Covenant Life Church

This week, we’re starting a new series called Crosswinds. Numerous verses in the Bible illustrate the connection between our relationship with God and how we treat the people around us. In our vertical pursuit of God’s glory, there are things that happen in our horizontal relationships that will throw us off course and prevent us from rising into the upper atmosphere where God’s calling us.

The purpose of this series is to remind us of important things we need to take care of horizontally, so we can ascend vertically without hinderance. Together, we’ll explore three issues that Pastor John has observed repeatedly over the years that, if addressed in accordance with the Word, could eliminate most of our marriage problems. The first crosswind we’re going to talk about is alcohol.

For as long as he’s been the leader of Covenant Life, Pastor John has delivered an annual State of the Church message because it’s important for accountability, integrity, and unity. In this year’s message, we’re looking back at 2024 and talking about the financial figures, attendance numbers, spiritual growth metrics, and even the intangible things that God did among us over the past 12 months.

It won’t just be a tidal wave of numbers and figures nor will it be entirely focused on the past. We will turn our attention to the year that’s in front of us and talk about what Pastor John believes God is inviting us into. It’s not a business meeting, and it’s actually perfect for anyone watching or attending for the first time because it will help you understand a lot about the heartbeat of the church.

We’ve been walking through a series called Three Funerals From Revival. If revival is a life lived in pursuit of the glory of God, then there are some things that cannot coexist with that desire. Some things must die in order for us to see God’s glory. Over the past two weeks, we’ve seen that pride and religion must die. This week, we’re going to find out why Jezebel must die.

There are only around 40 or 50 verses in the whole Bible about Jezebel, but the depth of her depravity and cold-hearted evil certainly left its mark on the world. Jezebel was the daughter of the king of the Sidonians, and Ahab, who was the king of Israel, married her. He gladly imported her idolatry to Israel, and through Jezebel’s influence, it became a state-sponsored religion.

Last week, we started a new series called “Three Funerals from Revival,” which explores the idea that some things have to die in our lives before we can truly live a life in pursuit of God’s glory. Last week’s message was about how everything in the Kingdom of God happens through humility. Arrogance and self-centered living will never lead you to the glory of God. Together, we learned that pride must die.

This week, we’re going to talk about the second thing that must die in our lives: religion. Religion is any way of getting right with God other than the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If you are trying to have a right relationship with God that doesn’t go through a wooden cross and the empty tomb, you will never achieve your goal; Jesus said that no one gets to the Father except through Him.

The Lord has been teaching us to draw near to Him, to climb higher up the mountain and get in the jet stream of spiritual effectiveness. There are many accounts in the Bible that describe the glory of God and its effect on people, but before we can start talking about God’s glory, we have to remember the “replacement doctrine.” As we’ve learned, it’s not enough to stop doing the wrong thing, you have to start doing the right thing.

Some things can’t occupy the same space. Some things have to die before other things can live. God is jealous of His glory and doesn’t share it with anyone, so there are things that must die before the glory of God really manifests in your life. This week, we’re beginning a new series called Three Funerals from Revival, looking at three things that have to die to enable us to walk in the glory of God, and the first thing that must die is pride.

As we close out the year, a lot of people are preparing resolutions for the new year, coming up with things they’d like to do more or less often over the next 12 months. The sad reality, however, is that most people give up on their resolutions by the end of January. Could it be that these changes — many of which are positive or admirable — don’t stick because we’ve failed to include God in the decision-making process?

This week, Jordan Weathers uses Psalm 139 to remind us about God’s intimate knowledge of us and His involvement in every area of our lives. With this in mind, we will discuss three prayers for the new year that revolve around who we are, where we go and what we do. By earnestly asking God these three questions, we can ensure that our hopes, dreams, plans and pursuits are closely aligned with His will and Word.

So much about the Christmas account is miraculous and supernatural that it gets hard to keep track of every thing. We are all familiar with the miracle of the virgin birth, the divine communication with Joseph through dreams, the angelic appearance to the shepherds and the miracle of the Christmas star. However, there is one miracle that we might have overlooked.

Although it is not typically the book of the Bible in which you expect to find information pertaining to Christmas, Colossians 2:9 speaks about a miraculous truth. We’ve heard the term “incarnation” in relationship to Christmas. God became human in order to be with us in our human condition. It is a uniquely Christian concept and one of the things that sets Jesus apart from all others.

The first prophecy about the coming of Jesus was in Genesis 3 when God tells the serpent that Eve’s Offspring will bruise the head of the serpent’s offspring. That was thousands of years before the birth of Christ. There were many more prophecies over hundreds of years, and for the previous 400 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the Jewish people had heard absolutely nothing from heaven. They waited on the Messiah for what seemed like forever, and Galatians 4:4 says that, when the fullness of time came, God sent His Son.

This is like waiting for a bag of microwavable popcorn to pop. It only takes two minutes, but for most of that time, it seems like nothing is happening. For a while, the bag is just as flat as it began, but after a while, though, the first “pop” happens. The things happening inside the bag reach a point where the kernels are ready to pop, and once the first one pops, the rest follow. It’s similar with what God is doing in our church and in our lives. Be faithful and patient. Trust the process and know that He’ll bring it to fruition when the time is right!

This week, we’re ending our four-part series called Covenant Living. The series has been based on three requests Moses makes while talking to God in Exodus: revelation, habitation and manifestation. These three components form the foundation of what it looks like to live in covenant with Him. As we’ve learned, a covenant is a holy agreement between God and His people. Those of us who have surrendered our lives to Jesus are in covenant with Him, one sealed with the Holy Spirit and bought with the blood that Jesus shed on the cross.

As we’ve walked through this series together, one thing has emerged that may be holding us back from heeding the call of God and making the same requests as Moses: fear. We may be sincere about following Jesus and wish to pursue God with all our hearts, but there is fear associated with that pursuit. It may be a fear of losing control, looking foolish or being asked to give up everything. It’s part of our sin nature to run from God, but as we end this series, we’re going to explore how we can move from afraid of God to a friend of God.

In Exodus 33, we see Moses having a conversation with God after the children of Israel enter into a covenant — or holy agreement — with Him. Two weeks ago, we focused on the first part of this conversation and the first request that Moses made, which demonstrated a desire for a life-changing revelation. This is a key element to covenant living; we have to understand the ways of God, which were shown to us by Jesus’s life on earth.

After Moses asks God for revelation, he says, “Let me live in Your presence.” Moses’s second request was for habitation, which is when we begin to develop the character and nature of Jesus in our own lives. When we saturate ourselves with the Spirit of God, He begins to show Himself through us. This week, we’re continuing this conversation by looking at three things the enemy uses to hinder our attempts at pursuing habitation.