FOUNDATION STATEMENT: As believers we must be ever mindful of the blood covenant that we have with God. A consciousness of covenant will produce a boldness of faith in the day of battle and will cause us to rise up and take what God has provided for us. – Ephesians 2:12
I. You can be born again and the covenant can be a strange/foreign thing to you (Ephesians 2:12)
A. 4-Rich in Mercy (Eleos) – kindness, it assumes need on the part of him who receives it, and resources adequate to meet the need on the part of him who shows it
B. 4-His great love Great (polus) – Many, much, great Love (agape) unconditional, never ending, never failing
1. Agape occurs when an individual sees, recognizes, understands, or appreciates the value of an object or a person, causing the viewer to behold this object or person in great esteem, awe, admiration, wonder, and sincere appreciation. You see, agape is a love that loves so profoundly that it knows no limits or boundaries in how far, wide, high, and deep it will go to show that love to its recipient. If necessary, agape, will even sacrifice itself for the sake of that object or person it so deeply cherishes. Agape is the highest form of love – a self-sacrificial type of love that moves the lover to action.
C. We got the same life in us that he got in him (5-6 AMP)
1. What he gets we get when we receive him
2. (AMP) – We have joint seating with Him in the heavenly sphere by virtue of our being in Christ Jesus
a. Romans 8:17 – We are joint-heirs with Christ
b. Ephesians 1:20 – Where is he seated
c. 1 John 4:17 – As he is so am I in this world
1) We’re one through covenant
D. Agape raised us together and made us sit together with him (6)
1. I sit there because God is rich in hesed/agape/loving-kindness and tender mercy
E. He is showing to us the excessively-overflowing-abundance of his goodness and loving-kindness (7)
1. Ages to come – This was written ages ago
2. Exceeding riches – The excessive, overflowing, abundance
3. Grace (charis) – favor, benefit
4. Kindness (chrestotes) – Gentleness, goodness, kindness
F. Saved (sozo) -We are kept sound by favor and benefit through faith (8)
G. Remember in times past you had no covenant with God to get a deeper revelation of just how much God loves you (11)
1. That’s the point of looking at v 1-3, to see where you came from
H. As a born-again child of God you need to develop a covenant consciousness – REMEMBER YOUR COVENANT (12)
1. Being covenant-conscious will produce a fearless attitude in the face of the attack and it will produce a singleness of mind and unwavering bold faith
I. You are made near because of the blood covenant (13)
1. The blood of Jesus washed your sins away and sealed the New covenant and now you can stand in the presence of the Father because you’ve been totally cleansed from all sin
2. 18-You have access to the Father
J. You are of the household of God – You’re kin to God (19)
1. Household (okeios) – of one’s own household , kindred
2. Romans 8:14 – I’ve got a Father, I’ve got a Daddy!
II. As believers we need to be covenant conscious (1 Samuel 17:23)
A. The men of Israel were more conscious of the size of that giant than they were of their covenant
1. People who covenant conscious will always operate in fear (24)
2. All of those men were in covenant with God, but weren’t conscious of it and fled in fear
3. How many times has Satan said something to you and you ran in fear because you weren’t conscious of your covenant?
B. They tried to talk that fear into David (25)
1. They only thing that they were fully persuaded about was that Goliath came to defy Israel – The should have been sure about their covenant
C. David’s more conscious of his covenant than the size of the problem (26)
1. The only word that David used to describe the Philistine was uncircumcised – No Covenant Having
a. He didn’t talk about how big he was, how strong he was, what a great warrior he was; he talked about how he didn’t have covenant with God
b. How’s your conversation when there’s a problem?
2. I believe David gawked at this like who does this no-covenant having fool think he is and why are you guys running from him
D. People who are covenant conscious don’t blink, don’t bat an eye, don’t flinch, and don’t waiver in the face of the attack (32)
1. He’s just a 17 year old boy who’s conscious of his covenant
2. Saul thought David was going in the power of his might, but David was going in the power of the Lord’s might (33)
E. David is covenant conscious (36)
1. That lion was big and strong, but didn’t have covenant with God and that’s what got him whooped
2. That bear was big and strong, but didn’t have covenant with God and that’s what got him whooped
3. And this no covenant-having Philistine may be big and strong, but he’s going to get whooped just like them because he has come against the armies of the living God and he has no covenant
F. The Lord-Jehovah-The unchangeable God (37)
1. God hasn’t changed and His covenant hasn’t changed
2. The enemies who chose to come against me are coming against God
G. Saul tried to give David his armor and make covenant with him (38-39)
1. This covenant with you has not been exercised or proven by me in the day of battle
a. David took to battle what had been proven and tried
2. David had been out there in the fields shepherding the flock of those sheep daily exercising in his covenant with God
a. You should be exercising in your covenant daily
H. I come to you IN THE NAME of the Lord of hosts (45)
1. You’re coming at me with natural, carnal weapons, but I’m coming at you in the power and the authority of the Lord of battle and he is our covenant God
a. In the name – I stand before you in the power and authority of the almighty God and it’s as if God himself were standing here (Acts 4:7)
2. The Lord of Hosts (Jehovah Tsabbaoth) – Hosts can refer to human armies or angelic armies. God of battles. This title is best understood as a reference the dominion of God over all powers in the universe.
I. David’s boldness of faith (46)
1. This kind of boldness of faith only comes through a consciousness of covenant
J. The battle is the Lord’s (47)
1. At the exchange of the belt weapons they said, “Your enemies are mine. Even if I die, I stand with you and lend you my sword.”
2. Because of my covenant with God my enemies are His enemies and he will stand with me and lend me his sword even till death.
K. David was so covenant-minded and so focused on his covenant with almighty God that he didn’t even come close to doubting or wavering
1. Covenant minded people are single minded, unwavering individuals
2. Covenant-minded people are not moved by impossible circumstances
3. Covenant-minded people will accomplish what others say is impossible
4. Covenant-minded people don’t operate in fear, doubt, or unbelief
L. We have to develop a covenant-consciousness
1. David was so focused on his covenant with God that it was like he didn’t even see the size of the Philistine (problem)
a. He never acknowledge the size of the philistine
2. In every battle, ever test, and every attack we should be so covenant minded that we just gawk at that thing and say, “Who is this no-covenant having thing that’s try to prosper and defeat a covenant child of God?”
III. Abraham walked in faith that was fully persuaded because he was conscious of his covenant (Romans 4:16-21)
A. Abraham was in covenant with God and he was the guy that saw God himself walk through that blood (Genesis 15)
B. Abraham stood calling those things that be not as though they were (17)
1. Hebrews 4:14, 10:23 – He’s not holding fast to the circumstances, his feelings, or what makes sense
C. With no natural reason to expect that what God said was ever going to come to pass, Abraham expected in faith with a white-hot, neck stretched out, expectation (18)
1. According to the covenant words that God stood in blood and spoke to him
D. He didn’t consider his or Sarah’s age, and he didn’t consider his body or Sarah’s body (19)
1. The covenant that had been cut with God said that he was the Father of many nations so that is the end of all discussions
2. He was considering his covenant
E. He didn’t waver or doubt the promise of God (20)
1. Covenant minded people don’t stagger
F. 21-He was fully persuaded that what God said was coming to pass
1. That covenant that he cut with God effected his remembrance
a. The smell of the blood of that heifer and the digested hay in her bowels was flowing through is nostrils
b. He could still feel the warmth of the blood that ran up to his ankles and between his toes
c. That light walking down the way of the blood replays in his mind over and over again
d. And God’s foot prints in that blood has been tattooed in his thinking
e. The words, “I am El Shaddi, the Almighty God. I will make covenant with you, and multiply you exceedingly. As for me my covenant is with you Abram. I have made you the Father of many nations.
2. The remembrance of that covenant was so strong in his mind that there was a strong conviction to believe – I have to believe
IV. Staying covenant conscious in times of pressure
A. David was fleeing from Saul and wrote this Psalm in one of the most dangerous and discouraging times of his life (Psalm 23)
1. He was in a forest called Hareth and it was parched and dry like baked earthenware.
B. David is so conscious of his covenant that this famed Psalm comes pouring out of him
1. The Lord is MY shepherd or MY provider
a. Always personalize covenant
2. God is with me – I’m in covenant with him
a. David says, “Even though death is staring me in the face God is with me and I’m in covenant with him and I fear no evil.”
3. God preparing the covenant table before him in the presence of his enemies and letting all his enemies know that David is in covenant with almighty God
4. Goodnes/hesed/agape/loving-kindness follows me all the days of my life
a. Surely (Ak) – certainly, surety, truly, verily,
b. Goodness (Tob) – kindness, loving, prosperity, wealth
c. Mercy (Chesed) – Kindness, loving kindness, goodness, favor
d. Follow (Radaph) – chase, hunt, pursue, to put to flight
5. House of the Lord
a. Ephesians 2:19 – I’m kin to God
b. Romans 8:14-17 – I got a Father I got a Daddy
C. They lost consciousness of covenant and it caused to retreat in the day of battle (Psalm 78:9-16)
1. They were armed with weapons and a covenant, yet the turned back in the day of battle
a. The got a covenant with almighty God and in the middle of the attack they are retreating
2. They didn’t guard, watch, observe, or cling to that covenant
a. They forgot the power of that covenant and they awesome thing it did in their lives
1) David remembered the lion and the bear while they forgot everything that came through their covenant
3. They weren’t steadfast in their covenant and that’s why they turned back and when they turned back they limited God(Psalm 78:36-42)
a. Not being steadfast in this covenant will cause you to turn back
b. Turning back/compromising limits God
c. They remembered not his hand – the power of his covenant
V. Consider your covenant
A. Consider the coat of that God presented to you
B. Consider the belt of weapons God presented you to
C. Consider the truth that your enemies are his enemies
D. Consider God taking your head and walking up and down that blood with you
E. Consider God stopping in the middle of that blood pointing his finger right in your face saying I stand in blood making promises to you that cannot be broken
F. Consider God swearing by himself that what he has said about you is so and is true
G. Consider the cut of the covenant Jesus’ back, brow, feet, and hands
H. Consider that scar that runs across your spirit that signifies that you’re in covenant with almighty God
I. Consider the name that you have that carries power from the pit of hell to the throne of God
J. Consider that God calls you friend and you’re always in his thinking and always on his mind
K. Consider the covenant meal of the bread and the wine that by those two things it is impossible for God to lie
L. Consider Jesus feeding you that bread and serving you that wine saying all that I am is yours eat of me, drink my life’s blood for my life is now your life
M. Consider that total giving of himself that God gave to you