Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And everyone said, Amen. I hope you in the venue and the chapel and online, you said Amen as well. Because I'm very excited about today. I'm excited that we are in the midst of a journey, a spiritual journey, where we as together as a church, coming together around God's Word, seeking His face, following the Spirit to see what He may have for us. We are in the middle, as Pastor John said, we are in the middle of this two-year campaign And we look back on year one we say thank you God for what you've done. It was amazing and Lord we want to see you do even more in year two, and that's why we're pressing into God That's why we are moving forward in faith because we want to see God do something amazing in year two of this two-year campaign So let me ask you this if you want to be a part of expanding God's kingdom if you want to be a part of proclaiming the name of Jesus, would you say amen?

Amen.

That's what we are about here at Peace Church. And in this halfway mark, we are in the middle of a sermon series, yes, but also spiritual journeys. We study God's word and we seek the Spirit, allowing Him to move in our hearts and our lives. And so, let's get to studying God's word right now. Please open your Bibles to 2 Chronicles, chapter 15. We're going to pick up where we left off last week. If you do want to use the devotionals that were provided, we are excited for you to do that. Go ahead and turn to page 29. In those devotionals you'll find an outline and some fill-ins. Otherwise, page 467 if you want to use the Bibles we've provided. Now as you're turning there, that's your first fill-in. That's your first idea. Here's today's sermon. It's about making covenant, about the covenant with God. So as you turn in there, let's just remind ourselves of the setting Second Chronicles chapter 15 we find ourselves in the year roughly 900 BC.

We are located in the southern kingdom known as Judah King Asa. The good king has come to the throne He's been leading for a while. He is coming back to Jerusalem after a massive military victory that didn't look good going in, but they sought the Lord. God provided them victory. King Asa and the army coming back to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is waiting there to meet their heroes. They meet and then the prophet Azariah stands up with a very bold, very timely, very important word. Azariah stands up before the king, before the army, before the people. And Ezraiah says, thank you Lord for this victory, but let's continue to press into God. Because it's so easy to forget God when things are going good.

And in the kingdom, things were going good. And so Ezariah is like, this is the time to press farther, even more so, into God. And I would say to you, that's a word for us. We look back on year one of this campaign and we raised far more finances than what we thought possible. We've seen God do incredible things. The construction is ahead of schedule. Things are going amazing. It'd be very easy as a people to say, hey, thanks God, you did great.

We got it from here into year two. But we're gonna say no. We're gonna continue to bow ourselves before the face of God and ask him to continue to do good work knowing that it is his work and we just get to be a part of it.

And so, as a reminder, the devotionals do have spaces for you to fill in if you want to do that. Today's title is Make Covenant. And so, with this, let's open up God's Word, let's read it, and then we'll press in. So would you hear God's Word, 2 Chronicles, Chapter 15, we'll read verses 8 to 15. Would you hear God's word?

2 Chronicles 15:8-15

8 As soon as Asa heard these words, hthe prophecy of Azariah the son of Oded, he took courage and put away the detestable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from ithe cities that he had taken in jthe hill country of Ephraim, and he repaired the altar of the LORD kthat was in front of the vestibule of the house of the LORD. 9 And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, land those from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who were residing with them, for great numbers had deserted to him from Israel when they saw that the LORD his God was with him. 10 They were gathered at Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa. 11 They sacrificed to the LORD on that day mfrom the spoil that they had brought 700 oxen and 7,000 sheep. 12 And they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul, 13 but that whoever would not seek the LORD, the God of Israel, oshould be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman. 14 They swore an oath to the LORD with a loud voice and with shouting and with trumpets and with horns. 15 And all Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and had sought him with their whole desire, and he was found by them, pand the LORD gave them rest all around.

Amen. This is God's Word. Let's pray and we'll continue. Let's pray together. Father God, we thank you for your Holy Word, and we ask that you send your Holy Spirit to help us to know your Word, that we might live out your plan for our lives.

And Father, we are thankful, Lord, that we don't stand under the umbrella of the old covenant anymore. We are thankful for the new covenant, the covenant that Christ has ushered in by his life, death, and his resurrection from the dead. And it's in his name that we pray these things. And everyone said, Amen.

So church, as we walk through this spiritual journey together, as we look at our passage, let me give you one main idea to consider here today, and it's this. In a world turning from Him, God calls us to make covenant with Him. And as we take that truth and we see it throughout the pages of our passage here today, I want to give you three points that we're going to walk through together. Three things, as we talk about in our covenant with God, we are to number one, remove ungodly influence.

We are to renew heart-filled faith. And lastly, we'll look at how we are to remember we are gods. Oh, church family, don't ever forget that. You belong, body and soul, in life and death, to your faithful Savior. Don't ever forget that you belong to God. So, first thing we're gonna have some times of extended awkward silence. Just preparing you, just preparing you. Alright, Bible's open, verse 8. So Asa is given a word from God through the prophet Azariah and he responds and Asa responds rightly. Look at verse 8. As soon as Asa heard these words, the prophecy of Azariah, the son of Odad, he took courage, and he put away the detestable idols from the lands. So right there, Asa is laying down the law. He's removing things that are opposed to God. You know what we call this? Cleaning house. Asa is looking at his kingdom, and he's cleaning house. And I don't mean preparing it for HDTV. There are plenty of houses on HDTV that are full of demons. Asa is cleaning house in his kingdom. Remember that, because we're going to come back to this. So Asa, it says he's taken out the idols.

Now, idols were those statues and also like little figures that were found throughout the land and in people's homes that were used as objects of worships to fault God. Asa is removing those from the land and from homes. But then look at what it says here. It says, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was in front of the vestibule of the house of the Lord. So what's that? So this was this.

This was a stand that was made of bronze at the front of the temple where sacrifices were made in offering to God to atone for sins. And the fact that it was broken down just shows how much the house of God was in neglect, but it also shows us symbolically that God's people were in spiritual disarray. They weren't seeking the Lord, they weren't keeping up his house, they weren't making sacrifices, they weren't trying to atone for their sins, they were far from God. And Asa is seeking to correct this. Asa's not just removing the demons from the land, he's preparing the people to worship the true God again. Men in the house, let me speak to you for a moment. Yes, get your family to church, but you also gotta get them right with the Lord, and that starts with you. King Asa stands up and he declares what's gonna happen.

He's saying this kingdom is going to be the Lord's. So he clears out the idols and he prepares the people to worship the true God again. Now look at verse nine. It says that, and Asa gathered all Judah and Benjamin. Now just a reminder, if you missed last week, we are in the Southern Kingdom. The Southern Kingdom was given the blanket name of Judah, but the Southern Kingdom where Jerusalem was encompassed the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin of the twelve tribes of Israel, but not just Benjamin and Judah. Look what it goes on to say, and those from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Sinai, who were residing with them, for great numbers had deserted to him, to Asa, from Israel. Again, Israel, the blanket name of the northern kingdom Heading to the southern kingdom why? Because God was there and God was doing something amazing So they were leaving a place where God wasn't working because they wanted to be where God was working

Says when they saw the Lord their God was with him That's when they went so that the people of the northern kingdom were seeing that God was on the move in the Southern Kingdom, and they rightly said, that's where we want to be. We want to be where God is alive and doing something amazing. And God was moving in the Southern Kingdom because firstly and foremost, because God is good and that's what he decided to do. But also you can say it's because the people were being faithful. And one of the ways, church, hear me on this, one of the ways that we show ourselves to be faithful is that we remove ungodly influence from our lives. So let me give you permission, in this modern day, to do some radical things. Some of us seriously need to consider actually canceling the cell phone. I lived through the 80s and I lived through the 90s. I can tell you, there was a time in human history that we did kind of okay where we didn't have cell phones. Don't make the excuse to say that you need it. I think you're resourceful enough to find a way without it if it is doing nothing but providing ungodly influence. Some of us need to actually cancel the cell phone. Or maybe some of us just simply need to get off social media. Listen, it's driving some of you crazy.

And I don't wanna make light of this. It's literally driving you crazy. It's bringing to the point where you're not acting rational anymore because you're being so inundated with all the insanity that's out there. Your psyche wasn't meant to handle that.

And it's driving you crazy. Some of you need to actually just get off social media because it is an ungodly influence in your life.

Preach, brother.

Maybe some of us need to cancel those subscriptions to those channels that are ungodly. Some families need to stop binge-watching TV shows and start playing board games and having conversations as a family again. Asa said, we are removing ungodly influence. That is not happening here anymore.

As a king, that's what he did for his kingdom. And as people, as men, maybe we need to start doing that for our homes. If we want to be in covenant with God, that means a true relationship with him, built on his promises that he's made to us, then that means that we are in relationship with him, not with the things of the world. And so like Asa, maybe it's time to clean house, but we can't just clean house. In order to do this, we need to open up our hearts to the Lord again. And so in our covenant with God, we need to renew our heart filled faith, renew heart filled faith.

And so let's just make sure we're on the same page here or something, about something. According to the old ways of the Old Testament, we see King Asa lead his people into what was then a massive time of worshipping God, dare I say, a time of revival. Verse 10, look what it says. It says, they were gathered at Jerusalem in the third month of the 15th year of the reign of Asa.

I know you don't know what that means. Here's what it means. It was probably actually October of the year 896 BC. Verse 11, they sacrificed to the Lord on that day from the spoil they had brought 700 oxen and 7,000 sheep. Now listen to this. This is not just about sacrifice and worship to God. This is about covenant and relationship with God. Look at verse 12. And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all of their heart and with all of their soul.

That's beautiful. But then we see verse 13. We see verse 13 and we think to our modern ears, there's a massive disconnect here. Verse 12 is all about seeking the Lord and being in a relationship with Him, and we all said, Amen. We love that. But then we look at verse 13.

But that whoever would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, should be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman.

Wait, what? Wait, wait, wait, what?

Put to death, young or old, man or woman. Again, we wonder, we wonder, how can they go from loving God in verse 12 to killing people in verse 13? And then what we often do is we put our modern spin on it and we say, how could they go from, how could they go to killing people just because they think differently? Listen, you have to understand what was going on. You have to understand what was happening in the cultures that were at their borders. The religions and the culture that were around them were engaging in true demonic worship, incest, orgies, child sacrifice. And Asa is like, we are not going to tolerate that here. We are not going to let that into this kingdom. We're here to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and we will not tolerate those evil practices. We will not allow them to creep in and corrupt the society again. And that, the only way to ensure that was to make sure that every heart that was there was given fully to God.

He was leading people into a faithfulness and a pure relationship with God between them and the Lord, because this is what it means to renew a heart-filled faith. Now listen to me, be clear, be students of the Bible Don't listen to what people say read what the Bible says in this covenant that Asa was making God didn't tell them to do that That was part of what Asa was doing here. This was Asa's way of ensuring Religious purity moral clarity and national unity, but don't get ahead

Listen, we are now in the New Testament the new covenants Our calling now is no less to seek covenant with God But the new covenant is now not restricted to a piece of land or a particular ethnic group What Jesus has done is open to all who will place their faith in him Amen, because Jesus shows us the more fulfilled in eternal and true and better way to relate to God our dedication now to a pure faith

My friends should be all the more powerful because we live on this side of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and Christ ushered in the new covenant, which again is a deeper, even more personal relationship with our father, which leads to the third thing. In our covenant, we are to remember that we are gods. If you're following along in your, in your devotionals, there's a little misprint here, but this is your, this is your final point.

So King Asa leads his people into a renewed covenant and a deepened relationship with God. He's cleaning house, but let's finish our passage looking at verses 14 and 15. Verse 14, they swore an oath to the Lord. I love this. Man, I hope you have your Bibles open around. They swore an oath to the Lord with a loud voice, with shouting, with trumpets, and with horns.

Let me say that again. Loud voice, shouting, trumpets, horns. They were making a racket. Man, that must have been a beautiful noise too. Loud voice, shouting, trumpets, horns. Notice, it does not say,

with every eye closed and with every head bowed, no one looking around. If you would like to give your life to Jesus, would you please just raise your hand? Are you kidding me? This is how you enter into relationship with God, with immense praise and thankfulness, knowing that His work is what He has done for us on our behalf. My friends, we should be making a racket here. I'm not saying we go crazy, but I am saying loud voice, shouting, trumpets, horns. And guess what?

No one had to die because look at verse 15. In all Judah, in all of Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and sought him with their whole desire, all their heart, their whole desire, and he was found by them, and God was found by them, and the Lord gave them rest all around. Church, this is how it should be. We seek the Lord, we are reminded that we belong to him, we are reminded that he gets the glory, we are reminded that salvation is his and his alone, and we stand in that truth, and you know what we True, rest, peace, shalom, rest. Isn't that what we're all trying to seek at the end of the day? To go to bed after a good day where we can just rest, where we are at total peace, no need to try to please anyone because our satisfaction is found fully and only in God. That's what He was giving to these people. He was giving them rest.

This is the power of a covenant with God. And when we think about this from 900 years ago, we have to wonder, well, what does this mean for us here today? And so I want to close up with some questions for our church family in the midst of this campaign. And here's what I'd say real quick.

These are questions for our church family. If you are visiting with us, I'm so, so happy that you are here. But I'm going to give some maybe sharper questions for our church family. Because we're in the midst of a journey together and we want to seek the Lord and we want to make sure that we are undistracted and fully committed to where God is calling us. So, here's the question I want to ask with the time we have left. Is the covenant evidence? Now let's talk about this and let's ask this question not theoretically or philosophically, let's think about this practically and real specifically. Here's the first question. Is the covenant evident in your home, specifically your house? So yes, does your home embody the fact that it is a Christian home? A home where the covenant, again, a relationship with God built on the promises that are made, a relationship with the Almighty, is that made clear in your home? If someone were to walk into your home when you were not there, would they be able to say, this looks like a Christian house, this is clearly a Christian family? Because remember, King Asa removed the idols from the land and from their homes, and he rebuilt the altar of the Lord.

So listen, listen to this. This is not just about what is in your home, this is about what is not in your home that you have removed the ungodly influence Yeah, yes by all means have Christian decor have your Bibles on your shelf have a cross on the wall have those beautiful Pinterest verses hanging up by all means do all that But remember what Asa so bravely demonstrates in

God's kingdom, you can't have an altar to the Lord alongside idols to false gods. And so Christian homes, you can't have Christian decor in your home alongside ungodly imagery and influence. I need you to consider right now what needs to be removed. Where do you need to clean house? Is your home a place of relationship with the Lord or a place of influence from the world?

Maybe it's time for some of you Christian parents or grandparents to clean house. Maybe some of you young adults who are out on your own for the first time need to look at wherever you're living and clean house, not so your house can be featured on HDTV, but so that it can be spiritually clean. So you can call it a holy place. Is the covenant evident in your home? Let's also look at this. Is the covenant evident in your life, specifically your calendar? I'm going to say something and I'm going to let there be an awkward amount of awkward silence so that you can truly listen to the Lord here.

I can show you what's important in your life by looking at your family calendar. I drink a whole pot of coffee right now if there's one available. I can show you what's important in your life by looking at what's on your calendar. Is it awkward enough for you? Parents, here's what I need you to consider. If this is true, then what I want you to think is what takes up most of your time, and is that truly what is the most important thing? If it's not, why does it take more time than what's more important? Listen, my friends, more than raising money for a campaign, I want to see families be right with the Lord. I want parents showing their kids what truly matters the most. And the way that families order their lives, the way that most families order their life, when you look at many families' calendars, it simply reveals they are not in a covenantal relationship with God. It reveals that they are over-committed. I'll say that again. The way that most families order their life, when you look at their calendar, it reveals they are not in a covenant relationship with God.

It reveals that they are over committed. And so we talk about cleaning house. We're not just saying objects in your house. We're talking about obligations you have on your calendar. Sometimes it's time to cancel what's lesser important so you can have more of what's more important.

So what does this mean for a family of faith? A family of faith, a family that says they have faith, but they're putting lesser things above more important things, what it shows that they're probably more cultural in their faith than relational in their faith. And it's no wonder that kids are growing up

and this next generation is leaving the faith because they never saw it truly embodied in the home. They were never taught about a living covenant with the living God, where God truly comes first in everything. Because that's what it means to be in alignment with God. Raise your children not in a culturally Christian home, but in a covenantal Christian home. And what that means is that you pray together.

You actually use words like the gospel. You talk about what it means to bring God glory. You say these things as a family so that you can show your children what truly comes first. So again, Christian families, I ask you, is the covenant evident in your life, specifically your calendar? And if you think I'm overstepping or stepping on toes, I haven't even started yet.

Let's get more personal with this last one. Is the covenant evident in your generosity, specifically your checkbook? This is what we've been talking about in this sermon series and this spiritual journey, that until faith has total influence over your finances, you can't say it has total influence over your entire life. By all means, please be generous with your time and your talent.

Go out there, serve, serve in the community, serve at church. Please share the gifts that God has given you with your time and talent. But don't try to say that you're generous with your time as an excuse not to be generous with your finances. If you think volunteering is a replacement for giving financially, let me just say this, you cannot make that argument from scripture. This campaign is a call to everyone who calls Peace Church home to get involved and to donate. Be generous, be faithful, be sacrificial so that this church can continue to stand as a testament to the gospel and for God's kingdom for generations to come. Amen? There are many of us in here who are sitting in a room and sitting on seats that the previous generation paid for and now it's time for you to do the same for the next generation. The last generation said yes to the call of God, now it's our turn. And church, we don't want this to happen if it's not God's will. We don't want this to happen if God isn't the one who provides and presides over it.

This cannot happen. We do not want this to happen without God and our faith in Him. And yes, this calls for us to take courage and seek the Lord. That's what this series is all about. A God-given courage from the Holy Spirit because we know what Christ has done for us. And we take faith in Him as we take steps of faith to see that the Holy Spirit is already doing something amazing. And so let me just speak from my heart for just a moment. From my heart to your heart, to enter into sacrificial generosity leads your faith into such deeper levels that you will experience God's goodness in incredible and new ways. And so let me ask you this. If you have felt the goodness of God as a result of being financially faithful, would you say amen?

I say amen to that too. The chief way I feel God's goodness is through the gospel. But when God fills me with faith to respond, I see Him move. Asa took a stand and said, in this kingdom, Yahweh is Kona, come first. In this kingdom, we are going to put God first. It's time some of us do that with our lives. Take a stand and say, in my life, God is going to come first. Why? Because in a world turning from Him, God calls us to make covenant with Him. To put God first means that you are in a covenantal relationship with Him based on His terms, not ours. But that new covenant is not like the old. The new covenant is not marked by continual sacrifice of animals on a bronze altar It's now marked by the final and complete sacrifice of Jesus Christ on a wooden cross. Amen Amen, Jesus Christ not only died on the cross in our place for our sins so that we could live eternally

But he did this so that he could usher in the new covenant Which is his promise kept so that we could be an eternal right relationship with God again, and we are reminded of this gospel every time we celebrate communion Which we're gonna do right now

Amen Amen

Would you please bow your heads and let's prepare our hearts for communion?