Respecting The Covenant

Lift your Bibles up and wave them around.

We want to get into the Word of God with you tonight.

I know many of you tuned in just for that purpose, and so let's just wave those Bibles around, make Jesus glad and the devil mad, and let's say this together say Heavenly Father, I'm tuned into live stream.

I make this a priority to hear what the Word of God is saying to me.

I know that I'm listening and watching by divine appointment.

You have a now word for me.

Tonight I'm not listening for someone else.

My faith is being built, my spirit is being developed and I am being exposed to the truth of the Word of God that's causing me to have success in every area.

In Jesus' name, amen, if you would please turn in your Bibles to Hebrews, chapter 11, and we want to read out of verse 24.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

This is the chapter.

I could call it the hall of fame of faith, and let's go zero in on tonight on Moses, verse 24,.

By faith, moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.

Esteeming the broach of Christ or the reproach for Christ in my margin, in other words, persecution.

He esteemed that greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect let's all say that word out loud respect.

He had respect under the recompense of the reward my faith.

He forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.

And so tonight I wanted to share a message entitled respecting the covenant.

The covenant, respecting the covenant.

Oh, what power we have available to us.

Jesus shed his blood once and for all, and his blood is enough.

You know, I often face things in my life.

I mean, I walk through the, through my house, sometimes I walk through the church and I've got something staring me in the face and I'll just say throughout the day well, his blood is enough.

Jesus blood is enough.

And indeed it is why.

Because we have a covenant with God.

Because of that, shed blood, the blood of Jesus, no other kind of blood like it, the blood of the Son of God shed for us.

And so we have.

We have this power.

The power available to us in our new covenant, and the Bible is all we need to know in order to operate as sons of God.

Everything you need to know.

This is the operations manual right here for sons of God, and the sons of God have a covenant.

We've been talking a lot about covenants lately because we have a word from God that stretches back to September of 2019, about 2020 being the greatest year yet.

And I was laughing the other day because I came across some memes about 2020, and there's some there are some memes that says oh, don't even talk to me about 2020.

In other words, for many people, they want to forget about 2020 because it's been the worst year of their life, I guess because of COVID and all of the other things.

Isn't it amazing that God gave us something to shoot for for this year ahead of time, before anybody ever heard of COVID-19?

And we are not because of our covenant.

We have a covenant with God.

We have a better covenant found upon better promises, and we don't have to have a bad year.

In fact, god wants us to have the greatest year yet and so, but we need to what Respect that covenant.

In July of 2004, oral Roberts had a visitation from God, and among the things that God spoke to him about, he said there's a wasting of power in the church.

And then I heard about this visitation in August, the next month after that, and I watched a couple of interviews on Christian television and it wound up that I was able to go out the next year January of 2005, with a team of we took a total of 12 people with us and we took a couple of you know TV cameras and all recording equipment and we recorded an interview with him and still have it out in our media center.

And he talked about the wasting of power in the church.

And as I was meditating on that phrase the wasting of power it's several things that explain it.

Number one it'd be a waste of power if it wasn't received.

God gave us power and we don't receive it.

It's wasted.

Or once, having received God's power, we either don't use it or we misuse it, and that's accurate too.

I think a lot of people misuse the power of God, are they, or they don't use it at all.

And so what do I mean by that?

I mean not respecting the covenant is the reason why many live below what's been paid for.

What a waste of God's power.

It took great power for Christ to be risen from the dead.

The greatest power ever exhibited in the universe was the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and when we live far below what the blood is paid for, we have wasted that resurrection power in many ways.

And so I'm reminded of the story of a man who bought passage on a large ship, on Atlantic Passage, you know, and years ago there wasn't any other way to get across the Atlantic except by steamship, and so that would take four to five days on a big, fast ship, and it was an expensive ticket.

And so this man told himself you know, I can't afford the food.

I'm gonna have to just take peanut butter and crackers with me in my bag and I'm gonna have to just eat.

I'm just gonna have to starve my way across the Atlantic because I don't have enough money after I paid for that ticket.

And so here he was, huddled outside next to the lifeboats, and somebody comes strolling down the deck, and they see him over there eating crackers.

And, sir, what do you do?

And he said oh, I'm embarrassed, I didn't mean for anybody to see me and I'm just eating my lunch here.

What do you mean eating your lunch?

Well, I don't have money to pay for food.

I just had to bring me some crackers and peanut butter.

Oh, sir, don't you know that with your ticket, all the food is supplied?

All you have to do is go in the dining room.

You can eat anything you want.

Much to his surprise, I think this was the fourth day of the cruise.

So that's the way a lot of Christians have lived their lives.

They're going through on peanut butter and crackers, and Jesus has bought a full course meal.

He has purchased everything that we need with his own blood.

And so, in Hebrews 11 27, it talks about Moses' spirit.

It's faith, and it says by faith, moses forsook Egypt, for he endured a seeing him who is invisible.

In other words, he couldn't see God with his natural eyes, but he saw him when he was a young man.

This is when he forsook Egypt.

This is when he forsook being the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

I'm not talking about when he saw him at the, at, at, you know, with a coming out of the, the burning bush.

I'm talking about as a young man, when he made up his mind.

I refuse to be identified with, with Egyptians.

I am a Jew, I'm going to be.

I'm going to be identified with God's people.

See, the Bible says that when he was 40 years old, it came into his heart that he was the deliverer of Egypt.

And so he, by faith, it says he saw.

And it says here in verse 26 that he had respect unto the recompense of reward.

Well, there was a lot of reward for being the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

I mean he's, he's high up in the royal court.

I mean he's rich, he's got all the clothes and all the.

You know all of that.

The word respect there in the Greek is the Greek word apoplepo, which beings in Thayer's Greek dictionary to turn your eyes away from other things and fix them on one thing.

To turn your eyes away from some things and fix them on one thing.

Turn your eyes away and fix them, or in other words, to focus exclusively.

And so Moses focused exclusively on the reward of serving God.

He focused exclusively on that reward, not on the reward of being Pharaoh's grandson or whatever His reward was.

On serving God, he turned his eyes away from his education, from his royal privilege and even the Bible says, the pleasures of sin.

I mean, yeah, he could have just been wrapped up in all the sinful practices of the Egyptians, their worship of false gods and and all of the other things that they did on a routine basis that were displeasing.

He turned his eyes away from all of that and focused exclusively on the covenant with God.

What covenant, what covenant, what are you talking about?

What covenant that God had cut with Abraham 400 and so on, years before he had cut the covenant with Abraham, and that that had been passed down through the oral traditions from mother to son, from mother to son, from father and mother to son, all the way through the generations for 400 years.

So he had some, some idea.

Once he found out that he was not Pharaoh's daughter's son, he found out that he really was a Jewish mother's son.

Then he found out the whole story.

He found out he was a covenant with God Almighty, and so he focused exclusively on the recompense of reward of that covenant.

And then the Bible says in verse 26 that he embraced the sufferings for Christ's sake.

Well, what do you mean?

This is before Christ.

Well, in other words, christ was the author of the covenant and he was you know, he's the mediator of that covenant.

He's the one that accompanied the children of Israel through the wilderness later on not right then, but later on.

And so there was persecution, you can imagine for this young Jewish man.

Everybody thought he was Egyptian.

And then he finds out, no, I'm not Egyptian.

He starts wearing Jewish clothes and he starts dressing like a Jew.

And you know, he was not well thought of by Pharaoh's court and so forth.

So he embraced the suffering and he was covenant minded.

And so we're talking about respecting the covenant tonight, focusing exclusively on what Jesus has bought and paid for with his blood.

Focusing.

We can focus on a lot of things, we can focus on any number of things, but the Bible calls us to focus exclusively on what the blood has done Now.

And so it says he looked to the invisible God.

I like that song we sang last Sunday.

Waymaker, miracle Worker, Amen, promise keeper, light in the darkness, my God, that is who you are, see, that's the.

He began to look and that God is invisible.

He couldn't see him with his natural eyes.

He trusted that he was there.

It was totally by faith, and so he turned his natural eyes and his natural inclinations to all of his royal trappings and everything that he was due because of the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

And he looked over here to the invisible God and he reckoned that it was worthy of great reward.

So he began to pursue that part.

He looked to the invisible God, the covenant maker, promise keeper, amen.

That's what we need to do.

And so now let's look at this covenant now and this respect, because covenant respect has two sides.

It has our side, but it also God has a side, because God is the covenant maker, he's also the covenant keeper.

So we look back here in Exodus, chapter two.

I just I'm in book of Exodus right now.

It's one of the reasons I'm sharing this with you.

I like to share.

Your brother Osteen taught me to just share with you out of the overflow.

When I'm reading my Bible, I like to just tune in to what he's saying to me and then I like to share it with you.

Preach out of the overflow of my own study.

And in Exodus, chapter two, verse 23.

It came to pass, in process of time, that the king of Egypt died and the children of Israel side by reason of the bondage, and they cried and their cry came up under God.

By reason of the bondage.

You see, they had been enslaved and see, there came a king that didn't know about Joseph.

And then so years went by, years went by, and so suddenly, and so also the Jews multiplied.

They became jealous of them and fearful of them, and so they enslaved them, and so they began to cry under God by reason of the bondage, and that cry came up under God's ears and God heard their groanings verse 24.

And God remembered his covenant with Abraham and with Isaac and with Jacob.

He remembered his covenant and God looked upon the children of Israel and God had respect unto them.

In other words, god heard, god remembered, and then he had respect.

He focused exclusively on the children of Israel.

Why?

Because of the blood, the blood of the covenant.

See, it wasn't the blood of Jesus yet, it was the blood of bulls and goats, but nevertheless it was blood and the life is in the blood.

And so God had respect under the covenant that he had with Abraham, isaac and Jacob, and since they're the seed of Abraham, isaac and Jacob, he was called into account to answer their cry.

And so that's when he appeared to Moses out of the burning bush and called him.

And so God reciprocated the respect that Moses had had 40 years before that.

I mean, moses is a young man and, yeah, it came into his heart that he was the deliverer.

But we know the story he got in the flesh and he killed one of the Egyptians that was beating one of the Jewish men, and then he found out that somebody saw it and it was out and he fled to the backside of the desert.

And so, 40 years later, then he encounters this burning bush and God calls him out of the burning bush, and that's when he says I have seen the affliction of my people, their cry has come up, and so just I wanted you to see something that God had respect.

He reciprocated Moses' respect that Moses had 40 years before, 40 years before.

I tell you, there's some things that God is looking for that have eternal significance, and one of those is respect in the covenant, and so the Bible has got this covenant respect.

It's a pattern in the Bible that we, if you look at it, for instance, when we later on, the 12 spies were sent out after the children of Israel were delivered from Egypt, you know they were in the wilderness and Moses sent 12 spies to go spy out the land and they came back with a report and they had the fruit of the land.

And we know the story too Joshua and Caleb had a good report and Tien had an evil report.

Tien of the 12 spies said no, yeah, it's a great land.

It flows with milk and honey.

It's just like you said here's the fruit.

You said here's the fruit of it.

Nevertheless, there are giants in the land and they've got wall cities.

They're walled all the way up to heaven and we're like grasshoppers in their side.

And, as a matter of fact, we're like grasshoppers in our own side and we'd be not able.

So the Tien focused exclusively on the circumstances.

But Joshua and Caleb said oh no, if God is on our side, god's on our side.

They're bred for us.

Let's go up at once.

We're well able to take the land.

See, they weren't bragging on their ability.

They focused exclusively on the covenant.

They focused exclusively on what God had said, hallelujah.

They focused exclusively on the promise and the promise keeper.

Let's not forget the promise keeper, and sometimes we get focused on the promise and we forget the promise keeper.

And so if you keep reading your Bible, you find out Israel often cried out without any faith.

In other words, basically, they cried out with murmuring and complaining instead of faith and vision and having respect for the covenant.

And so God always responds to faith, faith filled words.

I mean.

I just think about Joshua and Caleb.

They had to endure with the rest of the children visor for 40 more years.

But you know what they got their reward.

They got their inheritance, both of them.

God was faithful to them and God will be faithful to you if you will respect and focus exclusively on what the blood is purchased for you.

So what are you exclusively focused on?

Because, I mean, are we focused on the impossibility of what we're facing?

Our finances have taken a dive because of the, of the COVID-19, all of this being locked down and locked behind closed doors, despair, hopelessness I mean depression is at all time high.

There's all kind of mental trouble.

There's there's abuse in families, there's there's spousal abuse, there's divorce, there's suicide.

There are people who are afraid to go to the doctor.

So there's people that are are not seeing the doctor when they should because of fear.

So, the consequences of this COVID-19 and all the political gamesmanship that's gone on for the last many months, it's been the politics of fear and panic, because the government loves to see how can they take more of our rights away?

How can, how will we give them our rights away without even fussing about it?

Well, make us afraid.

Tell us.

Tell us, they know, they can tell us.

Oh, we know all the answers.

We know this is the way out from COVID.

Well, it's been pretty well proven that if we had done nothing as far as being locked down, if we'd have just all kept working and everybody had kept on going and not ever even put on a mask and not and just just take care of the elderly and people that are that are absolutely at risk, that have other complicating factors, take care of them, put them aside and quarantine them, but everybody else, if we had just gone on, we'd have been way better off in every area and we would not have suffered any long more deaths than we've already suffered.

So I think we pretty well know that now, but we're not getting that message out.

So what are you see the?

My point is you can all, even in the church, we can be tempted in these areas to focus exclusively on everything besides what God said.

What did God say?

What Jesus himself took our infirmities and carried our sicknesses and we have built in on the inside of us immunity from all not only COVID-19 for many disease.

Are you saying we wouldn't get it?

No, I'm not saying that sometimes the devil sneaks in and might put something on us, but I'm not afraid.

It's one thing to to, you know, to look at risk factors and think about well, should I go out in public?

Should I have?

I've got some risk factors?

You know, those are decisions you can always make, the Holy Ghost to help you make those decisions.

But we don't have to crumble under fear.

Are you turning your gaze away?

I'm just, I'm just asking the question Are you turning your gaze away from the circumstances and fixing your eyes on the cover?

See, that's what we need to do.

We need to turn our eyes away.

Sometimes we just need to turn off the radio, turn off the television, turn off all the bad news.

I mean, sometimes I just I have to watch a little of the news to find out what's going on and then I turn it off.

I can kind of feel it coming up in my I have a tolerance level, and then you know it's getting shorter and shorter.

I mean I just turn it off and because I do better, I don't need to know every little thing, I can catch up real quick.

And so Moses chose you know, just look back at what what Moses.

It says by faith.

Moses, when he came to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for his savings.

So he had to choose.

Moses chose and Moses was rewarding.

Joshua and Caleb chose.

If you go through the Bible, you'll find out David chose and Daniel chose, and on and on.

I mean Jesus chose, he chose and I'm so glad he did.

He chose to suffer for us and be our substitute.

So you have to choose life.

You have to choose as well.

So choose life, choose the word, choose faith, choose the reward, choose the rewarder.

Don't forget about the rewarder and respect the covenant.

Turn your eyes away from all the other things and focus exclusively on what he's done for you.

Let's lift our hands and receive for that tonight.

Thank you, lord.

Thank you that we're reminded tonight of what we need to focus on.

Amen.