The Covenant and the Cross

March 4, 2012 The Covenant and The Cross Second Sunday of Lent Year B Genesis 17:1-7,15-16 Mark 8:31-38 A father and a son are in a sports store admiring a set of weights. The son asks if he can have them, “ I Promise dad I will use them every day” – can we buy them? “I don’t know son, they are pretty expensive”, yeah but they would really help me to get in shape. – If I had them I promise you will not be disappointed. The father gives in and buys them. The son looks as him – you mean you are expecting me to carry these heavy things to the car? So much for making a promise. It is our second Sunday in lent, our journey with Christ to the Cross, how are we doing with keeping our promises? Have they become as heavy as dumbbells? I have to confess, that keeping my Lenten promises are a struggle. I said that I would go to bed on time. – And I have not made it yet. Truth be told, I have had a harder time going to sleep in the last two weeks, then I have any other time. But that is how it is – when you are trying to change, all of the reasons that you can’t change come to the surface. That is how it is for us – there are some promises that we have no problem with, and there are some that we struggle with. Some we have to work on. And yet God does not give up on us. God never breaks his promises to us. I want to start out this morning (afternoon) talking about the promises of God. I found this wonderful article on the things that God has promised us What can be said about God's promises to us? 1. He has promised to supply every need we have. The Bible says: "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus". That's Philippians 4:19. Now notice, God has obligated Himself only to the extent of our needs. That would include food, clothing, shelter, companionship, love, and salvation thru Jesus Christ. It would not include the multiplicity of luxuries that we have come to think of as needs. 2. God has promised that His grace is sufficient for us. (II Corinthians 12:9). In fact, He has made provision for our salvation by His grace through faith. Read Ephesians 2:8. It is through an obedient faith that we have access into the grace of God according to Romans 5:2. 3. God has promised that His children will not be overtaken with temptation. Instead, He assures us that a way of escape will be provided. This promise is recorded in I Corinthians 10:13. Jude wrote: "Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you’re faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy" (Jude v 24). Darius, King of the Medes, said to Daniel, "Thy God whom thou Servest continually, he will deliver thee" (Daniel 6:16). He did deliver Daniel from the den of lions. 4. God has promised us victory over death. He first resurrected Jesus by way of assuring our resurrection. Peter said: "This Jesus hath God rose up, whereof we are all witnesses" (Acts 2:32). Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures" (I Corinthians 15:3,4). Later on he adds: "but thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (I Corinthians 15:57). 5. God has promised that all things work together for good to those who love and serve Him faithfully (Romans 8:28). It may be difficult for us to see and understand how this is accomplished at times, but God has promised it, and He will deliver. 6. God has promised that those who believe in Jesus and are baptized for the forgiveness of sins will be saved. (Read Mark 16:16 and Acts 2:38). 7. God has promised His people eternal life (John 10:27,28). In closing, let me appeal to you to live so that the promises of God will be yours. All of those promises come from the promise that God made to our mother and father in faith Abraham and Sarah. That they would be the parents of a large nation, kings shall come from this promise. Today – according to recent statistics – 50% of the population of the world attribute Abraham as the father of their faith. That means that there are 3 billion people on the earth who are a part of Abraham and Sarah’s family. There are Christians, Muslims and Jews – the people of the book. Who are a part of God’s promise. And yet in the story, Abraham was 99 years old, Sarah was 89. He already had a son by Hagar, and he had gone on with his life, accepting things just as they were. He had done the best that he could in his life, he was only a man – so when God says that he will have another child, and create another nation – he laughs. And yet God did not ask Abraham about his future, God promised him a future. And God does not break God’s promises to man. God had come to Abraham when he was 75 and made a promise that he would be the father of a great nation. When he comes again at 99 I want to point out that he introduces himself as God Almighty – meaning El Shaddai – interpreted as the one with breast. Or the God of the mountains. Also in psalm 34 God is referred to as the all sufficient one. The breasted one – a baby depends on its mother for all things, and a baby does not have to ask a mother just takes care of them. In psalm 34 it says Hear what Ps 34 4-10 says I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. 5 Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. 6 This poor man called, and the LORD heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles. 7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them. 8 Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. 9 Fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing. 10 The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. Seek him and get to know him as the One who is all sufficient. God takes care of all of our needs. God says that I will make a covenant with you – a promise, a committed relationship with you God says walk before me and be blameless and I will make a covenant between you and me. What’s so hard about that? It seems pretty easy to do. Let me tell you another story – a story that we have all heard before. Once upon a time there was a little girl with a red hood. Her mother sent her to her grandmother’s house with some cookies. In order to get to grandma’s house she had to pass through the forest. In the forest she met a wolf - she told the wolf where she was going – and he wolf wished her well. As a matter of fact, things went so well, they sat down together and ate cookies and told stories all afternoon. And lived happily ever after. We all know that is not how the story goes. The wolf does not wish her well, as a matter of fact, he gets to the house before she does and eats grandma. Before they can live happily ever after – they both have to be saved. The stories of our lives don’t have happy endings – there has to be some drama, some struggle, something bad to overcome. In a perfect world – it would be easy to live blameless before God – the problem is we don’t live in a perfect world. We live in a world of sin and of suffering. Things don’t go our way. God made a promise to be the all sufficient God –but somewhere along the way – life, situations circumstances problems got in the way. God had to make a new promise to us – the promise of Jesus Christ being the messiah of the world. In mark 8:29 – right before the story for today – Peter makes a confession – that Jesus is the messiah. God’s promised one. The one who would come and make everything right. Peter’s messiah was a fairy tale messiah – where everyone lived happily ever after. Peter believed that they were following Jesus, who was going to stand up and fight the Romans, win and gain glory for himself, his disciples, and his people. Jesus told him that the messiah would die, they would die, and instead of glory, there would be shame. Jesus has to remind him that we still live in earth. In earth things happen, life gets in the way. There are no happy endings. In life we suffer in some way, and in life the messiah must suffer also. The truth of the gospel is not so exciting – but Mark wants us to know the truth. Mark is the gospel of Good Friday – the cross is God’s greatest event. God asks Abraham to walk blameless with him, Jesus tells us that we must go to the cross with him. He talks not just to the twelve, but to all of us – If you want to become followers of me, you must deny yourself, take up you cross and follow me. For Mark, the cross is everything. And the only way to be a true Christian is to be willing to follow Christ. We have to suffer as he suffered. The good news is that he had to suffer because we suffer. In this world, life gets in the way for all of us. Life is a struggle. God does not ask us to endure suffering for suffering sake. God does not ask us to take abuse for abuse sake, or to neglect ourselves for neglect sake. Everything that God does for us is done for the sake of love. And when we make the journey to the cross, we have to make that journey in love. If we are obedient to Christ, then the cross is salvation, freedom, redemption, grace. Everything God is – the cross is for us who are faithful. I am god almighty, walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly fruitful. That is not a promise that we can make to God – But it is a promise that god makes to us. A promise that has been fulfilled in the cross. Wherever you may be in your promises, remember – faith does not believe in things that we don’t understand, it is in being obedient without reservation. God says walk blameless before me, Jesus says follow me to the cross. Life will get in the way of your obedience, but an all sufficient God will lead the way. Let us pray…..