November 17, 2024
Lighting the Christ Candle

Welcome and Announcements 

Call to Worship
The extravagant love of God has called us together.
Long before we even knew Him, God already knew us, and had chosen us to be part of His own family—sisters and brothers with our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. 
What amazing love God has already shown toward us! 
We come before Him with praise and thanksgiving, offering the worship of our hearts and lives.
We come before him, with hearts wide open to receive him. 
May the time we spend here in the presence of God, bring honour and glory to His Name.  

 

Hymn:  338  Let all things now living

 

Prayer of Adoration
O God, Holy One, you create all moments of our lives, giving each its meaning and purpose.  You bring us together with you in Jesus, a sign of the love of your heart and your desire to walk with us on the journey through life. 
Help us to join in your covenant, by giving you our hearts with as much abandon as you give us your heart.  Then send us forth to be  your people. 

Strengthen us to witness continually to the love of Jesus Christ,
that we may hold fast in times of trial, even to the end of the ages.  

That we may hold fast in the times of trial and the times of abundance, we bring you our confession, trusting in you to hear us in love and forgive us to live in the fullness of your love…we say together 

Prayer of Confession:
Master, great and awesome God.
You never waver in your covenant commitment,
never give up on those who love you and do what you say.
Yet we have sinned in every way imaginable.
We’ve done evil things, rebelled, dodged
and taken detours around your clearly marked paths.  Compassion is our only hope,
the compassion of you, the Master, our God,
since in our rebellion we’ve forfeited our rights.
We confess our sin because we trust in your covenant faithfulness and call upon your compassion.  O Lord hear our prayer and renew us in your grace.    Amen.
 

Assurance of Pardon 

God law guides us in living lives that keep the covenant of love. 

Christ’s forgiveness grants us new life, renewing that covenant with us continually.   

The Holy Spirit leads us to continual renewal and fills our hearts with God’s love. 

Let us therefore trust the gifts of God.  In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.   

Passing the Peace 

Hymn:  569 O Jesus I have promised

 

Scripture:

Responsive Psalm 16 
Hebrews 10:  15-25 
 

Sermon:  Covenant of the Heart 

What exactly is a covenant?  It is often referred to as a binding agreement.  Like a contract.  So do we have a contract with God?  

We can look around us and see many agreements that have not been binding.  One or both parties break the contract and then, its over.  Let the acrimony and the lawsuits begin. 

 

I much prefer to think about covenants in the way that Scripture talks about them.  No matter which covenant we look at in Scripture it is a Covenant of the Heart.  A Covenant of God’s love for his people.   

Yes, it is still a binding agreement, the only difference being that the party of the first part, keeps the agreement even when the party of the second part fails to keep their obligations. 

Make no mistake:  humans are always the party of the second part. 

It all began with Abram and Sari.  God promised to walk with them, and to give them children as numerous as the stars and a homeland to call their own.  The covenant was sealed with a change of names and later with circumcsion.   Hereafter know Abraham and Sarah embarked on a journey as they wandered in search of the promised land.  The lack of a homeland was far less trouble than the lack of a child, never mind numerous children. 

Given Sarah’s age, and consistent childlessness, they sought to find a way for Abraham to have children in another way.  Hagar was recruited to have a child for Abraham and for Sarah.   

This did not change the Covenant.  God, saw what was happening, and affirmed that Abraham and Sarah would have a child and that their descendants would be as numerous as the stars and that they would have a homeland.  They broke the Covenant, but God kept the Covenant.  

But what God really revealed was that he had established a Heart Covenant.  And that Covenant was given for all of Abraham’s children. We see that when God made promises to Hagar regarding her son Ishmael.  In Genesis 16 the angel of the Lord promised her that Ishmael would have descendants too numerous to count.  Abraham included Ishmael in the sign of the covenant with God through circumcision.   

It was God’s intention to keep his promises through both Isaac and Ismael.  But the party of the second part, rejected Ishmael because Sarah was jealous.  Hagar left and journeyed to Egypt with her son.  There the prophecy regarding Ishmael came to be fulfilled…. The angel of the Lord also said to her: 

“You are now pregnant
    and you will give birth to a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,[a]
    for the Lord has heard of your misery.
12 He will be a wild donkey of a man;
    his hand will be against everyone
    and everyone’s hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
    toward[b] all his brothers.” 

More on that later…. 

After the birth of Isaac God asked Abraham to take Isaac and sacrifice him.  So Abraham obeyed God and took Isaac to the mountain and prepared to make an offering of him to God.  Everything was prepared, when at the last minute God intervened and a ram was substituted for Isaac.   

God was showing that his intention is and always has been that a substitution would be made for human sinfulness.  Here a ram, and in time to come a lamb or a bull or a goat or even a turtle dove.  And of course, finally Jesus. 

In the meantime, a famine came upon the land and Joseph, his brothers and Isaac and their families found refuge in Egypt, the land of Ishmael.  As it goes with brothers there were problems and Abraham’s children were forced to flee.  

In those days the people were led by Moses.  In the journey to the Promised Land Moses met with God and the Law was given on the 2 Tablets.  These were the laws by which all were to live faithfully before God. Jesus later summed them up as love God and love others.   

Soon  the descendants of Abraham finally settled into the promised land.     

The explanation about how to live out those laws were covered in many ways.  The problems that arose meant that the Scriptures included detailed instructions on how to live according to the Law.   

The expectations of a holy life included dutiful worship, and sacrifices for sin.   

The expectations for living a holy life was that the people to be welcoming and caring for the strangers among them as well as the widow and the orphan.   

I think that when God included Ishmael in the blessing it was always his intention that the sons of Ishmael would be welcomed and treated well by the sons of Isaac.  The command to welcome the stranger always included the strangers already in the land as well as any who may come in need…after all the people of Egypt welcomed the family of Isaac when they were refugees.   

 

I don’t want to address the complicated issues in Middle Eastern relationships and politics.  Yet, it is important for us to remember that the Covenant of the Heart includes all the people of that region as much as it includes all the Gentiles, by which we understand our relationship in the Covenant of the Heart.   

No matter what, God does not break the Covenant, not with any of the children of Abraham, whether by blood bond or those of us who are adopted.    To this day, this heart Covenant is broken by humans in various ways, and it breaks God’s heart, but it never breaks the Covenant.  Never. 

In Psalm 16 we read:  translation:  The Message 

My choice is you, God, first and only.
    And now I find I’m your choice!
You set me up with a house and yard.
    And then you made me your heir! 

7-8 The wise counsel God gives when I’m awake
    is confirmed by my sleeping heart.
Day and night I’ll stick with God;
    I’ve got a good thing going and I’m not letting go. 

9-10 I’m happy from the inside out,
    and from the outside in, I’m firmly formed.
You canceled my ticket to hell—
    that’s not my destination!   

11 Now you’ve got my feet on the life path,
    all radiant from the shining of your face.
Ever since you took my hand,
    I’m on the right way.  Ps. 16:   5- 11  MSG 

The people are the ones whom God has chosen.  God has given them a home and made them his heir and then he filled them with joy.  

We become God’s heir because we are children of Abraham, but also because God made provision for us to be children of Abraham through the substitutionary atonement of Jesus.  In Jesus this Covenant of the Heart becomes all more inclusive and expansive. 

When God speaks of having a new covenant what he is meaning is that he will put the Laws into the minds and hearts of the people.  We no longer come to him through sacrifices, but with boldness and confidence; and God sees us not as sinners, but as his beloved children.   

 

And when we sin and break the Covenant God remembers that he has provided the substitution for us.  We no longer need to bring the Lamb, the Bull, or the Goat and lay it on the altar.  This ceases to be what we can do to please God, and about what God has done to show us the expanse of the Covenant of the Heart.  

God has substituted his son, his only son for human sin.  We could say that God has substituted his own heart for our sin.  This Covenant is so strong in his heart that he will give all that he has for the humans he longs to love.   

In Hebrews we read, again from the Message:   

As a priest, Christ made a single sacrifice for sins, and that was it! Then he sat down right beside God and waited for his enemies to cave in. It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people. By that single offering, he did everything that needed to be done for everyone who takes part in the purifying process. The Holy Spirit confirms this: 

This new plan I’m making with Israel
    isn’t going to be written on paper,
    isn’t going to be chiseled in stone;
This time “I’m writing out the plan in them,
    carving it on the lining of their hearts.” 

He concludes, 

I’ll forever wipe the slate clean of their sins. 

The letter to the Hebrews goes on to say:  Once sins are taken care of for good, there’s no longer any need to offer sacrifices for them.  Hebrews 10:  13-18 

There are other things we no longer need to do.   

No longer do we need to keep the Covenant by circumcision.   

No longer do we keep the Covenant by strict adherence to the Law.   

No longer do we keep the Covenant by human effort.   

 

From now on we keep the Covenant because it is written on our hearts.  God gives us his heart and we give God our hearts.   

Now the parties of both parts, have a heart in the Covenant.  The Covenant means that we can come boldly into the heavenly places, because our heart is the heart that Jesus gives to us through his death and resurrection.   

The promises of this Covenant continue: 

We will have continual hope that always draws us beyond what we can see or experience.  God is always working in us and for us. 

We will have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who will strengthen us, comfort us, guide us and lift us up.  In the Spirit we will always know the presence of God. 

And we will have each other, who are also a part of the Covenant, whose hearts are given to God and who share the abundance of God’s love with us.  And we share the abundance of God’s love with them.  Together we share the abundance of God’s love with the world.  

The Covenant of the Heart, love given, love shared.  The Covenant of the Heart is for all eternity.  And best of all it is held in our hearts as well as in God’s heart.   

Praise be to God forever.  Amen 

 

Hymn:   353  Hail our once rejected Jesus

Offering and Doxology 830

Offertory Prayer
 

 

Gathering Prayer Requests
Prayer of Thanksgiving and Intercession 

God of salvation, who sent your Son to seek out and save what is lost, we thank you that you gathered us in when we were lost.  We are grateful for the new life and the new purpose you have given us.  We rejoice knowing that you have always given your ears to our prayers, changing our lives, healing us, and making your grace known in the world. 
For that reason we bring our prayers today with confidence knowing that you will respond on behalf of those who are in need at this time and that you respond to our prayers with your unending compassion. 

JOYS 

 

 

 

 

 

CONCERNS 

 

 

 

 

 

WORLD NEEDS 

 

 

 

 

 

We thank you for your ongoing faithfulness in all these situations.  Come now and visit your people and pour out your strength and courage upon us, that we may hurry to make you welcome not only in our concern for others, but by serving them
generously and faithfully in your name.    

We pray as Jesus has taught us, saying,  

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, for ever.  Amen 

  

Hymn:  626 Lord of all power

Benediction
Blessing Song:  Go now in peace

Go now in peace. Never be afraid.
God will go with you each hour of every day.
Go now in faith, steadfast, strong and true.
Know He will guide you in all you do.
Go now in love, and show you believe.
Reach out to others so all the world can see.
God will be there watching from above.
Go now in peace, in faith, and in love.
Public Domain 

3 Fold Amen