Covenant

All right. Thank you. You guys can never see. I'm pumped about this sermon series we're in.

I don't know about you. But we're in a sermon series on identity. And last week we actually got to talk about some of the basics of the gospel. Like, did you actually know that the blood of God is different than the blood of bulls and goats?

Last week we learned that Jesus' blood actually removed your sin literally as far as the east is from the west from you. And you stand before him pure, just as if you never sinned. I don't know if that's actually hitting home with you, but you're pure before the Father. You have boldness to enter into the throne of grace.

Do you get that? Because I grew up under religion and I didn't even know I could lock eyes with him. I didn't know that he had washed me totally clean. I thought that my right standing was based on my ability to do and not do and remember to confess in the whole list.

But my right standing is literally based off of Jesus' ability to do and not do. I'll take that do. Praise God. So, we're actually taking more ground and we're actually talking about something this week that I believe is the true foundation of Christianity, which is a very bold statement.

But if you were to ask the average Christian, let's say we pulled out a 5,000 American Christians where like, what is the foundation of your faith? What is like the essence or the core of your Christianity? You know, we hear responses like, well my theology and what I believe for sure. We hear responses like a moral code, you know, that do's and that don'ts like I know that I'm doing well when I'm not doing bad.

Or we would hear some responses like, you know, it's about the spiritual encounter and about the spiritual experience. You know, maybe for that person they would invest a lot of money in conferences and kind of chasing that experience and maybe they'd be discouraged if it went a long time without having it. Yeah, but I mean, and so there's all these variety of responses. But the problem is that, you know, over time theology changes.

Your moral code while solid might go in and out of actually perfecting that thing, right? Like your spiritual experiences may come and go and what if we were to actually just look at the scriptures and see that there's something totally other than something that never changes, something that's actually worth anchoring to. So I will just tell you, there's a little story here. Some of you that have been around every day long enough, you've heard this, but for me and my journey with understanding covenant, it actually went back like a little over 10 years ago.

Pastor Josh had kind of declared like, hey, let's meet weekly and go after things together. There's a group of us guys. And we would meet at Northwestern College at the time. And I was the old man in the group because I had graduated and everything.

We began meeting weekly to just pursue him. And there was one week where just three of us could make it. And we were kind of in this chapel like in the dorms, if you've been to Northwestern, dorms, there's a chapel in the upper level. And it was just one of those like really impacting nights.

So again, this was pre-kids. So I had all of the freedom in the world to stay out late. And we were multiple hours into this gathering meeting, even though it's just three of us. And you know, it felt like an upper room experience from the standpoint that like the gifts were flowing.

Like, I'm not a big feeler guy. I'm not a big spiritual experience guy, but like things were happening. And like if Scott Van Der Wert was having a spiritual experience, you know things are happening in the room. And so two to three hours into this thing, we stopped pacing.

We stopped praying in the spirit. And we looked at each other and we're like, what is that? Like again, it is difficult to find language to describe spiritual experiences, but like maybe the best way to describe it is it felt like a weight was all of a sudden like in the room. And it was affecting our bodies.

You get what I mean? It was like, whoa, I'm just so grateful that like one of the ministries of the Holy Spirit is that he searches the deep things of God and makes them reveal to us. Knowing that, what little we did know, we're like, we should probably ask him like, what's going on? So we asked Holy Spirit and one of the guys in the room's name is Mark.

And within moments, Mark's like, I'm getting that it has something to do with covenant. We're like, what's that? Like, started asking each other like, what do you know about covenant? And we're like, not much.

So I remember driving home from that night because it was one of those times where it's like you didn't actually get the answer in the meeting. But I remember feeling the sensation and feeling the weightiness of being marked in that time. And it like, it catalyzed fire for me to pursue covenant, you're tracking with that. And it was like weeks of pursuit.

I'm talking to everyone that I can. I'm reading every book I can find. I'm scouring the internet. I'm like, what is up with covenant because something is going on here?

And you know how the longer your income union or in relationship with God, you start to build like memories with him, right? And this is just like such a fond memory that I have with him because that catalyst experience is actually what spurred us on to getting the revelation on so much of what we teach it every day. Like, when we began learning that God's actually not angry, he's not stoic, he's not at a distance, he's not passive. We learn like actually who we are that we're not depraved sinners, worms in the dirt that aren't even worthy to enter his presence.

That he actually made us brand new. We learned that he's equipped us with his power, his authority to actually move mountains. He's dead people raised and sick people healed. Like all of this started from the catalyst of what is covenant.

And it's so meaningful to me. Like covenant, if you just want to remember the simplest of definitions of covenant, it's quite literally everything that's mine is now yours and everything that's yours is now mine. And I think there's permission to just sit under the gospel again, okay? Because I might be unique in this, but it's like I will never tire of the gospel.

I will never get comfortable and familiar with and use to it and board around it. It's like, no, hit me again because I want to know this. Hit me again because I want to believe. Hit me again because it's not enough to know and believe.

I want to manifest what's true. I want word becoming flesh in my life. So hit me with it again. Let me listen to it again.

What did he do? Who am I? Who is he and what is he like? Tell me again.

And there's a humility when we sit under the gospel. Because friend, we got some neural pathways in here that religion and culture has done a number on us and we need to start thinking different. Jesus has accomplished so much and unless our old wine skins become new wineskins, we're not going to be able to handle the new wine of the new gospel. We have to think different.

We have to see different. And if you're like me, your best shot is repetition. Hit me again. Tell me again.

Because when you repeat and repeat those neural pathways, go deeper friend and just keep going and keep going on the same news until you become it. I remember a few years ago, there was something that shifted in me where I was like, I'm just tired of talking all the time. I want to see manifestation. Yeah, let's preach some messages on healing, but let's actually see the sick healed.

I don't want to hear another message on freedom from sin unless people are getting freed from addiction and sin. You're tracking with me. It was like it's good to sit, but it's good to hunger for the manifestation. Word becoming flesh, just let that stick with you.

In your prayer language, get in your language. Holy Spirit, I want to see Word become flesh in my life. I want to manifest the message. So like covenant is so good, so good because it is literally the foundation on which we're even relating with God.

Like when you start to like tap into covenant, you get a peek into what he's like. What he wanted. What he desired. Because it stirs me every time when I'm like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

The God who needed nothing and had everything shows to create. Why? The answer is desire. He desired you.

He desired not to just be with you, but be one with you. This is powerful because I don't know why it is, but like a few thousand years later, in this country, in this time, we don't get covenant. We're not like a covenant people in terms of culture. Like for some reason, it's pivoted out of this love relationship into contract.

And you see the perversion because instead of love being the motivator and self-abandoned, everything that's mine is yours. We've pivoted like full to self-protection. And we have language like you got to read the fine print or that's how they get you. Because you're sure whoever wrote that thing wrote it to benefit themselves and to somehow take advantage of you.

That's why we're never signing up for the extended warranties because we're like, it's probably not going to be covered anyway. They're going to find a way to not honor the claim. But do you see that? There's like a distrust, like an innate distrust built in the hearts of men and women in this country in this time to where when we talk about entering into a relationship, whether it's with a person or a business, we're thinking contract because we're just wired that way.

And then like all of a sudden, it's time to like renew vow or not renew vow, exchange vow, doing the wedding thing. And we're thinking contract. Like, and if you don't fulfill your end, like, well, contract's up and I'm on the next thing. So we're even our marriages are contractual.

So this is a little challenging for us to begin tapping into covenant. But this is what he had in mind. Not an agreement, a relationship, contracts an agreement. Covenant is union.

You're tracking. And he wants union with you. And so for me, it was like, I didn't even begin to understand covenant until, again, this is part of my wiring, research Scott just kicks in. I'm like, I'm going to research covenant.

Like how has covenant done in ancient times? And this was the beginnings of me understanding it. So should we discuss ancient covenants? Okay, let's do it.

So it would always be between two families, right? And the elders of the families would get together and begin negotiating, always first step, negotiating, the terms of covenant. Track with me. Everything that's mine is yours.

Everything that's yours is mine. Would look like negotiations are like an exhaustive list of every resource, every, everything that each family had. And it blew my mind because like the weightier, the covenant, the longer the negotiation took. And what blew my mind was that like, some covenants took up to three years of negotiations before that like covenant was actually agreed upon.

And it's like insane that elders of families would dedicate their lives, years of their lives to this. But why? Because it was binding for generations. They were making decisions, usually covenants went up to like eight generations.

The children's children's children's children's so there was weight behind it. And if I'm going to yoke myself to this family and to this people, I want to make sure every tea is crossed and every eyes dotted on what this is because it's going to affect my family for dozens and hundreds of years, depending on the covenant. So after the covenant was agreed upon, the next step was to cut the covenant. And in ancient times, what they looked like is they were like certain ceremonial animals that they would grab like a heifer or a ram or birds or a she goat.

And they would get these animals together. And what they would do is they would literally cut the animal in half. And the blood would spill out on the ground. And you can read about it even when God made a covenant with Abraham, Abraham at the time, and how like the flaming torch passed between the two halves.

It was like literally God manifesting and walking in between. And what they do in ancient times is they would literally stand in the blood and begin making oaths to each other on what they just agreed on. Standing in the blood of the sacrifice saying, everything that's mine is yours. I will never leave you or forsake you.

Even when blood is spilling, I will be there. And it's just powerful. So then they'd just grab the rest of the families usually in like a more of a corporate type of ceremony. And I'll just touch on like a few of the points as they relate to the gospel.

First, they would have the elders in front of the families and they would take like a cloak or a mantle off of their own shoulders. Elder A takes the mantle off of his shoulders and puts it on Elder B. The mantle represented authority. And they were literally saying everything that I have authority over.

You now have authority over. And they would swap and become one with the authority that they had. It's so good. Then they would exchange the belt of weapons.

So literally Elder A is like taking off a belt physically off of his body, putting it around Elder B and saying, every weapon that I have, every resource of war that I have, I know give to you. Your enemies are now my enemies. Your battles are now my battles. When blood is spilling like what they just owed.

When blood is spilling, I am there. It is so good. Then they would pivot and actually start talking about names. Ancient covenants would swap names to become one.

And so even when you look in like the Old Testament when God did covenant himself to Abram, there's this whole study about how the breath of God, like who he is in his breath. It's like how he breathed into the lump of clay, right? And man became a living being released himself in. There's something on the breath and even the H, like the H representing the breath of God and how Abram became Abraham.

And it received God even in his name. And there was a nickname that God had in the scriptures before that covenant that God was known as the Father of Nations. And when he breathed and actually released himself and gave a new name to Abram, he became Abraham which means the Father of many nations. It was built in, like the name was attached to the name of God.

The H was attached to the breath of God and it was a promise all in one. And it was so powerful and like God himself pivoted to not just being called God anymore. He was then unknown as the God of Abraham. And the two names, even at the name level, became one.

And so what's so good about the name is like there's so much to this because even when you just like think of the name of someone, you think of who they are. There's identity here. There's inheritance here because I'm Scott Vanderwerp. When my parents pass away, I get their stuff.

That's significant for inheritance is in the name. Are you tracking with me? And you were given a new name. You were given inheritance and now your co-heirs because of the name.

You're swapping with him. You're becoming one with him even at the identity level. Which is amazing to me because it's like if God is going to actually say, I'll never leave you or forsake you. If he's going to say, those who are in Christ are one spirit with him, literally becoming one, how can holy God without spot or wrinkle become one with sinners to pray for worms in the dirt?

It's impossible. Which is why he invites us into covenant by saying, you got to die. You want to become one with me. You have to die.

And I tell you what, if you're united in my death, you'll be united in my resurrection. And you'll become something brand new. And I love the fact that it wasn't Joseph that went into Mary to create and fertilize this egg. It was literally God himself.

Went to the inside of her and fertilized and it was his seed, his DNA, even at the physical, tangible level, to pluck us out of the line of Adam. To pluck us out from being these sinners to pray for worms in the dirt and he started a brand new race. Just like it was in the garden. But he's the last Adam.

Oh, not the second Adam. There's no more Adam's coming. He's the last Adam. And he's the first born of a brand new race.

The first born among many sons. And I love that because he changed us. This is covenant, right? You're actually letting go of even at the DNA, spiritual DNA level, who you are to take hold of who he is.

And when we're swapping names, I see Jesus as the Son of God coming. He takes on our name again and he says, I will be a Son of God. I will be a Son of man so that sons of man could be sons of God. I love this because he is seeking and saving everything that was lost in the fall.

I start to think about something that stirs me is like the meticulous thoroughness of God. Track with me. Covenants that were made in the old were mostly done between God and man. And man wasn't too good at keeping him.

So picture of the Trinity talking amongst themselves. It's time to make one final covenant. But when they're realizing that man's not too good at this, can you realize the revelation? Like what do we do to fix this?

And they're like, we got it. We're going to become a man and we're going to make a covenant with ourselves. Such good idea. And I don't know if they drew straws or like how they decided which one of them was going to enter the womb and the birth canal of a woman to make this happen.

But Jesus, are you kidding me? Comes into the womb of a woman. To be one with you. And he is fully God and fully man.

Meaning in this covenant negotiation, he is representing God because he is. And he's becoming a man to represent man because he is. And do you remember how after you are agreeing on the terms, then the covenant's got to be cut. The thoroughness of God.

He's like, I'm going to do the God part. I'm going to do the man part. Oh, and I'm going to be the sacrifice because that has to be perfect too. You kidding me?

So he's like, I will do all of those things. Hebrews, this is the best news on the planet. Hebrews says this covenant was made between two unchangeable things. Are you tracking with that?

Because sometimes we think that we can flow in and out of righteousness based off of our doing or not doing. That we can flow maybe in and out of being saved by like our doing and right doing. But no, this covenant was different than the covenants of old. This covenant was made between God and God.

Oh, that's solid. This covenant will never be broken and will never pass away. On your worst and darkest day, the covenant is secure. He will never change his mind about you.

It's too late. He already removed your sin as far as the East is from the West. He perfected you for all time. And if that sounds like it's blasphemy, we got to read the gospel again.

He cleaned you thoroughly. He did away with the old and all that's left is new. That's how he sees you. Totally brand new.

And you have boldness before him. I love that this is the thoroughness of God. Because when you think about how do you even enter or become a part of a family, I just figure there's like three main ways, right? You could be born into it.

You could be adopted in or you could be married in, right? Does it seem like all of them? Yes, it does. So the thoroughness of God says, okay, they're going to be born again.

I'm going to adopt them as sons and daughters. And I'm going to marry them too. What? Okay.

So born again, adopted, married. He was the God part of the covenant and the man part of the covenant and the sacrifice part of the covenant. We're talking about the God who needed nothing created out of desire for you. And religion has convinced us that we're slaves and servants of an angry God.

Are you kidding me? He wants you. He will have you. I don't think there was drawing of straws between the Trinity.

I think Jesus says, I'm coming and they will be mine. He'd fire in his eyes. Those who have seen the resurrected Jesus are like, oh, he's got flames of fire in his eyes. Like he's burning to be one with you.

He's the original burning one. It's not the seraphim. He is the consuming fire. And his name is jealous, jealous.

It's just when you get close to him, you become a burning one like the seraphim. He's the burning one. And if you can just touch covenant a little, you'd be like, oh, he does want union with me. And if you sit under that repetitively, it will soften your heart.

And you'll say yes to him. What kind of offer is it that the God of the universe says everything that's mine is yours. Will you say yes to me? What kind of offer is that?

Are you kidding? Yeah. Into ensure the offer, he created that level of detail and thoroughness that he wants you. He wants to be one with you.

Yeah. And I love covenant. It has actually changed my language. It's changed my mindset.

It has changed me. I love to commune with the Trinity. One of my favorite spots to do it is in my basement. And maybe it's my personality wiring or what have you.

But if I'm sitting, my mind wanders. But if I'm moving, my mind's engaged. So I like to pace in my basement. It's just me and it's just me and them.

And if I want to engage my heart, because sometimes you do it just because you want to be with him and you feel, sometimes you do it because it's faith and you don't feel. Because things aren't going well. And you're like, no, but I need this. Whether you want it or feel it or not.

So when I'm trying to figure out how do I engage my heart in connection with him, I start with covenant. And I don't know where to start. I start with covenant. And I surrender.

I let go of everything I'm carrying. I know this is a little cliché, but I'm going to say it because it's relevant. If your hands are full, you cannot take hold of anything new. You track with that.

You have to let go before you can take hold. And this is a rhythm for me friends. I am one with them in my basement, letting go of what I'm carrying. I'm thanking him.

I'm praising them for covenant. Are you kidding me? You went through these lengths to have me? My answer is yes again.

Like I'm always, I love renewing my vows, renewing my oaths. I love standing in the blood of Jesus and saying that everything that I have is yours. That there's nothing hidden in me. Search me and know me, God.

I want my heart soft and pliable before you. There's no closet doors between us anymore. Fling wide every door to my heart. You have full access to everything that I am, everything that I have.

My authority is yours. I lead people. And I'm an authority over people at my business. And I just surrender even what I'm an authority over to you.

I have authority over my time and my family. And I just let go. I invite you in. You're tracking with that.

You can pray into this thing. And when you let go, you got some space to take hold. It's good because even if you're carrying anxiety or feelings of panic in your body and you're carrying a lot, you don't go to your own house. You go to your covenant partner's house.

If you hear that your enemy is coming at ancient times, you don't run back home. You run to your covenant's house and ring the alarm. You're tracking. So when we're going through things, do you realize who you're one with?

And he has every, you don't even know the store houses of resources that he has. We just think that like, oh, the pleasures that is right hand are forever more than we're like, oh, I've heard it before. You have no idea what you're talking about. The freaking pleasures of God, forever eternal pleasures, never end.

He has weapons that we don't even realize exist. Somebody came up to me after the first service and they're like, it's a little bit of a obscure passage, but there's this passage in Job where God's talking to Job and he actually says that I have store houses for battles and wars that you know not of. We don't even understand the resource of who he is and what he has. We understand a little.

We don't get it. If we did, covenant would dominate our mind, would dominate who we are, would dominate our faith or Christian experience or Christian expression. It's the foundation of everything. So I'm in my basement and this is my thing.

This is the routine. This is what's available for us as believers is to let go and take hold. So the taking hold, friend is by faith. It's by faith.

It's written. It's solid, but you can't see it. You can't feel it. It's beautiful because the just live by faith and the security here.

Blessed are those who believe and don't see. You don't understand the blessings available for you when you pace your basement in faith and take hold of what you accomplished. Do it again. Repetition.

Hit me with it again. You show up again on a Sunday and say, I want to understand. I want to become and I want to believe back to the basement, communing with him. I want you to understand that covenant is not an end.

It is quite literally a means to an end and that end is connection with him. He created out of desire for connection, union and oneness with you. He moved hell and high water and came right for you. Checked every box that could be checked and says, I will have you.

So when we're in our basement, it's pacing. It's all about the connection. What's intimacy? What's intimacy with God is?

For an intimacy is exchanging yourself with someone. It's everything that I have. It's your full access. It's intimacy.

And taking hold of them seeing the same thing and seeing into their heart and what they're like. Merging bank accounts. Merging homes. Merging identities.

Merging families. Merging the resources. It's the full two becoming one. And religion has us believing.

He's angry. He's detached. He's stoic. And we're white knuckling trying not to sin.

I remember growing up trying my hardest to please him. Pretty sure that there's a box about this size called the will of God. And I know if I did good enough, I'd be there. And if I was in the will of God, I'd probably get like his protection, his blessing, his favor.

Maybe he'd crack his smile. What if religion, the strategy of religion from the kingdom of darkness is to come after connection and intimacy and union. To confuse who he is and what he's like. To confuse who I am and who I am now on this side of the cross.

If you confuse those two things, disconnection. I don't know why it is, but even now thousands of years later, there are two ditches with covenant because if you grew up in the ditch that I did, it's like the centerworm to pray of a worm in the dirt thing and you're like, take everything. Just take it. But no boldness to peer over into what he's accomplished to take hold.

And then on this ditch, it's like, man, I don't have a lot of sobriety about who I am or what I'm doing, but I'm very interested in your stuff. So I'm going to name that and claim that and my Christian experience is mostly about the favor and the blessing. You're tracking how they're both ditches. But the truth of covenant, the beauty of covenant, and even just for lack of language, I'm going to say that there's something that exists called covenant position that's right in between the ditches.

I believe that this is a place of power and intimacy. I love the language of the Bible because you can just find covenant language all throughout the scriptures. Remain in me and I'll remain in you. If you remain in me, you can ask anything and it will be given to you.

I will never leave you and I'll never forsake you. The language is profuse and you can find it here. But we also read about like no weapon formed against you will prosper. You trample on snakes and scorpions.

You can speak to mountains and see a move. I read these promises. And if I'm going to understand them within the framework and the foundation of covenant, I'm saying friend, it is in that covenant position that you're going to see these promises in your life, that you're going to see them manifest to because you're fully surrendered to him and in faith, fully taking hold as best as you know how to the finished work of Jesus. There is something here.

So when I'm pasting my basement, it's my go-to. I love writing music. I love music. I sit down at the piano.

I'm just making stuff up. The first stuff that's right on the tip of my tongue is covenant language. So if you listen to my voice mail recording zap and all the hooks, you're like, why do 80% of your hooks say the same thing? This is all I know.

It's covenant. This is the core of my Christian expression for using these bizarre words. The core of how I am with him is covenant. You come into a corporate worship setting like this and maybe the songs are repeating to the point where you're like, my heart's not engaged anymore.

So, friend, they're repeating so that finally you'll engage your heart. The third and the fourth time we sang that, I didn't mean it. But the sixth time you're like, oh, I mean it all of a sudden. So don't get frustrated with that.

It's a gift to you to engage your heart. But let's say, I don't know, maybe on the first time you meant it. And then you meant it for four times in a row. And then now you're like, now I'm disengaged.

That might be you. You can re-engage with covenant. I don't know why it is from me. I don't always sing corporately the whole time with what's been singing.

Sometimes I see what's on the screen. I hear what's being sung in the room. And the only thing coming out of my mouth is yes. And that means something to me.

Because I'm agreeing with what's going on in its genuine. It's real. And so when we're singing these amazing songs like words tonight, sometimes I'm singing them like, yes. And then when I find myself not meeting it, I like listen again.

And then sometimes I'll pray in the spirit to re-engage my heart. A lot of times I'm praying covenant. God, thank you for covenant that you wipe me totally clean of sin. Thank you that everything that's mine is yours and I just invite you in again.

And it engages me. And then all of a sudden the room gets scooped up in the next song. Oh, here we go again. Yes.

And my heart's there. Covenant is like a tool for connection. It's a means of connection. And just even understanding what God wanted changes everything for me.

When I understand what he wanted, I love that. So I'm going to invite the worship team up and we're going to talk about like the last part that ancient covenant families used to do. After they would exchange mantles of authority, belts of weapons and their names. They would actually share a meal together.

And I love this because they would actually drink and eat together in celebration of the covenant. And they would regularly schedule these meals together as families in remembrance of the covenant. Sound familiar? I don't know why.

All that I can say is that it's just more strategy of religion. I don't know why it's like this. But thousands of years later, we usually I think it's like the assistant pastor gets up. Associate, thank you.

Associate pastor. Assistant pastor. Oh, I'm thinking about that. I like that.

Assistant pastor. Assistant pastor. Assistant pastor. Get up.

And the message is usually something like this. Friend, we need to get right with God again to become worthy to receive the cup. So I want you to think about anyone that you've wronged or if you have like M to T with a brother, you have to fix that before you have this meal. If there's sin in your heart, you need to get forgiven before you partake in the elements.

Sound familiar? You do the first Sunday of every month and it's the same message every time. And it's all coming from a passage that like in the early church, people didn't really understand how this worked yet. And they're just like free wine, free food.

I'm in. And they literally not even in the context of a corporate gathering kind of like sneak into the church corporate building and get drunk on the wine and eat all the food. And there was correction brought to be like friends, this isn't how it works. This is actually a really significant meal of celebration.

And that one passage of correction thousands of years later has turned into us instead of celebrating a covenant. We're inspecting sin to become worthy. But friend, I love communion now going back 10 years researching like what is covenant, understanding what the covenant meal is like I get excitement on the inside when it's time for communion because I get to celebrate again the covenant that will never be broken. The covenant that was made between God and God and I just said yes.

And I'm in. So I love this because you might go into a church whether it's ours or another church that doesn't do communion in the first Sunday of every month. You'd be like, man, I miss communion. Well, we don't have to get religious with the communion thing.

I mean, you could use like your toast and your orange juice in the morning as the elements. And you could be like, this reminds me that he's the bread of life. And it's like something to connect your faith to to stir you up in remembrance again. And the passage in first John says that after you say yes to him, that the blood of Jesus continually look up the original language, it says the blood of Jesus continually cleanses you from all enriciousness.

And I remember like sitting under some of this teaching and I read a book and the author was like, it's quite literally like sitting under a waterfall of forgiveness. Like, can you imagine a covenant with a God where you're sitting under a waterfall of constantly being washed clean? And you're like, you know what, I don't got to wait till communion on a Sunday. I'm just getting ready in the morning and I'm in the shower.

It's just me and the Trinity. And I'm standing under a waterfall of forgiveness. And it triggers your heart to be like, oh, yeah, I'm clean again. So oh, yeah, I'm clean again.

Thank you for making me clean. Thank you that your mercies are new every morning, just like a shower every morning. So you don't need the wafer and the grape juice. Friend, do you realize that anything could be a contact point for your faith to get triggered into worship again?

Thanksgiving again, renewing your vows again. Why don't you guys stand up? So the worship team is going to lead us, but I tell you what, there's three platforms in the back that's got a little bucket on there where you can grab the grape juice and the wafer. There's one even up in the balcony up there.

And friend, here's what I want you to do. I want you to lock eyes with him for just a moment. So even if you're comfortable, just close your eyes right now for covenant. This is the starting place.

God, thank you that what you wanted was union and oneness with me. Thank you for knowing me before I could be known. Thank you for removing my sin and making me clean and new so that we could be one forever. Thank him again.

Thank him again. And I just love this word means something between me and God. The word yes. I just tell him yes, under my breath a lot.

And I'm just telling him, I'm saying yes to you. I say yes to covenant. Everything that is mine is now yours. I'm all in.

Teach me how to take hold of what you accomplished. Yes. Teach me Holy Spirit. I want this message to become flesh and manifestation of my life.

So all of those thoughts can be summed into a word between me and him. I just say yes and he knows what it means. So just say yes to him again. Yes, I want covenant to change me.

Yes, I want covenant to change me. And when you do communion, it's a renewing of your vows. And it doesn't have to be in a church, but you renewing that. I'm saying yes again.

I want you still. And the fact that you want me, I don't know what else to say other than yes. You have won me. You have wooed my heart.

I'm saying yes to you again. Yes, so Jesus, we thank you for covenant. We thank you for your thoroughness to be the sacrifice that God represents, the man representation. Thank you that you've adopted us, that we're born into your family and that you're marrying us.

We say yes to you. Our answer is yes. We say yes fresh again. We love you.

So just keep connecting with him and as you feel okay about it, just go and grab the wafer and the grape juice and just be like, whoa, your blood makes me clean. You are the sacrifice. Thank you for your body that was broken. I stand in the blood again and I make all this to you that I will never leave you or forsake you and you will never leave me.