YES, GOD IS A COVENANT KEEPING GOD BUT THERE ARE AT LEAST TWO SIDES TO A COVENANT. WILL GOD FIND YOU USABLE FOR HIS COVENANT?
THE CRITICAL NEED OF THIS TIME IS THAT GOD IS IN SEARCH OF MEN AND WOMEN WITH WHOM HE CAN STRIKE A COVENANT AND ALSO KEEP IT
GOD CANNOT ENTER INTO A COVENANT WITH SOMEONE WHO HAS NO RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM
AS PERVERSE AS PEOPLE IN THE GENERATION OF NOAH WERE, GOD COULD STILL FIND A USABLE MAN IN NOAH
-Pastor Gbile Akanni at the Australia Pacific Virtual Conference themed “The Covenant Keeping God Day 2 Evening Session
I want to thank God for the opportunity that God has given us again to gather, (even though virtually) in this Conference. We also give God praise for using our Father in the Lord, Pastor Haastrup who has been pressing for this meeting for the past two years. Church Gist. We are grateful that we are here to share again and to look at the God who keeps covenants, the Covenant keeping God.
I want us to pick some few scriptures together as we study today. I will like us to begin by putting our hearts together as we read the book of Genesis 17. As we trace the Covenant keeping God, we will trace him from Chapter 7 of Genesis to see the covenant he made with Noah. Church Gist. Also, we will see the Covenant he made with Abraham in Chapter 12. We keep seeing the God who keeps covenant from one generation to another throughout the entire scripture.
Genesis 17:1-10
God is a God of covenant. He is a God who keeps convenant. The first thing I will like to begin with is to look at God Himself. Why is he able to keep covenant? Church Gist. You will notice that while God began to speak to Abraham, he kept using the word “Everlasting” I like to say to you that you can’t enter into an everlasting covenant when you yourself are not everlasting. Church Gist. We thank God that we have an everlasting God. He is a God that speaks and has all it takes to bring it to pass. He will live forever to make sure that his promises never fail. He will look into everything he has chosen to do and whatever he says to a man, he watches over it to bring it to pass.
Now, before we come to look at this particular passage that will serve as our anchor for this message, I want you to note that right from the very beginning, God is the uncreated creator. Church Gist. This tells us that God brought all things into existence. There is nothing that can make it impossible for God to do what he has purposed to do. Somewhere in Isaiah says “I am God, my counsel shall stand” Even if there is nothing around you with which you are thinking God will be able to bring his counsel to pass in your life, God is able to go to the very ends of the earth and drag whatever must be used to bring his covenant to pass in your life.
As I looked at Scriptures all through, I realised that because God is a covenant keeping God, everything on earth and in the heavens must all work together for God’s covenant to come to pass. So, the first thing I am saying to you is that because of whom God is, because of his capacity, unlimited power and because he is the one that caused all things into existence, whatever God says he will do, he is going to do it. Church Gist. He has all the space, authority, provision and resources to bring it to pass. God can never open his mouth and say anything that he cannot bring to pass.
When God declares a thing, he speaks as one who has seen the end from the very beginning. When God speaks, it stands. I just want you to note that everything God has said, he has always watched over it to make sure that it comes to pass. When the Lord entered into a covenant with Noah, he fulfilled it. Church Gist. Genesis 8:20-22 9:1-4. So you see God was again entering into a covenant with this man and you will notice that from that day, until this very day, harvest time, seed time, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night have not ceased. We are living in that reality because God has continuously kept his covenant that he made with Noah.
You will notice that in the passages we have read, God actually does enter into covenant with individual men. Even though the covenant may become extended to nations or people; yet, I found out that God looks for a man/woman with whom he could strike a covenant relationship and when God enters into the relationship with Noah, the covenant God made with Noah, God was looking at Noah as a person to work with. Church Gist.I want you to know that God wants to enter into a covenant with you as a person. God is actually looking for men and women with whom he can strike a covenant and keep the covenant. God has not stopped entering into covenants with individuals that he can work with. Wherever you are, the covenant keeping God is about to make covenant with you as an individual because of what he wants to do through you on the face of the earth. Genesis 9: 8-9.
God uses “I” in establishing his covenant. This is to bring the personality of God to bare
That is bring all that God carries and has to bare as he enters into covenant. When we talk about God keeping covenant, it is because he has brought himself, personality, glory, integrity and power to bare on a covenant. And because God is not like a man that he should lie, God cannot enter into a covenant with you and fail. It is not possible. So he said, “And I…” You see, you can’t use the words ” and I” without putting your hand on the chest, so I see God beating his chest to say, “I establish my covenant with you… “
This is the way God establishes his covenant. It is true that God might want to enter into a covenant that will become perpetual from one generation to the other, yet he needs a man/woman with whom he would strike that covenant. If there is anything I am talking about, I am concerned about God getting people like you, like me in this generation with whom he could enter a covenant. If he does not want to strike a new covenant, he needs men and women like you and me who will key into the covenant that he has already made with our fathers so that it is not on our own account that the covenant will be discarded or broken. Church Gist. That is the major issue I am praying I will be able to bring across to you today. Even though the covenant was with Noah, that covenant is tantamount to being done with the whole earth.
This means that God can come and see me and enter into a covenant with me for my generation and for the ones coming. So it is not to be regarded as strange or incredible that God will look for a man/woman amongst us to enter into a covenant with. A covenant that will bless not only you but the entire nations of the earth. Church Gist. This is very critical for us to take note. Because of what God said to Noah, it is no more possible that the entire world will be wiped away by flood. It means that covenant with Noah is still existing. No matter where you see flood, they can only be limited; they cannot become overwhelming because God had committed himself that never again would he wipe out the entire earth by the means of flood.
So, if any man comes and says flood is going to come and it will sweep the whole earth under water, we will know that the person is speaking amiss. Church Gist. Every covenant that God makes that becomes a blessing to the whole world is usually first and foremost a covenant with an individual. Such an individual is someone who is brought into a relationship with God. He does not enter into covenant with anyone who has no relationship with him.
When God brought Abraham and began to move with him and speak to him about what he will do with his life, we again see God locating a man that he can use to establish his covenant and relationship with people. The emphasis that I am making is that while God cannot fail or break is covenant, there is one side that is to be considered too. Church Gist. The part of the individual with whom God is making the covenant. This conference will not do much except there will be men and women who will say, “We are willing to walk with God to establish his covenant” Look at Noah, God found a man in Noah who by faith was able to secure the world from perishing, despite living in a world so reckless in sin and wickedness. God looked at him and found him usable.
Now in our generation, all kinds of things are going on. All kinds of deviation, backsliding and apostasy, all kinds of recklessness and wickedness is going on. God who never fails is still standing out there that his covenant does not fail. Church Gist. The critical need of this time is that God is looking for men and women with whom he would strike covenant and keep it. Noah was one man that God found. And what God did with Noah, all of us up till today are beneficiaries of that covenant. The question today is “Will you be another man/woman with whom God can establish a transgenerational covenant?”
I know that God is still entering into covenants with people. I know if you go and meet our Daddy G. O., you will know that there is a covenant that God made with his life that several of you are enjoying now. Church Gist. But I am asking will there be men and women listening to me today who will say, ” Oh God! You are covenant keeping God, will you want to enter into a covenant with my own life too so I could become a channel through which you can have a relationship with my generation? ” That is the question I would not want you to go out of this meeting without considering.
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