Sermon Tone Analysis

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.