COVENANT: PASSION AND SACRIFICE by Kris Vallotton

The goal of covenant is that 2 would become 1.

Luke 6:2-7 Jesus tells us to love those who can’t love us back, do good to those who can’t do good to us and credit will be given to us. The word credit is 110 times translated as grace. As soon as you obey, grace is given to you to do what you couldn’t do 1 second before you made the choice to love those you couldn’t love. Sometimes the world hates us just to see if we have love.

The Bible doesn’t say arise and reflect, it says arise and shine. I don’t need your love to give it back to you, I have a source of love that you don’t even have. 

David serves Saul well but jealousy, bitterness, unforgiveness and hatred stir up and Saul begins to chase David. Unforgiveness has no friends. The people you wanna love, you’ll hate. In the midst of Saul chasing David, the Lord gives David a word, that He’s gonna give Saul into his hands, and he can decide what to do with him. David’s men want to kill Saul & David says “Far be it from me to touch the Lord’s anointed”.  Saul says, “You are a better man than me and you deserve the kingdom.” But he’s so angry and bitter that a spirit of insanity comes upon him. He goes after him again, same thing happens. David is anointed King, he has Jonathan’s robe, He has the word of God, yet, David says “I choose to honor him even if he doesn’t deserve it. I choose to love the person who doesn’t love me.”

We live in a world that’s all about making me happy. Happy is about pleasure. Pleasure is good as long as it doesn’t take the place of virtue. If it does, I’d rather take joy instead because I can consider it joy when I face various trials, but I can’t consider it happy. To ruin a perfectly good marriage, try to get your spouse to make you happy.

Covenant expresses itself in camaraderie, but not all camaraderie is rooted in covenant. Fellowship rooted in warfare is fuelled in hatred not forged in love e.g. gangs, bullies. Camaraderie without covenant always needs an enemy. Covenant needs no enemy because it lays down its life for its friends. When a culture of covenant is absent from a community, society adapts an ‘us & them’ mindset. Covenant destroys the ‘us & them’ mentality and bonds people through God’s love not mutual agreement. The Church shouldn’t be known for what we’re against, but for who we love.

2 Timothy 1:2 You can’t take suffering out of the gospel because suffering is a part if the Kingdom. Not sickness or death, but passion and sacrifice; it doesn’t always make you happy.

Be in the background, lay down your life & make it work! Passion won't make it work on hard days, but sacrifice will. Covenant makes no difference if you were in a tent or in a palace.

Lord, take me from camaraderie to covenant. Teach me to live in a way that I lay down my life not because I have to, not because I don't have rights but because I choose to take those rights and say you can have them; here's my armor, here's my robe, here's my sword, here's my bow and here's my belt. I'm not prepared to work against you or war against you, I covenant with you and in hard times I'll renew my covenant and remind you that I'm with you. In Jesus name. Amen

 

Monday Commentary: The Hunger Games

This weekend at Mavuno we kicked off a new series led by my favorite, Pastor Simon "the man" Mbevi. You can watch it here or read the sermon notes below, bless you guys!

"This month we will be talking about the games of life. Everyone wants the best out of life. You want to live well. But how can one maximize on the short life we have here? Is it possible to find true satisfaction, for real, in this life? And if so, how? How can we score consistently in this game?
The preacher in Ecclesiastes 1:2 says something depressing: Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless! Was he just having a bad day or is it the depressing reality?

We will look at 4 basic rules of the game of life. These guidelines ensure you play the right game, in the right way to get the right scores. Put your sports gear on, and lets go to the field! I will be your trainer and a fellow player for the next 4 weeks. Let’s get to the field, for Training Session 1."

Click to Keep Reading or watch the video after the jump:

  

God is my Dad Part 4

So, as always, I’m praying for you.

Scripture References

1.       (Gen 2:25 [NET]) The man and his wife were both naked, but they were not ashamed.

2.       (Gen 3:7 [NET]) Then the eyes of both of them opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

3.        (Exodus 13:21 [NET]) Now the LORD was going before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them in the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel day or night.

4.       (Exodus 14:21-22 [NET]) Moses stretched out his hand toward the sea, and the LORD drove the sea apart by a strong east wind all that night, and he made the sea into dry land, and the water was divided. So the Israelites went through the middle of the sea on dry ground, the water forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.

5.        (Exodus 16:13-15 [NET]) In the evening the quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning a layer of dew was all around the camp. When the layer of dew had evaporated, there on the surface of the desert was a thin flaky substance, thin like frost on the earth. When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” because they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the LORD has given you for food.

6.       (Exodus 16:35 [NET]) Now the Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land that was inhabited; they ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.

7.       (Exodus 17:6 [NET]) I will be standing before you there on the rock in Horeb, and you will strike the rock, and water will come out of it so that the people may drink.” And Moses did so in plain view of the elders of Israel.

8.       (Leviticus 17:8-9 [NET]) “You are to say to them: ‘Any man from the house of Israel or from the foreigners who reside in their midst, who offers a burnt offering or a sacrifice but does not bring it to the entrance of the Meeting Tent to offer it to the LORD – that person will be cut off from his people.

9.       (John 3:16 [NET]) For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

10.   (2Cor 8:9 [NET]) For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that although he was rich, he became poor for your sakes, so that you, by his poverty could become rich.

11.   (Exodus 25:10 and 22 [NET]) “They are to make an ark of acacia wood – its length is to be three feet nine inches, its width two feet three inches, and its height two feet three inches. I will meet with you there, and from above the atonement lid, from between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the testimony; I will speak with you about all that I will command you for the Israelites.

12.   (John 14:26 [NET]) But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and will cause you to remember everything I said to you.

In case you’re curious, again I use The Word Bible Software NET version. It’s the best tool I have honestly, because it helps me search through the Bible really easily.

God is my Dad Part 3

All we’ve gotta do is ask for it. I won’t even tell you the prayer to recite. We’ve heard those words so many times, and like me, maybe you’ve prayed those words a bunch of times but you keep ending up at the same place. It’s not about what words you say. Some of us are angry with God. Fine be angry, tell Him you’re angry and challenge Him for your joy back. Some of us are doubtful of whether He’s even there, fine, be doubtful and ask Him to prove you wrong. I promise you God shows up. For me, He’s shown up in my tears and in my anger, like when I lost my dad or when I have to live in the pain of my regrets. He’s shown up in my laughter and my happiness like when I’m singing or learning guitar or writing up a song. He’ shown up in my doubts and fears about my future in school or the future of my family or the future of my life and this ministry. He’s shown up in my self-disappointment and my low self-esteem and the moments I think I’m not good enough. He’s shown up in my writer’s block and disappointment over how nobody is visiting my blog hehehe and He gives me words to write, songs to sing, music to listen to and His words to remember, the knowledge that I am His child. Wow, God is my dad. God! How dare those negative thoughts come into my mind?! God is my dad! God’s shown up for me. Wow, He has and He will show up for you too.

Honestly, funny enough, I started this post, intending to write about my speculation about whether or not God spoke to me about listening to that song. Maybe He did, maybe He didn’t. I’m sure though, that He’s speaking right now, because I am a good writer but I’m not that good, and the stuff about Leviticus, I didn’t even understand that, and I kind of skim (skip) through the Old Testament when I’m reading my One Year Bible. Point is, God is speaking to you right now, just like He’s speaking to me. Those words are for you. He made sure you’d end up on this page reading these words. Isn’t that amazing? I don’t know you, but I love you, and I care about this so much, that you get to experience this love, and know for sure, for yourself that Church and Christianity isn’t irrelevant or inapplicable to your life, because it’s not about that label or about who else wears that label and whether or not they failed or succeeded. It’s about you and God and His love for you.

God is my Dad Part 2

We go on with our stubbornness though, like we always do. How many times have we had a close call with something, but the next day we do the same exact thing that landed us in trouble again. That’s how it was with God.

God realizes, soon there won’t be enough goats and sheep and doves left because His stubborn people would have sacrificed all of them to atone for their constant sin. There wouldn’t be any people left because the punishment for most of our sin is death, and we would have destroyed ourselves. So God tries again, this time making the ultimate sacrifice. He ripped out a part of Himself. A part of Himself. To be slaughtered in the place of the cows and the goats, and most importantly to stand in our place for us. Jesus, God the Son. ^{9 and 10}

Amazingly, all the rules are suddenly gone. Living by a handbook, it’s all gone. Budgeting for doves and sheep and goats for atonement is gone. What’s in its place? It’s love, constant, unending, unrelenting love. Not only that, because Jesus understands that we are weak and damaged and there’s no way our stubbornness would let us choose to stand up for him or choose to live right or choose to stop doing the things we love doing, so he sends down another part of Himself, the Holy Spirit as a constant line to Him. Think of it as a battery charger and we’re constantly connected to the source. ¹²

God is my Dad Part 1

I don’t know how I can explain my faith or my belief in God to you. I don’t know if I know enough about Him to say anything. Sometimes to be honest, I have serious doubts about whether He’s really out there or where did He come from, who made God, what comes next? But what I hold on to is that first of all, there has to be something out there, some sort of order to life right? To determine life and death, to create everything. Second, the Bible is the most historically credible book. So, if I believe He exists and I believe in His word, then I’ve gotta believe he’s real and He’s there. I can’t explain it any better; I hope that gets through to you.

I don’t just believe in Him to get through the day or to make myself feel better or to get to experience cool things. I’ve done all that without Him. But, you and I both know that it’s never enough, that despite how many friends you have or how many places you’ve travelled or how well your life is set up, it’s never enough. That’s because God created us to have a relationship with him. The only time in History, man was ever truly happy was when he and his wife were walking along in Eden communing with God.

Then sin happened and separated us from God. Our mistakes, our failures everything that’s made us separated from Him, that’s what sin is. All through the Bible we see consequences of this sin, death and destruction. ^{1 and 2}

God being just, tried to help people get some discipline for themselves to try and get back to where they were with Him, that’s why you see in Exodus and Leviticus all these rules He set up and some pretty strict consequences for breaking these rules. ⁸ It’s not because God was mean or He’s some sort of police officer or executioner. We are NOT characters in a video game God is playing looking down on us and waiting to press “DESTROY”.

God was trying to get us to get back to that place of oneness with him. Wow, can you imagine the Israelites, seeing all these wonders, the Red Sea parting and destroying their enemies, being led by a cloud to shield them from the sun during the day and a pillar of fire to warm them at night, food from heaven, and water from a rock. I mean, God was there! ^{3, 4 and 5} Wow, our loving God was there, and He wanted this oneness to continue, so He set up these rules to keep them in tune with Him. But, they broke the rules, so God tries again. He orders the construction of the Ark of the Covenant, so they could carry the very presence of God wherever they went. ¹¹ Again, they broke the rules. To put it in a way that you’d understand, I mean, at this point, God is like stalking them, saying “please be my friend, please be my friend” but the Israelites, shunning the very presence of God, want to turn to idols and elect a king like they saw their neighbors doing. There was a reason why God kept them circling the same mountain for 40 years, ⁶ they had 40 years to be prepared, to be SO in tune with God that when they got to their neighbors who worshipped all these other false Gods, they would know for sure that their God was the one true God, but even 40 years didn’t help them.

God is my Dad-Intro

I guess this is the first sermon I've ever written. Its 10 pages long, it has scripture references and everything. This is the first time, I ever thought, "wow, I can actually do this" It started off as me trying to write down my testimony and it just blew up into this. So, over the next couple of weeks, I hope you like it, and it shows you a little bit more about who God is.