Understanding the Purpose of Covenants Part 4 | Unaware Of The Covenant | Pastor Amy Barnwell

father God in the name of Jesus we thank

you Lord for this time in your presence

God we thank you for this worship

encounter god father we thank you for

your presence in this place God we pray

God that your will will be done God that

you will speak to your people God I

decrease as you increase God God we pray

God that what is spoken on today God

would lift the hearts of your people

draw them closer to you in the name of

Jesus we pray amen amen amen amen how

many people are still defrosting from

the snow the snow that we didn't think

we were going to have amen amen so

whenever we have inclement weather one

of the things that I like to do I don't

like to go out so I'll stay inside more

and sometimes I just read and browse

different things and as I was browsing

this week I came across this story about

two

brothers named Sal and Giza now they

were homeless this is around the time of

2009 and the two men were living in a

cave outside of Budapest they were

hungry Scavenging for food they would go

through uh the trash and take out the

cans and sell just to try to meet their

basic needs and one day they learned

that they had inherited a large sum of

money from their maternal grandmother in

Germany come to find out there was some

charity workers that sought them out

came to find them and put them in touch

with the attorneys that were handling

their grandmother's estate now we're not

talking about chump change sweet granny

left them four billion pounds yeah so

the equivalent of five

billion

US Z and Giza were once penniless

living on the street begging for scraps

all while being unaware that they were

billionaires before being made aware of

what belonged to them they scrimped they

scraped and they

struggled our theme this year is

Covenant conscious and our pastor has

been teaching us about the importance

the purpose and the power of Covenant

and how to be mindful of what Covenant

means means in our day-to-day lives but

how can you be mindful of a covenant

that you don't even know

exist how can you govern yourselves

accordingly I would think that if Z and

Giza knew that they had access to

housing outside of a cave or food

outside of scraps you know that they

would have tapped into those things so

clearly there are some consequences and

some things that happen when we're in

the dark about our covenant

so what happens when we're unaware of a

covenant a promise an agreement made on

our

behalf in our main text today 2 Samuel

9: 1-6 we meet

math M mfib that's a hard name to say

y'all so y'all pray with me mfib is the

son of Jonathan and the grandson of

Saul Now Jonathan and David are friends

but King Saul and David are

enemies Saul views David as a threat to

himself and to Jonathan becoming

King and when Jonathan becomes aware of

his father's plan to kill David they

make a

covenant

amen they swear they make a promise to

be Covenant brothers and you'll see this

in 1st Samuel 18 you know when I was

reading about this and studying I

thought about um back in the day you

know maybe some of you did this maybe

some of you didn't you know the the idea

has anyone ever heard of blood brothers

and sisters mhm yeah mm yeah don't try

that these days but that's where people

would cut their finger and the other

person would cut their finger and they

press them together like oh we're going

to be friends for life yeah don't do

that um do not

recommend but anyway Jonathan and David

were super close and they cut Covenant

they they were friends and and so and

then in 1 Samuel 20 they Covenant to

support and honor their Covenant

friendship not just in their lives but

in future

generations and so with King Saul and

David though there's some back and forth

some battles um you know at one point

David is fleeing from King Saul and he

goes and hides and then you know they're

going they're literally going back and

forth because again King Saul views

David as a threat to Jonathan becoming

King

um and then in 1 Samuel chapter 30

1 Samuel 30 · chapter mention

unfortunately Jonathan and Saul are

killed by the

Philistines now during the attack one of

the nurses fleeing with mabeth

Jonathan's 5-year-old son she falls and

she drops the young boy and he's a he's

injured and he's crippled and becomes

lame in his feet so let's pick up the

story in our text today if you will

begin um at verse 1 and read 1-4 2

Samuel 9 and David said is there yet any

that is left of the House of Saul that I

may show him kindness for Jonathan's

sake and there was of the House of Saul

a servant whose name was Zeba and when

they called him unto David the king said

unto him art thou Zeba and he said thy

servant is he and the King said is there

not yet any of the House of Saul that I

may show kindness of God unto him him

and Zeus said unto the king Jonathan

hath yet a son which is lame on his

feet awesome thank you so we see David

searching for descendants of Saul so

that he can make good on the Covenant

and the promise that he made to Jonathan

can we just pause for a moment to thank

God for examples of people who will use

their power and their influence and

their authority to help people not for

show right but because of the Integrity

that they want to keep to their word

amen and that's encouraging because I

don't know what you might be going

through today but what I do know is that

God can raise up somebody to use their

power and their influence and their

position to help you amen amen

amen good

stuff mabef is unaware of the Covenant

and the promise between his father and

David um and so he's been hiding in loab

bar in the house of maker but y'all why

is mfib hiding in a place like that he

couldn't hide at the beach this these

are the questions I had you know don't

judge me I'm just asking for a friend

but he was hiding in loab bar and you

might ask what's so bad about

loar loar is a town in Gilead it means

no pasture no rest it is referred to as

a place of Forgotten people a place of

hopelessness and it was considered an

undesirable place to live it's the kind

of City where you can go to sleep and

not get any rest amen it's kind of like

going to bed at 9: getting up at 7 the

next morning and feel like you had five

minutes of

sleep now we've all had moments in our

lives where We've Ended up in the wrong

place amen Often by circumstance

sometimes by choice so why would mabeth

choose to remain in such a place now

you'll recall that michef comes from a

Royal bloodline his father was a prince

it was the custom of that day that when

rulers went to battle whoever lost The

Winning Side would kill everybody that

was left on the losing side particularly

the

males to prevent the children from

growing up and challenging the new

King's Authority and his position now

loar allowed mabeth to live in obscurity

he was out of sight hidden and amongst

the

Misfits michef did not know that David

had made a covenant with his father to

watch for him to provide for him so he

remained in the wrong state in the wrong

location as many of us who have found

ourselves in the wrong place place as a

result of our interpretation of what has

happened it was his lack of

awareness of the Covenant that had him

hiding in loab bar it was his lack of

awareness of the Covenant he had no idea

that had him hiding in a low place the

life he was living was far from what his

Covenant had paid

for but there are some other

consequences so now only was he in the

wrong place but y'all he was surrounded

by the wrong people that often coincides

with being in the wrong

place he's crippled he's lame At His

Feet clearly visible to everyone and he

doesn't have all of the access to the

things that we have today for support

and so the people are looking down on

him they're thinking he's helpless he's

useless you know sometimes people will

try to treat you um how they think you

are you know or who they think you are

probably one of the worst things about

being around the wrong people is that

they only see your Frailty you know

that's different from people who mean

good for you it's it's not to say that

your friends and families that love and

care for you don't see your challenges

but that's not the only thing that they

see and but when you're surrounded by

the wrong people that's it that's all

they see what's wrong your frailties and

the things that you know you know aren't

going so well amen

amen but we too we need to be careful

not to allow people situations and

circumstances to judge us by those

snapshots

amen because they're only reading a

snippet or a portion of our story we are

so much more than our last hiccup we are

so much more than our last mistakes we

are so much more than our last

missteps it's like seeing an old friend

from back in the day maybe you used to

get high with him maybe you didn't I'm

just saying you know and when you see

them they look at you as if you are

still that person as if as if

transformation has not taking place in

Christ we're new creatures amen as Born

Again Blood Washed Believers we are

children of the most high King look at

your neighbor and say put some respect

on it

amen now what are we putting respect on

I'm glad you

asked put some respect on how you speak

to me put some respect on how you deal

with me put some respect on how you

reference me amen why because I'm a

child of the king yes sir and he don't

play about his children amen now mabeth

was in Camp with the wrong people they

couldn't see past his frailties and

vulnerabilities they did not appreciate

who he was who he could be or what he

had to offer he was in the wrong place

with the wrong people which

normalized the wrong perspective he had

toward himself michef not being aware of

his Covenant influenced his perspective

now perspective is the way that we view

a person a situation and facts it's how

we determine what's

important now what I believe about a

situation it determines how I approach

it what I believe about myself

determines my

behavior let's say you have a

relationship that ends poorly it could

be a romantic relationship could be a

friend you know or familial relationship

um or platonic relationship any type of

relationship let's say it just goes bad

and from that point you take a snap shot

of what happened with that relationship

and apply it to every relationship

thereafter because you now believe that

all relationships are

toxic no we can't do

that and what that can do is cause us to

shy away from and avoid entering

relationships with people right so

having the correct perspective or the

right perspective is so important how I

perceive what has happened has the

potential to influence my behavior avior

more than the actual facts of the

situation if I'm not

careful in verse 6 in 2 Samuel 9 David

has sent someone to fetch

michef reader if you can read verses

6-8 now when michef the son of Jonathan

the son of Saul was coming to David he

fell on his face and did reverence and

David said michef and he answered Behold

thy servant and David said said unto him

fear not for I will surely show thee

kindness for Jonathan thy father's sake

and will restore thee all the land of

Saw thy father and thou shalt eat bread

at my table continually and he bowed

himself and said what is thy servant

that thou should us look upon such a

dead dog as I am yes y'all hear that

poor mou as my mama would say yes so in

verse 8 mabeth goes as far as has to

refer to

himself as a dead dog now I love animals

but he's referring to himself as a dead

dog this is a snapshot of how he views

himself now David fetched

mabeth he had him brought to the Palace

he sent someone to go down to loab Bar

pick him up load him into the Chariot

and bring him back to the Palace

just as God Drew us out he found us

where we were amen he reached way down

Hallelujah and rescued us from our dry

place our unfruitful places our places

of No Rest aren't you glad when we

weren't thinking about him he came to

see about us and pull us out of those

places amen he called us by name

Hallelujah

the Bible says mfib all but low craws

into the presence of King David he has a

wrong perspective of himself mabeth saw

himself as unworthy and worthless as a

dead dog what was feeding this wrong

perspective I'll tell you what was

feeding the wrong perspective being

surrounded by the wrong people being in

the wrong

environment all of which made him made

room for waste Ed

provision amen mabeth was unaware of the

provision that King David had prepared

for him in verse S King David tells him

not to be afraid and that the reason

that he's brought him to the Palace is

to make good on a promise to make good

on a covenant that was made before he

was even aware mabeth went from being at

the mercy of others for provision to

eating at the the king's table he went

from a place of lack to more than enough

because the Covenant cut between

Jonathan and David included a list of

Provisions it included land it included

servants it included Pro protection and

there were promises in the Covenant like

if I'm blessed then you're blessed if

someone's your enemy then they're my

enemy if you get in trouble I will come

to your rescue these Provisions were all

in the Covenant but mabeth was unaware

aren't you glad that when we weren't

aware of what God had prepared for us

that he came to see about us to make

sure that we had access and be able to

come become aware of what he has in the

Covenant amen

amen as I get ready to

close there's another story I want to

share with you all

there's a a woman named Kathy Boon she

was from Oregon now Kathy had some

challenges you know Kathy uh was

challenged with mental illness and some

substance abuse and in January of 2020

um Kathy unfortunately died homeless in

a warming shelter in atoria she was

unaware that she had an unclaimed

884 th000 inheritance

yeah her mother had died in

2016 but no one was able to locate her

she was in the wrong

place she couldn't be found with the

wrong people she had no Covenant

relationships with the wrong perspective

I would imagine she probably thought

that this is all life has for me and the

provision that she needed was wasted she

lived on the street

when provision was available for

permanent

housing Kathy much like MTH was not

aware of the provision available to her

through the Covenant mabeth was born in

a palace but because he was unaware of

the Covenant he went down and lived in

in

lobar the promise to be there for one

another in the Covenant and for for

future Generations He was unaware and so

he sat and resided in a dry hidden place

of no peace and no rest his being

unaware of the Covenant caused him to

tolerate maltreatment from the wrong

people to perpetuate false

perspectives while wasting his

inheritance but God is so gracious he

used David to fetch him out he sent

someone to go physically get him and

bring him to the Palace out of that that

dry place out of that place of no peace

out of obscurity out of a place of

insignificance and brought him to a

place of prominence and purpose just

like the grace of God that delivers us

out of darkness and makes available for

whosoever will come and receive

elevation out of dark hidden dry places

of no peace reception into the family of

God transformation of your mind based on

scripture and

Reclamation of all that is within the

Covenant michef was unaware of the

Covenant and

unfortunately didn't have anyone to tell

him until he was brought to King

David but we have a road map that

outlines all that our covenant entails

our covenant that was cut by our high

priest Jesus who shed his blood so that

we could have a seat at the table and

receive peace and joy and everlasting

life and the comfort of knowing that we

are loved and so so much more so take

your seat at the table come Feast on all

the Lord has for you and all that he's

provided through his

Covenant you know Capital One asked the

question what's in your wallet

[Music]

my question to you is what's in your

Covenant you can read it for yourself

amen

[Applause]