An Excellent Life - Part 2

"With this ring I the wed, and all that I am and all that I have I give thee." With words like these a marriage is born. A group of men sign a piece of paper — is a declaration for Independence — and they end with these words: "We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, our sacred honor" in a nation is born. A witness puts their hand on a Bible. A business person puts their name on a contract. A friend vows to keep a secret that another friend has shared with them in confidence.

This is the truth about who we are as human beings: we are promise making people. Marriages and families and friendships and businesses and churches and nations are built upon promises that are there. The truth is, we are promise making creatures. But there's also another truth about you and I: we are promise breakers. As powerful as the truth is that we are promised makers, it's as equally powerful of a truth that we are promised breakers. We say sometimes, "I will be there," and we don't show up. We say, "You can count on me," but sometimes you can't. We pledge our honor, and even sometimes we toss it aside for the sake of convenience, or even the opportunity to avoid pain.

Children learn this early on as they talk with their parents and their guardians, and as things are being told to them, quite often times you'll hear a child say, "Do you promise?" For a child, it's unfathomable that a grown adult would somehow tell them something that's different, so they need some assurance. Oftentimes they ask, "Do you promise?" But that's not enough, because then they'll start attaching other things to it: "Do you — do you cross your heart?" You know how it goes. Take it a little bit further: "Do you hope to die?" And if it isn't serious enough at that point, they'll say, "Stick a needle in your eye." Kind of a gruesome thing to think about there, what we teach our kids sometimes. But those — to the length of the promise.

If the Declaration of Independence had been written by six-year-olds, it probably would have said something along the lines of, "We promise to give our — our lives and our property, and we — we promise to even die and stick a needle in our eye." The point is — and the Bible has a word for all this promise-making business that revolves around the heart of a relationship with God and even involves worship — it's a word that we don't hear a lot in our modern society, but it does not negate the power of the word, and that is covenant. A covenant is not a statement about preferred outcome, that if all things were being equal, that's what we want to happen. But a covenant is a solid and solemn vow. It is a sacred pledge. It is a subtle declaration of heart and soul, saying, "It shall be so."

Now, this very concept of covenant is what Malachi — who we started looking at last week — is talking about when we get to chapter two of his little book that separates the Old Testament from the New, just before we go into the years of silence where there's no open prophecy or a vision. Malachi, being moved on by God's Spirit, begins to pin words to try to right some wrongs that have been — been going on for quite a long time. And — and last Sunday, as I opened up this series talking about how you and I can live an excellent life, Malachi starts off by talking about how disgraceful and disrespectful it was that people were bringing blemished lambs to be sacrificed. Last week I talked about that: you and I should always be mindful that when we come to the house of God — I'm coming here to bring my best, not my leftover. I shouldn't be giving my best at work and bringing something less than that when I come to the house of God. I shouldn't be given my best at school. I shouldn't be given best to my hobbies. I should be giving my best to the one who gave his best for me. Thus it always be on my mind: I should never come into the house of God with less than when I appear before the Great I Am.

And as we continue our study into this small book, chapter 2, we begin to see this word show up over and over again — this — what — this word that I said just a few minutes ago: the concept of a covenant. Malachi says it's at the heart of relationships. It's at the heart of — of keeping faith and honoring your work and your commitment and having trust in. Malachi not only says that a covenant is at the heart of — of relational excellence in a life well spent, but Malachi also says that the one who sets the bar on — on how we are to — to have a covenant relationship is God. And as I said last week, he's an excellent God. He is an excellent God. God sets the standards of excellence for us. And — and God is a covenant making God. And my hope and my prayer today is to explain further what the covenant is, and hopefully that we can all have a better appreciation of what he has already given us.

God promises to give us life and breath and food and meaningful relationships. He — he, in his word — as you read through this — through this holy scriptures, and I encourage you to have your own copy of the word; don't just rely on technology, just don't rely on it being here. Sometimes I think we need to throw these things away; they track us too much. I think it'd be good just to have a good old analog copy where you can — where you can thumb through it, where you can feel it and hold it, and — and pull it tight in your time of prayer. There's something about holding the word of God that's special — something extra special — when he fills you with his spirit and you have his word there; it comes alive in your hands, and you can read what God has for you.

And as you begin to read, what you will see is — is we have a God who's about making a covenant relationship with you and I. He's a God of promises, and he's a God who keeps his promises. He keeps his word. And as I say many times, he is a faithful God. He is a faithful God. He is a faithful God. If you don't believe he's faithful, just sit around and watch the sun rise and set. He is a faithful God. You can count on him more than you can count on the sunrise. And you can count on him being faithful to you into your life. He is a covenant keeping God.

As you read through the beginning of mankind, God's promises there in the Book of Genesis — the very first beginning book that is in the Bible — will see that he — he is all about a relationship. Even when the relationship was broken, we — we stand back and we try to see: what is he going to do with this disobedient creation that he has? Is he simply just going to wipe them out, or what's going to take place? But he has mercy, and he doesn't do that. Amazing enough, he makes another promise. God's promises at the very beginning is that one day he's going to send someone who will redeem man and woman from the evil one and from the curse that got put into place there in Genesis chapter 3. He makes clothes for them, because God cares for them.

And human beings, however, don't seem to get much more faithful. It's a sad love story that begins to unfold as you read through the scriptures. And then — and then things go on, and I'm giving you a very small condensed version of — of the — of the history of mankind. From the — from the time they leave the garden, man doesn't get much better. And one day God gets so frustrated with how things have turned out, and the violence and all that's taking place, that he decides he's going to send a flood to stop all this distraction. But in the middle of that, there's — there's somebody who has a relationship with God, that has his attention: it's a man named Noah, and it — begins to speak to Noah and says, "No, I'm going to save you and your family." And after the flood, Noah came to — or God came to know — and said, "I'm going to establish my covenant, my relationship with you," because he's always about the promise. He's always about the covenant. And he says, "Look, I'm not going to destroy the world ever again by a foot. I'm going to give you a sign that's going to prove my covenant to you." He gives him a rainbow, and Noah says, "Cool, I got a rainbow." I know society has turned that into something else, but I'm here to tell you: it's God's covenant. It's God's sign. I don't care what kind of label they put on that; it doesn't belong to them. It belongs to God. And it was a sign of a promise. It was a sign of a covenant. It was a sign that, "I'm faithful, and you can trust me, and I give you my word, and every time you see it you should only be thinking about how good and how wonderful and how faithful I am."

But again, things don't go the way — and human race seems to be very slow to learn, and they still are filled with corruption and violence. But God remembers his covenant promise, and he refuses to give up on mankind. So it comes one more time to a man named Abram, and he says to Abram, "I'm going to make a covenant with you." And I'm going to get into this a little bit deeper towards the end of my message, but to give you the start of it, he says, "I'm going to change your name. Your name is going to be Abraham. It's going to be the father of many — the father of many nations. And — and here's what I'm going to do for you, Abram: I'm going to make a covenant with you. You're going to have a child, and — and you're going to bear it." And then Abram — Abram was already getting old. In fact, it was 99 when his son is born, and — and he has this — this promise fulfilled, and his wife is 89 years old, and God's like, "You're going to be the only — only three people that don't have a tooth between you, and you're going to go to Walmart and buy diapers and the pins at the same time, and it's going to be — be something special there for you." I'm encouraging somebody today: it's not over yet.

"Abraham, I'm going to make a covenant with you. I'm going to establish something with you. It's going to be special. I'm going to call this covenant circumcision." Abraham's like, "No, we got a rainbow. We talk about this for a minute. Can I get a hangnail or something? Why is it — what — do we have to go to extremes?" Moms and dads, I'll let you work on that later at home.

The human beings are still quite faithless, and God comes to a man named Moses, and he said, "Moses, I promise I'm going to deliver my people and you from the land of slavery, from the bondage they've got themselves entrapped in. I'm going to lead you out from danger, and I'm going to take you and your descendants to a land that flows with milk and honey." And far more than a land, more than geography, God says, "I want to — I want to be your God. I want you to be my people." Listen to the words I'm saying. I know I'm going quickly through history, but my point is not so much to history as much as the faithfulness of a God who's constantly coming back and reestablishing a relationship to faithless people. He's constantly saying, "Look, I'm making promises to you. I'm making covenants to you, because I'm desperate to have a relationship with you. I'm gonna — I'm gonna do whatever I can so that you know I'm a God who can keep his word, and I love you. I want you to be my people."

And as a sign, God gave Moses the law on tablets, and he placed them in a — in this special box that was called the Ark of the Covenant. It was carrying the relationship that was penned out, that was there. Every time the people saw that, they remembered the promise: that they were people of the promise; the God they served was a covenant keeping God. And yet, in spite of all these things and all these signs, the people were not faithful. They did not carry out God's — God's desires. They were rebellious, and they broke their word. And yet God is still pursuing them relentlessly. He will not give up on his promise.

And then God came one day, rode himself in flesh, and came to this earth, and he began to teach about his love and his faithfulness. In the night before he died, he stood before his friends and he held a cup and said, "This is the cup of a new covenant," talking about the sacrifice — the ultimate one — his expression for his people, for his children. And through the cross, God says, "I love you no matter what. Across my heart and I hope to die," because it's only through that sacrifice that redemption was possible for you and I. I'll come back to that in a minute.

God is an excellent covenant-keeping, covenant making God. He's excellent. God never enters into a covenant in a rash way. You and I — I guarantee you — and I — I don't want to say I'm speaking for everybody, but I feel comfortable speaking for everybody — that you and I have made promises in our life and we did it in a rash way. We didn't always think about what we were saying. We didn't always know fully what we were agreeing to. It just felt okay in the moment, and we said, "I promise. I'll give you my word. I'll be there," not — not knowing full well that we would not be able to fulfill everything that we have promised to do in our life.

God never does that. He doesn't enter into a covenant relationship or a covenant promise without having already thought through the process of what he's agreeing to. God thinks very carefully before he makes a promise about what he's doing. He never enters into it in a casual way. Once God makes a covenant, he never goes back on his word. He never goes back — listen to me — he never goes back on his word. It doesn't matter the cost. It doesn't matter how inconvenient. He has never failed to honor a single commitment. He has never forgotten the tiniest promise. He has never broken a single vow.

The Apostle Paul said in second Corinthians 1 and 20: "For all the promises of God in him are yes, and in him Amen, to the glory of God through us." But I think the most striking thing about our God — this covenant making God — is that he is faithful even though his people are not faithful, even though we are promised breakers, even though we repent and we get in trouble and we promise to reform, and then we turn around and pain comes and we walk away and we turn our back on him and we give him our word — it doesn't mean anything. Even then — even then — God never slips one degree south of total trustworthiness. He is a faithful, and he is a true God. Regardless of how faithful we are, he is faithful and he is true. He is faithful and he is true.

I feel like sometimes why some — and I feel this in the Holy Ghost today very strong — while some people struggle in their relationship with God is because they can only process it through their own ability to keep their word. But I'm here to tell you: God is not you. God is not man. Let God be true in every man a liar — that's what the word says. I'm telling you: he is a covenant-keeping, promise keeping God. Whatever has been spoke over you — I promise you, it hasn't come to pass yet — it will come to pass. He is a God who always keeps his word. Crowd is simply incapable of bad. Second Timothy 2 13: "If we are faithless, he remains faithful; he cannot deny himself." He sets a standard for commitment, that he keeps his covenant no matter what. He is about relational excellence.

Now Malachi has some very — serious things to start out. I know I haven't gotten there yet, but we're going to go to Malachi 2. Will open up to Malachi too. It's the book right before Matthew. It's — it's the end of the Old Testament and just before the New Testament begins. To me, as I get into studying this out, as you see here in Malachi chapter 2, that God has some very serious things to say. He says this in verse number 10: "Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another by profaning the covenant of the fathers?"

I want you to know that God is very serious about how he — he takes covenant breaking. At the beginning of — of this second chapter here, Malachi talks about priests who are breaking covenant by failing to keep their — their commitments to God. These are the people who — who are — who are called to be priests, who made promises to be spiritual Gods to those who need spiritual, uh, guidance in their life. And — and we see here that they're breaking their covenant. They begin to offer sacrifices. They engage in worship. But they seem to blow off the relationships with the people they — you may have known somebody like that in ministry: that — that they were all about the — the — the — the process of ministry, but when I come down to meeting — meeting the people where they were at, they — they seem to be always unavailable, never — never there to help with a guiding word, or to say a prayer, to give some encouragement. I want you to tell you: God's not about that kind of ministry. And — and I want you to know from the bottom of my heart, from someone who is — who's been in ministry for a long time: if there's been someone who has hurt you in ministry, I'm sorry. Let me say that as somebody who's in ministry to you: I'm sorry. If someone hurts you, I apologize. Maybe they don't do it, but I will do it for you, because I don't want there to be any hindrance or any stumbling blocks for you to have a relationship with God. We're just fallible human beings too. That's not an excuse — I'm not — I'm not saying that. I'm simply letting you know that — that there was only one perfect human being that ever lived, and he died at Calvary for the rest of us. The rest of us are needing grace and mercy every day of our life. And if somebody treated you less than — if somebody — somebody did something that was disrespectful or hurtful or spiteful to you, that they did it under the umbrella ministry — let me tell you, I'm sorry that they did that. Please don't let this skew your view of God. God loves you, and he is faithful, and he is a covenant-keeping God. Man will make mistakes. Sometimes ministry will make mistakes. But God doesn't make a mistake. Please don't hold what we do against him.

God's very serious. So we see that in Malachi too. At the very beginning of the chapter he says this to the ministry in verse number three: "Behold, I will corrupt your seed" — listen to the words here — "and spread dung up on your faces, and dung of your solemn feast, and — and one shall take you away with it." I don't know about you, but that's pretty rough, how God feels about that. He — he's saying, "I'm not going to accept what you do if you can't have a relationship with the people. Why are you even here? Don't try to keep my covenant. You can't be with the people. You offer sacrifices. You go through the motions of worship. But you're a covenant breaker. I'll do whatever I have to do to let you know that I don't agree with that."

God says — I want to challenge us today, us, me too. I want to challenge us, and I'm gonna slow down for just a minute, because I don't want — I don't want to go so fast through this that you miss how important what — what Malachi is writing, as God's moving on him, how important relationships are to you and I. As I said on Wednesday, as I was teaching about holiness, I was talking about how the overwhelming majority of the time — is God's referring to the church — he refers to the church as his bride. It's a special relationship that is there. It's not — it's not a casual relationship. It's — it's a special relationship. And in Malachi too, he's beginning to pick up on some of these things, as God's talking to Malachi, begins to write. I want you listen to what he says when he talks about marriage, here in verse number 13. We're reading from the New Living Translation: "Here's another thing you do: you cover the Lord's altars with tears, weeping and groaning, because he pays no attention to your offerings and doesn't accept them with pleasure." Verse 14: "You cry out, 'Why doesn't the Lord accept my worship?' I'll tell you why: because the Lord witnessed the vows you and your wife made when you were young, but you have been unfaithful to her, though she remained your faithful partner, your wife of your marriage vows."

God says, "Don't be illusioned. I don't want your worship if you can't keep your vow in your marriage. I don't want you worship if you can't have a right relationship with your spouse and try to come before me. You try to cry out and you wonder what's wrong. You need to work on the covenant relationship that you made. It's not to be treated casually. It's something that's special, that is there." It's a very sobering statement to me. God says: if you break faith with your spouse, don't bother coming to him with your wish list. Don't waste your breath. And he makes one of the strongest statements in the scripture in Malachi 2 16. He says: "For I hate divorce, says the Lord, the god of Israel. To divorce your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty, says the Lord God of Heaven's Army. So guard your heart and don't be unfaithful to your wife."

You see, when you get married — and if you're married — you didn't make a bargain; you made a promise. He didn't just have a transaction; you made a vow. You made a covenant relationship. And to violate a covenant is a very serious deal in God's eyes. Many people in our day and age, in our — in our society, simply view marriage as a conditional transaction: as long as my needs are being met and my expectations are being met, we can keep this going. But the moment it becomes inconvenient, in the moment I'm not happy and no more — the moment — not — not that I have any issues here — I — I don't — I don't have any obligation to you; I can simply walk away. It's not how God viewed marriage. It's not how he views it at all. In God's eyes, marriage is a covenant. It is — it is built upon a promise, and it leads to a very different outcome in life. It's something that's very, very serious. It's not — it's not "for better or better" — for better or worse.

If you're here today and you're married, you made a promise. You made a covenant. Many of you wear a ring. I wear a ring on my hand. It's part of a reminder of a commitment that I made to my wife, because Val's spoken sometimes can easily be forgotten. This was — this was a sign for me to look down. Yeah, it's a sign sometimes for the world to look around and see that I belong. But I'm gonna tell you right now: wearing a ring in this society doesn't mean anything anymore. So it's for me; it's for me to know that I'm committed to her in my life. I — I promised that I would give my life, and — and that promise is more than just happy moments. It's more than just when things are going good. It's — it's for Richard, for poor, and sickness and health, to love and the cherished. It's when health doesn't work out the way it's supposed to. We promise we would laugh together and cry together and dance together, than if we had to fight, we would fight fair. And that our love would be deeper than crow's feet and laugh lines and receding hairlines and bulging waistlines, and that — flappy skin underneath your arms. He didn't say that: "If I promise — if you behave well, I'll stay. If you — long as you stay attractive and meet my standards, I'm here." We made a vow. How are you living up to it? You're married in this room — how are you living up to that? I'm watching the relationships, is very close to me. Most of you understand why I'm saying it the way I'm saying it: the beauty of a love commitment when life doesn't go the way it's supposed to, and one has to say, "I gave my word, till death do us part." And I see — I think, did we really understand what we were saying when we stood there across from each other, so starstruck and in love with each other? And let's be honest: most of us didn't have a clue what life was really about. We didn't have a clue what love was really about. But yeah, there we are: "All that I have and all that I am and all that I ever be, I give to you."

And it's awesome when you spend the next 50 or 60 years, and there's never a health issue, and both of you stay skinny, and you keep all your teeth and your hair. It's another thing when it doesn't go the way it was planned. Does it negate the covenant that you made? Doesn't take it away. You stood there before your friends. You stood there and decided, of all that, most importantly, he stood in the presence of God, and you said, "I pledge my life to you." And God says, "I'll join you in this, because marriage is my institution. Marriage is what I created, that's special. Marriage is the best way I know to describe my relationship with my church, so I'll join you. It's a special thing." And then when we treat it so casually, it frustrates him. He says, "How can you profane what I call as holy? For you to treat that casually is for you to treat me casually, because I view our relationship the same."

Maybe your marriage hasn't been well. Maybe it's been broken. Maybe the covenant was broken. Some of you were there in this room, I know, and I don't want you to — I don't want you to miss this point. Maybe you had a spouse that was unfaithful or abusive, and refused to change or refuse to engage. I'm gonna tell you right now: you do not have to live in an abusive situation. That is not God's. That doesn't honor God. Okay? Now, there are some conditions here, and we can talk about that a little bit more than another time if you want to. I'm available to you to talk about where we are and what that looks like. But I want you to please, please hear Pastor today: God says he hates divorce. He does not say he hates divorced people. Please hear me: he hates divorce, but he does not hate divorced people. He is still your God, and he is still pulling for you. The Bible does not separate us into two categories: good and respectable non-divorced, and divorced bad. It doesn't do that. He says — the Bible says, "All have sinned." That's a big category. It says, "All have sinned and come short." All of us have. And if — and if you have been through a situation like that, I want you to know: God loves you. God loves you. God loves you. God loves you just as much as he loves me. So please — I know there's sometimes shame, and there's hurt, and there's all these things involved in that — but — but listen to me: God loves you, and he has made a promise to you, regardless of promises that you have broken. And if others have broke against you, God is keeping his covenant with you.

If you've experienced broken marital covenant, I — I want you to know there's grace and mercy, and I want you to know you're in a good church here. We would love you. We will help you get to where you need to be.

Malachi goes on and talk about the relationship through the family. Talks about importance. You know, in a wedding, when we — when we — when we do that, we stand usually in front of at least a few witnesses. Sometimes it's a room full like this. Sometimes it's just a small two or three, intimate weddings. You know, as a — as a father of three daughters, I kind of think small weddings are cool. Yeah. I think there's something about that makes them special. Yeah, remote location somewhere. Kids show up, though — that's different, right? Right. They show up, and then you got a whole covenant relationship there with a kid. But it's not something you speak out loud. They just kind of pop in there, and — and they come with their own set of unique rules, right? And each one's different. How many, or — or parenting multiples in the room? Yeah. And how — how true is that statement: they're — they're all different. Yeah. What worked with one, that doesn't really work with the other one at all. And then what worked with that one doesn't work with the third. Now, if you got more than three, you could pass me — you get with brother Bigler; he can let you know about how that works.

Kids come with this — with this relationship clause: this is attachment, this — this deal that's — that — that is a parent: you're — this is how God wants it to be, is the — is that, "I'll be there for you no matter what. I will love you no matter what. I will equip you for life. I'll feed you. I'll read you. I'll teach you, uh, all the things I know to teach you. I'll teach you about friends and about love and about men and about women and about — about money. I'll teach you what's right and wrong, and I'll teach you about God. And then the times come, and — and when it's right, I will let you go, no strings attached. And I'll do this whether you are genetically gifted or genetically challenged, whether other people in this world think that you're a shining star or you're just average."

I don't know who I'm speaking to. You — you have — you may have the most brilliant kids out there, and then they're good looking, sharp and smart. Or you may — you may have one that doesn't meet some of those categories. I — I want you to know: it doesn't matter. No matter what, you're to be the parent. How are you doing the promise, moms and dads? How are you doing there? Are you there? Are you engaged? Are you apart? I'm going to tell you something: you — your — your kids desire some things. They desire a relationship with you that is appropriate. You really can't be their best friend and be their mom and dad — not — not when they're young. Maybe when they're older — you may Kill Me Not only — at some point you have to be a disciplinarian. At some point you have to say no. At some point you have to set the boundaries. At some point you have to explain: "Maybe you don't get this right now, honey, but I promise when you get older it'll make sense." How are you doing on your promise? Are you there? Are you present? Do you need enough time?

I have used this example before, but when kids are little, you know, situations happen. And I know sometimes that we can all get busy, and we think, you know, "I'm going to do something big with them. I'm going to carry them somewhere. We're going to go down and see that goofy Mouse in Florida. Or we're gonna — we're gonna do whatever. We're gonna spend some time, because I've been away with work and I've been all this. I'm gonna — I'm gonna tell you something." With a kid, they'll enjoy the moment. But if you set them down — and I'll use this, and I think this will make sense to you — now, those of us that are — they're — they're adults in the room, you know, you — if I ask you, would you like for me to — to give you some — just — just — just one bowl of Bluebell cookie step ice cream, two-step — just one bowl? You could have one bowl of that, or I could go over here and get the Kroger Brand five gallon of chocolate ice cream. Most sane adults — there's always exceptions, but be like, "Just give me the ball." Am I right, brother Isaac? Yeah. In case there's — there's a ration someday and you need BlueBell ice cream, brother Isaac has a freezer full at his house, always. What am I saying? This: if you sat down to ask a kid, that you ask a five-year-old, Marco, if you ask your kids, like, you put one bowl of ice cream and then you put a bucket of ice cream, which one are they gonna pick? The bucket, every time, right? Because the kid — right? More is better. Quality doesn't matter. More is always better. Are you listening to me, Mom and Dad's? We're like, "Well, I'm going to give him quality time." No — you know your kid wants time. They want time. Are you okay, everybody? All right with this? If it hurt your toes, it was intended, to just put it out there. I'm not done yet.

How are you doing on this promise? You see, what I feel like we — we fail to realize — and I'm not ending; I know this sometimes signals everybody that I'm ending — God's just changing something. I want you to know how serious God is about this covenant stuff. See, to really get your head around how important it is, and — and how everything is tied together — the relationships are all tied together, how it all makes sense — it's what's important that you spend some time studying the word of God. If you haven't had that time, it's okay. Please don't feel bad. I'm going to do my best to try to explain this better, so you get it today.

Mankind — they fell in the garden. And I've already told you, to begin this message, his desire was to keep coming back and to have that covenant relationship, and he kept reestablishing. He went to Nowhere — no, I'll give you the rainbow. I think it's that to Abram, and I'll spend a minute here. But you need to also remember: in Genesis 3, God foretells of something to come. After the fall took place, he said, "Look, there's — there's a deal." He's looking at this — he's looking at the serpent — saying, "Look, you're going to try to keep nipping, but he's going to crush you one day." He — he's referencing something that's to come. It starts there in the very beginning, in Genesis 3.

But this — this takes on a whole new meaning by the time we get to Genesis chapter 15, as he's with Abraham and he's talking about what he wants to do and how he's going to establish his covenant relationship. With here, we get to see a real foreshadow of things that are coming. If you're a note taker, I would encourage you to take notes, if you — if you like this, because yeah, this is going to go in — in — in — in a deep way, and — and some of you may need to go back and review this in a minute. Okay, so — so take notes if you're taking notes, because this is something that God revealed to me.

He's with Abraham there, and he says, "Look, I want to establish something." And he tells me — he wants to go get some animals. So he tells them — he says, "Look, I need you to — I need you to get, like, it was like a ram and a lamb and a turtle dove and a pigeon. So come on, Ram, lamb, turtle dove, and pigeon." So — aren't they good looking? Ram, lamb, turtle dove, and pigeon, come on up here. Are you all okay? Everybody okay? I'm gonna take a minute to set this up. So he — he does this, and he says, "Look, I'm gonna —" He — and again, he's talking to — he's talking — "Come on here, Taylor. Come on, you need to be Abraham. Bring a chair with you." He kind of looks like Abraham, doesn't he? Uh, now, Abraham, I want you to sit right — I want you to get in this chair right here and just sit right here. Face the crowd. Abraham, you look good for 90. So he gets the — the pigeon and a turtle dove and the lamb — and you got to be a ram this time. All right, now here's the deal. So he tells him — he's like, "I want you to sacrifice these." So he begins to, you know, cut them in half. "So I'll cut you in half, and lay down. Yeah, there you go. I'll cut you — now lay this way. There you go. May be dead, but you still got to do what I tell you to do. You guys go down that way." So — and he comes up here and he gets the lamb and he cuts it. Now imagine he's cut in half. "All right, there you go. Now you lay down. There you go, like that. Go this way. There we go. Now you know which way to go, right?" Okay, so — but it gets to the birds, and it says don't split the birds. "So you should feel good. I just got to ring your neck right here. And then you, pigeon, lay down right here. A good pigeon. That's good. Over that way a little bit."

Now what he's doing is here — is he's establishing something, and you can read about it in Genesis 15. He kills these things, and he's — he's establishing a covenant relationship. I may know this story 10 15. He's doing his sacrifice. He's telling me something special. This is powerful, what's going on now. So Abraham's over here. But here's the deal: is God knows — he's already witnessed up at this point that man's really struggling in his faithfulness. That God keeps his covenant — he keeps his word, he keeps doing everything he says he's going to do — but man doesn't. Man — man doesn't. So he's with Abraham. He's, "Abraham, I'm going to do something special in you. Look, will be your God. I mean, people out of your seed, we're going to populate this thing. It's going to happen out of you. But here's the deal: I can't trust you to keep your end of the bargain." So he puts him to sleep. He lays him down. Now, you can go in the story that he — after he killed the animals, God made him wait the whole day, and he's driving off the buzzards and everything. But he puts him into a sleep. And then it says this — says this — this little fire comes down around the sacrifice that is there.

Now, what would happen — and the reason they would do this — is, is there were a lot of people who would enter into business contracts, and they would kill an animal, and they would divide it, and then they would walk into the middle of the — they would walk into the middle of the — of the sacrifice there, and they would shake a hand. And what they were doing is saying, "Let this happen to me if I don't keep my end of the bargain." Powerful visual, right? You're looking around saying, "I don't want to make —" I mean, if they did that down at the bank, right — he had to go in there and get in a car loan — I said, "Okay, well, here's a deal, all right?" And they just ripped your car in half, and one on each side, and said, "Now we're gonna walk between this and shake a hand. Now, if you don't make the payments —" Maybe they need to do that; they quit repoing stuff. That's what's going on.

But so — so Abraham is understanding there's a — there's a contract taking place. But God puts him to sleep and says, "Look, I'm going to make you the unilateral recipient of a covenant relationship, and I know you can't keep it." So God, who stands outside of time — he's both the beginning and the end — he gets on one end of the covenant and begins to walk towards the other. There's a timeline represented here. John 1 and 1, it says, "And when the word became flesh, he dwelt Among Us." Verse 14: "We behold his glory," right — the ones that way — but then the word became flesh in verse 14. He's on the other side too. It's — it's God walking towards himself, because he's not in time. He's out of time. Are you okay?

Well, over here on time, God puts him to sleep. He says, "There's something coming. I'm making a relationship with you. I'm making a relationship with you, Abraham. But here's the deal: you — you can't — keep the bargain. And what has to go — so I'm — I'm going to prove that I can be faithful." Hebrews chapter 6 and — says, "When he could swore by no other, he swore by himself." Paul, who I believe wrote Hebrews — I can't prove it, but I just feel like it; you maybe come up with a convincing argument for who you think did, but I think it was Paul — he's — he's going back, whoever the writer Hebrews is, going back to this moment. He's going back to this relationship. But here — because between the relationship, between the sacrifices — God meets in the middle, and he's bringing one end of time with the other, and he's pulling them together and said, "There's going to — there's going to come a moment when that covenant relationship will come to fulfillment at Calvary."

I — I know this because if you go to Hebrews chapter 6, verse 13 says: "For when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no other greater, he swore by himself, saying, Surely blessings I will bless you, in multiply and I will multiply you. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men indeed swear by the greater, in an oath for confirmation is for them to this end of all dispute. Thus God, determined to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise immutability of his counsel, and confirmed it by an oath, that two — by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we have a strong consolation, and we have fled the Refuge to lay hold of the hope that is set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the Soul, both sure and steadfast, which enters into the presence behind the veil."

What was he doing? "Abraham, you got to be asleep. You got to be asleep over there. Abraham's asleep. You can't keep it, Abraham. So I'm going to make you a unilateral recipient about what I'm fixing to do. Between these sacrifices, I am pledging a promise that one day there's going to be a better that's going to come. It's going to come robed in flesh, because flesh has to die for the sacrifice. Flesh has to — blood has to be shed. There's no redemption without the shedding of blood." So he is foretelling in Genesis 15 what's going to take place in the gospel. And Paul's writing about it and says, "We have this hope. It's an anchor, and beyond the Veil" — because the veil was torn from top to bottom. No longer do I have to have a priest to go to, but my high priest May made the ultimate sacrifice for me long time ago. And it came to pass.

Why am I telling this, is because we serve a God who keeps his word, who keeps his promise, every time. It doesn't matter how much you've messed up. It doesn't matter what situation you've gotten yourself in. It doesn't matter how bad you have failed. There's a God who will keep his promise to redeem you, regardless — regardless — regardless — regardless. It doesn't have anything to do with you, and it has everything to do with what he did. He walked through the sacrifices. He died in Calvary. Why? To keep his promise.

Thank you, guys. Thank you. I feel the Holy Ghost moving today. There's somebody in this room feels like you're disqualified. You're not. You're not. You're not beyond his reach. You're not beyond the covenant. You're not beyond the relationship. You're not. He keeps his promise. He is faithful and true, even though you're not faithful and true, and I'm not faithful and true. Even though you've checked out, and I've checked out, and we've lied at times, he is true to his word, time and time again. Our God is desperate to be in a relationship with you, and he did everything he needed to do already to keep his end of the bargain.

So I ask you: how is your relationship with him? How was your relationship with him? You were without excuse. You are real without excuse. He keeps his covenant. It boils down to this: it's you choosing to not accept covenant. It's you choosing to reject what he has already done. Why would anybody do that? Why would you willingly walk away from something that you couldn't even keep to start with? And he says, "I — look, I'm not asking you to keep it. I'll keep it. I'll keep — I'll cover the sins. You can't be good enough, but I'll be good enough." And all he asks in return is for you to simply bring your life, give it to him.

So I ask you again, as I close — ask you again: how are you doing keeping your covenants? How are you doing in your marriage? How are you doing with your kids? How are you doing in your friendships? But most importantly, how is your relationship with him? An excellent life is a life lived committed to an excellent God. That's what Malachi was doing in chapter two, is he was coming back and saying, "Look, Ministry, you're not above this. You got your own problems. And if you're not doing it right — if you can't meet the people — then I'm — I'll spread down all over you." And then he gets down the marriage and says, "Why are you laying on an altar? Why are you crying out? Why do you — do you want to know why I'm not answering your prayers? Is because you're not dealing with, in the right way, with your spouse." How are you handling your kids?

So as I close today, this altar is open, and there's a covenant-keeping God who is here. And somebody in this room has somehow mentally disqualified himself. That is a lie from hell. You are not disqualified. Our God is still relentlessly pursuing you. It doesn't matter what you've done. I don't care how bad it is. I don't care — I don't — I don't care what you've said. I know some people getting all this stuff, and if you want to talk about blasphemy and what that means, you and I can have a sidebar conversation. I'm gonna tell you right now: God is reaching for you. He's reaching for you right now — right now. And if you will just — just surrender, I promise you, you'll find the covenant keeping God is running at you. He's running for you in this place.

I want to pray, and this altar is open. They're going to sing. They'll play some music. We're gonna have a moment. We're gonna go afterwards — we'll get over to the connect fair. But I know in my spirit, God desires a restoration in this place. I feel it. There's a restoration that needs to take place in this room. There's a covenant keeping God who's saying, "Look, I'll walk between the chairs. I'll go between the sacrifices. I did all I needed to do to keep my end. Will you just come? Will you just come?"

If you bow your heads, I'm going to pray. The softer is open whenever you feel to come. "Jesus, you are a covenant keeping God. If you keep your word, you keep your promises — every — every one of them, to the smallest details. God, I know without a doubt, there have been promises spoke over lives that said in this room today that have yet to come to pass, and some are struggling with that. But Lord, I prayed today they would fill your presence pulling at them. They would hear you one more time, saying, 'Trust me, it will come to pass.' God, give us the courage and a boldness to step out from where we are, God, to push past the shame, to push past the regret, to find a place of restoration in you. In the mighty name of Jesus, let it be done." Amen. It's prayer time, church. I'm going to pray for those that have come. If you feel to join us, we're going to spend a little time in prayer today.