WEBVTT 00:00:01.400 --> 00:00:03.470 We're on in the middle of a new series together. 00:00:03.620 --> 00:00:06.620 We're actually towards the latter half of this series called I believe. 00:00:07.300 --> 00:00:11.860 And so I just want to thank everyone who's been able to come out and be a part of this series that we've studied together. 00:00:13.240 --> 00:00:16.840 Well, we've looked at is the core of what Christianity is all about. 00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:25.040 When someone says, I am a follower of Jesus, what that entails, what does it mean that you 00:00:25.160 --> 00:00:25.420 follow Jesus? 00:00:26.980 --> 00:00:28.300 The early church had a belief. 00:00:28.700 --> 00:00:30.260 Let me do this real quick. 00:00:30.520 --> 00:00:31.910 I see a disaster waiting to happen. 00:00:32.900 --> 00:00:38.120 The early church had a belief that was so strong in the God that they followed that even unto the point of death. 00:00:38.260 --> 00:00:45.340 They would not back away from the God who they pursued a truth that was so strong that even 00:00:45.340 --> 00:00:48.470 in the face of death, they would not waver in what they believed. 00:00:49.920 --> 00:00:51.070 What was that belief? 00:00:52.640 --> 00:00:59.940 Together, we've been experiencing what that means for the early church, what it means for us today to believe in 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:02.760 God as he has correctly identified himself to us. 00:01:04.780 --> 00:01:08.660 And today we continue that theme of understanding the truth of who God is. 00:01:09.220 --> 00:01:13.060 And in understanding that truth, come to believe and trust in the God that we are seeing. 00:01:14.960 --> 00:01:22.040 This morning, we're going to emphasize a theme that is found throughout all of Scripture, both Old and New Testament, and that is 00:01:22.040 --> 00:01:23.340 simply God pursues. 00:01:25.400 --> 00:01:32.190 It's been often quoted of God that he is the great hound of heaven, and he is jealous over you with a godly jealousy. 00:01:33.780 --> 00:01:35.820 God created you for relationship. 00:01:37.620 --> 00:01:41.110 Most importantly, God created you for a relationship with him. 00:01:41.880 --> 00:01:48.920 And unless you find your ultimate purpose and defining who you are and the identity of God and how he has created you won't 00:01:48.920 --> 00:01:55.140 be satisfied or be fulfilled in the life that you have, because God has created you for his purpose. 00:01:56.160 --> 00:02:03.580 And God pursues The hound of Heaven is after you, and the theme of the Bible from beginning 00:02:03.580 --> 00:02:10.820 to end is God's pursuit for relationship with man all the way to the point of the cross in 00:02:10.820 --> 00:02:13.240 which Jesus died for our sins. 00:02:14.500 --> 00:02:18.020 As we begin this journey together, let me just ask you a simple question. 00:02:19.600 --> 00:02:23.000 Has anyone ever harmed you? 00:02:23.620 --> 00:02:26.700 Has anyone ever betrayed you or hurt you? 00:02:28.740 --> 00:02:30.190 How did you respond in that moment? 00:02:31.760 --> 00:02:33.710 How did you feel at their actions? 00:02:35.480 --> 00:02:36.740 And what did you say to that person? 00:02:37.240 --> 00:02:40.850 Or what did you do to that individual who harmed you so deeply? 00:02:42.780 --> 00:02:46.300 What about the way God has responded to us as people? 00:02:47.620 --> 00:02:50.940 We think about our response to those who have wronged us. 00:02:51.300 --> 00:02:55.090 How has God responded to us as people if we have wronged him? 00:02:56.380 --> 00:02:58.910 God has opened up life for us to experience. 00:03:00.520 --> 00:03:06.780 We've seen together as we've studied this series that we were created, God created this world, and he then created us as the crowning glory. 00:03:06.960 --> 00:03:13.740 After he designed man and he created the entire world, he stops for a moment and says, now it is very good. 00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:21.730 And he breathes into man, the breath of life, giving us his spirit to connect with him relationally. 00:03:23.040 --> 00:03:24.560 God has made us in his image. 00:03:24.720 --> 00:03:25.620 He's given us a spirit. 00:03:25.700 --> 00:03:27.280 The Bible tells us that he blessed us. 00:03:27.400 --> 00:03:28.840 He created helpmates for us. 00:03:28.840 --> 00:03:32.520 He created relationships for us with other people as we go out into this world. 00:03:32.520 --> 00:03:39.220 And he told us as mankind to be fruitful and to multiply, to rule this world and to subdue it. 00:03:40.800 --> 00:03:47.120 And yet when we read in the book of Genesis very early on, man rejects God. 00:03:47.460 --> 00:03:51.440 How did God respond to us in the midst of our sin and rejection of him? 00:03:53.120 --> 00:03:54.100 God didn't fight. 00:03:55.440 --> 00:03:56.260 God didn't leave. 00:03:57.580 --> 00:04:04.260 But what God did was affirm his love for us through a word that we commonly refer to as covenant. 00:04:06.520 --> 00:04:08.200 God pursued us through a covenant relationship. 00:04:10.640 --> 00:04:13.060 Your Bible is divided between two covenants. 00:04:14.600 --> 00:04:16.600 We sometimes use the word testament. 00:04:17.839 --> 00:04:23.540 The Old Testament or the like word in place of Testament would be covenant comes from a passage of Jeremiah 3131. 00:04:25.300 --> 00:04:31.000 The New Testament could also be referred to as the New Covenant being defined through Jesus. 00:04:31.040 --> 00:04:33.760 And how God responded to us was through covenant. 00:04:34.860 --> 00:04:38.160 I'm going to show a large portions of Scripture for us this morning. 00:04:38.200 --> 00:04:44.520 I really only want to grasp one thought from each portion that we're about to show, but I want for us to be painted within our mind. 00:04:44.800 --> 00:04:51.800 The idea of God's pursuit of man throughout all of history, which pieces together for us the Bible 00:04:51.800 --> 00:04:55.120 in both Old and New Testament. 00:04:55.340 --> 00:05:02.340 When we think about these verses together, there's one theme verse that I'd like for us to get across, one that I want to be seared upon our minds as we think 00:05:02.440 --> 00:05:04.540 about who God is in relationship to us. 00:05:07.050 --> 00:05:08.490 Will you click for me once? 00:05:09.760 --> 00:05:10.440 There we go. 00:05:11.180 --> 00:05:13.500 It comes in Ezekiel chapter 37. 00:05:14.480 --> 00:05:20.160 God repeats this theme often throughout Scripture in different forms and different ways and contexts. 00:05:20.160 --> 00:05:27.220 Maybe one of the most famous one would be in John 316 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him will 00:05:27.220 --> 00:05:27.740 not perish. 00:05:27.860 --> 00:05:28.020 Right. 00:05:28.120 --> 00:05:30.840 Every time you watch a football game, someone has that in the end zone. 00:05:32.320 --> 00:05:33.740 God is pursuing man. 00:05:34.960 --> 00:05:37.260 God desires a relationship with you. 00:05:37.460 --> 00:05:37.460 And. 00:05:37.540 --> 00:05:41.100 And God is not okay with the sin that divides you from him. 00:05:42.620 --> 00:05:49.680 In the Old Testament, speaking to Ezekiel and also to Jeremiah, he says it this way I will be their God, and they will be 00:05:49.680 --> 00:05:51.750 my people. 00:05:52.560 --> 00:06:00.120 God knows within him for our sake there is joy, there is peace, there is patience, there is kindness, there is gentleness in 00:06:00.120 --> 00:06:00.660 that relationship. 00:06:01.220 --> 00:06:07.360 We discover with him and he is passionate about your relationship towards him. 00:06:07.720 --> 00:06:14.900 God is pursuing you, and he's pursuing you through a covenant relationship, a covenant, by using 00:06:14.900 --> 00:06:15.540 that word. 00:06:15.540 --> 00:06:19.040 What I simply mean is it a binding agreement between two parties? 00:06:20.420 --> 00:06:23.320 Usually the breaking of that agreement results in consequences. 00:06:24.840 --> 00:06:29.940 Oftentimes in the Old Testament, when they would refer to the word covenant, they would say the cutting of a covenant. 00:06:31.700 --> 00:06:34.620 The idea behind it comes in a passage found in Genesis. 00:06:34.740 --> 00:06:35.250 Let's see if it works. 00:06:36.040 --> 00:06:36.200 All right. 00:06:36.220 --> 00:06:36.930 Give me a click. 00:06:38.400 --> 00:06:38.840 I don't know what happened. 00:06:39.100 --> 00:06:40.120 It's the technology demon. 00:06:41.400 --> 00:06:43.600 The cutting of the covenant took place this way. 00:06:43.600 --> 00:06:47.310 When an individual would make a covenant with another party, they would take an animal. 00:06:49.480 --> 00:06:49.480 They would split the animal in two. 00:06:49.480 --> 00:06:56.660 And the two who would agree upon the covenant would pass between the dead carcass of the animal, and it would be a reminder to both of those individuals making that 00:06:56.720 --> 00:07:00.520 covenant that if they were to break that covenant, it would result in death. 00:07:02.660 --> 00:07:07.060 Genesis chapter 15 and verse nine, it says, so the Lord said to him, he's talking to Abraham. 00:07:07.260 --> 00:07:11.900 Bring me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon. 00:07:12.740 --> 00:07:18.080 Abraham brought all these to him, cut them in two, and arranged the halves opposite each other. 00:07:18.620 --> 00:07:20.860 As the sun was set, Abram fell into a deep sleep. 00:07:20.860 --> 00:07:21.980 His name was Abram at the time. 00:07:22.020 --> 00:07:29.040 It changes later on, when the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking fire pot with a blazing torch 00:07:29.040 --> 00:07:31.200 appeared and passed between the pieces. 00:07:31.440 --> 00:07:34.990 On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abraham. 00:07:36.760 --> 00:07:42.120 What's significant here is that God in the Old Testament was oftentimes symbolic of a flame or a fire. 00:07:42.240 --> 00:07:45.200 He's referred to in the Bible as a consuming fire. 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:49.120 And God calls us as this animal is split in two. 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:51.790 In the covenant, the cutting of a covenant is about to take place. 00:07:52.200 --> 00:07:59.220 God causes us Abraham to fall asleep and God upholds his end of the covenant, promising to Abraham 00:07:59.220 --> 00:08:04.660 that this promise of this covenant all rests and relies upon his shoulders. 00:08:05.500 --> 00:08:08.150 And God passed through this covenant. 00:08:08.720 --> 00:08:14.080 This binding agreement in which God has made with us is the deepest commitment that God could ever give to us as individuals. 00:08:15.780 --> 00:08:19.700 Maybe we could compare it to us in our earthly nature to that of marriage in our lives. 00:08:19.920 --> 00:08:24.950 The greatest commitment or covenant that we can make to an individual is found in the bonds of marriage. 00:08:26.600 --> 00:08:30.260 And God makes this covenant with man this cutting of a covenant. 00:08:31.620 --> 00:08:35.080 The covenant relationship shows us that God is pursuing us. 00:08:35.140 --> 00:08:38.240 He is both initiating and desiring relationship with us. 00:08:39.659 --> 00:08:41.460 God is sovereign over all circumstances. 00:08:41.840 --> 00:08:45.360 Establishing the terms of the covenant by making Abraham fall asleep. 00:08:45.440 --> 00:08:52.090 God is holy because he demonstrates his perfection in the covenant, down to the details of the sacrifice which would take place. 00:08:53.340 --> 00:08:53.780 God loves us. 00:08:55.380 --> 00:09:01.080 He desires to bless us in this covenant, to deal with our sin and to pursue us through it. 00:09:02.380 --> 00:09:09.380 God loves you and the Bible is divided really for us in the Old Testament, based upon major themes and covenants that 00:09:09.380 --> 00:09:15.300 exist, displaying to us the glory of God and His pursuit and relationship with man. 00:09:15.600 --> 00:09:16.860 The first came in the Garden of Eden. 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:19.000 One more try and then I'll just kill this thing. 00:09:20.440 --> 00:09:20.740 Okay. 00:09:20.740 --> 00:09:21.780 Go ahead. 00:09:21.980 --> 00:09:22.340 You're. 00:09:22.880 --> 00:09:23.680 You're good at that. 00:09:25.260 --> 00:09:32.340 The first comes in the book of Genesis, and it's referred to in the Bible as the Abrahamic Old Covenant in Hosea chapter six and verse seven, 00:09:32.340 --> 00:09:35.900 it tells us that Adam broke his covenant with God. 00:09:37.420 --> 00:09:42.220 God created us in the beginning for his purpose, his covenant agreement, his love, his relationship towards us. 00:09:42.560 --> 00:09:45.080 And it says in Genesis chapter one and verse 28, God blessed them. 00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:47.500 And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply. 00:09:49.480 --> 00:09:50.610 Verse seven of chapter two. 00:09:50.720 --> 00:09:57.670 Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. 00:09:59.080 --> 00:10:06.560 You see, between Genesis chapter two and verse seven and Genesis chapter three and verse 15, we have existing here the fall of mankind, our 00:10:06.560 --> 00:10:07.840 sin. 00:10:08.120 --> 00:10:12.230 God promised to bless our lives abundantly, to give us life with him forever. 00:10:12.300 --> 00:10:19.020 But he gave Adam and Eve one one rule that they shouldn't break in the Garden of Eden, and that was to not eat of the tree of good and evil. 00:10:20.080 --> 00:10:21.330 Sometimes we call it an apple tree. 00:10:22.180 --> 00:10:28.140 I don't like to do that to apples, and in so doing curse fell upon man. 00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:31.380 And it tells us because of that sin, death reigned. 00:10:32.060 --> 00:10:37.080 When we talk about death in the Bible, we talk about it in two forms existing in one way. 00:10:37.080 --> 00:10:41.360 And it's not the ceasing of existence of existence, but the absence of presence. 00:10:42.600 --> 00:10:46.240 And so when man died, we died from the absence of presence before God. 00:10:47.260 --> 00:10:55.200 Spiritually, we died the moment Adam and Eve sinned physically, the promise came that we would die later 00:10:55.320 --> 00:10:56.880 on from this earth. 00:10:58.040 --> 00:11:03.820 And Jesus told Adam and Eve from dust they were created, and from dust they would return. 00:11:04.780 --> 00:11:07.740 But God, from the very beginning, understanding that man has sinned against him. 00:11:07.780 --> 00:11:14.960 God continued to show his covenantal, passionate pursuit of loving us, and he gave us a promise in the Garden of 00:11:14.960 --> 00:11:15.360 Eden. 00:11:16.680 --> 00:11:22.680 It was the very first promise that one sin came into this world, that a messiah would come and redeem us for a relationship with him. 00:11:23.740 --> 00:11:28.300 It says in chapter three and verse 15, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. 00:11:28.680 --> 00:11:32.040 He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. 00:11:33.380 --> 00:11:34.950 Notice it says from the seed of the woman. 00:11:35.160 --> 00:11:37.360 Most of the time in the Old Testament it says, from the seed of the man. 00:11:37.400 --> 00:11:39.920 But in this case Jesus was born of a virgin woman. 00:11:42.240 --> 00:11:46.280 And so the promise of the Messiah would come not from the seed of a man, but from the seed of a woman. 00:11:47.300 --> 00:11:50.720 And it says to Satan that he will crush the head of Satan. 00:11:50.760 --> 00:11:57.900 It's symbolic of the authority that Satan manifests in the presence of the Garden of Eden as ruler over sin. 00:11:59.020 --> 00:12:01.260 And Jesus promises that he will come and crush him. 00:12:02.140 --> 00:12:04.490 And in the process suffer a heel wound. 00:12:05.760 --> 00:12:10.740 And on the cross, we know that Jesus was nailed to the cross in which he suffered a heel wound. 00:12:12.300 --> 00:12:15.920 God established with Adam a covenant. 00:12:16.520 --> 00:12:23.360 Every covenant that exists in the Old Testament is a fruition and building upon Jesus, who would ultimately come and redeem us as all mankind. 00:12:23.560 --> 00:12:26.500 But God continues to reveal his passionate love towards people. 00:12:26.540 --> 00:12:28.100 Our kids are having fun this morning, I think. 00:12:28.380 --> 00:12:29.400 Don't be worried about them. 00:12:29.760 --> 00:12:30.630 No one's dead. 00:12:31.220 --> 00:12:33.940 There's a screaming part somewhere in there, I guess. 00:12:34.480 --> 00:12:35.520 Covenant of the. 00:12:35.660 --> 00:12:37.760 The blessing or mediator or head of this covenant. 00:12:37.900 --> 00:12:40.300 There's always an individual that God selects to speak through. 00:12:40.300 --> 00:12:41.310 In this case, it's Adam. 00:12:42.220 --> 00:12:43.640 This conditions of the covenant. 00:12:43.700 --> 00:12:44.910 If we eat of the tree, we die. 00:12:45.120 --> 00:12:46.220 And so man died. 00:12:47.040 --> 00:12:53.600 The blessings of the covenant is life, the Garden of Eden, food, marriage and dominion to rule over this world and the sign of the covenant. 00:12:53.680 --> 00:12:58.490 Every covenant that God gives to man always has a sign, and in this case it was the Sabbath. 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:07.200 God, in creating the world, rested on the seventh day, an opportunity for man to reflect on God's glory and goodness present 00:13:07.200 --> 00:13:08.320 in his life. 00:13:09.480 --> 00:13:16.960 The promise of the covenant was life, and when Adam violated it, ultimately God brought a greater promise that would redeem us as mankind through 00:13:16.960 --> 00:13:17.810 Jesus. 00:13:19.340 --> 00:13:20.420 God desires that relationship. 00:13:20.840 --> 00:13:24.780 Man's response to that rejection of God. 00:13:25.140 --> 00:13:25.780 It doesn't take long. 00:13:26.080 --> 00:13:33.280 When you read the Book of Genesis to discover that after Adam and Eve, they begin to have children and Cain and Abel are born, and then Cain killed Abel. 00:13:34.340 --> 00:13:35.360 I mean, what is up with that? 00:13:36.880 --> 00:13:39.280 What is God's response to that situation? 00:13:39.840 --> 00:13:44.180 Go ahead and give me another clue in Genesis chapter six. 00:13:44.360 --> 00:13:44.870 The story continues. 00:13:45.880 --> 00:13:48.020 Adam sins and Cain sins. 00:13:48.020 --> 00:13:55.620 And yet all of mankind continues to reject the goodness for which God created him, leading us to the new covenant says 00:13:55.620 --> 00:14:02.840 in chapter six and verse five, the Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the man 00:14:02.840 --> 00:14:05.240 of the human heart was only evil all time. 00:14:06.760 --> 00:14:11.640 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 00:14:12.580 --> 00:14:18.880 So the Lord said, I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created, and with them the animals. 00:14:19.180 --> 00:14:23.220 I should pause there for a moment and just say, you want to have an understanding that God is holy. 00:14:23.640 --> 00:14:26.950 God has no sin before his presence, and God hates sin. 00:14:27.820 --> 00:14:35.000 And at the moment that Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, God would have been completely just and creating us and then wiping us off the face 00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:37.270 of this earth, having become sinful creatures. 00:14:38.160 --> 00:14:39.130 But God didn't do that. 00:14:40.120 --> 00:14:46.740 And he's looking at the time of the garden and excuse me, in the New Covenant, and he's seeing the disaster that the Earth had become. 00:14:46.760 --> 00:14:52.840 And as he could wipe the face of the human race from upon the earth, and with the animals and the birds and the creatures that are moving along the ground. 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:54.380 For I regret that I have made them. 00:14:54.400 --> 00:14:56.660 The Lord says, but in verse eight it's a very important word. 00:14:57.100 --> 00:15:00.650 It says, Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. 00:15:01.940 --> 00:15:05.760 This word favor is the Old Testament word of grace. 00:15:06.940 --> 00:15:12.120 It's not saying to us that Noah was anything special, that he did anything to deserve God's love. 00:15:13.220 --> 00:15:20.440 But Noah found grace from the time of Adam and Eve, and to the time that we exist today, the only reason any 00:15:20.440 --> 00:15:26.310 of us are allowed to enjoy the presence of God and His mercy in our lives is because of his grace. 00:15:27.600 --> 00:15:28.380 Noah is no different. 00:15:29.500 --> 00:15:31.690 He grew up in the generation of perverse people. 00:15:31.840 --> 00:15:35.860 Noah himself was a was a sinner from the very depths of his heart. 00:15:36.060 --> 00:15:39.700 But Noah found the grace of God. 00:15:39.760 --> 00:15:41.440 Go ahead and click to the next slide for us. 00:15:42.980 --> 00:15:47.420 The big lesson to us is that we all move forward by the grace of God. 00:15:47.740 --> 00:15:54.340 In Genesis chapter nine it says, Then God said to Noah, I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you. 00:15:54.360 --> 00:15:57.580 And God said, this is the sign of the covenant, God always gives a sign. 00:15:57.580 --> 00:15:58.920 The first one we saw was a Sabbath. 00:15:59.040 --> 00:16:03.880 He says, I am making between me and you and every living creature with you a covenant for all generations to come. 00:16:04.500 --> 00:16:09.000 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 00:16:09.880 --> 00:16:12.480 Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 00:16:12.860 --> 00:16:20.240 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on 00:16:20.240 --> 00:16:21.240 the earth. 00:16:22.320 --> 00:16:23.180 God creates man. 00:16:23.280 --> 00:16:24.200 Man rejects God. 00:16:24.200 --> 00:16:25.260 God promises Jesus. 00:16:25.580 --> 00:16:28.500 God finds that man rejects him again Noah comes. 00:16:28.500 --> 00:16:29.660 Noah finds God's grace. 00:16:29.960 --> 00:16:31.180 Man still rejecting God. 00:16:31.180 --> 00:16:38.080 But God still offers his grace and favor to us, and he gives us a sign of his covenant, the rainbow. 00:16:38.620 --> 00:16:45.840 Opportunity for us as we think about the Sabbath as a sign of God's love this day, we have to worship We look at a rainbow that can reflect the 00:16:45.940 --> 00:16:47.640 sign of God's love for us. 00:16:49.180 --> 00:16:50.400 God promised to bless Noah. 00:16:52.240 --> 00:16:57.940 God tells Noah shortly after this that they are to respect life and begin to be fruitful and multiply. 00:16:59.560 --> 00:17:06.700 The external sign of God's love is seen in the rainbow, and the response of man internally is to place their faith in the promise of the Messiah 00:17:06.700 --> 00:17:07.970 who would come. 00:17:10.099 --> 00:17:12.960 Jesus being a better leader than Noah. 00:17:12.980 --> 00:17:20.369 Noah found favor in grace, so we too can find grace in Jesus from the judgment and sin that hovers over us as people. 00:17:21.460 --> 00:17:28.040 And you think at this point it would be good enough for man to say, every time we leave God, we sort of get this wrong. 00:17:29.280 --> 00:17:30.180 I mean, we ate in the garden. 00:17:30.940 --> 00:17:31.720 Disaster happens. 00:17:31.720 --> 00:17:32.220 Sin came. 00:17:32.240 --> 00:17:33.460 We ran from God's presence. 00:17:33.480 --> 00:17:37.000 Adam and Eve clothed themselves in fig leaves to hide from God. 00:17:37.620 --> 00:17:38.660 Jesus has promised to come. 00:17:38.720 --> 00:17:40.180 Jesus is going to die on the cross. 00:17:40.260 --> 00:17:45.030 You think at that point they might stop and say, this is costing quite a bit for God to show his love to us. 00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:49.920 Yet the noahic flood time comes and man rejects God. 00:17:50.100 --> 00:17:54.380 And shortly thereafter, when the flood passes, God gives his promise to Noah. 00:17:54.560 --> 00:18:00.080 It doesn't take but a couple of verses from this section to read that Noah gets totally wasted. 00:18:01.320 --> 00:18:02.240 Noah gets drunk. 00:18:03.420 --> 00:18:08.310 The Bible tells us that his son in that situation violates him. 00:18:08.620 --> 00:18:15.680 Doesn't tell us how, but it tells us that his son goes into the tent and sees his father naked, and 00:18:15.720 --> 00:18:19.000 therefore his son is cursed for behaving in such a way. 00:18:21.120 --> 00:18:23.150 You would think at this point man would just say, you know what? 00:18:23.240 --> 00:18:25.400 Maybe we should pursue God and the reason that he created us. 00:18:25.720 --> 00:18:26.420 And the Bible goes on. 00:18:26.420 --> 00:18:27.360 Go ahead and click for me again. 00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:31.130 We enter into a time of Babel. 00:18:33.320 --> 00:18:35.560 The Tower of Babel is being built. 00:18:36.740 --> 00:18:43.880 The people at the time and the City of Babel building this tower are saying to themselves, let's build this tower to declare to 00:18:43.940 --> 00:18:45.940 the world how great we are. 00:18:46.040 --> 00:18:50.420 And once again, the people of this world have left God. 00:18:50.540 --> 00:18:56.300 And there is a man by the name of Abraham who lives in the godless city of Babel. 00:18:57.800 --> 00:19:01.740 Abraham, just like Noah, was a godless man. 00:19:02.460 --> 00:19:07.260 But the Bible tells us that Abraham finds grace in the eyes of God. 00:19:07.420 --> 00:19:14.520 In Genesis chapter 12 and verse one, this is the calling of Abraham out of the place of Babel into the land of 00:19:14.520 --> 00:19:20.880 Canaan, where God can bless them and create a nation through him, of which today we call the Jewish people. 00:19:22.740 --> 00:19:26.930 You wonder, as you read the Old Testament, why the Old Testament deals so much with Jewish history. 00:19:27.080 --> 00:19:32.300 It's because up until chapter 12, God dealt with all mankind for all time. 00:19:32.300 --> 00:19:37.500 But God now decides to work his glory through a nation to identify who he is to all people. 00:19:38.480 --> 00:19:43.220 So starting in Genesis chapter 12 to throughout the Old Testament and into some of the New Testament. 00:19:43.240 --> 00:19:47.270 We primarily deal with the Jewish people because it's a writing geared toward them. 00:19:47.300 --> 00:19:54.540 And it says in chapter 12 and verse one, the Lord had said to Abraham, go from your country, your people, and your father's household to the land, I 00:19:54.540 --> 00:19:55.100 will show you. 00:19:56.160 --> 00:19:57.420 I'll make you into a great nation. 00:19:58.620 --> 00:19:59.620 It says, I will bless you. 00:19:59.660 --> 00:20:03.100 I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 00:20:03.100 --> 00:20:04.330 Go ahead and click to the next slide. 00:20:05.960 --> 00:20:13.020 The covenant is reminded to Abraham multiple times throughout the book of Genesis, and God in chapter 15 goes on to say, in the same day the Lord made a 00:20:13.020 --> 00:20:20.380 covenant with Abraham or Abram, saying unto thy seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt, and to the great river, the river of 00:20:20.380 --> 00:20:20.800 Euphrates. 00:20:22.200 --> 00:20:29.030 In chapter 17 this is my covenant with you and your descendants after you the covenant you are to keep, every male among you shall be circumcised. 00:20:29.460 --> 00:20:31.910 The sign of the covenant here with God is circumcision. 00:20:32.500 --> 00:20:33.350 You are to undergo circumcision. 00:20:33.960 --> 00:20:36.800 It will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. 00:20:36.820 --> 00:20:39.130 And I would have to say, you've got to have some faith right? 00:20:42.580 --> 00:20:49.640 God desires to pursue man even at the time of Babel when they are rejecting him, desiring to make a name great for 00:20:49.980 --> 00:20:50.980 themselves and leaving God behind. 00:20:52.780 --> 00:20:58.820 God promises that through his seed he will create a seed large enough as a nation that will bless all nations. 00:21:00.300 --> 00:21:07.360 It tells us in Genesis chapter 22 that when this child is born that they name him Isaac, which literally means laughter. 00:21:08.840 --> 00:21:12.680 Abraham was nearly 100 years old when God had given this promise to him. 00:21:13.520 --> 00:21:16.560 Could you imagine the reaction if you had a child at 100 years old? 00:21:17.440 --> 00:21:18.350 I would do more than laughter. 00:21:20.160 --> 00:21:22.430 I would probably name my child something worse than Isaac. 00:21:25.060 --> 00:21:27.130 And God also changed the name of Abraham. 00:21:28.380 --> 00:21:33.600 His name was Abram, and God named him Abraham, which means father of nations. 00:21:35.080 --> 00:21:40.340 If you've ever heard that young children's song Father Abraham had many sons and many sons had Father Abraham. 00:21:41.020 --> 00:21:42.330 He is the father of nations. 00:21:44.080 --> 00:21:51.620 And Sarah, his wife went from Sarah to Sarah, which means princess, because 00:21:51.620 --> 00:21:57.320 from Sarah would come many kings who would rule and reign, and ultimately the King of kings, who is Jesus? 00:21:59.340 --> 00:22:00.940 God gives us the sign of his covenant. 00:22:01.080 --> 00:22:02.050 He's given us Sabbath. 00:22:02.180 --> 00:22:03.020 He's given us the rainbow. 00:22:03.020 --> 00:22:09.780 And here in this situation, he's brought forth circumcision as a reminder to the people as his covenant love towards us. 00:22:11.640 --> 00:22:20.240 And you think at this point we would say, and now men pursued God, but 00:22:20.240 --> 00:22:23.310 it wasn't the case in your Bible. 00:22:24.300 --> 00:22:31.340 When you turn to the book of first Samuel, it begins the story of the kings God created for the 00:22:31.380 --> 00:22:32.460 nation of Israel. 00:22:33.220 --> 00:22:34.460 Oh, excuse me, I'm ahead of it. 00:22:34.900 --> 00:22:36.400 If you turn in Exodus, it begins. 00:22:36.620 --> 00:22:38.540 Excuse me the time of the fair. 00:22:38.560 --> 00:22:39.380 Go ahead and click for me. 00:22:39.830 --> 00:22:40.080 Run. 00:22:40.440 --> 00:22:42.260 See if I if I had a clicker, I wouldn't mess that up. 00:22:44.980 --> 00:22:50.580 From the book of Genesis to the book of Exodus, we have over 800 years that exist from the time of Abraham and to Moses. 00:22:52.140 --> 00:22:54.180 The nation of Israel experiences a famine. 00:22:54.180 --> 00:22:56.500 They go into the land of Egypt to receive food. 00:22:56.500 --> 00:22:58.500 Joseph takes his family there. 00:22:58.500 --> 00:23:05.260 It says that nearly 70 family members went into the land of Egypt, and there they lived in Joseph, ruled in the land of Egypt. 00:23:06.780 --> 00:23:10.640 400 years into their living there, God makes them slaves within this nation. 00:23:12.040 --> 00:23:19.260 And it says in Exodus chapter one and verse eight, now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph, the one who brought the people of Israel into 00:23:19.320 --> 00:23:23.540 the land, and at the time were merely 70 people in chapter two. 00:23:23.560 --> 00:23:28.800 So God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 00:23:30.440 --> 00:23:37.900 400 years into their captivity, the nation of Israel began to groan and remember the covenant that God had established with them a 00:23:37.960 --> 00:23:45.680 covenant people marked by God to be assigned to this world of everything that God had promised in pursuit of them, and offering redemption through Jesus. 00:23:45.680 --> 00:23:52.700 And yet the people of Egypt forgot, and the nation of Israel begins to remember this covenant 00:23:52.700 --> 00:23:53.380 with God. 00:23:53.400 --> 00:23:54.740 And I would say, rightly so. 00:23:54.740 --> 00:23:56.000 I wouldn't want to be a slave either. 00:23:57.840 --> 00:24:03.780 And God pulls apart Moses to remind the nation of Israel of his love for them. 00:24:05.200 --> 00:24:13.420 We've seen Noah, who has rejected God, Adam who has rejected God, Abraham from the town, the city of Babel, and now Moses, also 00:24:13.420 --> 00:24:16.880 a rejecter of God. 00:24:17.020 --> 00:24:18.380 Moses was a murderer. 00:24:20.020 --> 00:24:22.480 And yet Moses finds grace and favor in the eyes of the Lord. 00:24:22.480 --> 00:24:28.480 Give me a clicker in chapter six and verse seven it says, then I will take you for my people, and I will be your God. 00:24:28.520 --> 00:24:33.330 And you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 00:24:33.460 --> 00:24:37.300 I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 00:24:37.300 --> 00:24:39.320 And I will give it to you for a possession. 00:24:39.620 --> 00:24:40.640 I am the Lord. 00:24:40.640 --> 00:24:41.570 Go ahead and click one more time. 00:24:42.940 --> 00:24:46.000 And so God brings forth his covenant to the nation of Israel. 00:24:47.800 --> 00:24:54.980 The Bible shares within the next chapters from six on to 19, that the nation of Israel escapes the captivity under Jewish 00:24:54.980 --> 00:24:56.610 or, excuse me, Egyptian persecution. 00:24:58.060 --> 00:25:02.620 They went into the land 70 people and God pulls them out of the land, over 2 million people strong now. 00:25:03.900 --> 00:25:07.700 And God establishes a covenant with them, and God gives them his law. 00:25:09.020 --> 00:25:14.840 He says, Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, thus you shall say to the house of Jacob. 00:25:15.040 --> 00:25:19.540 And this is where Moses is receiving the Ten commandments, and tell the sons of Israel. 00:25:19.540 --> 00:25:24.860 Now then, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession among all the peoples. 00:25:25.700 --> 00:25:26.780 For all the earth is mine. 00:25:27.640 --> 00:25:30.700 And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. 00:25:31.240 --> 00:25:34.820 These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel. 00:25:36.780 --> 00:25:39.240 The covenant leader in this situation is Moses. 00:25:40.980 --> 00:25:45.990 You remember, as God had given this law to the nation of Israel to follow, and God had given them ten commandments. 00:25:46.320 --> 00:25:52.420 When they exited out of Egypt, they left on one enormous boom which was celebrated through the Passover. 00:25:53.820 --> 00:25:57.560 The ten plagues hit the nation of Egypt, and the Pharaoh refused to let the people go. 00:25:57.580 --> 00:26:04.940 And finally, on the 10th plague, God said, I'm going to send my death angel on the land of Egypt, and the firstborn within every family will 00:26:04.940 --> 00:26:05.260 die. 00:26:06.180 --> 00:26:09.000 Just as Jesus, being the firstborn, died. 00:26:09.980 --> 00:26:17.320 And God says, I want everyone to sacrifice an innocent lamb with no blemish, just as Jesus was an innocent lamb having 00:26:17.320 --> 00:26:18.620 no sin or no blemish. 00:26:18.860 --> 00:26:21.680 He said, I want you to apply this blood to your life. 00:26:21.740 --> 00:26:25.870 I want you to take this blood of this lamb and put it on the doorposts of your home. 00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:34.060 That way, when the death Angel passes by you, it'll pass by your home because you have accepted the sacrifice of this lamb It 00:26:34.060 --> 00:26:41.520 was a foreshadowing of the sacrifice in which Jesus would ultimately make on the cross for our sins, and whoever had the blood applied 00:26:41.520 --> 00:26:44.750 to their life was saved or spared. 00:26:45.640 --> 00:26:48.360 The sign of this covenant was the Passover. 00:26:50.380 --> 00:26:57.500 The inward sign of these people was seen in placing their faith in everything that God had promised to them, the redemption to come 00:26:57.500 --> 00:26:58.620 in Jesus. 00:27:00.140 --> 00:27:07.180 And at this point you would say, surely after seeing all that, they followed God, right? 00:27:08.280 --> 00:27:10.360 Somebody at some point gets this right. 00:27:11.860 --> 00:27:18.210 But if the Bible continues to reveal to us that as God is glorious and gracious, man continues to reject. 00:27:19.020 --> 00:27:26.400 And from the Book of First Samuel, throughout the rest of your Old Testament, we deal in the time of the kings and 00:27:26.520 --> 00:27:29.520 man continuing to reject God. 00:27:29.660 --> 00:27:36.720 God at this point, through through Moses he brought forth prophets and priests and judges to help the nation of Israel pursue 00:27:36.720 --> 00:27:38.560 after him and understand God's truth. 00:27:38.840 --> 00:27:40.500 And yet man continued to reject. 00:27:41.960 --> 00:27:44.770 Insert David, go ahead and give me a click. 00:27:44.920 --> 00:27:46.460 Run! 00:27:47.260 --> 00:27:50.310 God finally appoints a king to rule and to reign over them. 00:27:51.260 --> 00:27:59.040 He establishes his covenant with his king, and he says in verse eight and into verse 12, now therefore, thus shall thus 00:27:59.040 --> 00:28:06.270 you shall say to my servant David, thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people Israel. 00:28:07.520 --> 00:28:13.860 You see a common theme with these leaders that God is appointing to share his covenant with Adam was nothing special. 00:28:13.880 --> 00:28:14.470 He had been created. 00:28:14.640 --> 00:28:17.680 He couldn't even prove himself worthy of anything before God. 00:28:17.820 --> 00:28:20.780 Noah was nothing special, yet he found grace in God's eyes. 00:28:21.640 --> 00:28:23.100 Abraham was nothing special. 00:28:23.100 --> 00:28:25.160 He lived in Babel, which was a godless city. 00:28:26.100 --> 00:28:27.320 Moses was nothing special. 00:28:27.320 --> 00:28:28.680 Moses was a murderer. 00:28:29.020 --> 00:28:35.600 And here we are looking at King David, a great and glorious king, the greatest king to reign and rule over the nation of Israel. 00:28:35.600 --> 00:28:37.800 And it says to us, David, where did you come from? 00:28:38.160 --> 00:28:38.640 Lowly. 00:28:38.640 --> 00:28:42.230 David came from a pasture caring for sheep. 00:28:43.460 --> 00:28:45.430 God is passionate for you. 00:28:46.380 --> 00:28:52.590 It has nothing to do with you and everything to do with his goodness and grace being made known in your life. 00:28:54.000 --> 00:29:01.000 Verse 12, when your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendants after you who will come 00:29:01.000 --> 00:29:03.690 forth from you and will establish his kingdom. 00:29:04.580 --> 00:29:08.460 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 00:29:11.240 --> 00:29:16.300 When Jesus was later born, he was of the lineage and kingdom of David. 00:29:17.900 --> 00:29:21.480 Jesus was the ultimate King of Kings and Lord of lords. 00:29:23.020 --> 00:29:29.660 In Psalm 89 and verse three, this covenant that God established with David is referred to specifically as a covenant. 00:29:29.840 --> 00:29:35.310 In Psalm 89 and verse three, David being the mediator of this covenant. 00:29:35.380 --> 00:29:41.420 The blessing of this covenant was the protection of a king, ultimately through the King of kings and the Lord of Lords. 00:29:42.780 --> 00:29:50.160 The outward sign of this covenant was seen as the nation of Israel received a throne, and for the first time in their history also had 00:29:50.160 --> 00:29:57.360 a temple built, a reflection of God's glory and his pursuit of a relationship with people, a reflection of 00:29:57.420 --> 00:30:00.180 God's authority as he would reign as king. 00:30:01.780 --> 00:30:06.600 And the inward desire of this covenant from God would be that people would place their faith in him. 00:30:07.740 --> 00:30:13.360 And again, we're left at a moment where you would say, and surely people followed God. 00:30:14.780 --> 00:30:21.920 But as you read the rest of your Old Testament and you get into the time of the prophet Jeremiah, you see that the nation of Israel continued to 00:30:21.940 --> 00:30:22.320 reject God. 00:30:23.840 --> 00:30:31.020 In fact, shortly after King David, King Solomon ruled, and right after King Solomon there was a civil war that took place and the nation of Israel, literally just 00:30:31.100 --> 00:30:33.000 divided in two over the civil War. 00:30:33.000 --> 00:30:39.620 And the northern Kingdom was referred to as Israel, and the southern kingdom was referred to as Judah through the rest of Israel's history in the Old Testament. 00:30:40.880 --> 00:30:44.240 The northern Kingdom of Israel never again had a godly king that ruled over them. 00:30:44.320 --> 00:30:46.100 The southern kingdom had but a few. 00:30:47.260 --> 00:30:49.540 Eventually God leads them into captivity. 00:30:49.600 --> 00:30:53.900 The northern kingdom was conquered by Assyria and the southern kingdom conquered by Babylon. 00:30:56.000 --> 00:31:03.260 And yet, as man continued to reject God, God continued to pursue us, because 00:31:03.260 --> 00:31:10.260 God's desire is that he would be your God and you would be his people, to the 00:31:10.380 --> 00:31:17.440 point that God finally fulfills his promise all the way back in Genesis chapter three through Jesus, go ahead and give me a 00:31:17.440 --> 00:31:17.690 click. 00:31:19.380 --> 00:31:23.180 In Jeremiah chapter 31, it's not on the screen, but I'm going to go ahead and read this to you. 00:31:23.200 --> 00:31:25.960 It's where we get the name for our Bible as the Old and New Testament. 00:31:27.640 --> 00:31:34.760 Jeremiah 31 and verse 31, behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like 00:31:34.760 --> 00:31:37.220 the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day. 00:31:37.240 --> 00:31:40.260 I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. 00:31:41.200 --> 00:31:45.760 My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them, declares the Lord. 00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:53.060 But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord, I will put my law within them, and on their heart I 00:31:53.060 --> 00:31:57.890 will write it, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 00:31:59.740 --> 00:32:06.380 We fast forward hundreds of years later, from the time of David to the time of Jesus. 00:32:07.460 --> 00:32:09.520 Nearly a thousand years have taken place. 00:32:10.840 --> 00:32:18.920 Jesus in Matthew chapter six and verse 26, remembers the covenant that he promised for all people a 00:32:19.020 --> 00:32:23.240 covenant through Abraham, that he promised to bless all nations through his seed. 00:32:24.580 --> 00:32:25.620 And it's the night of the Passover. 00:32:26.040 --> 00:32:30.770 And Jesus enters into the upper room with his disciples, and Jesus begins to share something just. 00:32:31.320 --> 00:32:37.760 Blowing the minds away of his disciples as they're participating in a Passover dinner together. 00:32:38.880 --> 00:32:45.980 It's the night before the lamb is slain, or the night when the lamb is slain for the Passover, in which they have celebrated for 00:32:46.160 --> 00:32:49.570 years as a sign of the covenant that God made with them, starting with Moses. 00:32:50.580 --> 00:32:57.660 It says, while they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing he broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, take, 00:32:57.820 --> 00:32:57.960 eat. 00:32:58.660 --> 00:32:59.540 This is my body. 00:33:01.120 --> 00:33:06.640 And when he had taken a cup and given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, drink from it, all of you. 00:33:07.440 --> 00:33:12.510 For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for the many for forgiveness of sins. 00:33:14.460 --> 00:33:21.800 In the night that the Passover lamb was slain, Jesus went to the upper room with his disciples, and he compared himself 00:33:21.800 --> 00:33:28.860 to that lamb who was giving his life for the sins of the nation of Israel, ultimately fulfilling 00:33:28.860 --> 00:33:36.600 his promise and his great covenant and commitment to us as a people, offering redemption to stomp the head of Satan and 00:33:36.680 --> 00:33:37.820 suffer a heel wound in the process. 00:33:39.900 --> 00:33:47.220 The blessing of this covenant is salvation, forgiveness, the indwelling of the spirit of reconciliation with God and our relationship, and an opportunity to experience 00:33:47.220 --> 00:33:49.280 eternal life with him. 00:33:51.220 --> 00:33:55.150 The condition is that we turn from sin and trust in him. 00:33:56.060 --> 00:34:03.220 And the sign of the covenant which we've seen here is communion and the sign of the covenant, which we 00:34:03.340 --> 00:34:05.740 celebrated last week was baptism. 00:34:07.440 --> 00:34:14.739 It's a reflection to us of everything that Jesus has done for us, despite of any rejection that we've brought forth to him. 00:34:15.980 --> 00:34:17.750 How does Jesus relate to these covenants? 00:34:19.980 --> 00:34:23.739 Jesus is seen as a better Adam while Adam brought death to this world. 00:34:23.739 --> 00:34:30.920 Jesus brings life Jesus is seen as a better Noah who judges sin yet brings salvation and offers us a new 00:34:30.920 --> 00:34:31.820 and better world. 00:34:33.000 --> 00:34:37.280 Jesus is a better Abraham, who is the promised seed and blessing throughout the entire earth. 00:34:38.440 --> 00:34:45.620 Jesus is a better Moses who conquered a stronger Pharaoh, which is Satan, and he fulfilled all the law in which he had written to 00:34:45.620 --> 00:34:45.940 Moses. 00:34:47.120 --> 00:34:52.420 Jesus is a better king than David because Jesus reigns as King of kings and Lord of lords. 00:34:53.440 --> 00:34:58.960 Jesus is the promise of all of those covenant agreements that he made for man. 00:34:59.980 --> 00:35:07.200 And the most significant thing that I just want to share with us this morning is this word that we use in Hebrew called 00:35:07.200 --> 00:35:07.300 Hasid. 00:35:09.800 --> 00:35:15.320 It's a powerful word in the Old Testament, which doesn't really translate well into English for us. 00:35:16.780 --> 00:35:23.840 Moses, when he began to experience the covenantal love in which God brought forth to him, he reflected upon this word has said. 00:35:25.300 --> 00:35:32.320 He said in Exodus chapter 34 and verse six, the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful 00:35:32.320 --> 00:35:40.160 and gracious, long suffering and abundant in his haste and truth, has 00:35:40.160 --> 00:35:43.120 said, carries multiple meanings in the Old Testament. 00:35:43.420 --> 00:35:45.880 It isn't a word that can just be defined through one word. 00:35:47.720 --> 00:35:53.980 In our Bibles, we often see it written as a word, as of loving kindness or mercy or goodness. 00:35:54.400 --> 00:35:56.320 But a sad carries this meaning. 00:35:56.340 --> 00:36:03.720 It's God's relentless and constant mercy, grace, love, beauty, good deeds, kindness, pity, favor, and even judgment 00:36:03.720 --> 00:36:05.930 of sin for the sake of man. 00:36:06.940 --> 00:36:14.360 When we talk about God's covenant to us, we are saying God's covenant is has said God is passionate 00:36:14.360 --> 00:36:15.900 for you. 00:36:17.140 --> 00:36:24.160 God finally has the opportunity to take Moses in his old age, and he brings him to the edge of the promised land the children of Israel 00:36:24.160 --> 00:36:26.880 hasn't had haven't had the opportunity to go into this land yet. 00:36:28.100 --> 00:36:35.660 And Moses sits down with all the younger generation of people, and he looks upon them, and he begins to preach a sermon in which we call Deuteronomy 00:36:35.660 --> 00:36:36.980 in our Bible, the book of Deuteronomy. 00:36:38.060 --> 00:36:45.080 And he shares with these young people that he knows is about to go into this promised land and take possession of this covenantal promise that God had made to 00:36:45.080 --> 00:36:45.680 them. 00:36:46.100 --> 00:36:53.200 And it reflects to this nation of Israel all about this God that he came to understand and to us today, as we look 00:36:53.200 --> 00:36:59.140 through the Old Testament where we read the New Testament, the main character, the theme of the whole Bible is God. 00:37:00.600 --> 00:37:07.760 God, this main character pursues you in his relationship of love and has said towards you because of his binding covenant towards 00:37:07.760 --> 00:37:07.860 you. 00:37:09.240 --> 00:37:16.850 This covenantal agreement is the greatest agreement that God can make, and reflection of his grace that he desires to lavish upon you as people. 00:37:18.120 --> 00:37:19.960 And in Deuteronomy, go ahead and click for me. 00:37:20.010 --> 00:37:23.060 He says this No. 00:37:23.060 --> 00:37:30.340 Therefore, to the younger children of Israel, that the Lord your God, he is God, the 00:37:30.420 --> 00:37:37.620 faithful God, who keeps his covenant and his loving kindness, has said to a thousand generations 00:37:37.620 --> 00:37:40.600 with those who love him and keep his commandments. 00:37:42.420 --> 00:37:42.900 Give me one more. 00:37:42.980 --> 00:37:43.280 One more clicker. 00:37:45.860 --> 00:37:53.280 The theme of your Bible is expressed ultimately through many verses in Scripture, but God's pursuit is 00:37:53.320 --> 00:37:56.980 that he would be your God and that you would be his people. 00:37:59.300 --> 00:38:05.740 God loves us, and God is passionately pursuing us as the great hound of heaven. 00:38:07.920 --> 00:38:15.680 This morning I asked if someone has ever wronged you in your life, how 00:38:15.680 --> 00:38:16.080 have you responded? 00:38:18.480 --> 00:38:19.330 What did you say? 00:38:20.580 --> 00:38:21.240 How did you feel? 00:38:22.620 --> 00:38:23.140 What did you. 00:38:23.200 --> 00:38:23.400 Do? 00:38:25.480 --> 00:38:30.180 You think about the history of man and our continuous rejection of God. 00:38:30.200 --> 00:38:32.030 And yet we look at people who offend us. 00:38:32.120 --> 00:38:33.970 And what we cry for is justice. 00:38:34.840 --> 00:38:37.800 And when we look to God, what we cry for is mercy. 00:38:39.960 --> 00:38:47.100 Can I suggest to you this morning, to those of you who follow Christ with your life, it's not a commandment that comes easy. 00:38:48.820 --> 00:38:51.960 Jesus said to us, take up your cross and follow me. 00:38:53.900 --> 00:39:00.940 We're most like Jesus and reflecting his nature to this world, that when anyone offends us, we have the opportunity to 00:39:00.940 --> 00:39:02.580 show grace and love. 00:39:04.460 --> 00:39:06.920 I don't like what Gandhi taught, but I do like this quote. 00:39:07.020 --> 00:39:10.220 He said, be the change that you want to see in this world. 00:39:12.360 --> 00:39:15.120 And to you this morning, who may not know the Lord? 00:39:16.220 --> 00:39:19.080 Wondering what kind of God that we're worshiping here this morning. 00:39:19.940 --> 00:39:24.280 It is a God who loves you beyond anything that you can ever compare to in your life. 00:39:25.980 --> 00:39:34.560 You know, I think in this world, what we ultimately pursue is just someone who would just love us despite the wrong that we have and 00:39:34.560 --> 00:39:35.960 the baggage that we carry. 00:39:37.020 --> 00:39:44.080 Someone who wouldn't make us prove ourselves to them, but would just embrace us and give us that gentleness and love and grace that we need in 00:39:44.080 --> 00:39:44.670 this world. 00:39:46.500 --> 00:39:53.640 And Jesus came all the way to the cross to demonstrate to us that, yes, he passionately loves you in that 00:39:53.640 --> 00:39:53.740 way. 00:39:56.300 --> 00:40:03.380 And I don't know what response we have this morning, but I can only think that one response would be rational on our behalf as 00:40:03.380 --> 00:40:03.660 people. 00:40:04.240 --> 00:40:11.090 And that is just to simply look at this God and stand in awe and say, Lord, above everything in this world, I love you. 00:40:13.600 --> 00:40:19.320 God has demonstrated that love to you, and he's just simply asked that you love him in return.