Love God Love Others

Introduction (5m)

From Commitment to Covenant

Commitment Sunday often about “what can we do for God’. Commit, give more - time, health, talents, etc.

Sing:

All my days and all my hours, shall be thine, dear Lord.

All there is of me, Lord, Time and talents, day by day, all there is of me.

And dost thou ask a gift of me: the talents I possess, the gift of passing time. I have not much to give thee, Lord, but all I have is thine.

Time, health and talents presenting, All that I have shall be thine.

Commitment isn’t wrong, but sometimes the way we think about it is

Fall into temptation of seeing relationship with God as a contract: If I do all these things then God will love me, be pleased with me, I’ll get to heaven, hear “well done”.

God wants more and more of me, so he can show me more love, be more pleased with me, more eternal security, etc.

But then realise even if we give God everything:

That were a present far too small (Isaac Watts).

Tired, exhausted, disillusioned, give up.

That’s not what a covenantal relationship with God should be like!

Matthew 11:28–30 The Message

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Not: try harder and do more. Get away. Rest. Come home to J. Walk with him. Work with him. Watch how he does it. Learn his unforced rhythms. Live freely and lightly. Anyone?!

Explanation (5m)

Jesus sums up a covenant not a contract

Matthew 22:37–40 NLT

Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

Immediately our contract brains push back against this

Really? All my heart, all my soul, all my mind. Every neighbour. That sounds exhausting. Too much. Impossible. Impracticable.

But this is not a contract: it’s a covenant

Covenant and a contract look very similar but in fact, they’re very different.

Contract is something like an employment agreement, or an agreement to purchase a product like a house or a car.

The covenant is like a marriage.

Not a deal but a pledge

Any contract you make is a deal. Any covenant, particularly in a covenant of agape love is not a deal it's a pledge.

Not law but love

Contracts deal with law. That's part of the deal you make with the other person. You say to the other person, "here are the rules which govern our deal".

The covenant deals with love. The covenant is a pledge of love.

Not conditional but unconditional

Contracts are always conditional. They have terms and if those terms are broken then the deal is off.

A covenant of agape love is unconditional because it's about you pledging what you're going to be towards another person, not what you’re going to do for them or what they are going to do for you.

Contract v Covenant

Every time I order something online, I enter into a contract. If what I’ve ordered doesn’t turn up or arrives damaged, then the deal is off. The seller has to refund me my money.

On the other hand, nearly 24 years ago now, I made a covenant with Gail in marriage. I pledged myself to her, promising to be her husband for better or for worse.

The problem is, that society today sees almost everything in the world like a kind of contract

And even Christians like you and me can see God’s love in legal, contract terms.

So, we assess everything. We're always evaluating. We’re always analysing. We’re always sizing things up: ourselves, others and worst of all, God. In this context, there's no place for agape love. There's no place for unconditional love.

But Jesus reminds us that God’s Plan A is a covenantal relationship with us

God’s agape love covenant with us began before the creation of the world. God is love. God is agape love. From the beginning, God has wanted to become one with us so that we could become one with him. This was God’s plan before the creation of the world.

Jesus didn't come into the world to impose a contract between God and humanity

He came to earth to fulfil a covenant of love. Jesus didn’t become a human and die because God was mad at us because we couldn’t fulfil our side of his contract with us. Jesus became a human being and died because God was madly in covenantal love with us.

Jesus gave his life for us not to fix a contract, but to fulfil an eternal agape love covenant

He gave his life not to deflect the Father’s anger but to fulfil the Father’s covenant of love.

Application (5m)

All God wants in response is for us to understand the extent of his love for us

As we accept God’s unconditional, covenantal, agape love for us, as our roots grow down deep into it, as we experience it, as we begin to see just how wide, long, high and deep his love is, then our natural response will be to love him with all our hearts, souls and minds. How can we do anything else?

As we experience his love, then our natural response is to sing:

All my heart I give to thee, Every moment to live for thee.

Christ is all, yes all in all, my Christ is all in all.

In this quiet moment, set my spirit free! In this quiet moment, make a better me!

Jesus, be the centre, be the reason that I live, Jesus.

O Love, invisible before, I see thee now, desire thee more.

O Love that wilt not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee.

It’s out of this covenantal relationship, loved by all of God’s heart, soul and mind, that we learn to love him with all our hearts, souls and minds and want to commit our time, health and talents to him and to love our neighbours as ourselves

Romans 12:1 PHILLIPS

With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him.

God’s covenantal love - his mercies, his grace - are the fuel of our Christian faith and our commitment.

The only power that is strong enough to motivate us to give all of our hearts, souls and minds, all our time, health and talents is God’s covenantal love.

It’s his covenantal love for us - and our experience of it - that stops us from getting exhausted and burned out from trying to bargain a contract with him.

On this Covenant Sunday, let’s put first things first

Before we start to think about what God might be asking us to do for him, let’s focus on his covenantal love for us. Let’s ensure we experience the width, length, height and depth of his love for us. It’s not about who we are. It’s about his love for us. For his love remains the same ...

Next Steps

SB 490 - Don’t assume that God’s dismissed you from his mind

Don’t assume that God’s dismissed you from his mind, Don’t assume that God’s forgotten to be kind; For no matter what you do, his love still follows you; Don’t think that you have left him far behind. For his love remains the same, He knows you by your name, Don’t think because you failed him he despairs; For he gives to those who ask His grace for every task, God plans for you in love for he still cares. 2 Don’t assume that God will plan for you no more, Don’t assume that there’s no future to explore; For your life he’ll redesign, the pattern be divine; Don’t think that your repentance he’ll ignore. 3 Don’t assume you cannot give what he’ll demand, Don’t assume that God condemns you out of hand; For he gives to those who ask his grace for every task; Don’t think that God will fail to understand. John Gowans (1934-2012) © The General of The Salvation Army. Used By Permission. CCL Licence No. 30158 Copied from The Song Book of The Salvation Army Song Number 490