Covenant Keeping

Hello, and welcome to the Salt Church Podcast. Thank you for tuning in to this week's message. Join us as we explore God's Word providing practical teaching for day-to-day living. The message you are about to hear was recorded live at our Sunday morning worship experience. If you would like to learn more about Salt Church, please visit us at saltchurch.

org. We hope that you are encouraged by today's message. But relationship goals are the idea is that people post these pictures and and post and it's something of them. Sometimes they're doing interesting things. Sometimes it's romantic things.

And we look at those and we're like hashtag relationship goals, right? This is what the ideal situation that we want in our relationship. So when we look at those, we're just like, wow, you know, that's amazing. They're out there. They're out hiking on the side of a cliff and and they're looking over the beautiful terrain.

And and that's what I want. And or you see them in a a romantic situation such as a restaurant and they're they're they're kind of laid back or they're maybe they're in the maybe you're a warm weather person. Maybe you're Hawaii kind of that. That's kind of your thing. And and they're out on the beach, you know, and it's like hashtag relationship goals.

This is what we want. This is a goal we're aiming towards. This is what we're getting to is a very, very popular statement on social media. So we've taken that concept and made a series out of it. And we've been sharing some of the things that we feel that are God centered, Christ centered, God honoring relationship goals.

Because the fact is that the things that you see on social media aren't real. Can I get an amen on that? Because those of you that are married, amen, right? Those that have been married and maybe have been through divorces or things like that. Can you say amen?

Right. Amen. It's it's it's hard. Marriage is hard. Marriage is very difficult.

And it's not although it's the ideal, it's just not real. And that's what we're doing. We're looking behind the scenes of relationships and really digging into that. So we've been kind of going through this. You know, when you enter into marriage, it's it's always a little different than you think it is.

Right. Right. I mean, when you're dating, it's like opposites attract. Right. You look at that person or they're so like that, that, that person that I just love it that he's so laid back.

Right. He's so laid back and he just doesn't get upset about anything. But when you enter into the marriages, opposites attack. Right. You're so lazy.

Get off the couch playing your video game. You know, I wish he would have something or maybe you're you're the organized type. Right. And you think it's cool that the other one's so creative and so all over. Oh, they're just creative.

They're the creative type. But when you get married, you know, I wish they would be a little more organized or vice versa. I wish they'd be a little more creative or maybe one's punctual and one's flexible and you're dealing with those. Yeah. Flexible is a nice way of putting it.

So when you're dating, they're just nothing is wrong with them. No, everything is cute. Everything they do is so cute. Right. But but you just don't know until you get into the marriage, until you get into the relationship.

And you're like, well, I just never knew that it was going to be this way. I never knew he or she had no interest in in how to save and and money and and and all these little things that we don't think about when we're outside the marriage. So it's important for us to know when we come into a relationship to have the right kind of relationship goals. And, you know, so so relationships almost never end up the way we expect them. So that's why we're looking at we looked at week one, a Christ centered marriage.

We looked at how keeping Christ in the center of your marriage really changes everything. And then we built upon that by having a mission driven. So you're Christ centered. Then you become mission driven. You have a common mission, a common goal in your marriage.

And we build on that because if you have a common mission, guess what the devil is going to do? He's going to try to distract you. He's going to try to seduce you. He's going to try to divide you because the enemy, that's what he does. Right.

Well, God brings together the enemy divides. So we have to have a devil stomping prayer warrior. We're going to fight for our marriage relationship. Right. Because the devil is going to attack.

And I can tell you last week there, you can hear a pin drop in here last week. We were talking about subduction and we talked about some of those things that God or Satan uses in our life. So this week I want to talk about covenant keeping, covenant keeping, because if we have a Christ centered, a mission driven, driven devil stomping, we can have none of this unless we understand what covenant keeping is. And we'll talk about covenant today. If you have your Bibles, turn to Matthew 19, three through six.

And this is kind of where we're going. You have Jesus, you have the Pharisees and the Pharisees are trying to get Jesus here. They're always trying to trick Jesus. They never can get him because he always has an answer. Right.

So. Some Pharisees came to him to test him. OK. And they asked, is it is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason? And every reason, I think they were looking for a reason, weren't they?

That's what I suspect here. Maybe somebody was having some issues with their wives and they were trying to discuss how to do this. At one point, Moses even gave a a permit to allow them to divorce, not because it was the right thing to do, but because they were very hardened. They were hard. Their hearts were hardened.

So obviously, the Pharisees are pulling this in in the context of this situation and says, haven't you read? He replied. This is what Jesus says. This is how he answers. He says that at the beginning, the creator made them male and female and said, for this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife.

And the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. I love how he repeats that. I'm sure there was a reason for that, because he wanted to emphasize the two become one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.

Let no one separate. Well, what God unites, the devil seeks to divide. What God unites, the devil is going to do everything in his ability. The devil is like a roaring lion seeking who he may devour, right? He prowls.

We learned last week that he doesn't just come out and say, hey, the devil's here. I know things have been going great, but here I come, right? He doesn't do that. He prowls. He studies the enemy, all the demons in hell.

Studying your every move because what God puts together in your marriages, the devil wants to divide. And guess what? In many instances, he's winning. And we need to know what it means to be a covenant-keeping person, a covenant-keeping marriage. So I want to talk about three approaches to marriage.

There's the, if you're following your notes, and I'll just go ahead and lay out all three approaches, and then we'll dig into them a little bit here, okay? So the first one is the casual approach. Casual approach is that marriage is just a piece of paper, right? Then we have the second one, which is a contractual approach. That's marriage is a contract.

We come together, we sign on the dotted lines. And then there's the covenantal approach. This is where marriage is a holy covenant established by God. So let's just dig into these for a minute. Because under the, let's just talk about the casual approach just for a second.

Because under the casual approach, marriage doesn't really matter. Marriage is just a piece of paper. We may give it a try, you know, but it's not really that big of a deal. Let's just date and let's just figure life out. Marriage isn't really that important.

And when marriage isn't that important, we take a casual approach to marriage. And a casual approach to marriage goes into a casual approach to sex. And then we think sex is no big deal, you know? If we have a casual approach to marriage, we're not really married, then, you know, sex is no big deal. There's nothing really special about it.

And we can just sleep with whoever we want, whenever we want, however we want, you know, and if it feels good, do it kind of situation. Because it's a casual approach. Because it really doesn't mean anything anyway. And as long as two, you know, as long as two consenting adults are a part of this thing, and it feels good, and it's not hurting anyone anyway, right? I mean, we're kind of doing our thing, and it's not hurting anyone.

And after all, this is the 21st century. You know, you go to church and hear about this stuff. But man, they're, you know, they're just so out of, they're so removed from this. It's the 21st century. It's not really that big of a deal.

Or I can't, you can't expect me to really go without, you know? I mean, it's just, and that's the way a casual approach works. It's a very casual approach to marriage. And since marriage doesn't matter, and sex isn't really that big of a deal, why not just practice marriage, right? Just move in together and live together.

You know, a Barnum study, research back in 2017 said this, 57% of people said they currently or previous live with someone out of wedlock, meaning they practice, they went into, or they live together, and they practice marriage, basically, you know? It makes, they felt like it makes cultural sense. It's convenient, right? It saves us money. If we come together, we share some bills, we do some, you know, things together, and it just makes sense.

I mean, we get along well, right? So we might as well just live together. We're committed, but we're committed, but we're leaving our options open, right? I'll just commit, you know, we'll commit to this time period, but we'll leave our options open just in case, you know, something goes wrong, something goes south, because I really don't want to commit to that level. So you begin to do the marriage thing, and we play the marriage thing.

So what we do is we take our stuff, you know, we take our little toothbrush, right? We take it, and we put it in the same, you know, little slot by the sink right next to the other one, cutesy, you know, there's a blue one, there's a pink one, you know, and we share a bill, and we share a dress, and we sleep in the same bed, and, but if it doesn't work out, what do we do? We grab our toothbrush, we put it in a bag, we grab our, you know, the belongings, we, some people even, like, decorate houses together, and then when they split up, it's like, okay, this is mine, this is yours, this is mine, this is more. I've even talked to couples who bought houses together that weren't married, and then when it went south, and they wanted to split, they had all of that going on. So as you can see, the casual approach is something that gets a little sticky, and then what happens, they move out, and then they move to the next person, and then they begin to date that next person, and then they go through the process over and over and over again until that day.

Until that day, they meet that person, right? They make all the music in the world sound like it's written for them, right? Everything they do is wonderful. They're so wonderful. They're so laid back.

They always say the right thing. This is the one. This is the person. This is the one I want to spend the rest of my life with, and then they get married, right? And then, instead of opposites attract, the opposite attack, right?

It starts happening, and we start fighting each other, and we start thinking about, what did I get myself into? I mean, the toilet paper's always on the wrong side, you know? It's hanging on the wrong side. Oh, it drives me crazy, right? Or she squeezes the toothpaste from the middle, right?

And I just don't like that. Or he leaves the dishes in the sink, or he leaves his shoes in the middle of the floor all the time. That's actually really me. I leave my shoes in the middle of the floor, and it drives Miranda crazy. I'm surprised she hasn't already divorced me.

Or whatever it is, and when it gets tough, then we run to divorce. Now, why do so many people run to divorce? Why is it the first thing that people do when they ever face conflict? Why does that happen? Because they've gone about a casual approach to marriage.

They've practiced it over, and over, and over, and over again. Therefore, they practice divorce over, and over, and over again. And when the real deal comes, why not divorce? Why is that not an option? We've practiced it.

And the consequence of casual approach to a casual approach to marriage is absolutely devastating. I have a friend of mine, best friend. We actually grew up in church together. We were in youth group together, and went to high school together, and he met him someone when he was in his early 20s, and they ended up taking a casual approach to marriage. You know, he knew it was wrong.

I knew it was wrong. But, you know, it makes sense. Let's do it. And eventually, they did get married. They had a couple of kids.

But through the years, things started getting shaky. It started getting tough, you know. Opposites attack. And then infidelity entered into the marriage. And eventually, it shook his world.

It shook the kid's world. Just a devastation that caused, all as a result of entering into a marriage casually. Casually. A casual approach can have major consequences. Then secondly, we have the contractual approach.

The contractual approach. It's signing a marriage contract. The problem with the contractual approach is it is a contract based on mutual distrust. If you'll write that in your notes. A contract based on mutual distrust.

Think about it. A contract is usually very temporary. It's for the benefit of the other person, right? I list my rights and my responsibilities and hopefully the other one will list their rights and their responsibilities and that way if things go wrong or somebody doesn't honor their side of the deal, the contract kind of plays out, right? It limits my responsibilities.

Think about it. You rent houses or if you're in real estate or if you have some type of contractual. If you have any type of deal that you're working out with a business partner, what are you going to do? You're going to write a contract out. You're going to write, sign on the dotted line.

We want to make sure that we're both covered in case anything goes wrong. So it's built, it's based on mutual distrust and often we enter marriage that way. Well, let's just sign on the dotted line. Let's sign a pre-op. Let's make sure that this marriage is going to make it.

We want to make sure that it's going to work out, right? Because we don't know. Because we come into the marriage thinking, okay, if they don't deliver on my end, if they aren't meeting my responsibilities, if they aren't meeting my needs, and I'm not happy, and we often go into that with these feelings because we do it a contractual way. Secondly, that I have a way out, and if I'm not happy, I'm out for good, right? I'm out.

I'm out. I'm done. You're not making me happy. You're not meeting my needs. It's based on feelings.

When the feelings are messed up, I'm out. I've got the contract. The contract can be broken because you didn't meet the agreement standards. And then you have thirdly, and this is the approach that God has set, and that is the covenantal approach, the covenantal approach. And this is based on mutual, although the contractual approach is based on mutual distrust, the covenant approach is based on mutual commitment.

That both parties are coming together, honoring God. We're both in this selflessly. It's unconditional commitment motivated by sacrificial love for the other person, the covenantal approach. In fact, the Hebrew word for covenant is bereith, and it literally means a cutting, a cutting. In fact, in Hebrew tradition, in the Old Testament, and I know this is kind of gross, but here's what they would do when they entered into a covenant agreement.

When anybody would enter into a covenant agreement, they would kill a calf or a cow, cut it in half, and then set it down on each side, and the people would walk around it seven times. It was a shedding of blood. There was always a shedding of blood that was required. They would also do that with seven lambs, and there was different kinds of acts of this cutting that would take place. And in a Hebrew wedding, there was a point within the service, within the ceremony, in which they would both cut their hands, and they would bond them together.

And the purpose of this is in Leviticus, that the life of the person is in the blood. So they were joining two lives together. So there was always, always a shedding of blood of some type where two lives were coming together. And what you would see in a wedding ceremony also is, and this gets a little bit heavy and a little deeper here, is that when we go into a marriage ceremony, the bride and the groom would exchange vows, just like we do today, right? Exchanging vows, honoring each other, committing themselves to each other before God and before their family.

And then they would go to, immediately, right after the ceremony, the party's going on, you know, everybody's heading over to the party, and the two would go into this thing called a chapa. That's how you would say it. You can say chapa in English, but it was a chapa. A chapa, a chapa. And what this was, it was sort of like a bridal room or a marriage chamber or a honeymoon situation.

So they would go right straight out of the wedding right into the honeymoon situation, right? We usually wait until the end of the wedding and maybe later on that night, but they would immediately go to this chapa. And this chapa was built by the groom. Usually, a father teaches the son the trade of building their own home and their house, and they would immediately go in there, and the virgin groom would consummate with the virgin bride, and there would be a shedding of blood. The two become one flesh.

And then afterwards, they walk right out to the party, glowing and everything, right? Didn't take long. I mean, they were both virgins, right? Get on with the party, right? It gets better in time, I promise, right?

So here's the deal. What I'm trying to say is marriage does matter. Why? Because it matters to God. It's very important.

A covenant relationship. Always a shedding of blood. It matters to God. That matters to God. Sex matters to God.

Lovemaking matters to God. It should matter to us because it matters to God. In fact, in Hebrews 13, 4, it says marriage should be honored by some, by a few. No, it says marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept what? Pure.

It should be kept pure. The marriage bed should be kept pure. And in every situation, marriage is to be kept. So say you're a teenager and your hormones are going crazy. What should you do?

It should be pure, right? If you're somebody in college, if you're a college student, what does that mean for you? It means that I don't care how many girls you're around, how many guys you're around. You keep it pure. You keep it pure.

You set standards for yourself. If you're an adult waiting to be married, and maybe you're older, and it's just, I'm just tired of waiting. It means to be kept pure if you're somebody who is divorced. Oh, I've already done it anyway. I've already been in a relationship.

I might as well know. You need to save yourself. You need to wait. You need to keep yourself pure in your relationships because God's got something beautiful for you. He's got something strong for you.

He's got something that will outlast what you think you need at the time. Amen? Right? He can, you can, you can fight it. You can do it.

Now, here's what I want to say. We need to be teaching our kids this, okay? Can I say that? We need to be teaching our kids. And what better place to teach our kids about this than in the church?

And for so long, the church has kept so quiet on it, right? And our kids grow up and they enter into these relationships and they don't know what or if or and, and we're not very open about it. I'm thankful that I had a mother and a father that were very open with me about what that meant. And, and, and we need to be people who really talk to our kids about that because guess what? You think they don't know, but they know.

And they're starting very young. They're starting very early. You need to have these conversations about purity with them. And this is in the, what better place? We don't want them to think that it's sinful.

It's scary. It's anything. You know, we just want them to know that within the covenant of marriage, within the covenant of two people, that is a beautiful thing. And God wants to bless it and he made it and it's good. And it's, it's great in relationship, but we don't talk about it.

We don't talk about it enough because we're afraid we're being sinful, right? Because we grew up in a church where we were quiet about it and nobody talked about it. Ooh, you know, they get red in the face, just mentioning the word kiss in church, you know, like we're kissing. Ooh, you know, maybe I'm extreme there, but that's kind of what happens. So we need to be having these conversations, but the result of not having these conversations is an entire generation of casual and contract marriages, casual and contract marriages with, have devastated family and devastated society.

And it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, there's, there's, there's, there's a lot of, uh, young men, young women out there without mothers and without fathers. And we need the fathers in these families. We need them to come back home. We need, and what better place, what better institution than the church to where this could start? Dads come home.

Moms come home. It's resulted in a generation of casual and contract marriages. Now, for some of you here today, uh, when I, when I preach on stuff like this or I teach on it, I know that some of you are like, oh man, you kind of feel maybe a little condemned, but the purpose of, of talking about these marriages is not condemnation. It's that you can have a new start today. There is a dawn.

There is a new day. You can make a decision today to walk in purity. You can change. You can, you can, you can move forward. See, that's the point of Jesus Christ.

Now, when, when you surrender your life to Christ, you are spiritually born again. And I believe that you are sexually born again as well. And you can make a decision today to wait because God has something powerful and holy for you, regardless of the decisions you've made in the past. That's the beauty of Jesus. That's the beauty of his redemption.

That's the beauty of his purpose is he's redeeming things back. And it really comes down to a choice that you made today, no matter what you've done, no matter where you are in your singleness. Maybe for some of you, it was something you did in the past. Maybe for some of you, it's something that's happening right now. Maybe you're involved in something that you shouldn't be in.

Maybe you're in a relationship you shouldn't be in. Today is the day to make that decision. It's never too late to make that decision. I know culture is telling you differently. I know it influences you and tells you differently.

But I'm telling you what God tells you because he has something life-giving. He has something hope-driven. He has something special for you in the future. If you will honor him, if you will listen to him, if you will follow his way, he's given us life. He's given us hope in the Bible and the Word of God because he wants something more than even we think we want.

Right? He's given us something special, so we need to honor that. Now, no culture tells us differently. I was just watching a documentary about a month ago, the Jonas Brothers. How many of you are familiar with the Jonas Brothers, right?

Some of you followed them. What's that? Yeah, you watched that too. And I was just thinking, you know, and they were talking about the ring, the virgin purity ring. That's the word I'm looking for.

Or they had these purity rings back when they were younger, and their father was a pastor, and they were in the church and things like that. But they got picked on really bad about those purity rings. I mean, South Park was doing things like picking on them and talking about them. Comedians were talking about them on stage. And they said, their response to that was, that wasn't really who we were.

That wasn't really who we were. No, it was who you were. It is who you are. You just allowed culture to influence you in different directions. Culture's going to say one thing, but we are a Jesus culture, amen?

We believe what Jesus says. We follow what Jesus says. We believe what God says about it because we know that God has the best for us. We know that he has life for us. But so many people make choices based on somebody else's opinion.

Why not make those choices based on God's opinion and what his word says? You can choose. You can choose. You can have a marriage that is holy. You can make that choice today.

Today, I want a marriage. You single people out there, I want a marriage that is holy. You married people out there, if we are doing it wrong, we're going to make this marriage holy. We want a Christ-centered marriage, a mission-driven marriage, a devil-stomping marriage, and a covenant-keeping marriage. And some of you are like, well, pastor, that's easy for you to say.

That's easy. You and Miranda, you know, and your little marriage going on and everything. And you don't understand what I've been through. You don't know. And listen, listen.

I realize for some of you, there's been a lot of pain. There's a lot of emotional pain. There's been physical pain. Maybe you have a history. Maybe there was some abuse.

Maybe there was some betrayal. And I don't deny that. I don't deny that. And we don't, but I promise you this, I can promise you this, with everything that is in me, we go through as many problems as you do. We do.

We have busy schedules. We have kids. In fact, my son was diagnosed with special needs when we were two years old. And the first thing that the doctor told us is maybe you guys should consider counseling, not because of anything that was happening in the office between us when we first learned about it, but the divorce rate was so high among kids with special needs. Because it's a very, very, very difficult thing.

Just this past week, Max, you know, got into a situation where we just could not calm him down. It took us like an hour and a half to calm him down. And it's just the reality of it, of autism. And it's just the reality of it, of autism. And dealing with those things.

It's a very, very difficult thing for Miranda and I. We go through just as many problems. We go through betrayal, we go through hurt, we go through anger, we go through all kinds of things within our marriage and outside our marriage, and we do it. But here's what we say, our marriage is only as good as we decide it to be. It's only as good as the choices that we make.

We can make the choice to have a good marriage. We both come into this relationship, we can make those decisions. I'm telling you, just a simple word, just a simple action, just a simple choice can make a difference in a situation. It can. You've got to come into your marriages, you've got to come into your relationships, you've got to say, I'm going to make the choice.

Because it's only as good as you making that choice. You've got to make that decision. Well, I don't feel like it, you know? I don't want to, right? I don't like him.

I don't like her right now. I don't feel like being nice. I don't feel like forgiving, right? I don't want to forgive. I'm so angry right now.

I don't want to forgive. I don't feel like working on this relationship. You just don't understand, Pastor. But how many other areas of your life do you make excuses for that kind of situation? We're not going to feed the baby today, right?

I mean, I'm just tired. I don't feel like it. We're not going to feed the kids. We're not going to feed the baby. We're not going to do that today, right?

I'm not going to pay my taxes. I just don't feel like it. I'm not going to go into work today because I just don't feel like going into work. I'm going to take about three or four months off. How about that?

Do we make decisions? See, listen, we cannot make decisions based on our feelings. And your marriage is one of the most important things that you can ever focus on. You've got to make those decisions. Feelings will steer you wrong.

Miranda was just sharing with our group this morning around the circle as we were praying before church started. And some mornings, you know, you come here to church and there's a lot of physical labor involved and you don't feel. You don't feel. But our response to God isn't based on what we feel. It's what we know.

We know what he says. We know who he is. We know his very nature. See, the problem comes down to a misunderstanding of the nature of God, a misunderstanding of God's nature. So people naturally filter their relationships with God through the lenses of a casual and contractual relationship.

Well, God, I'm just going to casually love you today. Maybe tomorrow I'll just kind of walk away for a little while, but I'll come back and casually come back into this relationship. So we go in and out of this casual relationship with God. We're not like fully, we're committed, but we got an out, right? God, I, you know, I'm willing to walk this much, but you know, over there, I think I'll just stay over here because you're kind of getting personal with me and I'm not going to let you come into this part of my life.

I don't want you in this part of my life. In fact, I'm going to cut you off right there at my house because, you know, my marriage and all that, it's none of your business, God. You know, that's what we technically say. And some, some way we just, we, we, we, we got this casual or it's contractual. If you don't hold up to your part of the deal, God, you, you said this was this, or you said this was that.

And I thought you were leading me down this path, but my, but God, you are not following up on your end of the deal. I, so I'm not going to hold up my end of the deal. So we come into a casual and a contractual relationship with God. And that's not how God saw us. He didn't come into a relationship with us with this casual way.

He loved us despite where we were. In fact, he came after us. We wanted nothing to do with him. The Bible says we were born into sin. We were, we were, we were far from God.

We wanted nothing to do with God, but God in the darkness, he came in as a light and his name was Jesus Christ. He came in to the situation. He had a, he had, he wasn't a casual relationship. It wasn't a contractual relationship. Like I've got to be good enough.

And then maybe, you know, God will love me. He didn't say, Oh, you got to hold up your end of the deal. You've got to start fixing your life. You got to start fixing your marriage. You got to start fixing your stuff.

You got to start fixing your sin. He didn't say that. It says, God's loved the world that he gave his only son, that whosoever all fixes all their problems and gets, you know, works through those things and, and, and, and, and lines up correctly with whatever that we as humans think that moral values are. And, and, and, and we, we, we, we think that we got it all lined up. Perfect.

Maybe God, maybe God will have a relationship with me. I can't tell you how many conversations I have with people and I try to help them and I try to coach them through it and I try to pray for them, but they're still hung up on being good enough, being good enough. We need to be good enough. No, God's grace is enough. It really is enough.

He didn't come into a contractual relationship with us. He came in with his son. His standard was absolutely perfect, but we were anything but perfect, right? In the Old Testament, I love this. We see blood in the Old Testament used as a covenant.

When the death angel was going to pass, we have the Passover. The Jews celebrate the Passover feast where they were enslaved by Egypt and, and, and, and the, Moses comes in to deliver his people. Pharaoh would not let him go. So God sent an angel of death over, but he asked the Hebrew people to put, to, to sacrifice a lamb, to sacrifice an animal, a perfect animal, gather the blood in buckets and they would gather the blood in buckets and they would put it over the doorpost and on the side of the post and the blood would trickle down. The death angel would pass over.

What's beautiful about this very picture is that, that symbol was a foreshadowing of the cross of Jesus Christ. A foreshadowing of the cross of Jesus Christ, what he would one day do for us. And Jesus, the perfect lamb, in the new covenant, gave his life for us as a covenant, a shedding of blood, a perfect lamb on a cross. He gave himself for us. It wasn't contractual.

It wasn't casual. It was all in. He was all in. So the question is, who is Jesus? For you, who is Jesus?

Who is Jesus to you? He asked the disciples, who do they say that I am? Oh, they think you're all kinds of people, different people. They think you're prophets, they think you're some kind of king that's gonna come and reign and this and that and those and, but who do you say that I am? The question is, who do you say that Jesus Christ is?

Is he the Son of God, the perfect lamb that was slain? Do you believe that today? He is the Son of God, the sinless lamb of God, amen? Amen, thank you for that. Let's give, he is the lamb of God that was slain, the one that God gave his only son, he who calls on the name of the Lord, is what scripture says, shall be saved.

In 2 Timothy it says, if we are faithless, He remains faithful. He remains faithful. Because he's not in a contractual agreement, guys. He's pursuing you with everything that's in him. He's not casual, he's not contractual, he's covenant keeping.

He's covenant keeping. He is the perfect example of a God, of a relationship that we all should and want to long for. We are all longing for. We are all longing for whether we realize it or not. We want a covenant keeping relationship.

We want somebody who's faithful to us even when we're faithless. Someone that's pursuing us even when we aren't pursuable. And that's what God is. God is. And you can have a new start today.

You can have a new start in your relationship, your covenant relationships with your spouse. You can start that today. But more than anything, you can start a relationship with God today. Because your past doesn't matter. Your past doesn't matter.

You need to hear that. Somebody needs to hear that today. Your past is gone. Your past doesn't matter today. It's a new dawn.

It's a new day. It's redemption. The redemption is available today for you, amen? Man, you can have redemption today. You do not have to fall.

Stop being hung up on your past. You need to break those chains. You need to walk away from those things because God has something new for you. He's waiting for you. His arms are wide open.

I want you to get that picture of him today because you can have a new dawn today. You no longer have to walk in darkness. You no longer have to walk in darkness. Who do you say that Jesus Christ is? The covenant-keeping Son of God, the Son of God gave himself.

What more could we want? For some of you today, you have to ask that question. Who would you say, who here would say that maybe I need a new start? Or who would say that I want to do things God's way? I'm tired of doing it my way.

See, this message is not a message of condemnation. It's a message of hope. The gospel is a message of hope. The gospel is not condemning you. It's offering you life.

So I ask the question, are you ready to make a choice today? Are you ready to make a decision today? With all beds bowed and all eyes closed, staying in the spirit of worship, as we listen to the word, God's word is just so powerful, so pure. It changes hearts. It's not the messenger, the power of the Holy Spirit.

So God, move in this place. We're just waiting on you. Maybe for somebody here today, that question is there. Are you that person that needs it? That's you today.

Confession of faith, who desires. I believe that you are the covenant-keeping Son of God. I believe that you died on the cross for my sin. Everything's starting to become clear to me. Today, I make a decision for you, God.

Come into my life and come. Today's a new dawn. Today's a new day. Today is the day to make that decision. And I make that decision today, Lord.

No matter my past, no matter my worries, no matter the choices that have kept me from you, Lord, no matter what Satan has said to me, today, I make the choice to follow you. If you made that decision for Christ today, I'd ask you to fill out that card and let's get started on a life of a new life that God's been waiting for you. You can get baptized. You can get involved in church. You can get into a small group and just grow in Jesus Christ.

Amen. Hallelujah. We're getting ready to take up our offering and tithes. Let me just say this. Please don't feel obligated to give.

We're just glad you're here with us today. This is our gift to you, a blessing that we wanted to give to you. As we're thinking about giving, and before the plates come around, I just wanted to kind of mention, we are in a campaign called Elevate 2020. Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah. Y'all can get a little energized now.

I know, come on, come on. And we are looking to move. We want to move to a new location, a new location where we could be a little more influential and reach more people for Jesus, because really that's what it's about, right? Getting our salt out there a little more so they could reach more people and watch what God can do. And we really want to do this.

And here's how urgent we are. We really were looking to do this by Easter. So we only have like a month and a half or more, maybe. If it doesn't happen by Easter, it doesn't happen by Easter. But this really depends on you guys.

It depends on you guys and what y'all are capable of doing. And I know not everybody has the financial resources, but some of you may have those financial resources. So I'm just, here's what I'm saying. Here's what I'm saying. I want you to pray and ask God, even today, what can I give to elevate 2020?

We need to raise $20,000. Right now we're a little over $2,000. So we're 10% there. Somebody give it. And here's what we'll do for those who give $1,000 plus to elevate 2020 is we will give you a free sweatshirt or cap of your choice, you know, for a salt shirt sweatshirt.

So that's a little gift to us for, uh, from us for, for giving. And here's another thing we're doing. Uh, God placed it on my heart. I said it last week, week before. So if I sound like a broken record, hear it again.

I felt like if I'm asking my church to be generous and give to this, we're going to be generous with that money and give it away as well. So we're giving 20% of all our proceeds to Wade's army, which is a ministry or a organization, nonprofit organization that, uh, helps families who have kids struggling with childhood cancer and doing research for, for childhood cancer as well. This is in honor of, of Wesley, um, Zuberg, one of our faithful families that helped us start the church. Um, he passed away of cancer. In fact, it was my, it was my first loss and I lost another man at the age of, uh, uh, his early fifties within the same week.

And it was, I was a new pastor of a new church. You don't think you're going to lose two people to cancer, but I buried a child and, and also, uh, a grown man of a terminal illness. So you can see how passionate I am about this and we love children and we want, and if we don't have children, we don't have salt church. If we don't have a place for our children to worship, we don't have salt church. So we're trying to raise for, for a classroom trailer, uh, at elevate, uh, elevation 27.

We're looking at meeting there. We're good to go with everything except for having a space for our kids. So that's what we're asking people to give today. That's why we're asking you to give today, because we believe that God is going to provide everything we need to do, what he's called us to do and where he's sending us and he's sending us out. Amen.

He's sending us out. It's time for us to be salt. It's time for us to be light. Let's believe, let's do this together. Salt church.

Let's all do this together. Let's put in what we can. Let's do this. I cannot do it alone. I cannot do it without you.

Thank you so much to everybody who gives, who is a faithful giver. Um, thank you so much. Um, also if you aren't plugged into a small group, Hey, small groups. Okay. Okay.

I'm telling you, if you're not plugged in a small group and I say this like a broken record as well, get plugged in, get plugged in because it's a great way for you to grow in Jesus Christ. I'm telling you, people will not grow unless they're connected to the life giving blood of the vine. Amen. Jesus is the vine. We are the branches.

We all are together in this. Amen. We need to get, get plugged in. If you're not meeting in a small group, start a small group, start a gathering. Me and Justin get together every Tuesday, uh, for coffee.

Y'all can join us. We, we switched it to Wednesday. We ran into Seth and, uh, and, uh, another friend of ours, Gene. And it was just a wonderful time. See, these are the things that do outside the church.

This is great, right? Amen. We love meeting together, but we need to get outside the church and, and really start partnering together in ministry with each other and encouraging each other and building each other up. Amen.