Blessings and Cursings

Well, thank you, Megan and Mackenzie, for the beautiful special music. I certainly appreciate the words to that. It's just so incredible when you look at all the potential that young people have, the opportunity, and just all the amazing things that they have set before them in their life. It's truly beautiful. Well, brethren, in the book of Genesis, we have recorded for us the story of Abraham. We're all familiar with the story. We're familiar with how God spoke to Abraham, how he led him out of his country, led him out of a land of pagan gods to a promised land where he would follow the one true God, where he would have an opportunity to learn of him, to follow him, and to understand what was expected of him in his life. He was led from a land of pagan gods to a land where he would be blessed exceedingly for his faith in the one true God. These promises that we see recorded in Scripture commonly are referred to as the Abrahamic covenant.

This covenant is recorded for us in Genesis 12. Let's go ahead and turn over there.

Genesis 12, and we'll pick it up in verse 1 of Genesis 12. What's interesting about the Abrahamic covenant is while it's largely outlined in that particular passage, it's elaborated on in chunks throughout the next several chapters. So, for example, God starts by saying, you know, go out to this land that I will show you, and later he defines where that land is, where its boundaries are. So the chunk later on defines the original kind of 30,000-foot overview explanation of what that covenant entailed. So as we go through Genesis 12, as we start there, we're not going to go through and read all of the chunks later that kind of explain things. You can do that on your own. But it's interesting, as God continues to work with Abraham, as God continues to provide him with an understanding of the blessings that came from this covenant. So, starting in Genesis 12 and verse 1—I'm in Exodus, that's not what I'm looking for, my apologies—Genesis 12 and verse 1, we'll start today by examining the blessings that were provided to him as we've framed the direction that we're going to go in the sermon today. Genesis 12 and verse 1, and we'll go ahead and read through verse 3. So Genesis 12 and verse 1, kind of, again, 30,000-foot overview here of what God planned to do with Abraham. Now the Lord said to Abram—okay, at this time again, his name was Abram—he had not yet become that multitude, father of a multitude of nations. But now the Lord had said to Abram, get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. God said, look, walk away from everything that you are comfortable with, everything that you have ever known. Trust me. Have faith in me and leave and go to the place where I will show you. He goes on in verse 2, I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and I will make your name great and you shall be a blessing. He would bless others as the result of the blessings that God had provided to Abraham. And we know that that's not just physical, that's spiritual as well, as we will see a little bit further down here in verse 3. But I will make you a blessing, bottom of verse 2, I will bless those who bless you, I will curse him who curses you. And then the final statement in verse 3 is where the spiritual component of this kicks in really hard. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So in this very short passage in Genesis 12, we can see the covenant, essentially, that God made with Abraham. God provided him with some very specific blessings, both physical and spiritual.

And most often it's recognized that there are kind of seven specific provisions found inside of that covenant. The first of those provisions is that he would give Abraham and his descendants the promised land, which at that time, by the way, was occupied by a bunch of people that ended in night. And so God said, all these people, they will be displaced. You will take possession of this land. He would make Abraham a great nation. Make of him a great nation. Actually, ultimately, a multitude of nations we know. He would make his name great. You realize we're still talking about him how many thousands of years later would you say his name was great? Yes, I would say it was.

We're still discussing what God did with Abraham. He's an example of faith all throughout. God said he would be a blessing to others through the blessings that God provided to him. He would be a blessing to others. That God would bless those who blessed him. He would curse those who cursed him. And then again, final ones, through Abraham, all the families of the earth would ultimately be blessed. You know, all these blessings, the majority of them were related to Abraham directly, but inherently in that too is Abraham's seed. Because as time goes on, those blessings from Abraham were transferable. It's not like a non-transferable ticket where you're the only person that gets to have them, and then when you're dead, well, sorry everybody, that's rough. These were transferable blessings. These were handed down from generation to generation to generation. They were given to Abraham's descendants. Those descendants would ultimately inherit the land that God promised Abraham. This descendants would become great nations. They would be a blessing to others, again, as a result of their greatness that God provided them. You know, why is America great? Because it's blessed by God. It's not of our own doing. It's blessed by God. They would be a blessing to others. They would have the opportunity to support and to help financially or geopolitically, whatever it might be. You know, the final promise that we see in this, though, goes beyond Abraham's familial boundaries. It goes beyond the overall Abraham and his direct descendants because it says all of the families of the earth would be blessed through Abraham. You know, we recognize that there are physical ramifications of that, but also prophetically we recognize that Christ would descend from the line of Abraham, and that through Jesus Christ the world would be blessed. Genesis 12 to 17, we mentioned earlier, kind of those chunks, in various places throughout, God elaborates on the covenant with Abraham. You know, he says in Genesis 12, 1, 12, 2, he says, well, I will make you a great nation. Well, then he gets a little more specific later on. He says, no, not only that, come outside and look at the stars. Can you count them? Because your descendants will be greater than that. They'll be greater than the dust of the ground. They'll be greater than the sand on the seashore. They'll be innumerable. They'll be absolutely innumerable.

So he gets a little more specific as he works with Abraham throughout this process. And as the Genesis account continues, God begins to become more detailed with the promises that he promised this to Abraham. Let's go over to Genesis 15. Genesis 15. And while you're turning there, you know, we see covenants in Scripture are a binding agreement made between two parties.

They are a binding agreement made between two parties. They are typically long-term and they contain a set of conditions. Now, the covenant itself can be conditional in nature, meaning that both parties have certain things that are required of them, that there are conditions placed upon both. And if those conditions are not met, then one of them has broken that covenant. They can be conditional in nature. Or there are times that they can be unconditional in nature, where one party is extending to the other the promise without condition. Now, we know covenants that we see in Scripture. They are ratified through symbolic ritual. They are sealed with blood. So that's how we see a covenant operate within the Old Testament particularly. But symbolically, we see this in a lot of other things, too, the way that covenants operate. Baptism, marriage, new covenant, etc. Okay? So, Genesis 15. Let's pick up Genesis 15. Again, as we build our backdrop here for where we're going today, as we're here on the day of the blessing of little children. Genesis 15. And what we see in verse 1, and I'm going to read this entirety of Genesis 15. Genesis 15 says, After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not be afraid, Abram. I'm your shield, your exceedingly great reward. But Abram said, Lord God, what will you give me? Seeing I go childless. And the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. Abraham essentially tells God, look, that's all well and good. I appreciate the promise, but you might have noticed I don't have any kids. And not only that, you might have noticed that my wife is no spring chicken. And he might have said, you know, myself either. And so, when we take a look at this situation, when we look at this situation, Abraham's going, look, God, I need some assurance here. Because otherwise, the promises that you're giving me right now are going to be fulfilled through my servant, Eliezer. And not through me, not through my descendants, not through who would ultimately come out of this. So, Abram said, sorry, then Abram...wait a minute, I lost my place, I'm sorry, there we go. Then Abram said, look, you've given me no offspring. Indeed, one born in my house is my heir. But in verse 4, the word of the Lord came to him saying, this one, Eliezer, shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir. Again, Abraham has that moment of, say what? You sure? Hmm. He brought him outside, it was night, and looked towards the heavens and count the stars if you're able to number them. And he said to him, so shall your descendants be. And so from this one child, Isaac, then came many, many, many, many, many more.

Right? So, he believed in the Lord, verse 6, and he, capitalized here, talking of God, accounted it to him for righteousness. So Abraham believed God, and God accounted it to him for righteousness. Verse 7, then he said to him, I am the Lord who brought you out of the Ur of the Calvians to give you this land to inherit it. So he says, look, not only that, I brought you out of this land, and I told you that I would provide you with this land. I brought you here to inherit this land. And Abraham says, Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it? And so God says, bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon. Obviously Abraham knew what was going on here, but one of us might go, I'm sorry, what? We're going to do what? Then he brought all these to him, and he cut them in two, down the middle, and he placed each piece opposite the other, but he did not cut the birds in two. And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, so Abraham waited for a little bit there, he drove them away. So they came down to try to kind of pick the carcasses clean. He drove them off, said, nope, we got plans for these, back off, get out of here. But essentially what he did was he took the animal like this, he split it in half, and he laid them parallel to each other with a space down the middle. That's what it says. He laid them down opposite the other.

So what are we doing here? What's going on? So now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abraham, and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. Then he said to Abraham, no, certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them for a hundred years. Also the nation whom they serve I will judge, and afterward they shall come out with great possession. So we know God declares the end from the beginning. God here says, look, this is what's going to happen to your people down the road. We know that was fulfilled in the time of Moses during that time frame when Israel was in Egypt as slaves. Now, as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace. You shall be buried at a good old age. So Abraham had an assurance that he was going to live a while, a good old age. And that might be different depending on who you are, but in the fourth generation they shall return here for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. And verse 17, it came to pass when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between the pieces that were on the ground. So the pieces have been cut in half, they've been set down, there's a space between a burning oven and a smoking smoking oven, sorry, and a burning torch passed between these things. On the same day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, to your descendants I've given this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, and then the Kenites and all the otherites. I'm not going to read them all, but you can read them there if you'd like. All the people who would ultimately be displaced because God had given that land to Abraham. That was Abraham's inheritance, his physical inheritance was that land.

In the ancient Near East world, blood covenants were made in the manner that we read about above.

The animal involved in this particular agreement was killed, it was cut into two halves, and it was laid out parallel to one another, opposite the space. And then the two people who ratified the covenant, who agreed to the terms of the condition, would then walk and pass between the pieces. And that symbolically showed that if they broke the covenant, that they would suffer essentially the same fate as the animals that were there. In fact, we see this in Scripture. We see the unprofitable servant would be cut into two and cast into outer darkness. And we see this kind of thing in Scripture. In fact, let's go to Jeremiah 34. We'll see an example of it. We'll see a reference to it, I should say. Jeremiah 34.

And we'll pick it up in verse 18.

Pardon me.

Looking at and considering those that did not keep the covenant, and ultimately the fate that would befall them, Jeremiah 34, verse 18, says, And I will give the men who have transgressed my covenant, who have broken the covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant, which they made before me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between the parts of it.

They accepted the conditions by walking between the halves of this. That was the acceptance of that blood covenant. Verse 19, the princes of Judah, the princes of Jerusalem, referencing those who broke it here, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf. I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life. Their dead bodies shall be for meat for the birds of the heaven and the beasts of the earth. God's serious about these things. You know, it's a grisly scene to our modern sensibilities.

Imagine for a moment you bought a house, and, you know, as part of the process of buying the house, the broker says, okay, go and select a ram, please bisect it in half, lay it on the ground, and to symbolize, instead of signing on the dotted line, we'll just pass through the parts. I mean, we would balk at that today. But essentially, this is the Near Eastern equivalent of signing on the dotted line, agreeing to things. Those that pass through those animals agreed to the conditions in the agreement, blood sealed the covenant, and the sign would be whatever was defined. But what makes the covenant in Genesis 15 so unique? We don't have a scriptural record of Abraham passing through the parts. It's not recorded. We don't see it. In fact, we see in the passage that Abram drove the vultures from the carcass until sundown, when a deep sleep fell on him, and then God, in the form of the smoking oven and a burning torch, passed between the pieces, signifying his acceptance of the covenantal stipulations, which, ironically, there are no conditions placed upon Abraham in this particular covenant. But we see no record of Abraham having passed between them.

This, and God's own words in Genesis 22 verse 16, indicate this covenant was unconditional.

This was an unconditional covenant that was given to Abraham. God agreed to the promises he provided. He swore by himself to fulfill them and required no conditions of Abraham in return aside from the sign of the covenant that is formalized in outline in Genesis 17. That was the sign that was given.

Now, the sign wasn't a condition of the covenant, it was a sign of the covenant.

But the blessings that God promised to Abraham were unconditional. They weren't predicated on obedience. They weren't predicated on Abraham or his descendants following through on anything.

It was a blessing that was provided to Abraham by God as a royal grant. It's a royal grant. It is, I am a loving master and you are my loyal servant. I give you this.

This gift of God came with incredible physical and spiritual blessings on down through history, many of which are still being enjoyed today. And there have been aspects of this covenant that have been fulfilled, other aspects that are partially fulfilled, other aspects that are still yet to come.

But the promises of this covenant were handed down to Isaac. They were handed down from Isaac to Jacob. They were handed down from Jacob to his descendants, and on and on it goes.

You fast forward to today and the United States and the other, we might say, Israelite-ish nations, however we want to term that, are still enjoying these unconditional blessings that were provided to Abraham. Despite having rejected God, despite having turned away from him during the time of the divided kingdom and even today, despite having gone into captivity, God continued to be with Israel.

He continued to bless them, even though, even as, he chastened them.

The promises given to Abraham and to his descendants were upheld by God. God did not forsake his covenant.

Now, for those who have traveled to places in the world that we might term as Gentile countries, places in the world that we might term as Gentile countries, or non-Israelite-ish countries, the differences between Israelite-ish countries and Gentile countries are stark.

They're stark. And I think sometimes we tend to consider the blessings of Abraham to be largely based on natural resources. We tend to think, oh yeah, we have immense forests, we have great, you know, mineral reserves, we have all these things, we have just an incredible amount of GDP and factories, and that's God's blessing. It's that physical blessing. But there's aspects of Abraham's blessing that I think we don't always consider. I don't think we always consider it.

You know, we hear about houses when you want to buy a house or homes, and you buy them based on location, location, location, right? It's all location, location, location. When it comes to where God has placed the Israelite-ish nations around the world, where God has put those Israelite-ish nations, they are in places where geopolitically they have influence, and they can influence their neighboring countries around them. It's purposeful. They have an effect on their neighbors. They have the ability to bless their neighbors through the blessings that they too have received. As part of a location—I don't know if you've thought of this or not—part of the location of where we are located, as the United States, as the end-time kind of distance of Manasseh, allows for us to have four seasons. Why are four seasons important? Because winter kills bugs. Nigeria, Ghana, they don't have winter. Their mosquito populations and therefore the subtropical diseases that occur in Nigeria and Ghana are unreal. Sub-Saharan Africa is a very difficult location from a disease standpoint. There's nothing to kill the mosquitoes off. When I lived in Spokane, the mosquitoes died during the winter, by and large. The wasps, the yellow jackets, died. They don't do that down here. Not as much, at least. But in places where there are four very distinct seasons, you have protection from those kinds of things, from the kinds of diseases that come from that. You know, it's interesting. When you go to some place like Nigeria and Ghana, getting malaria is the least of your worries. There's dengue fever, there's loss of fever, there's all kinds of other stuff that are not preventable by vaccines. There's stuff out there that'll get you. And it's not just malaria, not just other stuff that's passed by mosquitoes. One of the other things, though, that's interesting is, Israelite-ish countries have a degree of rule of law that other countries simply don't have. There is a rule of law. The Israelite-ish countries operate under Judeo-Christian ethics. They operate under Judeo-Christian ethics. They're clearly defined laws. Clearly defined laws. And those laws are upheld most of the time.

There's a presumption of innocence until proven otherwise, again, most of the time. You don't see as much bribery, as much corruption. It's reduced as a result of the laws of the land.

And so as a result of that, you have governmental stability. You have governments that have the ability to stay operational. You don't have, you know, a periodic, every-so-many-years swing of a coup d'etat where now suddenly the figurehead's dead and you've installed a military coup, and now suddenly there's a different, only to be installed later on, three years later, or four years later, when the military decides to overthrow whoever's in charge in that situation.

You don't have that same sort of situation in the Israelite-ish countries most of the time. Now, occasionally things happen. Another thing that you may not think of is predictability.

Predictability. Because of the rule of law, because of the systems that are in place from this, Israelite-ish nations have a degree of predictability that is not found in other countries that are not Israelite countries. And what I mean by that, just so that I'm clear, when we touch down in Amsterdam, coming back from Ghana, or we touch down in JFK, or we touch down in Atlanta, wherever it is we're returning from, I breathe a sigh of relief. And it's not that I don't enjoy going. It's not that I don't have, just I love the brethren, I love to visit. I'm looking forward to the next opportunity, because I will definitely go again. I'm looking forward to the next opportunity.

But there is a degree of stress that comes from being in these locales that's hard to describe unless you've been there. You just don't know what's going to happen next. When you land in Amsterdam, there's rules. There are things that you know it's going to operate in this way. It just is what it is. You know, I know that when I come back to Amsterdam, or I touch down in the United States, that there's not going to be attempted bribery. I'm not going to have to bribe my way through a government official to get out. I know that's not going to happen.

I know that I'm not going to be held at the airport tarmac at gunpoint, which happened at my first trip to Nigeria, as they rifled through my bags looking for coconuts, it turns out, which I did not have. I tried to explain to her that I had no coconuts, but it was hard to explain to her with the AK-47s that were pointed in my general direction.

My chances of being detained for no legitimate reason goes way down in Israelite-ish countries. So, countries that are of United States, Britain, descendants of Abraham, have benefited immensely from the promises of God that were given to Abraham. However, let's turn over to Deuteronomy 28. Deuteronomy 28. Because during the time of Moses, God entered into another covenant with his people.

He entered into another covenant with his people, with Abraham's descendants. And while the Abrahamic covenant was still in force, it was still in force, this new covenant at that time called the Sinaitic covenant, or what we generally refer to as the Old Covenant, came into existence. Sinaitic covenant was a national covenant that was made with the people of Israel that established the nation of Israel. Sinaitic covenant established a theocratic state, a true people under God, a nation under God, with very specific laws that were ordained by God himself.

And the resulting promises from that were physical in nature. They were abundant crops, rain and dew season. But while there were similarities between the blessings found in the Abrahamic covenant and the Sinaitic covenant, there are stark differences. The Sinaitic covenant was a temporary covenant. It was intended to be replaced by the new covenant. It was also a conditional covenant. Israel's actions could nullify aspects of that covenant. At the end of the day, if Israel did not follow through on their end of the deal, they would not receive the blessings that were promised.

Deuteronomy 28, we'll pick it up in verse 1. We're going to go through the first part of this. We're not going to go all the way through past 15. It says, Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully, Deuteronomy 28.1, all his commandments, which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. In other words, if you do these things, if you obey, if you are obedient, and if you are diligent, God will set you above all other nations.

You will be a model nation. You will be a nation that the rest of the world looks at and goes, Wow! Why does it work so well? And the response is, because God is in it, is why it works so well. These blessings shall come upon you and overtake you because you obey the voice of the Lord your God.

Blessed shall you be in the city and blessed in the country. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground, and the increase of your herds, increase of your cattle, and the offspring of your flocks. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. They'll be prosperous. Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go out. The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face. They shall come out against you one way and shall flee before you seven ways.

He will scatter your enemies to the winds. The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and to all which you set your hand. He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He is sworn to you if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. Then all the people of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord and they shall be afraid of you.

And the Lord will grant you plenty of goods in the fruit of your body, the increase of your livestock, and the produce of your ground in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain in your land in its season, to bless all the works of your hand. You shall lend to many nations which you shall not borrow, and the Lord will make you the head and not the tail. You shall be above only and not beneath.

If you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them. Verse 14, so you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day to the right or to the left to go after other gods to serve them. These were the blessings that were given to Israel. These were the things that God said, if you do it my way, I will bless you in these ways. You do your part, I do my part.

But then, verse 15, and we're not going to read all this because as you turn the page, God spent significantly more time outlining what would happen when they didn't do what God desired of them. In fact, there's 15, 14 passages of the other and just shy of 60... that's not the right math... a lot. We'll leave it at a lot.

That's the extent of my mental math today. But God goes through and He makes a list of these things. He says, here are all the things that are going to happen if you don't obey Me. You would be cursed. You would experience debilitating losses of cattle and crops. You'd be struck with disease. You'd be cursed with a loss of rain, with ground that was like iron, that you just couldn't work.

They'd be defeated by their enemies. Their families would suffer. They'd suffer loss of property. They'd suffer children would become slaves in foreign lands. They would experience war. They would experience a lack of prosperity. And the list just goes on. Here are all the things that will happen if and when you don't obey Me. God declares the end from the beginning. If you read, I would suggest you do, Deuteronomy 28, 15 through 68. This is exactly what happened when Israel stopped obeying God. Like, to a tee, from a standpoint of what happened when Assyria took the northern kingdom and Babylon took the south. You can just see it!

God outlined to them exactly what would happen if they turned away from Him as a part of this covenant. He outlined for them the physical blessings He would provide. He outlined the curses that would come if they didn't. And then what God said two chapters later in Deuteronomy 30 verse 19, He said, choose. What's it going to be? You can have these, all these wonderful blessings, or you can have these, all these cursings. But when it comes down to it, you've got to choose. Is it going to be blessings, or is it going to be cursings? What's it going to be? You know, interestingly, as you look at the promises made in the synatic covenant, there's one very important thing missing. Eternal life. Eternal life. Salvation was not made possible by the synatic covenant. A new and a better covenant was ordained by Almighty God from the foundation of the world with Christ as its mediator. As the scope of His plan moved outward from just Israel to all of mankind, a new and a better covenant was provided. During the time of this synatic covenant, there were some that were granted God's Spirit. We see God's Spirit involved with people throughout the Old Testament. In fact, 1 Peter 1. Let's turn over there real quick.

Kind of a little bit of an aside, but just to show that there were people, sometimes discussed, that people say, oh, no, they didn't have. Yeah, they did. Yeah, they definitely did.

1 Peter 1. 10 and 11. 1 Peter 1. 10 and 11. 1 Peter 1 verse 10 said, or we'll read, all right, 8, 9, and 10. Whom having not seen you loved, though now you do not see him, yet believing you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls, of this salvation the prophets have inquired. And they searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. There were individuals in the Old Testament under the Sinaitic Covenant who were under the New Covenant.

There were, and they had salvation offered to them. They had an opportunity at that time, that time of judgment was then for them. They will be in the first resurrection, and some probably will not. Their time, overall, now as a whole, Israel and Judah didn't have that opportunity. They did not have the Holy Spirit poured out en masse like we see today. They didn't have that opportunity, or as we will see in the future, I should say. But their time is coming.

Israel and Judah as a whole, their time is coming. When Messiah returns, when Israel and Judah are restored, as it outlines in Jeremiah 30 and 31, they'll have their chance. There will be a New Covenant that is established with Israel and with Judah, a fulfillment of this New Covenant that is started in a very small way on the day of Pentecost in 31 A.D. So what about us? What about us? What about our children? What about our grandchildren? What about our great-grandchildren? Are our grandchildren or our great-grandchildren or our children? Are they born under the Sinaitic covenant?

No, they're not. They are not. They're not Israelites.

Now, they might be. It's a possibility. This is a melting pot of a land that we happen to live in the Israelites nation.

Are we born under the Sinaitic covenant? No. We are born under the New Covenant. We've been given an incredible opportunity to come directly to Jesus Christ, an opportunity that many in history did not have. We do not first have to become Israelites or have to become Jews to become Christians. We don't. We've been given an opportunity to come directly to Christ, to understand the expectations and understand the desires of God Almighty as a result of His covenant. We've been given God's Holy Spirit to remember all things. God is working to write His laws in our hearts and on our minds, not in a box on our forehead, in our hearts and on our minds, literally in our minds as the Holy Spirit dwells within us. The Old Covenant and the New Covenant are not the same.

They're not. The New Covenant is not Old Covenant 2.0. They are different covenants made with different people, with different conditions, with different symbols and different signs. Vastly different promises. Where one was physical promises to a physical nation, the other is spiritual promises of everlasting life. It is described in Hebrews 9 as a better covenant, a covenant that's built on better promises when it is contrasted with the Old Covenant. They're related. There are some aspects that were a part of the Old Covenant that are also a part of the New Covenant because God is God! There are aspects that are there because God is God. He's had expectations of His people from the very beginning. Before the Sinaitic Covenant, we saw tithing in place. We saw clean and unclean meats in place. We saw the Ten Commandments in place. We saw the Holy Days in place. That was well before the Old Covenant was ever put into place. They were there. They were present because God is God, and He has a degree of eternal expectations for mankind. The New Covenant started with a select few during the time of ancient Israel. It began with a much larger group of individuals during the day of Pentecost in 31 A.D., and there will come a time in the future when God's Spirit will be poured out on all of mankind, when that is finally fulfilled in its entirety. Let's go to Jeremiah 31. Just a few pages over from where we are currently. Where we were, Jeremiah 31.

Jeremiah 31. We'll pick it up in verse 31.

Jeremiah 31, 31, says, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. As a whole, the house of Israel, the house of Judah, as a whole, an opportunity as a whole for them. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, and the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant, which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, says the Lord, I will put my law in their minds and write it in their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No more will every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember. No more. There is a time coming when Israel and Judah as a whole have this opportunity, because they did not have it before under the other covenant. The process has already begun, and brethren were a part of it. We're a part of it. What is outlined in those passages of Jeremiah 31 is the ultimate fulfillment of what was begun back on the day of Pentecost in 31 A.D. Those men gathered on that day were the first in a long line of individuals who were given an opportunity to become a part of the family of God, to become his very children with a down payment of the Holy Spirit that they'd been given. Very small, very humble beginnings, but like a piece 11, it grows, and it grows, and it grows, and it grows, and it grows, and it grows, and it grows.

Will grow and grow to the point of an eternal kingdom with no end. So was that promise only did those gathered on that day of Pentecost? No, of course not. Acts 2, verse 39. Acts 2 and verse 39.

Acts 2 and verse 39, kind of the second half of what we often commonly quote, Peter's response to the men after they'd been cut to the quick, so to speak, and after they'd been, you know, cut to the heart, and they're concerned now, well, men and brethren, what shall we do? Peter says in verse 38, repent, let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So he outlines it. He says, here's what you do.

Here's what you do. But then, verse 39, this is what we want to focus on, for the promise is to you and notice, to your children and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord your God will call.

Your children have been called. Your children have been given an opportunity to be a part of this because the promise of eternal life was offered to you, and you accepted it. Because you took it, and your belief was present. Your children have an opportunity. In fact, in second or in first Corinthians, sorry, seven, it mentions this. Let's flip over there real quick. First Corinthians, seven. First Corinthians, seven. And we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 14. Your children are sanctified because of your belief. Because you have a relationship with God. Your children have an opportunity to have a relationship with God. That's important. That's essential. God works through families through generations. That's what He does. First Corinthians, seven, verse 14. We'll pick it up actually just a smidge higher. Verse 13. Yep. And a woman who has a husband who does not believe if he's willing to live with her, let her not divorce him. You think, well, why do we start there? Because, verse 14, for the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife. Her belief sanctifies him. And why? Well, it goes on. The unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband, and the reason for that is because otherwise your offspring, your children, would be unclean.

But now they are holy. You know what floors me about that is all it takes is one believing parent, and that child has the opportunity. God will offer that opportunity to that precious little child simply because of the belief of one of their parents. Two is better, obviously, but one will do it. One will do it. As a result of believing parents, the children in our midst are set apart in God's eyes. They are holy. God sees them. They are sanctified in his eyes.

Children are then given an opportunity to learn, given an opportunity to have that relationship, to be a part of his family, to become his children. So you might say, just like Abraham, your descendants are blessed by your belief. It follows based on your faith, based on your belief, and that can be handed not just, by the way, to your kids, but to their kids, and to their kids, and to their kids, and on and on and on it goes. Because of the relationship that you have established with God, your children will have the same opportunity that you've been given.

But you know, despite those blessings, despite that opportunity, ancient Israel, as descendants of Abraham, they still had to make their choice.

They still had to decide, would they obey God or not? Would they follow God or not?

You know, the blessing that we went through today, the blessing that we went through that God provided through a simple prayer to God, to the children that we had today, that blessing is extremely important. I do not want to diminish it in any way, shape, or form.

Absolutely 100% crucial and essential. But it is not the end-all, be-all. It is the beginning of a process. It's the beginning of a process. The blessing that was provided to our young people today is important, but it has to be followed by a lifetime of training and teaching that precious child the way of God. It has to be. Helping them understand how to navigate this world and its pitfalls and understand what morality and justice and God's plan for mankind looks like.

Many of you are probably familiar with the Barna group. Some of you may not be. George Barna is founder of a market research group that basically their interest is where faith and culture collide, and they do a lot of research around where those two things hit each other and how culture impacts faith and how faith impacts culture. And the Barna group has been sounding the alarm on Generation Z for a lot of years because they are seeing very troubling trends in Generation Z. For those not aware, Generation Z is kids born between 1999 and 2015. Anybody kind of under the age of 20, essentially, or 19, I guess, kind of right in there. Now, like any generation, they're defined by the cultural, societal, and political climates of what they're surrounded by. So while there's a number of people in that generation that don't operate like the rest of Gen Z, overall, the characteristics and trends of that generation will shape generations in the church and out of the church. You cannot stew in a culture for 15 years and not be affected by it. You simply can't. You will have small effects. Now, major effects, maybe not. But there will be small effects. According to the 2018 Barna research on what Gen Z believes regarding morality, 24... Now, what Barna does, just FYI, because these numbers are going to come in a certain way, Barna measures strongly agrees. They don't worry about the rest, and what they do is compare the number of strongly agrees every year to establish a trend. Those are the ones that are like, absolutely, I believe this, period. No question. So, 2018 Barna says, 24% of Gen Z polled strongly agree, a full quarter, strongly agree that morality changes with the winds of society. The society dictates what's moral and what's not. A full quarter of kids age, whatever to whatever, 99 to 2015. Come on, math people, help me. I'm looking at you, Riddle.

She's a math teacher. 21% of those polled strongly agree morality is shaped on beliefs. So, you've got a full quarter on one side saying, nope, society dictates it. You've got roughly a fifth on the other side saying, no, it's based on belief. And then you've got 55% of people in between going, I kind of lean this way, I kind of lean this way, or maybe I'm undecided, I'm not sure.

Barna goes on to describe specifics. This is what's scary.

Only 34% of those polled strongly agreed that lying is morally wrong. Nothing wrong with it. Certain situations is relative. I can lie when I want to lie, you know, get myself out of this situation. It's okay, because this is the situation.

30% strongly agreed abortion was morally wrong. 30%. That's it. A slightly higher amount, honestly, I was surprised at this. 38% believed that strongly that marriage is a lifelong commitment between a man and a woman. Not a man and a man or a woman and a woman or a partial commitment, not a lifetime commitment. Only 21%, roughly a fifth, strongly agreed that sex before marriage was morally wrong. A fifth. 20% strongly agreed that homosexuality is morally wrong. This is the culture in the world around us in 2018. This is the culture that our children, regardless of whether they are homeschooled or public schooled. Now, granted, you might get some of it with the homeschool, but if they are accessing the internet, they are exposed to this culture.

This is the society in which our children are living. These are the waves of culture that are crashing at the rock and foundation of our children and chipping at it and wearing at it and shaping the next generation of Christians. Let's go over to Deuteronomy 6. Deuteronomy 6, we see a solution here, or at least a stopgap. You know, we know, we've seen how this is going to be. We know what the culture of the end times looks like. Brethren, we're in it.

We are in it. This is the culture of the end times. Deuteronomy 6, verse 1, gives us the solution.

It says, Now this is the commandment and the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you. You may observe them in the land which you're crossing to possess, that you may fear the Lord your God, keep his statutes, his commandments, which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life that your days may be prolonged. Therefore, hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you, a land flowing with milk and with honey. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. Verse 7, Deuteronomy 6, you shall teach them diligently to your children. Talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and of your gates.

Brethren, there are two huge principles in this particular passage. The first of these is, we first must have these things in our hearts. This way of life, these things must first be in our heart before we can plan to pass them to our children. Which means we have to be doing our part. We have to be maintaining our relationship with God, living this way of life. Because again, one of the primary methods, Mr. Buchanan mentioned it in the sermonette, one of the primary methods that we teach our children by is through our example. If we are not living with integrity, if our yes is not yes and our no is not no, if we are not taking care of our obligations, if we are not living the way that God would intend us to live, our kids see it.

They see everything. They hear everything.

If we're not treating people with love, if we're not keeping the Sabbath appropriate, if we're not following God, they see it.

If we're not living it, what message are we sending to our kids?

Secondly, the other big principle in this particular passage is that we have to pass on this knowledge to the next generation to help combat the sway of this world and its culture, to help our youth understand what is true, how that truth is defined, that truth isn't relative.

It is absolutely defined by God. And this is intended for us to be done diligently as we live our lives. It's intended as teachable moments come up. You know, as you have your young person ask you a question and go, oh, thank you, God, for giving me this opportunity to teach this moment, to have this opportunity to explain what it is that you would desire.

22.6, Proverbs 22.6 says, train up a child in the way that he should go, and when he's old, he will not depart from it. You know, interestingly, it doesn't say that he won't depart from it.

It says that when he's old, he won't depart from it. We have seen an interesting trend where there has been a movement away from the church at times in life, and a movement back as they've gotten older.

I wonder sometimes if that's what this is intending. Don't know. Speculation at best.

Brethren, if we don't take the time to train up our kids, society happily will. They happily will. As a congregation, you know, you might think, well, I'm off the hook. I ain't got any kids. I don't have to worry about it. I'm off the hook. No, you're not. Sorry. But you're not.

As a congregation, we have a very important role in this as well. Not in place of the parents, not in local parentus, as they say in the Latin, but in support of the parents. Recognizing that when we had our own children, having kids is tough. It's hard. And you wear yourself out, and it's so difficult, and you get so frustrated, and you come to church, and all you want to do is talk to somebody. You just want to get away from kids sometimes. We have to recognize this and help and support. You know, we've mentioned this before. I'll mention it again here before we finish, wrap things up today. Even though these young people are our physical children, even though, you know, I have three physical children, Aiden, Desmond, and Mallory, they are my physical children in this life. But when it comes to a spiritual opportunity, we're on a level playing field. We are on a level playing field. They are my children physically, but they are spiritually my brothers and my sisters.

Just like my kids are spiritually your brothers and sisters, potentially. And I want your help keeping them going. Please, I want your help keeping them going. You know, fellow children in God's family, at this time in this life, there's a definite physical hierarchy, but spiritually, we're all on the same playing field. We've been offered an opportunity for eternal life as part of the New Covenant, whether you're 65 years old or eight, whether you're 91 or one of these beautiful little babies that we blessed this afternoon. You have been given an opportunity to be a child of God. Parents, brethren, we cannot afford to fail. We cannot afford to fail.

God's blessing is crucial, but we as parents and brethren must pick up where that blessing leaves off and engage our youth. Fascinatingly in the Barna research, they have a little thing where you can look at engaged Christians versus non-engaged Christians. The bar graphs are night and day.

Those kids that are engaged in their faith, those kids who are involved, who are serving, who are up here singing, who are helping with chairs, who are helping with snacks, who are doing all these things. When they're engaged, it turns out they want to stick around. They want to learn more.

They want to believe. They're more secure in what they understand and what they know.

We have to work towards that. God's blessing is absolutely crucial, but we have a job to do. We have to train our children, teach them of God, make church a place where they want to be, where they can grow and they can develop into mature adults who can then turn around and pass that faith on to the next generation and the next and the next. Hope you have a wonderful Sabbath.