Covenant Life Church

Last week, we started a series called the Covenant Living Series. We talked about how Jesus fulfilled the old covenant and established a new covenant, in which He was the sacrifice and His blood paid the price. As we learned, a covenant is a holy agreement between God and His people, and in Exodus 33, we read about what happened following the covenant that God entered into with the people of Israel.

For the first part of our series, we talked about revelation. Covenant living begins with a revelation of who Jesus really is, seeing the ways of God and accepting the invitation to enter into a relationship and covenant with Him. This week, we're going to talk about the next aspect of covenant living: habitation. Together, we will explore what it is, what it means and what might be preventing it from happening in our lives.

Our church was established in 1943 as the Bremen Church of God. Pastor Rone Norton had been preaching in an old brush arbor, and they finally got the money to build a building right around the corner. Around 1968, they built what we call the Coley Building and relocated their church. When the pastor left about 30 years later, John Butler and the pastor he was serving at the time decided to come to Bremen to see if they could get the church going again.

In 1999 or 2000, we became Covenant Life Church of God, changing the name of the church to communicate to the community that something was different, but in all these years, we’ve never really talked about what a “covenant life” is. We have used the term a lot within the modern church, but we might not really know what it means. This week, we’re starting a brand-new series called “Covenant Living” to see what it looks like to live a life in covenant with God.

Pilots prefer to take off in a headwind because it allows them to climb better. As a matter of fact, naval aircraft carriers turn into the wind when they are getting ready to launch their planes. Headwinds don’t scare an experienced pilot, but once they get off the ground, they need to move from a headwind to a tailwind. They have to move from one air mass — or one river of air — to another.

The prophetic word that God gave to our church in the spring suggests a season of acceleration, and just like planes, this requires us to rise. Planes can travel faster in some air than in others, and sometimes, you have to go higher in order to go faster. Using the response of the people of Israel in Exodus 19-20, we’re exploring what it looks like to rise and reach the top of the mountain to which God is calling us.

John 15:1-8, which has been used as the primary scripture or a supporting passage multiple times this year, is all about being IN Jesus. These verses talk about the importance of abiding, dwelling, lingering and getting into lock-step with Jesus. It’s all about losing yourself in His character, nature, calling and empowerment.

It’s more than being around Him, knowing about Him or being acquainted with Him. The connection is stronger, deeper and more important than that. It’s being connected to Him as the Source of everything — just like a branch is attached to a vine. This week, we’re exploring the topic of what it really means to be IN Jesus.

Healthy things grow, and growing things change. However, change requires intention, and too often, we respond to these changes with fear. When we’re afraid, we put up walls and push back from other people, but growing deeper with God requires us to put ourselves in difficult and uncomfortable situations.

This week, Pastor John delivers an honest call to authenticity and embracing change in our relationship with the Lord. We should not avoid our calling or shrink away from Jesus when life gets difficult. Instead, we need to push through the discomfort because there’s so much more to live for and experience on the other side.

If there is one thing that hangs heavy in the minds of believers, it’s the will of God. We want God’s will to shine out like a lighthouse, so we will know when there’s danger. We want to hear the course corrections clearly and precisely.

People are often terrified they’re going to miss the will of God, and sometimes, they’re terrified to find it.

There is a way for us to find the will of God shining through the darkness and hear His voice directing our paths. As we learned last week, though, it’s hard to find the right answer if you’re asking the wrong question. This week, we’re going to talk about the will of God and explore the idea that we may be searching for the wrong thing.

People tend to think of vision as something exclusive to churches, businesses or organizations, but you can apply the same principles to your ministry, family or personal life. How do you find a God-pleasing direction for your life? Start by asking right questions.

Pastor John consistently prays about God’s vision for Covenant Life and what we should do as a church. In response to these prayers, he recently felt the Holy Spirit show him that Godly vision doesn’t start with a “what.” Instead, it starts with a “who.”

In Mark 2, we see Jesus going back to His ministry headquarters in a place called Capernaum. The people of the town found out He was there, and soon, there was standing room only at the house He was in. Jesus was teaching the people when four men walked up, carrying a paralyzed friend of theirs on a mat. They wanted to take him to Jesus, but there was a crowd of people around Him. As a result, they climbed up on the roof, dislodged some tiles and lowered their buddy down in front of Jesus.

Most sermons that are preached on this passage heap praise on the man who had the courage to be healed or the faith of the his four friends to get him to Jesus no matter what. These are worthwhile points, but today, we are examining the account from a different angle by asking an important question: how did the man get out after he was healed? The Bible says he walked out through a crowd of stunned onlookers, but is it possible that these people gathered were standing in the way of seeing a miracle?

For about a year and a half, God has been steadily sending our church messages that challenge us to get healed. We’ve talked about what it means to get healthy, forgive ourselves and those in our past, get strong in the Lord and tap into Him and the Holy Spirit as our power source. This week, we’re talking about the purpose for all that healing, strength and power by talking about the “main thing.”

In Matthew 28:18, Jesus meets with His followers after His resurrection and makes a stunning statement; He says that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Him. This is the same Jesus who remained silent in the face of His accusers, but here He is, standing on a mountainside in Galilee and saying something that had to blow their minds: every created thing in the universe is under His command.

Last week, we started talking about the connection between prayer and peace. The foundational truth of this message was that you can pray or worry, but you can’t do both. We discovered that prayer isn’t about persuasion; it’s about permission. It’s not about convincing God to move on your behalf; it’s about surrendering control of it to Him. Additionally, we found out that God wants us to pray about our own struggles with worry and anxiety just as much as He wants us to pray for other people and situations.

This week, we’re going to continue exploring prayer and peace, but first, we need to revisit some of the other things we discussed in Part 1. We learned that prayer is power, the path to peace and progress, but these things are universally true. In 1 Kings 18, the prophets of Baal prayed earnestly and sincerely, but nothing happened. There was no power in their prayer. As we dive into Part 2, the central truth for us is that prayer’s power is in direct proportion to the power of the One to Whom we are praying.