A Promise
07/13/2025
The "Seven Summits" is a mountaineering challenge where climbers seek to reach the highest peaks on each of the seven continents. After spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and many grueling years of training and climbing - on April 30th, 1985, Richard Bass became the first person to complete the challenge. Estimates say that well over 700 people have since completed this challenge. It's also true that multiple hundreds of people have died trying to accomplish this feat over the years.
Since that first success in 1985 - recently "Climbing" magazine wrote, "Today, the Seven Summits are a relatively common - almost cliché - tour of each continent's highest peak." The challenge is now no longer considered a significant achievement amongst mountaineers, but hundreds of people still attempt it every year.
The first success was a cool achievement - but did it really change the world? People will sacrifice and make the time for crazy dreams and personal goals – but when it comes to things that actually matter in light of eternity – many don’t want to make promises or commitments. Many will commit their lives to hobbies or personal passions - but hesitate to commit anything to God or His Church...
Fortunately, that's not the nature of our Creator. Our God is a God who makes eternal promises and meaningful commitments - and He keeps them! God is a maker of covenants. That's what I want to look at this morning, and I want to start out by clarifying…
I. What is a covenant?
A covenant is a solemn promise to engage in or refrain from a specified action or series of actions. A covenant is a commitment. Throughout the Bible, we see that God never ‘shied away' from promises or commitments. His character is demonstrated by His willingness to say what He means and to back it up by His actions.
Let’s look at the parts of any covenant. Every covenant, every commitment starts with at least two parties. So the first part is the two separate parties involved in the covenant. For our purposes the parties would be God and with whom the agreement is being made. The next part of the covenant is the ‘promises’ – what God promises to do; God’s part of the deal. And the third part of the covenant is the ‘terms’ – what the other party agrees to do for God.
So the covenant has three parts – the parties, the promises and the terms. And I want to make a distinction here. A true covenant really is different than a contract.
In a legal contract, each party is looking out for their own best interests. If I'm buying a car – I'm going to try to get the best deal I can get; to pay the least amount of money I have to. The car dealer is going to try to get the most money he can. Nothing wrong with either of us – I want to save money and he wants to make a buck. So, we each sign a contract looking out for our own best interests.
In a covenant relationship, each party is also looking out for the best interest of the other. That’s a huge difference!
Most people who've been in the Church for a while know that the Bible is divided into the Old and New Testaments - based on the Old covenant relationship that God had with His people and the New covenant relationship. Both covenants were intended to have both parties looking out for the best interest of the other. To further understand God’s nature as a maker of covenants, let’s look at some…
II. Examples of God’s covenants
Now, when God has made covenants, we can see that His promises are always kept. We have God’s track record in scripture. If you enter into a covenant with God – you can be sure that He will keep His end of the deal. However, since the other party with whom God is making a covenant is human – God leaves His interests in the hands of human free will.
God never forces anyone into a covenant arrangement. God explains the agreement, makes the offer and then it’s up to the other party to accept or reject that offer. For example, let’s look at the covenant between…
A. God and Noah
Most of us are familiar with the story of Noah’s Ark. It’s one of the many Bible stories most of us learned as kids. Let’s look at the account starting with God’s words from Genesis 6:17-22 (NIV)...
"I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. (18) But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark - you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you. (19) You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.
(20) Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. (21) You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them." (22) Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
From our text, we see that God laid out the situation for Noah, He was going to flood the entire earth, but He promised a way for Noah and his family to be saved. The terms then were that Noah would build the ark and fill it with animals. God promised that He would save Noah if Noah obeyed the terms. Noah did obey and after the waters receded we pick up the story again in Genesis 9:15-16 (NIV)...
I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. (16) Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.
God made a promise and He kept it - when Noah obeyed the terms of the agreement. God honored Noah’s obedience and blessed him. We see another example of a covenant between two parties…
B. God and Abraham
Abraham had followed and obeyed God for years when God made this promise from Genesis 15:18 (NIV)...
On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates -
At this time - if you know the story - Abraham had no children, no descendants, but then a few chapters later God also promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. God made a promise to bless Abraham if Abraham would obey Him. In the covenant God basically says, ‘I will honor you if you honor me’. And we can read the rest of the story - Abraham obeyed the terms and God blessed Abraham with the land and many, many descendants. God kept His promise!
I want to look at one more example of God’s covenants, between two more parties…
C. God and Israel
To the nation of Israel, to the Jewish people, God made this promise in Exodus 19:5-6 (NIV)...
'Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, (6) you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.
God promised them that if they obeyed, they would be His treasured possession. And we see recorded in the Bible, times of faithfulness and times of rebellion by the nation of Israel. But we see that when the people obeyed God's terms - God always kept His promise! And ultimately God honored them by bringing Jesus, The Messiah, through the nation of Israel! The very first people to carry the title of Christian were Jewish. The very first Church was comprised of Jewish believers. It's through that covenant promise that God made to Israel that we come to…
III. The New covenant
I’ve given you a lot of background just to bring us to this point. Hopefully I haven’t lost you. But I want us to look now at Hebrews 1:1-2 (NIV)...
In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, (2) but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.
When God fulfilled His promise to bless the nation of Israel and Jesus came to earth as God in the flesh – that changed everything! (Hence the New Testament…) Previously, covenants that God had made were between Himself and another specific party – after Jesus’ death and resurrection, this New covenant was opened to everyone!
Most of us are familiar with this next part but may need a reminder of the scope of this New Covenant, starting with the promises. Noah was saved, Abraham - blessed with land and descendants, Israel - blessed when they obeyed – but this New Covenant outdid everything before it! Let’s look at the words of Jesus from Matthew 26:28 (NIV)...
This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Jesus spelled out His promise - what He would give as part of this covenant; His very life! But the promises continue - if we look through the entire New Testament – we’ll find a multitude of promises that God made to those who choose to enter into this covenant relationship with Him. Let me summarize the list of what we're promised in the Bible -
Complete forgiveness for our sins, the gift of God’s Holy Spirit living in us, the fruit of that Spirit growing in our lives, life to the full, a place and a ministry in His Church, His promise to be with us to the end, to work in everything in our lives to help us become more like Jesus, the power to live as a Christian, wisdom and truth, the promise to meet all of our true needs, a reward for faithfulness, renewal and refreshment and eternal life! That's quite a list of promises!
We are promised to be saved from our deserved place of separation from God for eternity and instead given a place at His table in Heaven! These promises are for this life and the next! That is what God promises to those who accept His offer in this covenant and submit to Him in baptism!
Oh… I forgot to mention one more promise. It’s not really like the other things on the list at all – it's persecution. Jesus promised that if you choose to follow Him, you will be persecuted. If you follow Jesus and live the way He calls you to – you will come into conflict with those around you. If, as a Christian, you never run into trouble because of living out your beliefs, you’re either way too isolated or you’re not doing it right.
So those are the promises that God gives us of what He’ll do for us, and what we can expect in this life and the next. That brings us to the terms. What's expected of us? When this offer was first given after Jesus’ resurrection, the people then asked, “What shall we do?” The first answer the Apostle Peter gave was, “Repent and be baptized.”
What are the terms of this offer? It starts with belief; a belief that God can save us and can do what He says He will do – a belief that Jesus is God’s One and only Son and The One way to Heaven, The Savior of the world! It continues in giving our life to Him and submitting ourselves to being baptized into Jesus. Then, in short, what is expected is that we then work to become more and more like Jesus.
Romans 8:28-29 (NIV)
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (29) For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
‘Conformed to the likeness of his Son'. Wow – that’s not an overwhelming task at all, is it..? But that’s exactly what God desires for us when we become His children, when we enter into this new covenant relationship with Him. And it would be an impossible task were it not for the fact that God has promised all of those other things – His Spirit in us, His power to live! Don’t forget that it is God who is working with each of us to help fulfill our part of this relationship. God does His part and then even helps us with ours!
To summarize what the first part of the terms is, what's expected of us... We are to accept Jesus and become like Jesus. And the second part is 2 Corinthians 5:17-20 (NIV)...
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (18) All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: (19) that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
(20) We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.
We are to accept Jesus, to become like Jesus and we are to be ambassadors, to bring others to Jesus!
So What?
God has kept and will keep His promises! The question is - am I trying to fulfill my terms of the covenant? What am I doing for God’s interests? What are you doing? If you're not sure how to go about becoming more like Jesus, it’s not a secret formula – read the Bible, spend time in prayer and show up here and be the Church! That’s where it starts!
There are many hundreds of people who have spent thousands of dollars and committing years of their lives just to risk it all and climb seven mountains! God isn't asking you to risk your life - He wants to save it!
I’m always amazed that some call themselves Christians - followers of Jesus - but maybe only show up for services with His Church maybe once or twice a month..? Maybe..? What does that say about our commitment? Don’t misunderstand, I know there are occasional work commitments and illnesses and attendance doesn’t get us to Heaven – but what does our lack of regular attendance communicate to God?
I don’t think we really stop to understand – Jesus is the answer to everything in our lives! Without Jesus - nothing in this life lasts! - Not our jobs, not our dreams and hard work or achievements, not even our families - none of it will last into eternity without Jesus!
I will continue to encourage you to read God’s Word on a regular basis, to spend time with Him in prayer and I am calling on the spiritual head of each household to make it a priority to make sure you and your family are here every Sunday possible!
It's only after we have those priorities in place that we can really begin to meet our end of the bargain in the New covenant with God. It's only after we have those priorities in place that we learn how to become more like Jesus and become able to bring others to Him. And folks, that's just the very beginning of the amazing things that God has planned for your life!