January 31, 2014 - Friday

Start Time: 1:30 P.M.

End Time: 2:45 P.M.

Title: Renewal of the Covenant

Scripture: Deuteronomy 29:1 – 29  

God’s Message / God’s Promise / God’s Commands:

→ These are the terms of the covenant the Lord commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in Moab, in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Horeb. Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them: Your eyes have seen all that the Lord did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials and to all his land. With your own eyes you saw those great trials, those signs and great wonders. But to this day the Lord has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear. Yet the Lord says, “During the forty years that I led you through the wilderness, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet.  You ate no bread and drank no wine or other fermented drink. I did this so that you might know that I am the Lord your God.”

NOTES:

Ø God wants us to know that He is the Lord our God!  Everyday God is showing who HE is to His people that’s why every day He provides for us, from the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the breath we breathe, etc.  God wants to spend every day of our lives knowing who He is and enjoying His lordship over our lives.  This is the new promise of God to us, a renewal of the old covenant.  So promises to show Himself to us every day but we need to seek Him every day of our lives.  He is faithful to do His part but most of the time, we are too busy doing other things that we failed to see Him in the things that happens in our lives.  So let us be conscious of our every “day” and know God day to day.

→ When you reached this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out to fight against us, but we defeated them. We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh.  Carefully follow the terms of this covenant, so that you may prosper in everything you do. All of you are standing today in the presence of the Lord your God—your leaders and chief men, your elders and officials, and all the other men of Israel, together with your children and your wives, and the foreigners living in your camps who chop your wood and carry your water. You are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the Lord your God, a covenant the Lord is making with you this day and sealing with an oath, to confirm you this day as his people, that he may be your God as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I am making this covenant, with its oath, not only with you who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God but also with those who are not here today

NOTES:

Ø God promises to be our God and even to those of us who are not born yet, HE promises to be the God of all people!  Isn’t it great to know that God made a promise to us even before we were born?  Moses declared that God is making a new covenant with the people in the presence of the Lord our God but also with those who are not with them as well – that includes us!  It is so great that even when we are not present during the covenant –making, God already included us in His promises and when God makes His promises, He based it to His word, His sovereignty so even if we fail, His promises stands!  What an awesome God we have!  Praise the Lord!

→ You yourselves know how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through the countries on the way here. You saw among them their detestable images and idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold.Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison. When such a person hears the words of this oath and they invoke a blessing on themselves, thinking, “I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way,” they will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry. The Lord will never be willing to forgive them; his wrath and zeal will burn against them. All the curses written in this book will fall on them, and the Lord will blot out their names from under heaven. The Lord will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.

NOTES:

Ø God is a God who cannot be mocked and He does not tolerate sin for the sake of His people!  God clearly knows the mind of His created beings.  He knows that we have the tendency to be complacent and double minded.  But He is the Sovereign Lord and He must be given the reverence He deserves.  God will not tolerate sin and will be more than willing to eliminate anyone who chooses to do evil for the sake of His people who follows and obey Him.  So we ought to be just like Him!  We must stand for what is right and true and not waver between good and evil.  And when we do, we should choose Him rather than become complacent of being lukewarm or being in the middle and not making any choice.

→Your children who follow you in later generations and foreigners who come from distant lands will see the calamities that have fallen on the land and the diseases with which the Lord has afflicted it. The whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulfur—nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim, which the Lord overthrew in fierce anger. All the nations will ask: “Why has the Lord done this to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger?” And the answer will be: “It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them. Therefore the Lord’s anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book.  In furious anger and in great wrath the Lord uprooted them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now.” The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.

NOTES:

Ø God’s actions leave a mark that will teach generation after generation!  Hallelujah!  God sees ahead and always ensures that His actions will become a lesson for everyone including those who are not born yet.  They will see the impact of disobedience and will find no reason to disobey the Lord.  He reveals all these to His children that we may continue to follow His words!

Prayer:

Lord Jesus thank You for You are a Promising God and Your promises are true and based on Your Word and Identity!  Thank You because You already made a promise to us even before we were born and You have promised to become our God, our Lord!  Thank You because Your actions leave a mark for everyone to learn, for generation to generation.  Thank You Lord because Your words are true and we can stand by it.  Thank You because You reveal Your words to us and the secrets or mysteries are Yours!  Help me Lord to learn from the past and obey and keep my portion of the covenant.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen!