Every day

 This week we begin worship with:

Ezekiel 16:8b

I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord GOD, and you became mine.

 

We worship at Christ Covenant Church. We are astutely aware of the covenant God made with Adam, Noah, Abraham, and the New Covenant in Christ Jesus.

Hebrews 9:15

Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

But we often forget how desperately we actually need it.  Without it we have nothing to cover our shame. We are exposed and undefended (ʿervâ).  We need this every day. 

We are also more willing to use the phrase “my Savior” than “your servant”.  We are His every day.

Let’s keep these in mind as we worship Him this day. 

 

Our identity

 Today we start worship with :

1 John 4:16-17,21

God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world... And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Starting with the fact of our very existence, Job deduced that God must exist, and that God must have a divine purpose that includes love toward us. On that foundation of God’s love John and Job both agree that we may have confidence for the day of judgement.  

Job 19:26-27

 And after my skin has been thus destroyed,

    yet in my flesh I shall see God,

whom I shall see for myself,

    and my eyes shall behold, and not another.

    My heart faints within me!

 

John then, having heard the command from the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ, connects us back to that purpose. As He is, so we are to be.

John 13:34-35

 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

 

Love is our identity. 

A slave

Today we begin worship with:

Romans 6:22-23

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We rejoice in being "set free", but often skip over the next clause.  

We become "slaves of God" (douloō).  This is not a "servant" (pais) whose employment is voluntary, but rather we have entered into a permanent relationship.

A servant receives a wage, but a slave does not.  Sin paid a wage, but God does not.  Instead God gives you a gift (charisma), which is free.

Oft untold was the responsibility of the master to the invalid or elderly slave.  The slave continues to be their responsibility and stays under their care.

One cannot forget that we are slaves, or that gift will become a conditional wage.

So That

 Today we begin worship with:

Galatians 4:28

Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.

The promise was not given to Isaac, but rather to his father Abraham.  It was:

Genesis 12:1-4

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

The promise had a purpose. The word “so that” (hāyâ) is the natural result of the promise. It was not the obligation required by the promise (what we must do in response), but rather what God wanted to occur because of the promise.

And that purpose is what Paul is bringing us to in Galatians as children, not of the slave woman, but of the free woman:

Galatians 5:13-14

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

As we walk today, let’s walk according to God’s purpose.