.
Josiah gathered all the inhabits of Jerusalem to hear the spoke word of God
We have recorded it and read it solid
I know that some of you read names and normally we would complain and say why are we reading this
But during this time you all were very excited to read and realized there was power in the spoke Word of God
Then Josiah did something else in vs 3
3 The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people entered into the covenant.
After reading the Word of God
The King then is so moved and is so convicted
That he makes a covenant to follow the Lord
A covenant is defined as an agreement and or a contact and also an agreement which brings about a relationship of commitment between God and his people.
A relationship of commitment between God and you
That is what this covenant is
Josiah understand after hearing the Law that his only response was to make a covenant a commitment to follow God
To follow God not matter what
To follow God with his entire heart
To follow God with his entire soul
To fully obey God in all He says
That is what king Josiah committed to do
5 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
This is what you and I should have already been doing
Just like the nation of Israel was to be doing that but they were not
And after hearing they were to be doing this King Josiah made a commitment do just that before the Lord and before the people
Do you start to understand what I think we are to be doing today
37 And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
We are to love the Lord with our entire being
We are to follow Jesus and to love Jesus with our whole heart
To love Jesus with our whole souls
And to love Jesus with our whole mind
With our whole heart means that everything that makes you and I tick
Our passions and our desires we are to love God in everything we do
To love Jesus with our whole soul
To fully commit to Jesus that He is our king and lord of our live
To obey Jesus in all He asks us to do
To share Jesus with those people
To read for 77 hrs and 58 min solid
To pray for 72 hours for our nation before an election
Do you see what our response is now that we have completed this take
This morning church we are going to ask you to make that same commitment that King Josiah made
To walk after Jesus
To keep his commandments and his statutes
To love Jesus with your entire heart, entire soul, and entire mind
To obey Jesus in all He calls you to do
As move into the time of invitation
That is what we are inviting you to do this morning
Make a covenant with God with this morning to do just that
To this morning before God and before the witnesses of the church this morning to make a commitment an agreement with Jesus this morning
Maybe you are here and do not know Jesus as your personal Lord and savior we want to invite you to the front to speak with someone about beginning a new persaonl relationship with Jesus through repentance of sins and trust in Jesus
And church to everyone else we challenge you to make that commitment this morning to walk after Jesus, to obey Jesus, to love Jesus with your entire being
To come to the altar or kneel at your seat and make the commitment before God right now this morning after we have completed the public out loud reading of the Word of God
The altar is open