In the name of Jesus A Covenant Relationship with the Lord Gen. 6:5-8 & Gen. 9:8-17 God s Covenant with Noah Luke 2:40-52 God s Covenant fulfilled in His Son Jesus Pastor Dan Matasovsky Let me begin this morning with a Question? I got this book to read, a mystery novel, How many of you think I should turn to the end of the book to see how it will end before I go back and read the story? Many of you would probably say to me: That ruins the story You have to see the struggle that led to the conclusion of the story. How many of you would like to jump ahead to the end of 2011 so you could see what has happened to you in 2011. Anybody! That s a scary thought isn t it! Am I going to be sick? Lose my job Be involved in some serious problem etc. Or will things get better. Will this be a banner year for my family. The relentless clock of time has brought us once more to the end of another year. We are one day into a new year. I know that many people are now in the process of analyzing the past year. Many are also analyzing what s ahead. In a certain sense, every Christian needs to be engaged in a business, in the great enterprise of making his calling and election sure. There are also in the Christian life gains to be made and damaging loses to be sustained. Like the business man, therefore, every Christian ought to pause from time to time to take inventory of his growth and his backsliding in Grace. No more fitting time for such self examination during the entire year presents itself as do the first few days of a new year. If we are honest about our past life, (since we are sinful individuals) it presents a rather bleak picture to our personal lives. Each day, from the first to the last is a record of sin, sins of wrong thoughts, words and deeds, and these sins make us worthy only of God's wrath and displeasure, temporal death, and eternal damnation in hell. Like Paul we must confess if we would be honest with ourselves. The good that I would, I do not, and the evil that I would not that I do. You and I need to call to mind that God in Christ has freed us from our sins. Remember God - +-me. Is there any other way that I can strengthen my relationship with the Lord? Is there a way for me to become assured that God is on my side, that he knows my situation and that he will be there for me regardless of what happens in the coming year? All you have to do is go back and see how God has been on the side of his people whose names appear in the Book of Hebrews as Saints of the Lord even though they are sinners. He had promised to be with them and He was. Now He promises to be with us and He is. He has since the beginning of time made covenants with His people that he will be there and not leave or forsake us. 1 P a g e
This congregation is venturing on a journey that gives you an opportunity to see how to Lord established a covenant relationship with the people, promising to be there and not forsake them throughout their life. It s called Reading through the Bible in Two Years. You have been hearing about this program, have seen items in the newsletter & bulletin about this and now I invite you to join me tomorrow as we see how God promised these people in the Old Testament and kept his promise to be their God.. GOD MADE COVENANTS WITH PEOPLE AND KEPT THEM. For instance He made a covenant with Noah, which we will talk about in a few moments.. But he made a covenant with Abraham to leave Ur of the Chaldees and move to Israel (Abram 75 when entered Israel) and God would bless him, He made a covenant with the people Israel Ex. 34:11 at Mt. Sinai that if they observed God s commandments, God would keep them save from surrounding nations as they journeyed to the promised land. He made a covenant with David that from David s lineage would come a promised Messiah. With each of these covenants there was a certain ritual or ceremony that was carried out between the Lord and His Servant so they would see the seriousness of agreement. You will read about them in your daily Bible Reading during the next year. LET S EXPLORE MORE God s Patience and the covenant with Noah In your reading this first week you will see the frustration that God had with the whole world. The world had turned away from the Lord. We read in 6:5: The Lord saw how great man s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. Can you imagine a more desperate situation? The whole world had turned away from the Lord. Could this be the headline the local paper either the MPLS Tribune or St. Paul Dispatch? It sounds a lot like our world today. You turn on the TV news, look at the news on your computer or the morning news paper and hear item after item of bad or evil news. Break-ins, robberies, abductions, people being killed for no good reason at all, guns on the streets, security systems in most buildings because of this evil. It seems that we are in our day and age at the point where God was in the days of Noah which is a collusion course with the Lord. But as Christian we too, if it were not for Jesus, would be under the same condemnation of the Lord. We might say to ourselves: Oh, I m not that bad. Oh I do make mistakes and sometimes do my own thing but all in all I think I m pretty good. The Word of the Lord is clear: All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We don t want to just condemn the world, thinking that we are better then anyone else. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned to our own waysb But now look at verse 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. It is not that Noah was perfect. But he did begin to show some of the qualities that God was looking for in mankind on the earth. It says: Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. 2 P a g e
As I have gotten to know some of you I think I could say the same about you. Not that you are perfect.. But you re here this morning in worship because the Holy Spirit has led you to see the Lord Jesus Christ as an important aspect of your life. It is not that we are perfect rather we admit that we are sinners. In fact every worship service begins with a confession of our sins. Why? Because we need to hear again and again that God does in fact forgive us because of His love for us. Then we are urged to find ways in which we can demonstrate these traits as we serve among people in the world today. Now I will skip through the flood in chapters 7-9 since this is a part of your reading for this week and I want to jump ahead now to chapter 9:8 where God makes this covenant with Noah and his family. 9:8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you (skip a portion) v. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut of by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth (and then he adds in verse 14-15) Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Ever seen a rainbow in the sky?. Next time you see a Rainbow remind yourself that s a promise from God. Some will say there is a pot of Gold at the end of the rainbow. NO THAT S NOT IT! Tell your children or your neighbor what the Lord says.. God IS REMINDING HIMSELF NEVER TO DESTROY THE WHOLE WORLD BY A FLOOD. His promises are good for all to see. He didn t say we won t see floods along the river or large snow storms or terrible cold weather but he did put the rainbow in the sky for you and me to see. As you read through the Old Testament stories you will see covenant after covenant in which God promised the people and kept His promise. And you need to say.. His promise for you and me LO I AM WITH YOU TO THE END OF THE WORLD.. I WILL NOT LEAVE YOU NOR FORSAKE YOU AND THAT IS HIS PROMISE TO EACH ONE OF YOU. As you work through the Old Testament Readings over the next months, you need to realize that there are over 300 prophecies (I didn t count them.. but I read that in a commentary) to the coming Messiah But let s for a few moments look at JESUS, age 12 in our Gospel Lesson for today. GOD KEPT HIS PROMISE AS REFLECTED IN HIS SON This is a dramatic encounter. I can understand a little of their frustration. My youngest son who is in his 30 s now when he was in 3 rd or 4 th grade was riding with his class mates from Trinity Lone Oak Lutheran School in one of these special days near the end of the school year. It was around Lake Nokomis with a few twists and turns. Now there were a number of schools involved. Paul loved to ride his bike. The way they kept track was that his teacher would watch for the students as they came by. Paul suddenly didn t appear. I had students ride with me to this event. The teacher came to me in a panic saying Paul was not coming by with the other students. I found a security guard and we drove in his vehicle around the course against the traffic to see if we could find him. We found him, he had cut off a portion of the course and found it went around and so with another boy he met they kept riding around.. After a short discussion.. as you can imagine he rode all the way around the course. I have to tell you I was a little frightened by the possibilities. 3 P a g e
Now Mary and Joseph had a bigger problem Jesus was missing. They looked among the relatives but he was no where to be found. So they retuned to Jerusalem to look for him. They find him in the temple talking with the priests and leaders of the church and astounding them with his knowledge. This is God s Son, the Anointed One from the Old Testament. Jesus is beginning to carry out the work of the covenant. He says to his parents. Don t you understand that I must be about my father s business. They didn t fully understand but you can tell they are beginning to get some clues for it says: Mary kept all these things in her heart It is similar words that it says of her after the shepherds left the manager.. Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. There is the New Testament Covenant of those promises way back in the Old Testament. The Bible is one book. The Old Testament and New Testament are not two books so that you can ignore one and read the other. The Old Testament is a critical part of learning about who this Jesus Christ is in our life today. If you read the Old Testament to see how even though the people were sinful.. God made a Covenant with them and kept it. This will greatly assist you to understand that GOD HAS MADE A COVENANT WITH YOU AND ME TO BE OUR GOD NOW AND FOREVER AND HE WILL NOT FAIL US. This is why the emphasis of DAILY Bible reading at Mt Olive Lutheran is so vital for your faith. Beginning tomorrow and continuing for the next two years you are encouraged to read through the entire Bible (a chapter or two a day) so you CAN LEAN ON THOSE BEAUTIFUL COVENANTS AND SAY.. He is my Lord.. He has come for me. IT WOULD BE GOOD FOR YOU AND ME TO MAKE A COVENANT WITH THE LORD A DAILY 20 MINUTES WITH THE LORD! 1. MAKE A DAILY APPOINTMENT WITH THE LORD. If you can do this for the next 3 weeks, chances are good that you will establish a covenant with the Lord to daily Bible Reading. You have to work hard at develop a pattern for yourself. 2. Make this an enjoyable adventure WITH CHRIST.. Pick a spot in your home close the door, unplug the phone for 15-20 minutes and call this your time with the Lord. 3. Start with a short prayer and end with a short prayer Lord help me focus.. Thank you Lord for this time with you and then think about how this can help you today. There will be a schedule for you if you are going to use the Bible you have at home. The church has suggested the Today s Light Bible, because it has a break down all the way through that enables you to see the Sections in their context. Each area will begin with a GET THE BIG PICTURE A short introduction for the reading for that day and then at the end a short section entitled: SHARPEN THE FOCUS. It is intended to help you apply this section of the scripture to your daily life. Your bulletin will suggest study times when you can get together to ask and answer questions about what you read. All of this is meant to help you through 2011. I don t know what is ahead of me and neither do you... But one thing I do know.. God will be there for me. Amid trials, temptations, good times.. He will be my God and Lord. Maybe you want to challenge your family to be involved. Or maybe one person reading and the others listening or with a neighbor or over coffee or tea during the day or maybe if your 4 P a g e
employer doesn t mind on your break at your job. Become inventive on how you do your reading so that you might grow in a great appreciation of the Lord Jesus Christ in your life. You will see a tremendous contrast in reading the Word of God. The Lord made covenants with his people which were DIVINE COMMITMENTS and he never broke them. Thank God that He is faithful. Thank God that He has never broken his promise. Here is what he says to you and me..: Lo, I am with you to the end of the world. And again.. I will never leave you nor forsake you.. I pray that as you read you will better understand that He will be there for you throughout 2011 and beyond all the way to eternity. May your promise and mine be this: (I will grow in Christ) for He loves me and promises to be with me forever. He is my Lord today and He will be my Savior until the day that he takes me to be with him in Glory. Do you agree. Then all God s People said: Amen! 5 P a g e