The God of Covenants

This morning I am going to share about the God of covenants. How many of you felt your heart and spirit stirred when you sang “God of Covenants” a little while ago? How beautiful, right? Our God is so precious. He truly is a God of covenants. From the beginning, when he created human beings, he did not create us, as some people think, in order to sit in heaven like a stern, accusing, punitive judge, but quite the opposite. God’s plan for humanity, the reason he created humanity, is to sustain and love it every day. And that is not only for those whom he created in the beginning, but it is for us today, and it is for all the rest of humanity yet to come.

The Bible is actually a record of God’s covenants with his people. And it is very interesting that the word covenant occurs throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation; it occurs 300 times. That is, the specific word covenant; there are also other words, such as oath and promise, that mean something similar, but the word covenant is an important word to the Lord, and it is recorded there in many ways.

And the first time that the word covenant appears in the Bible is in Genesis chapter 6. That chapter describes humanity’s terrible situation at that time, when it had fallen into violence and perversion, and it says that because of that great sin—you know, I assume you know the story—God pronounced judgment against that generation, a judgment of destruction through a flood. Because of their great sin, God pronounced that judgment of destruction; and God, who knew the heart of those people, was also attentive to the heart of one man in that generation, and God approached Noah, who, according to Genesis 6:9—look at what the Word says about who Noah was. It says that he was a man who found grace in the eyes of the Lord because he was a righteous man, blameless in his generation, and he walked with God. That is who the recipient of the Lord’s covenant was at that time.

God extended to him, to Noah, the opportunity to be saved from the flood—not only him, but also his wife, his sons, his sons’ wives, and also, as we know from the rest of the story, a pair of every animal of every species that existed in the world at that time. And he also gave him specific instructions for building a large vessel. So in that way, in the Bible, in the book of Genesis, God begins a special relationship with Noah, and in chapter 6, verse 18, he tells him, “…but I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall enter the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives…”

God was the one who took the initiative to establish this covenant. The covenant was for the benefit of Noah and his descendants, and Noah, for his part, entered into covenant with God. Noah’s part was simply to believe God and build the ark. That was all Noah did, and Noah accepted the gift God gave him, a gift of undeserved grace and mercy. Noah accepted it.

The Old Testament also tells us that God established covenants with other people—for example, with Abraham and with Moses. It tells us about the covenant he made with David, and many times in the Old Testament we see that, through the prophets, he also speaks to the people of Israel about his covenant with them.

And the Bible not only speaks about covenants between God and human beings, but also tells the beautiful story of covenants between two people. And two examples of this, two precious examples of it in the Word, are the covenant between Jonathan and David and the covenant between Ruth and Naomi. And we have no doubt that another covenant between two people is the covenant of marriage, according to the Word. In fact, in Malachi—the book of Malachi, which is the last book of the Old Testament—it says in chapter 2:

God expresses profound sorrow over divorce, and what he says in those verses is that divorce is a violation of the covenant, of a covenant between two people.

So we see that from the beginning God has communicated to human beings his intention to enter into covenant with them, and that continues to this day. God makes covenants with each one of you; he makes covenants with men, women, single people, married people, and children. He shows no partiality when establishing covenants.

And so, at one point in history, the people of Israel disobeyed the Law of Moses for many centuries; for many centuries they committed adultery against their husband, their maker, God. That is part of the story, and we also see in the Word that even despite the exceedingly great sin that existed in humanity, God did not dissolve or decide to dissolve the covenant he had with mankind—which was what mankind deserved because of that great sin—but, on the contrary, because of his love and mercy, he established an even better covenant. So he did not punish humanity or take his loving eyes off it; on the contrary, he made an even better covenant with humanity.

And we know that the one who accomplished, the one who consummated, that covenant is Jesus Christ, right? Through his sacrifice on the cross. And the Word tells us in Hebrews 10 that through that new covenant, which was sealed by the blood of Jesus Christ, God has written his laws on our hearts and minds; and through that covenant he has also given us access to him, or closeness to him, when we go to him with a sincere heart. One of the earlier songs spoke about our ability to draw near to him through Christ’s sacrifice.

And so, through that new covenant, he invites us to draw near to him. Our God is a completely personal God, and he wants a personal relationship with each one of us; that is why he establishes covenants. And under that covenant he has invited us to relate to him, not only now but for all eternity, because we know that when we make a covenant with Jesus, we do not simply die and get buried and everything ends there. We do not go to a place of suffering; rather, we have an eternal covenant to remain in his presence for the rest of eternity. And part of the covenant is also being able to have an abundant life here on earth. We do not merely await a great and beautiful reward at the end of our days; today, you and I can live full lives in our human relationships because we are children of the covenant.

It is something very beautiful. Being children of God and children of the covenant is something that brings richness to our lives. And now I want to share four characteristics that, from the Scriptures, I see in relationships based on covenant, on a covenant mindset, because we are not children of the covenant for no reason, right? We are children of the covenant so that we may have a covenant mindset, a covenant approach. And that obviously means extending it to all the human relationships we have in our daily lives.

The first characteristic of this covenant, of the covenant mindset, is that it is initiated for the benefit of the other person. We have already seen how God broke into history at a time of sin, of great sin, and initiated conversations with Noah. Noah was a faithful man; he wanted a relationship with God, but he did not initiate this covenant and did not have the power to do so. Nevertheless, we see that God initiated it for Noah’s benefit. That is, God did not have a hidden motive in that covenant. He was not really going to receive any benefit; rather, his purpose was genuine and pure: to bring life into a situation of imminent destruction for Noah and his family. And after the flood was over, he not only saved him through the construction of the ark, but also gave him something more. He gave him another demonstration of his mercy, simply for Noah’s joy and as a promise to every generation.

And you know what that is, right? He told him that, as a seal of his promise and a sign that he would never again destroy humanity in that way with a flood, there would be a rainbow at the end of every rainfall, and you and I still enjoy that promise. Sometimes we underestimate it; it is something in nature, but it is something more. There is something supernatural, and the stories of the Bible are not merely pretty stories. God rejoices when we are able to look beyond and see the supernatural aspect of things in the world. So it is an example of this characteristic: God establishes covenants—or a covenant is established—for the benefit of the other person.

Another example occurs in First Samuel, where it tells us about Jonathan, who acted entirely for David’s benefit. You know the story. David was essentially being persecuted by Jonathan’s father, who wanted him dead; and even from the beginning, although Jonathan knew that David could, in a sense, be his rival for the throne because Jonathan was the heir to the throne, he did not see it that way. Instead, he loved David so much that what he did for him was solely for David’s benefit. And we see in this verse, verse 4 of First Samuel 18, that it says:

“…and Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his other garments, even his sword, his bow, and his belt…”

And in the same way that he gave him those tangible things, he also gave him his protection and his genuine friendship. And he did it not for his own benefit, but for David’s benefit. So that is the first characteristic of a covenant mindset: when we do something for another person for that person’s benefit.

The second characteristic we see in covenants is that they are established on unconditional promises. And an example from Scripture that illustrates this characteristic of unconditional promises in relationships is the story of Ruth and Naomi.

Ruth did not make a covenant with Naomi—you know the story: Naomi’s husband and the husbands of her two daughters-in-law died; there was nothing for them in the land where they were; there was poverty and hunger, and Naomi decided to return to her own land. And one of her daughters-in-law, Ruth, made a covenant with her that illustrates precisely a covenant promise, an unconditional promise. Ruth did not make a covenant with Naomi by saying, “Naomi, if you assure me that things will go well for me in Bethlehem, if you assure me that you will not mind if I return to my own land if I try it and realize that it is not what I want, then I will go with you. I do not want to go to Bethlehem.” She did not impose conditions on her. On the contrary, we see that Ruth made one of the most beautiful covenant declarations in Scripture to her mother-in-law, one so beautiful that it is often used at weddings. In fact, my wife and I put that Scripture on our wedding invitation. And that Scripture says:

“…do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you, for wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death separates the two of us…”

That is an unconditional promise, right? Another quality is that covenant relationships are based on agape love. We enter into covenants because of love; that is the fundamental reason—we enter into covenants because we love. God entered into covenant with Noah because he loved Noah. Jonathan entered into covenant with David because he loved David. And it is a covenant that does not necessarily lack the emotion and feeling of love, but it is something more than that. It is a practical love; it is a love based on faithfulness and on mercy that is renewed every day. In other words, it is not a shallow love; it is a love that goes beyond even our selfishness and sets its interest on the other person. It is what the Bible calls agape love, whose many qualities we see in a precious passage in First Corinthians 13. So the covenant is based on this: one of its foundations is agape love.

And covenant relationships are also based on permanent commitments. We previously saw the permanence of Ruth’s covenant. She committed herself to Naomi until the end of her days, right? She said, “Where you die, I will die; where you live, I will live; where you are buried, I will be buried too.” So it was a permanent commitment.

And Jonathan’s commitment to David also continued even beyond Jonathan’s death, because when Jonathan died, David did everything possible to find Jonathan’s only descendant in order to extend his covenant to him. So we see that it is unconditional and permanent; it goes beyond the here and now.

And we repeatedly see in the Bible that God’s covenants with his people are eternal in scope. For example, Deuteronomy 7, verse 9, is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. Deuteronomy 7:9 says:

“…know, therefore, that the Lord your God is indeed God, the faithful God who keeps his covenant and mercy with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations…”

That is a long time. So, in a broad overview, I have sought to establish two things: first, that God is a God of covenants; and second, that those with whom he establishes covenants are also called to establish covenant relationships in their lives. And we all have opportunities to establish those covenant relationships; we have many relationships in our lives. So God is the God of covenants, and part of our calling as children of the covenant is to extend those same covenant qualities to others who are in our lives.

And in our lives we face the daily challenge of choosing between two diametrically opposed mindsets: one is the biblical covenant mindset, and the other is the contract mindset. Both a covenant and a contract consist of an agreement between two people; that is basic, right? But unlike the covenant, whose characteristics we have already seen, the contract is based on what benefit I can get out of this relationship. In other words, it is looking toward my own needs and desires.

That is the first thing: what benefit can I get out of this relationship? It is also based on what the other person is going to give me in exchange for what I give them. Once again, it is a mentality centered on myself. And it is also based on my right to terminate the agreement if I believe that the other person is not fulfilling their part. That is a contractual mentality. Of course, in our lives we have to enter into contracts, right? You are not going to buy a car without being given a contract specifying what the terms are. We know that, but those are the everyday matters that, let us say, have no eternal significance. But when we are talking about relationships, having a contractual mentality is very different from relationships established under a covenant. And once again, a covenant is established—that is, the covenant mentality includes seeking the benefit of the other person, doing things for the benefit of the other person, making unconditional promises, practicing love, agape, and making a permanent commitment.

And we see that the covenant is just the opposite: it is something I ultimately do for my own benefit; it is not out of love or for the benefit of the other person, but for my own. And we, as children of the covenant, have to resist the temptation to act in our relationships with a contractual mentality. Many of us have adopted that mentality which predominates in our culture. If you look around, you see that so many human relationships are based on a contractual mentality, and a contract does not have the enduring elements that a covenant has.

That is why the divorce rate is so high, why adultery is so common, and why distance and quarrels arise in different relationships. Over simple, foolish, insignificant things, we break off relationships with others; that is why we end friendships and why we stop speaking to someone when we feel offended. It is all because a contractual mentality is at work in us, rather than a long-range covenant mentality.

And God wants something better for His children. I believe it is time for us to stop living miserable lives in our relationships, when in reality we are called to so much more; and when we have covenant relationships, God will bless us in a special way.

He wants something better for us. He does not want us to make relational decisions based on a contract. He wants us to make them on the basis of the foundations of a covenant mentality.

The early church, which was in its first love and believed that the coming of the Lord was near, was characterized by genuine and generous love. It was a covenant church where they shared food and generously performed works of charity. And what happened because of that? Because the people around them saw that covenant mentality in the early church, they were added to it. They were drawn by the love and commitment that they saw being lived out within the context of that early Christian community.

Have you ever asked yourself whether the way you conduct yourself draws the attention of others, causing them to come closer to you and desire to have what you have? Have you asked yourself whether the place where you are, that place or that relationship, is better because you were there? That is a good question we need to ask in all our relationships, even casual relationships where, let us say, we may not see that person much more: Am I conducting myself like a daughter or son of the covenant? Do others see something special in me that they too would like to have in terms of relationships? Do I leave the place better because I was there?

I often have the custom, when I go somewhere and see, for example—I do not know—papers scattered on the floor of a restroom, of picking them up and leaving it better. That comes naturally on a practical level, but do we also leave an environment, a visit, or an interaction with someone better? Do we leave, let us say, a pleasant fragrance, a special perfume, because we have been there? And does that leave the person wanting to know what it is that we have and where we got it?

That concerns all of us: leaving that positive trail behind each one of us. Possibly the covenant relationship between two people that has the greatest repercussions is marriage. Marriage is not merely one more institution within society; quite the contrary. God instituted it. One of the chief purposes of marriage is to bear witness to His love on earth. That is what marriage is for—not for living unhappy lives, not for my own benefit, no. It is so that we can display God’s love here on earth through the practices that identify the character of Christ, which, as you know, are many, but some of them are patience, forgiveness, grace, and service. So that is one of the purposes of marriage: to bear witness to God here on earth. That extends to the family and to every relationship.

If we recall the traditional vows made in a wedding ceremony, we see that they contain covenant language. For example, one wedding ceremony may say something like, “I take you as my husband or wife, and I promise to love you and be faithful to you in wealth or poverty, in sickness or in health, in everything life takes away and in everything life gives, until death separates us.”

That is unmistakably covenant language. It has all the elements of a covenant. And we make these beautiful declarations, wearing that lovely dress before the pastor and the witnesses, and we make them with emotion and conviction at that moment. And we believe them for a time, but then life slaps us in the face and we come face-to-face with reality, right? We discover that relationships are not so easy, and we forget when those disagreements and hard times come, when temptations come, and when moments come that shake us because they go directly against what we want for our lives. And little by little, what we do is allow a contractual mentality to take control of the relationship, and we dangerously begin to devalue and underestimate the relationship and stop investing in it.

The covenant gradually dies and is then replaced by a contractual mentality. We begin to consider whether it is worthwhile, since I am not obtaining the benefit I thought I would according to my expectations. We think, “Well, I am no longer getting happiness out of this.” Many of us determine the health of a marriage on the basis of whether or not I am happy. And then that process enters a marital relationship very slowly; it is a gradual process, until it can become that relationship’s defining feature. It is no longer a covenant relationship, but rather a contractual relationship. Then we take on another identity, and it is no longer what God originally desired. I encourage you, if that is the case in your home—if you are married and you see that a contractual mentality is increasingly entering your relationship—it is time for you to reevaluate it and return to God’s original plan to establish a marriage that is truly a covenant marriage.

I am not telling you that because you have a covenant marriage there will be no difficulties; no, I am not saying that. What a covenant marriage allows you to do is this: when difficulty comes, when distress comes, even when betrayal comes, then we can act according to God’s righteousness, not on the basis of the flesh or the contract, but on the basis of God’s righteousness. That is what a covenant does for you.

I have had the privilege of knowing many couples who have been on the brink—sometimes they have even divorced—and when both recovered a covenant mentality, they were able to recreate a relationship based on covenant. So that is not impossible. And I know—I have had the privilege of hearing the stories of many people, many of you—who, despite terrible, terrible difficulties, have chosen to act from the standpoint of a covenant mentality. And I see how God blesses the life of a person who resists the temptation to have a contractual mentality and to reject the other person because I am not receiving exactly what I think I deserve or want, because I am not happy, but who instead continues fighting until God gives them the desires of their heart. Sometimes it is costly, but the benefits we obtain in the long run accrue not only to us, but also to future generations.

Your covenant marriage and mine are crucial for the young generation rising today. A few months ago, I heard on the radio about a very interesting study conducted by a liberal social researcher. She interviewed a significant number of young adolescents about whether or not they wanted to get married. Her premise was that marriage is an obsolete institution that is no longer very valid in our time, and that most of those young people would answer that, in the future, rather than getting married, they would prefer to establish a cohabiting relationship with their partner. But to her great surprise—she had not expected any of this; she was very, very surprised—what she discovered was that the vast majority, I cannot give you the percentage, but it was much higher, almost 90 percent or more of those young people, answered that they wanted to get married, that they wanted to enter into a marital relationship. But that is the positive part. The sad part is that they also expressed their great fear, their terror, of failing in the relationship. Why? Because they have seen so many failures.

Some people cannot point to even one healthy or sound covenant marriage in their family. So many of these young people had never seen how a covenant marriage is lived out, and that is why they were afraid. So this is a field of opportunities for us, for the church. Let us strive to have covenant marriages.

And now I want to speak for a moment to divorced people. Sometimes things happen; sometimes preserving the marriage covenant has not been within our control. Through my words, I do not want to hurt you, much less condemn you; that is not my purpose, because I know that God’s covenant with your life still stands. There was a failure, but that must never determine the future of our lives, and we must always move forward and have covenant relationships wherever God places us. If we have experienced a failure, it is simply time to accept God’s grace and continue living as a child of the covenant. So I do not want to cause you sadness, because I understand very well; I know there are sad stories, and God knows. And although I am focusing somewhat on the subject of marriage, I also know that God is the God of covenant for the single mother and the single father. I have no doubt about that. In fact, a little while ago, a very dear sister from this congregation told me that God had clearly told her not to worry about her children, because He was the Father to her children. She does not have the privilege of having a Christian ex-husband who can be a good influence on the children, but God made a covenant with her.

So God will never be absent from our lives. He always, always wants to have a covenant with you. But we also know that, ideally, the marriage relationship should remain intact and should be a relationship that brings blessing. And we have already seen through that study of those young people that covenant marriages are needed to give these young people a testimony, encouragement, and hope that it is indeed possible, that it is indeed possible to have a fruitful marriage.

So we already know that God is a God of everlasting covenants and that God is a God of generational covenants. Do you remember that it said “to a thousand generations”? That may simply be hyperbole. I choose to believe that it is true, that God is there to bless my life and the lives of a thousand generations after me.

And you know that the principal vehicle for transmitting the covenant mentality is your family. It is that tiny setting which you think no one sees; that is where God chooses to transmit the covenant mentality. And you know that your home is called to be a covenant home, holy and set apart for the Lord. It is a privileged place where God teaches through the authorities established there: father and mother teach the children the covenant mentality, or a mother alone or a father alone, if that is the case. The spiritual genes that identify you as a child of God include the covenant chromosome, which you have the privilege of passing on to the present generation and to future generations. So that is in our spiritual DNA. We are not only children of God; we are children of the covenant.

And the best foundation and the best gift that you as a couple can give your children is to display the covenant mentality in the way you treat one another within your home: how you handle anger, how you seek reconciliation in the wake of a conflict, how you forgive each other, how you serve one another, and how you remain faithful to and interested in each other. Let us never underestimate the tremendous power of that—of how we live within the small setting of the home. Many things happen there, and that is where we transmit this covenant mentality, in everyday life. Sometimes our actions will speak much louder than our words, and the way you choose to act toward your spouse and your children is what you teach them. They can absorb that covenant mentality like sponges, and one day they will be able to build the same thing, under that same covenant mentality, because you have been faithful in passing it on to them. That is a great truth.

And many of us do not give importance to the generational transmission of a covenant mindset. Many of us live shut up in the here and now, and we allow the here and now to dominate our decisions and our relationships, and we often squander life; at times we live it mediocrely, giving ourselves to others with little generosity—rather, stingily—even to those who are closest to us. Life slips away from us; if you hold water in your hands, you cannot retain it, can you? It runs out, and sometimes that is what happens to us with the opportunities God gives us: they slip through our fingers just as water slips through our hands. And we lose opportunities to grow and to establish relationships that bring honor and glory to God and make the coming generations receptive to his covenant. Because remember, it is there, in day-to-day life, that we teach this covenant mindset.

Today I can challenge you to recognize that there may be things in you—behaviors, patterns of thought—that keep you from having full covenant relationships. For some, perhaps the change does not have to be so great; for others, perhaps it does. But today I can challenge you to examine yourself and see whether you are establishing covenant relationships with those who are closest to you. Look, even in our friendships, even with our friends, we must have covenant relationships, because we can bring great blessing and can help someone who does not know the Lord enter the Kingdom through the way we treat that person.

I can challenge you to make changes in your life that will enable you to commit to investing yourself—to investing yourself, not money, not anything else—in the well-being of others through a permanent commitment, solely for the benefit of the other person. Those are things we must analyze, examining ourselves to see whether we are giving everything God wants us to give.

Remember that you are a child of the covenant who has been, as we said before, set apart and marked out—by whom? By Christ, no less—by Christ, to receive the benefits of a new covenant. Remember that the same resources for making covenant that were in Jonathan and David, in Ruth and Naomi, are in you today. You can establish those relationships if you desire to, and you have Christ as your companion in that work.

And I encourage you not to give up on those difficult relationships. Sometimes, when discouragement comes, especially when it has gone on for some time, the easiest thing is to give up. Never repay evil for evil, but quite the opposite. Be faithful and merciful; persist in loving even when you do not see immediate fruit. How many times have I seen situations involving other people in which no outcome was visible, in which there was no result from one person’s love and sacrifice, but as the years passed, a miracle occurred. This happens so often with children, doesn’t it? They stray from the ways of the Lord and become rebellious, but if you persist in maintaining covenant relationships with them, you will see something miraculous. I assure you; I have seen it so many times, and I know God does it. Even if it is on the last day of that child’s life, you do not know what God can do, and our only responsibility is to act toward that child on the basis of the covenant.

Learn to be faithful and merciful. When you pray, ask the Lord to teach you to love. All of us need that—all of us, every one. None of us here loves as Christ loves his church, so we need to ask forgiveness, confess our faults and the limitations in our capacity to love, and ask God to increase within us the ability to love as a child of the covenant.

And I also want to ask you to enlarge your vision of your impact on present and future generations. Never underestimate the impact you can have through a covenant relationship with your wife, your husband, your children, your extended family, your friends, your neighbors, or the brothers and sisters in the church. Never underestimate the importance of that, the benefit of a covenant relationship.

And I want to conclude by saying that recently, on August 22, an important family event occurred in my life that opened my eyes to the importance of growing in a covenant mindset. That day, August 22, I better understood the supernatural aspect that constitutes the foundation of every covenant relationship. That day I had the privilege of witnessing the birth of my first little grandson, Caleb Jonathan, and when I looked at him, it was as though the future opened up before me. And after, obviously, admiring his little face, his little body, his tiny fingers, going “Aaaaah,” and doing all those things we do when a baby is born, after all that I prayed quietly in my spirit. I spoke to my heavenly Father and thanked him because that little boy, Caleb, was being born into a covenant family with a covenant mindset.

I thanked him for the covenants that bind us to one another in our family, even those who have recently joined our family. I also thanked him for Caleb’s parents, who have covenant convictions, who are preparing themselves, and who are conscious of the tremendous responsibility they have to pass on their faith to that new generation—in this case, to Caleb. And I even thanked God for the name, because they took time to choose a name that also reflects the covenant mindset within them. So I gave thanks for all those things, and I asked him, “Lord, help me; help us to model love for this tiny baby who is born today. Help us to model love in such a way that, from an early age, he clearly understands the covenant God has with him and the importance of covenant relationships, and that he may become the person God wants him to be. May nothing we do as parents, grandparents, or aunts and uncles hinder him or become a stumbling block to his becoming what, in the mind of God, he has been destined to be.”

And do you know something? Caleb has not been born into a perfect family—no, by no means, just as no family is perfect. But he has been born into a family that has passionately embraced a covenant mindset and strives to live it out day by day—with our mistakes, yes, but we have that awareness of the covenant, of the importance we have for this generation that is now being formed and the one that will be formed later.

So, dear sister, dear brother, when you enter into covenant with God, God commits himself to you forever. It is not for a time; it is forever, and that is a reason for joy.

In 1 Chronicles 16:15, King David declares these words concerning God. He says that God remembers his covenant forever, the word he commanded for a thousand generations. Today, God remembers the everlasting covenant he has made with you and with the future generations that will follow you. Your response is simply to take hold of that covenant with gratitude in your heart, with emotion, as when we previously sang that song, “God of Covenants,” which touched the very fibers of our being. That is what we must do; that alone is our part: to respond to that covenant by opening our hearts with gratitude, embracing the covenant, and living as a daughter of the covenant or a son of the covenant in all our relationships.

And I want to conclude with a blessing found in the book of Hebrews, chapter 13. It comes at the end of the book of Hebrews and is a blessing the author gives to the Hebrews who received the letter. Hebrews 13:20–21 says this:

“…And the God of peace—this is for you—and the God of peace, who raised from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you fit for every good work to do his will, working in you what is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever…”

Let us pray, sealing this word in our hearts today. Father, thank you; thank you for your word. Thank you for the covenant that, in your mercy, you have made with this church, with our families, and with each of the individuals, Lord, who make up this house. Thank you, Lord, because you have had mercy on us; you have visited us and broken into our personal history to make a covenant with each one of us. Lord, as we conclude this time of being in your presence, worshiping you, and meditating on your word, Lord, I ask you to seal this word in the minds and hearts of my brothers and sisters and in my own, Lord.

Help us, Lord, to live as children of your covenant. Help us, Lord, to establish relationships that bring honor and glory to your name, Lord—relationships that we do not establish for our own benefit, relationships in which there is no rejection because we have not received what we expected, Lord. Help us to establish relationships founded on your word, Lord, relationships in which we give ourselves generously to one another, Lord, relationships in which we can commit ourselves to others through unconditional covenants, Lord, and commit ourselves permanently.

Lord, as a people, as a society, and as a church, we need testimony, Lord, that you are powerful enough to heal relationships, that you are powerful enough to enable us to do every good work that is pleasing to you, Lord, and that you are powerful enough to give us everything we need even when, in our own strength, we believe we cannot do it.

Lord, I ask you to bless each person in this place, Lord, regardless of what situation in life they are in, Lord. I bless the father and the mother, Lord; I bless the husband and the wife; bless the single mother and the single father; I bless the children, the unmarried, Lord, the little ones, the grown-ups, and the elderly, Father. And I ask you, Lord, to make this word a reality in our lives. Lord, we give you our day-to-day lives, Father—our daily lives with our struggles, our afflictions, our pain, and our dissatisfaction. We give all of that to you, Lord, and today we make a covenant with you that we receive your love and receive your power to do that to which you have sent us.

Lord, heal our land. Lord, heal our relationships, Father; heal marriage. Lord, restore marriage to your original design, Father, and may each one of us, responsibly, joyfully, and with a desire to please you, Lord, heal what you have entrusted to us. May we be agents of healing, Father, in all our relationships.

We also bring before you relationships between friends, Lord; bless those as well. Bless every kind of relationship: those we have at work, at home, and in the neighborhood. Bless us, Lord. Lord, we receive from you, and we know that we leave this place in faith, believing that you will carry out the good work you have begun and that our only responsibility, Lord, is to believe you and enter into your eternal covenant design, Lord. Thank you for your love; thank you for your word, Lord. Thank you, Lord, in the name of Jesus. Amen.