Defining Covenant Relationship

Hey, welcome Self Talk. I'm your host, Dr. Ray Self. Thank you for listening to me on this podcast, it means a lot. Be sure and download, subscribe, and share this with as many people as possible. The more downloads we get, the more people we reach and it's very, very important so be sure and subscribe, like and share. Make comments, that's the way you do it. You can do that on my podcast website which is icmcollege.org/selftalk. icmcollege.org/selftalk. Thanks again for listening. Today is a very important topic about covenant, and is it conditional? This word's being tossed around a lot by a lot of organizations and I'm not talking about this marriage covenant. So let's look at this word covenant which is being used in the churches in the body of Christ and also in many networks. So let's explore this and why this is important to understand so stay tuned and God bless you.

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Okay, here we go. This is Dr. Ray Self and again, I, I have to mention this show is sponsored and made to happen by the International College of Ministry so I want to thank the college for sponsoring us. Now, it is a college I'm very blessed to be president of and if you're thinking about getting a college degree, getting equipped for the purpose in your life, the call of God on your life, International College of the Ministry is the place to do it. It's affordable, you work on your own schedule, it's anointed, it's Holy Spirit-filled. Go to icmcollege.org and check it out. There's also - you can sample it. Now there's free courses you can take. You can try it before you buy it and there's no charge. You can also get an evaluation. You say, “Well, I don't know what it would take for me to get a degree.” Fill out the free evaluation form and we'll tell you exactly. Anyway, let's move on. 

I want to talk today about covenant. Covenant. This term is being thrown around a lot in the body of Christ. Um, people say oh, you're, I'm in covenant with you. You're my covenant brother, you're my covenant sister uh, um… you know, we, we're in covenant with each other. Of course, we also obviously have the most famous covenant of all, the marriage covenant - maybe not the most famous, I think the blood covenant is the most famous - but what does that mean and is it being used incorrectly? I just want to be transparent and share my heart. With me, I have a good pastor friend of mine from Mississippi and we, you know, he's just a good friend, he's a brother in Christ and uh, we've decided that you know, we have a covenant relationship.

So what does that mean, a covenant relationship? Well, a covenant means I've got your back you've got my back. It's a commitment, it's a total commitment. Here's the thing that has been bothering me about covenant - well, before I get into that let's explain a little bit more, you know, about covenant. Very interesting, um, in the very old, in the Old Testament days back around the time of Abraham, when a covenant was being made what they would do is they would slaughter an animal and cut the animal in two. Then they would walk a circle around the animal and they would meet in the middle of the blood sacrifice back to back and there usually would be an exchange. And so what a covenant would say in the Old Testament form is, I have your back - you've heard the expression I have your back - they would meet back to back. Before they met back to back, they'd meet face to face and there would be an exchange. So a covenant says I've got your back. I will protect you, okay? You protect me, that's what I mean, I have your back. It also means that what I have belongs to you what you have belongs to me, okay? That, that happens in marriage. There's an exchange. My wife and I, we try to live that out. When we got married, I had assets, she had assets, but we said, you know what? We're married, we're together in this, we have, we have shared bank accounts we have shared assets. I know some married couples don't do that but in my mind in a covenant, you're saying all that I have belongs to you, all that you have belongs to me, we're in a covenant.

But then I see this word tossed around a lot in networks and in um, you know, church relationships and uh, various organizations and it seems like… I think it's misinterpreted. If we're Christian, a covenant is an agreement that is binding and has no strings attached. Think about the blood covenant that Jesus made with us. He, He sheds His life, sacrifices His blood to make this covenant with us much like the in the days of old. But this covenant only has one condition and that is that we accept Him, that we accept Jesus as our savior. Now there's no strings attached and I know that I have grieved the Lord and I know you have too. There's been times we've all sinned, we've all messed up but the covenant is still in effect because the covenant is unconditional. It has, there are no strings attached to it. It's not based on our performance, it's based on a promise.

So here we go into the church saying oh man, you, you’re, my covenant, you're my covenant church member, you're my covenant brother, you're my covenant sister. But let that person mess up one time or do something that doesn't meet the standards of the organization and all of a sudden oh no, they're uh, no, we're not in covenant anymore. But you see, a covenant has no strings attached. So if I claim that I'm in a covenant with someone that is unconditional. It's unconditional love and acceptance to me as a Christian because this is what Jesus has done for us. I mean, if Jesus’s covenant with us was based on our, our performance, we would never make it because none of us are perfect. So when we enter into a covenant with someone, it's not based on good days and bad days, good feelings and bad feelings, it's a commitment, it's a promise. So in marriage, probably one of the greatest examples you know, when you take the vows you know, sickness and uh, sickness and health and death do you part, uh, good times, bad times… You make a covenant with your spouse that you are there no matter what. No matter, you know, through the through the good times, through the bad times, you're there because there's no strings attached. It's a promise, it's a commitment. 

Also, I believe in church covenants and when I tell a brother in Christ that I'm in a covenant with him, that means there's no strings attached. I'm your friend and I'm going to be there for you to the best of my ability no matter what, no matter what you do. I was talking to a pastor that I'm in a covenant with him, and I told him, I said you know, I'm in a covenant with you and no matter what, I mean, if you decide to fall away and uh, become a womanizer and, and get involved in drugs or whatever you get involved in, I'm still in the covenant with you. I'm gonna come after you, I'm going to try to help you, I'm going to be there for you. And I may not approve of what you're doing, but I'm in a covenant relationship. So a covenant is a serious thing. It's a word that we don't need to throw around lightly. So what I'm seeing happen in the body of Christ and in churches and some church organizations, is they claim covenant relationships but underneath the surface, there are conditions to this. You’re in covenant relationship as long as you're tithing, ooh. You’re in covenant relationship as long as you attend the meetings. You’re in covenant relationship as long as you meet the standards of that organization. But you see, to me if we use the word covenant, that is unconditional commitment. Now sure, there should be standards and we should meet the standards, okay? If you're involved in an organization and their standard is you tithe to that organization and you have agreed to that, then you should tithe to the organization. But if their commitment to you and the covenant they have with you is based on your perfect performance and you miss one month of tithes and all of a sudden, you're no longer in the covenant, to me they never had a covenant to begin with because, to me, a covenant is for better or worse, in sickness and in health like in a marriage.

So I think that maybe the problem is we're using the word too loosely. So to have a covenant relationship with someone is biblical. Jesus has a covenant relationship with us and there's no strings attached to it, there's no strings. There's one string that is faith and you believe that He's the son of God, you've asked Him to be your savior and forgive you of your sins. In other words, you're saved but after that, there's no strings attached, you're in a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ and He's going to be there for you no matter what. And yeah, you can grieve Him, you can upset Him, you can grieve the Holy Spirit and you can rebel, but you know what? You still have a covenant with Jesus. Now, Jesus may not be happy with you - things that you have done - but He's still there. And, and I think we've all experienced it. We've all messed up, we've said things we shouldn't have said, we've done things we shouldn't have done. There's nobody perfect under the sun. But here's Jesus, does He still love us? Is He still there for us? Is He still waiting for us with open arms? Absolutely! Was the covenant ever broken? No, it was not because a covenant is an unconditional, no strings attached commitment. It says I am committed to you and hopefully you are committed to me. And actually, if, in the technical terms again, of a covenant, also says all your possessions belong to the other person and all his their possessions belong to you which is like marriage. You know, it's like, like marriage covenant. And maybe you don't have to go that far but I do think a covenant in church should be an unconditional commitment. And even if the person in the church rebels against the church and falls away and does some things they shouldn't do, Jesus said the shepherds should leave the 99 and go after the one. And so if we're in a covenant with this person and they backslide and they fall away, what I see happening is they're cut off. So many times they're just cut off. I'm saying, but wait a minute, wait a minute, how can you cut this person off who backslid, fell away, rebelled, or was disobedient and didn't follow the rules? Whatever they did, how do you cut them off if you said you were in a covenant with them? So if you're in a covenant with them, you go after them and you try to reconcile and you try to solve the problem because hey, I'm in a covenant with you, what's going on? I'm here for you. 

Now, you don't have to agree with somebody to be in a covenant with them, hmm? You think that God agrees with everything you do? Of course not. He doesn’t agree with everything we do. But He still has the covenant; the covenant is still in effect. So a covenant is a very important thing. Marriage covenant -, and this is not a podcast about marriage - is critical. If there's an exchange that takes place and you know, my wife is named Christie, everything I have belongs to her. Everything I have, everything I have. When we got married, we had um, we had two homes. We had a home in Memphis and a home in Florida. We quickly made it known to each other that hey, my house is your house, your house is my house. We had uh, separate bank accounts but you know what? Now we have - well we still have separate accounts but we're on each other's account because everything I have belongs to my wife and everything she has belongs to me. We're in a covenant. And we haven't always agreed but we're in a covenant.

But you see, we throw this term around, say oh, I got a covenant relationship with my pastor, I got a covenant relationship with this church, I'm in a covenant relationship with this ministry, I'm in a covenant relationship with some famous minister, but there's no real exchange and the covenant has conditions. So I think that maybe we need to be careful with that word because I don't think - so many times we are meeting the condition of the word. Uh, ministries are claiming covenant relationships but I wouldn't define them as covenant relationships, I would define these relationships as relationships based on conditions. Yes, you're in a covenant relationship with this particular ministry if you meet the conditions of that ministry, but to me, that's unscriptural because scripturally, love and commitment is unconditional. Jesus told us to love unconditionally. He told us love is a choice. He said we're to love our friends, love ourselves, love our neighbors, love our spouses, love our enemies. We, we, we, we love everyone but a covenant is a commitment to be there for each other no matter what, no strings attached, no conditions attached. And you, you might argue well, somebody can just walk away from a covenant. You know, they can, they can leave a covenant, and I guess that's true. You say I, I'm no longer… I call this covenant null and void. I guess you’d say that's like divorce. And maybe a person can do that, but I don't think that's God's intention and I don't think that's the real definition, you know, of a covenant. 

So the reason I'm saying this is, this word is used very frequently with a lot of ministries and churches but I think it's misused. I think that if I am in a covenant relationship, I'm in it no matter what. I'm in it and there's no conditions. The- you're listening to me, and let's say your name is John and we decided to have a covenant friendship, well, that means I'm your friend no matter what. No matter what you do, I'm still your friend. I'm there, I'm there for you period. I may not like what you're doing, I may agree with you, I may disagree with you, but I am there because I made a covenant with you.

So this word is an important word. It's so important that Jesus died to set a covenant, to establish a covenant with us. We enter into that covenant by faith. Covenant is an important thing with God and so if we're going to use this word, let's understand the importance of the word, the significance of that word before we enter into that. Just like you need to be careful before you enter into marriage, we need to be careful before we make a covenant with a brother or sister or ministry in Christ because it means no holds barred. No conditions. And if you are the head of a ministry and you're claiming covenant partners, do– are there strings attached to that? I mean, is covenant based on conditions and promises, and how much money you give? Um, that's not scriptural. A covenant is unconditional. Now, there may be things that you expect and things that you want and things that are points of order, I get, I get all that. That, that's, that's great but if a person gets out of order, the covenant is still in effect because covenants are unconditional. Just like you and I and everyone listening to me has been out of order with God but His covenant is still in effect with us. And I think we need to think about that before we so easily dismiss people who upset us and claim that they– or offend us or hurt us or maybe get out of order and we dismiss them and maybe we forget about the covenant that we had with them. So be careful when you enter into a covenant relationship, a true covenant relationship. And my encouragement is don't use the word loosely. Think about the word covenant before you use it and before you enter into it, especially in marriage. Amen.

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