Participants: Shelley Quinn (Host), Derry James
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000237
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00:30 Hello, I'm Shelley Quinn and welcome again to
00:33 Issues and Answers. We have a very interesting 00:36 program today. We're going to be talking about covenant 00:40 partnership with God. Let me read something to you from 00:45 the Bible in Daniel 9. The Bible says this in various 00:50 places and various ways. Basically it says that God 00:54 keeps covenant with those who keep covenant with him. 00:58 Here in Daniel 9:4 Daniel is calling on God and 01:04 here's what Daniel says about God. He said: You 01:08 who keep covenant, mercy and loving-kindness with 01:12 those who love him and keep his commandments. 01:16 You know that reminds me of 1 John 5:3 where John 01:19 says this is love that we keep God's commandments. 01:23 Today we'll discuss what it means to be a 01:27 covenant-keeper and why we can look to God with 01:30 absolute trust and faith that he is a covenant 01:34 keeping God. I'm very thrilled to welcome back 01:38 again Derry James who is a chaplain. She has a 01:41 doctorate of ministry and she is a board certified 01:44 chaplain coming to us from Grass Valley, California. 01:47 Derry it's so good to have you back. 01:50 Thank you, Shelley. It's good to be here again. 01:52 You know you're always one that when you are on 3ABN 01:56 we get a lot of positive comments and people enjoy 01:59 because it's very obvious your sincerity, your 02:02 commitment to God and that you are walking in 02:06 submission to him. Well we don't always walk 02:09 in submission every minute. But we sure try and God 02:12 has a way of just reigning us back in when 02:14 we don't. Amen. Praise the Lord for that. 02:16 So today we are going to be talking about covenant 02:20 partnership with God. I know that is a principle 02:23 that you live by but for our audience why don't you 02:28 describe your definition of what a covenant is. 02:32 In talking about it today, we're talking about a 02:36 covenant altar that we make in partnership with God 02:40 as two people give themselves fully to each other 02:45 God and man working together in unison and in 02:49 in that covenant relationship that's binding and 02:52 unbreakable. It's interesting that God 02:58 covenanted with God in our behalf and we can talk 03:02 more about that later, but the covenant is working 03:06 together with God in partnership with 03:08 him in giving yourselves 03:09 fully to each other. A covenant is like a 03:12 contract. When we marry God's idea of marriage it 03:16 was to be a covenant relationship. Unfortunately 03:20 today not to many people really treat marriage like 03:25 a covenant relationship. But if we were to look to 03:29 the Bible where can we look and what can we say, 03:34 how did God establish himself as a covenant 03:37 keeping God? That unbreakable oath that 03:39 God makes with us that we can count on. I think it's 03:43 beautiful as we first hear about the covenant promise 03:46 with Noah in the covenant that God made that he would 03:50 not destroy the earth again, that he gave us that 03:54 sign, that symbol of the rainbow. My son brought it 03:58 to my attention as he was studying and preparing 04:01 for a sermon how God led him on his journey and 04:05 study that that rainbow is around the throne of God 04:11 and that symbol of the rainbow as God's symbol 04:15 to us is something that is so close to God that it's 04:20 almost like God getting as close as he can to showing 04:25 us his presence without showing his presence. 04:29 Do you understand what I'm saying? 04:30 Yes, that's beautiful. I thought that was really 04:33 beautiful when my son brought that out in the 04:36 sermon. Also that in everything else in nature 04:40 gives something and gets something in return but 04:44 the rainbow is just there as God's symbol. 04:49 You know when you were talking, the scripture 04:51 that popped into my mind if you could hear me 04:54 rustling the pages of my Bible, was from 04:59 Hebrews 6:18-19, let me start in verse 17. 05:04 It says: Accordingly God also in his desire to show 05:07 more convincingly and beyond doubt to those who 05:11 were to inherit the promise to show them the 05:14 unchangeableness of his purpose and plan, he 05:18 intervened with an oath. This was so that by two 05:21 unchangeable things, his promise and his oath 05:26 in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who 05:31 have fled for refuge to him might have mighty 05:36 indwelling strength and strong encouragement to 05:40 grasp and hold fast this hope. Now we have this 05:46 hope as an anchor for our soul and that's what 05:51 Hebrews 6:19 says this hope that we have in a 05:55 God who cannot lie who has given us all of his 05:59 covenant promises and he is just saying to us, he 06:03 is just constantly inviting us, come into covenant 06:07 with me. You keep covenant with me and I'll keep 06:10 covenant with you. That reminds me as we're 06:14 thinking of scripture too that the word remember 06:18 is a covenant word. Oooo, and what 06:22 commandment out of all 10 commandments begins 06:25 with remember? Remember the Sabbath day 06:27 to keep it holy. The fourth commandment. 06:30 That covenant and that's a day where the Lord 06:33 wants to spend it with us. That's our time, our day 06:36 together and he wants us to remember that time. 06:39 Tell us about a few more of the covenants in 06:42 addition to Noah some of the other covenants that 06:45 the Lord made. I especially like the 06:47 covenant that God made to Abraham as well, that 06:51 Abrahamic covenant where God called Abraham out 06:54 to a land that he doesn't know anything about from 06:57 his people, God calls him out and he tells him, come 07:01 and I will bless you. Let's just read it from 07:03 scripture shall we? That's Genesis 12 and I'm going 07:07 to start with verse 1. It says, Now the Lord had 07:10 said to Abram, get out of your country, from your 07:14 family, from your father's house to a land that I 07:18 will show you. I will make you a great nation. I 07:21 will bless you and make your name great and you 07:24 shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless 07:27 you, I will curse him who curses you and in you 07:29 all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 07:32 If we look through scripture from Genesis to Revelation 07:37 God takes that divine initiative with his people 07:40 all the time, Shelley, where he's calling them 07:43 out. What God wants is God's people in the place 07:47 he has chosen to dwell in his presence so that he 07:50 can bless them. That happened from the beginning 07:53 of time and that's how it's going to end, God's 07:55 people in the place he has chosen so he can bless 07:58 them and they can live in his presence. 08:00 You know, I wish people could learn. The thing 08:04 that took me the longest to learn, Derry, in my Christian 08:08 walk was that what God asked of me was absolute 08:13 total dependence upon him. I tried so long to live 08:19 for him with my effort. Then one day with 08:24 Galatians 3:3 the Lord just spoke it to my spirit. 08:28 It said, you foolish thing, 08:30 having begun in the Spirit are 08:32 you now trying to perfect it in the flesh? 08:34 I struggled so long trying to perfect my walk with 08:39 the Lord, not remembering Philippians 2:14 that it 08:43 is God who works in us to will and to act according 08:47 to his good purpose. That is part of his new 08:50 covenant with us is just us learning to trust in him 08:54 that he's going to write those laws on our heart 08:58 and any of his biddings are his enablings aren't they? 09:02 Absolutely. It's exactly true. God's desire is for 09:07 his people to be happy. I have thought of this 09:11 a lot and Shelley, if you came to my house, for 09:15 example, and I had small children sitting there at 09:18 the sofa and you were visiting with me and the 09:20 whole time that you were with me the children sat 09:24 like this. When you left me house, you would think 09:28 to yourself something like something is wrong with 09:31 those children. Something's wrong there. 09:35 I would think the mother must very cruel. 09:38 They are being abused or something is going on 09:41 there. You know it's the same thing with us. 09:43 If we're in church or if we're living our life and 09:47 we're not happy people and we're all locked up and 09:51 we won't speak and we won't interact and we always 09:54 are solemn or we're always sad or we're always 09:56 grumpy, what does that say about our Father 09:59 whom we serve. God wants his people to be filled 10:03 with joy. He wants his people to be happy and 10:07 when we live according to his will and I'm thinking 10:10 again now of the 10 commandments. I don't 10:12 think of them as binding rules. I think of them as 10:16 liberating. I think of them as joy-givers because 10:20 well for example, God knows that if we were to kill 10:23 someone we'd be miserable. He doesn't want his people 10:27 miserable. So as we think of covenant and as we 10:31 think of working together with God and doing what 10:34 God requires of us and is calling us to do for our 10:36 own joy and happiness, we need to exercise 10:42 obedience and in that obedience 10:45 is reward, a reward for a full life, a reward for 10:48 God's blessing, but his covenant with us is so 10:52 strong and he desires so much for us to be blessed 10:56 that when we fall short of our end of the covenant 11:00 he tries to woo us back in a little bit at a time, 11:04 a little bit at a time. When we don't respond 11:07 then he may have to discipline us into 11:10 listening again. You know when you were 11:13 talking what I was thinking is when I think of 11:16 the 10 commandments, I think of them as 10 promises. 11:19 that God will empower us to do. In Hebrews 8:10 11:24 here's what the Lord says: This is the covenant that 11:27 I will make with the house of Israel (and we are part 11:30 of the house of Israel. Paul said not only those 11:34 who born Jews are Jews but those who have given their 11:38 heart to the Lord and so we're part of spiritual 11:41 Israel.) He says this is the covenant I will make 11:43 with them after those days says the Lord. I will 11:46 imprint my laws upon their minds even upon their 11:49 their innermost thoughts and understanding and 11:51 engrave them on their hearts. I will be their 11:55 God and they will be my people. Then at the end 11:59 of Hebrews in chapter 13:20 he says, may the 12:04 God of peace who brought again from among the dead 12:07 our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, 12:12 by the blood that sealed the everlasting eternal 12:17 gospel, may this God strengthen, complete and perfect 12:23 you. May God make you what you ought to be, may God equip you 12:28 with everything good that you may carry out his will. While 12:34 he himself works in you and accomplishes... Who's 12:38 accomplishing? The covenant keeping God who's put his love 12:42 in our heart. He's the one working in us that he may 12:45 accomplish that which is pleasing in his sight through 12:48 Jesus Christ, to him be the glory for ever and ever, Amen! 12:51 So that is our covenant- keeping God. He is just saying 12:55 come here little child. I will empower you. I mean, you talk 13:00 about the rainbow. If we could look at the promises of God 13:05 and see them through that prism of light like the rainbow that 13:09 is showing that he is a God of light. Wouldn't that be exciting 13:13 if they could get so excited about his promises. 13:18 Well that rolls right into the scripture that I turned to as 13:22 you were reading that, Shelley, which is in 1 Peter. What does 13:26 it say? Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ 13:30 who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to 13:33 a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus from the 13:37 dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled 13:39 which does not fade away reserved in heaven for you. 13:44 But actually, you know what, I wanted 2 Peter, Shelley, 13:49 But that's a good scripture. But let's turn over to 2 Peter 13:54 2 Peter 1 says grace and peace be multiplied to you in the 13:58 knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord as his divine power has 14:03 given to us all things (all things, not some things, all 14:08 things) that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge 14:12 of him who called us by his glory and virtue by which have 14:16 been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises 14:21 that through these we may be partakers of the divine nature. 14:25 Through His promises! Through his promises. Did you catch 14:29 that? Through His promises we partake of the divine nature 14:32 and escape the lust that is in the world through corruption. 14:36 I love that scripture. I do too. It's one of my favorites. 14:40 Mine too and there are over 3,300 some promises in the Bible 14:45 that God has put here for every thing in life that we can turn 14:50 to and just personalize and claim and present to Him for 14:54 fulfillment. I think that's pretty awesome. 14:57 You know, when we first were getting to know one another and 15:00 we haven't known each other all that long but I feel like I've 15:03 known her for over... when we first began praying together. 15:07 I remember the first time I prayed for you, you said you 15:10 pray just like I do. I mean everything that was coming to 15:13 my mind, every scripture. Then I remember I was having a 15:16 difficult day one time and you happened to call and I really 15:20 hadn't paused yet to pray, and you said, we need to pray and 15:24 I said you're right we do and as you started the prayer every 15:28 scripture that was coming to me mind, every promise, you were 15:31 praying it just as it would hit my mind, you were speaking it 15:36 before I could say anything. To learn to pray God's word back 15:41 to him, Isaiah 55:11 says it does not return void, when we 15:45 know he's a covenant-keeping God, he watches over his word 15:49 to perform it, that's what he says in Jeremiah 1:12, what joy 15:54 there is in praying these promises back to God and knowing 15:57 Lord this is up to you because this is what you promised. 16:01 That's right. You know, Shelley, sometimes I talk to people and 16:06 they're a little reluctant to do this. They think, well God isn't 16:11 going to listen to me or I'm not good enough meaning I've 16:15 done so many bad things or wrong things in my life that I 16:19 just can't ask that of God, but that takes us right back to the 16:23 cross again and right back to the victory at the cross and the 16:28 promise of what the cross is and that is that Jesus says that He 16:32 died that our sins would be covered and all we have to do 16:36 is receive that gift. But the other half of that promise is 16:40 that he will carry our pain and our suffering, our pain and our 16:44 sorrow and by His stripes we are healed and that means body, soul 16:48 and spirit. We just need to take God at his word. 16:52 And as we're taking Him at His word to recognize 16:57 2 Corinthians 5:17 says we are new creations in Christ whether 17:01 we feel like it or not. Romans 4:17 says he calls things that 17:06 are not as though they already were. With this covenant 17:10 keeping God it's obvious you want to be in relationship with 17:13 Him. How do we enter into covenant with God? 17:18 Well, Shelley, we need to take hold of His power and His 17:22 resources and by taking hold of His power and resources we need 17:28 to obediently follow His prescription for doing that and 17:32 we just read it here. It says here by these great and precious 17:37 promises. So we need to do our part by claiming the word of God 17:42 and allowing Him to enable us because God never asks us to do 17:46 anything He's not willing to help us do. So if He wants us 17:49 to be in covenant relationship with Him He's going to enable 17:53 us to be in covenant relationship with Him. 17:55 He's going to enable the obedience. We need to surrender. 18:00 We need to allow Him to fill us. We need to give ourselves to 18:05 Him. Sometimes we have to say Lord I'm willing but help my 18:11 unwillingness or we have to say Lord I don't know how. Do it in 18:15 me, do it through me. 18:16 So it really does start... say that there's someone who's 18:20 watching us or listening to our voices right now who doesn't 18:25 know God. It starts with that coming to Him recognizing that 18:29 we are a sinner and that He is God and just surrendering 18:33 control of our lives to Him saying Lord forgive us of our 18:37 sins. I want to accept Christ as my Savior. Please send your 18:41 Holy Spirit to live in me, because that is how he empowers 18:45 us is through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit and the 18:49 transforming power of the word. But then what I understood you 18:54 to say just then, our part in doing this if we are to enjoy 18:59 the covenant relationship we need to understand the covenant 19:04 promises. It's like, Okay Lord, now that I have become your 19:08 child by adoption, and what a privilege it is to be a child of 19:13 God, I need to know who I am in Christ. I need to know what 19:18 promises belong to me and 2 Corinthians 1:20 says ALL of 19:22 God's promises belong to you if you are in Christ Jesus. But our 19:28 part is to get in here and let God... He can't put in our minds 19:33 nor can the Holy Spirit bring to remembrance scripture that we 19:38 haven't looked at before can he? 19:40 Right. I think the other piece of that too, Shelley, is the 19:43 importance of getting into scripture and finding out who 19:47 God really is. So many people I 19:51 meet have this illusion 19:53 of this tyrannical God and that's 19:56 why this is such a passionate 19:59 subject for me that God just pours Himself out for us over 20:04 and over to prove His love, to prove His desire for our 20:09 happiness, to prove how he wants to bless us and I want to help 20:14 dispel this idea that there is this tyrannical God that is out 20:18 to just cut us off at the knees every time we do something that 20:23 might offend Him. That just isn't true. You know, God wants 20:27 to come along side of us as we allow Him to, but God is a 20:31 gentleman. He's not going to force Himself on any of us. But 20:34 as we allow God to He wants to come along side and empower 20:39 us and enable us and walk with us and help us in this journey 20:44 of life. Did you grow up in the Adventist 20:47 church? When I was a young teenager, as 20:50 a child I did not. We had some knowledge of the Adventist 20:54 church but we actually didn't start attending church until 20:59 when I was about 12 or 13. But I did go to church with 21:04 girlfriends prior to that. 21:05 I know that in the denomination 21:08 in which I grew up which was not 21:11 Adventist I was taught 21:14 basically... the picture of God 21:17 the Father that was painted for me was that He was this 21:21 tyrant who was watching me ready to zap me when I did 21:25 anything wrong. Now see I grew up in a church that did preach 21:31 Christ crucified and I was in love with Jesus Christ, but I 21:36 feared the Father, not with a healthy fear, not that perfect 21:40 fear, the perfect love that drives out fear, but with a 21:44 trembling fear and it was Hebrews 1:3 that changed 21:49 everything as far as me seeing the picture of God. It says that 21:55 Jesus Christ is the exact expression of the Father's 22:01 nature and when I thought about how tender and loving and 22:07 compassionate and patient that Christ was and I realized this 22:13 is God in the flesh. He is the exact representation, the 22:17 outflowing, the affluence of the nature of God, it changed my 22:22 whole outlook toward the Father. 22:24 Oh absolutely. You can go back to the example that I just 22:27 shared a few minutes ago about the children sitting on the 22:31 sofa. I mean, what kind of a Father would we have if that's 22:35 the kind of life we lived and we felt that way and we were 22:39 under such fear that God was going to hurt us every time 22:43 we made a wrong move. How could we be happy children of God? 22:46 And how could we be good witnesses, because who would 22:50 want to have that kind of a Father? 22:51 It occurs to me there are several scriptures in the Bible 22:56 that say that God keeps covenant with those who keep 23:00 keep covenant with Him. So part of our covenant 23:04 contract with him is to walk in obedience that He's 23:09 empowering us to. Sometimes people get this idea of 23:13 obedience as being a duty. I think of the privilege of 23:18 obedience. But it's more than just obedience, 23:22 it's that personal relationship. Derry, I know from just 23:27 the short while that I've known you that you have a strong 23:31 personal relationship with Jesus Christ. 23:33 How did you develop that and how do you maintain that? 23:38 I developed it by personalizing 23:42 scripture, Shelley. I mean it's 23:44 that simple. Before I learned personalization of scripture 23:49 which proves God as a personal God. I Bible studied, I read, 23:54 I thought I was living a Christian life and I was to 23:59 some effect but I didn't know Jesus Christ as me personal 24:03 Savior. I thought that miracles were just for missionaries 24:06 across the sea, you know. I didn't realize I could live 24:10 a life of miracles every day. But I had developed not only 24:16 the need to commune with God, and commune is a two-way street, 24:20 you know. You can't just talk to God. You have to be willing 24:24 to listen to God until you recognize his voice and you 24:28 know that when you recognize his voice you need to follow 24:31 that voice. That has come by my daily devotionals, it's 24:35 come by claiming promises daily, it's come by 24:38 journalizing and in my journal... 24:41 That's so amazing. No wonder we were such friends. 24:44 We didn't discuss this but no wonder we were such 24:47 fast friends because your track and my track... I mean 24:51 that's exactly the way the Lord led me was to claim his 24:54 scriptures and personalize them and pray them back to 24:58 Him, to sit at His feet and listen and learn that prayer 25:02 was a two-way communication, to journal my prayers. 25:05 I mean if people haven't tried this they don't know 25:08 what they're missing do they? 25:09 I get more out of my time with God when I journal. 25:13 Maybe it's because I can listen better because I'm 25:17 really listening to hear what He says. 25:18 You're focused better. It filters out all the 25:21 distractions. And then you write that down 25:24 and you can go back to it later. So I love the journaling 25:27 because when you have down times then you can go back 25:30 and you can read what God has said to you and the 25:32 lessons you've learned or the answers to prayers that 25:35 you've had and it's buoying you know during 25:38 some of those more difficult times. 25:40 I know we're getting kind of near our closing time 25:44 and I just wanted to share my own covenant story 25:48 if I could for a minute. When I went back to school 25:51 I was several months into doing my school work and 25:55 I was trying to prioritize things in my life and it was 25:58 always God first, my family next and then my studies. 26:01 But I was getting by with very little sleep, just 26:03 a few hours a night and God would just fill me and 26:06 refresh me and revitalize me. But during that period 26:09 of time I certainly didn't take on any extra 26:12 responsibilities at home; doing deep cleaning or you 26:15 know, I just did the nominal things so that I could 26:19 concentrate and focus. It was Mother's Day and my two 26:23 precious boys, two of my sons, came in and brought me a 26:27 Mother's Day gift and it was a parakeet. They had 26:31 heard stories of when I had had a parakeet when I was 26:34 a very young girl and all these fun things that I had 26:37 done with this bird. But I tell you truly when they 26:40 brought that parakeet in to me at that moment 26:41 although part of me was so thrilled I thought to myself 26:45 oh no, one more thing to take care of. How am I 26:51 going to do this. I was so overwhelmed I just looked 26:54 at the children and I just said Oh I can't believe you 26:58 did this, because I couldn't you know, and I didn't 27:01 know what else to say. I'm usually pretty spontaneous 27:06 about coming up with names and I couldn't come up with 27:09 a name for this parakeet for three days. Three days 27:13 into having this little bird in desperation I sat down 27:16 with a baby book and I started going through the 27:19 alphabet. As I was in about the Cs looking for a decent 27:22 name for this bird I thought I heard God say Homer 27:26 and I said Homer, Lord that's a horrible name for a bird. 27:31 God said, Really, look it up. When I looked it up it said 27:37 sacrifice covenant. And God said your sons sacrificed 27:41 for you to get this bird, you're sacrificing to obey me 27:46 and I covenant with you to see you through. 27:48 Praise the Lord. We're out of time. 27:50 Derry, thank you for being here and I just want to 27:53 thank our audience for joining us |
Revised 2014-12-17