This week, Matt Edmundson explores the radical nature of covenant through Abraham's story. Unlike modern contracts that can be broken with minimal consequences, ancient covenants were sealed in blood with one shocking rule: only death could break them. When God made His covenant with Abraham, He did something unprecedented—walking alone between the sacrificed animals, taking all responsibility upon Himself. This foreshadows Christ's sacrifice, establishing a new covenant through His blood. Discover how this ancient concept transforms our marriages, relationships with God, and very identities as believers today. A ‘mind-bending’ revelation that changes everything.
01Why God Put Everything on the Line
What would you think if someone made you the most extraordinary promises imaginable — land, wealth, descendants — and then, rather than simply giving their word, went through a dramatic and costly ceremony to guarantee it? What if the person making those promises took all the responsibility on themselves?
In this episode, Matt continues the Genesis series by exploring one of the most significant and misunderstood concepts in the Bible: covenant. It is, as he puts it, the topic that has helped him understand the Bible and God more than any other.
02More Than a Contract
Matt begins with a photo from 1998 — his wedding day with Sharon. Without oversimplifying, he explains that a marriage involves three things: a ceremony, an exchange of vows, and a covenant. Ancient covenants worked the same way.
But covenant is not a contract. That distinction matters enormously.
"A contract can be broken, usually with very little consequence," Matt says. "If I break my mobile phone contract, it's not like EE is going to come and kill me. I'm just going to get fined."
Covenant is different. The only way out of a covenant is death. And if it cost you your life to fulfil the terms of the covenant, you were expected to do it. The phrase "till death do us part" is not sentimental — it is covenant language.
The Bible is essentially a record of covenants. The word "testament" means covenant. The Old Testament is the old covenant. The New Testament is the new covenant. There are covenants with Noah, Moses, David, Abraham, and ultimately the new covenant through Jesus.
03A Gory but Significant Ceremony
The focus of the episode is God's covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15. God tells Abraham to bring a heifer, a female goat, a ram, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon. Abraham cuts the larger animals in half and lays the halves opposite each other, creating a pathway between them — a pathway filled with blood.
In ancient covenant ceremonies, both parties would walk through that blood-soaked pathway together, exchanging vows. The symbolism was blunt: "May what happened to these animals happen to me if I break this covenant."
Matt acknowledges this feels alien to us. "We do not do this thing that in effect butchers animals. It feels odd." But for Abraham, this was entirely normal. It was the most serious agreement a person could enter into.
04God Takes All the Responsibility
As the sun goes down, Abraham falls asleep. God speaks to him in a dream — not just about the promises (land, wealth, descendants), but about the consequences too. Abraham's descendants will go into slavery for 400 years. Full disclosure.
Matt finds this fascinating and draws a parallel to Jesus, who told his followers: "In this world you will have tribulation." God does not hide the difficult parts. But the promise comes with it: "Take heart, because I have overcome the world."
Then something happens that would have been utterly mind-bending to anyone in the ancient world who understood covenants. Genesis 15 says: "When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham."
The smoking fire pot and flaming torch represent God — consistent with how God appears elsewhere in Scripture, such as the burning bush with Moses and the pillar of fire with Israel.
Here is what is staggering: normally, both parties would walk through the animal halves together. But Abraham is not there. He is asleep. God alone passes through. God takes all the responsibility for the covenant upon himself.
"In the ancient Near East, this would be utterly mind-bending," Matt says. "Gods weren't interested in people — that's what they thought at the time. But we see a God that's not only interested in humanity but is making covenant with them and taking all the consequences on himself."
05A Covenant That Reaches Us
The covenant God made was not just with Abraham. It was with Abraham's descendants. And the Apostle Paul, writing to the Galatians, makes this connection explicit: "If you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring and heirs according to the promise."
This means the covenant reaches across time to include anyone who puts their trust in Christ. When God walked through those animal halves, he was making a covenant with us too.
06What This Changes
Matt explores what covenant means practically. It transforms marriages — because covenant is based not on feelings but on a decision to live up to the vows exchanged. "Great marriages are built around honouring our covenant vows every single day," he says. "No ifs, no buts, no outs."
It transforms our relationship with God. Many religions operate on a transactional basis — do good, get good. Covenant is fundamentally different. "Your worst day doesn't disqualify you from God's love, but your best day doesn't earn it either."
And it transforms how we read Scripture. Promises like "I will never leave you, I will never forsake you" take on new weight when understood as covenant promises sealed in the blood of Christ. As Paul writes in Romans: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? No — in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."
Matt says these are among his most favourite verses in the Bible. "It doesn't matter what I am going through. Nothing can separate me from his love."
07A New Identity
Covenant also changes identity. Paul wrote to the Galatians: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female — we are all one in Christ Jesus." Just as in marriage two become one, in covenant with Christ we are bound together with him.
"Old, fragmented, broken identities are replaced with our covenant identity with Christ," Matt says.
The episode closes with communion — bread and wine — as a tangible sign of the new covenant sealed in Christ's blood. It is not a ritual. It is a remembrance of the most costly agreement ever made.
What would change in your life if you truly believed that God had put everything on the line for you?
Topics in this talk
View Full Transcript
hello and welcome to crowd my name is Sharon and I'll be hosting tonight alongside the lovely Dave who is here with me although Dave has told me that he's just here to look pretty so I'm hoping that he's going to do more than that handsome oh handsome handsome sorry got that wrong so tonight we've got Matt speaking to us and he's continuing uh our Series in Genesis and we'll be talking about this massive um massive subject of Covenant which me and Dave have just been having a long discussion about already so we're well into the flow and after the talk we're going to do something that we've not done before at crowd and that is we're going to take communion because communion is a sign of a covenant so if you're not sure what any of that means hopefully after Matt's spoken you will understand that so if you are a Believer if you are in that Covenant relationship with God feel free to just pop out now and get a bit of bread um we've got I think a bit of grape Ju have we got um so that you can join us when we do that if you're not a Believer then um use this as an opportunity just to hopefully understand a little bit more about what communion is so I'm hoping that we're going to go over to Matt now but he's currently wandering around the room okay yeah okay he's fiddling with cameras so Dave I'm just going to switch to you yes how are you doing I'm doing really well thank you Shar how are you doing yeah I'm all right yeah it's been yeah challenging week but that's good I feel like it's been a a learning curve for me this week always always good to be together though isn't it in the house is it is good to be together I'm sure God's going to say something really good to us shortly yes hopefully very soon yes I think Matt is just about ready yeah sorry everybody so are you ready now uh yes I am okay I'm going to hand over to Matt then who will be talking about Covenant so very warm welcome to you uh great that you're with us online if you haven't done so already say hi in the comments it' be great to hear from you and as we go through the talk tonight um you can just write your comments your questions on are we on Instagram or we just doing YouTube and Facebook we're on all of them apparently uh so you can join in including you guys here you can throw your comments and questions in because Dave and Sharon are going to be in them so yeah yeah it's all good it's all good so we are indeed um talking about Covenant give you a bit of fair warning um we are going to get a little bit gory tonight so um if you do have young kids listening uh I just want we'll keep it PG it'll be fine but I just did want to give you fair warning now let me take you back to 1998 a long time ago uh to this particular day um this was the day yes there it is uh the day that Sharon and I got married uh and yes I look a lot older and no Sharon looks exactly the same it's not fair I have to deal with that every day uh best decision I ever made obviously uh now without oversimplifying it too much when Sharon and I got married uh there were three things that happened we had uh yep we had the ceremony we had an exchange of vows and we had a covenant as a result okay so we had the three things the ceremony we had the vows and we had the Covenant and it's this topic of Covenant that I want to look at today as we've talked about and what my observation here is when it comes to Covenant um there's probably not been a topic that I've studied in the Bible which has helped me understand the Bible um and understand God as much as Covenant right so um it's that topic which I think has made a profound impact on me and it's every I think as you understand Covenant you understand that everything in Christianity flows out of this topic and so uh we want to look at that uh now today's talk is called why God uh put everything on the line and so to answer that question we're going to ask three questions okay number one what is a covenant what is it really number two we're going to look at what did God actually put on the line and then finally we're going to ask what does this have to do with us today and we are going to get into all of that so let's start with what is a covenant now a covenant like my marriage had in effect three things it had a ceremony it had an exchange of vows and it has this solemn and binding agreement right an ancient Covenant had these three things which is why I showed you the wedding photo because like my marriage marriage is a covenant it's probably the the closest thing we have to understanding an ancient Covenant these days is understanding what really is going on in biblical marriage right in a god ordained marriage and so we in our marriage we had the ceremony we exchanged vows and we made a solemn and binding agreement which is good news for me uh and in that in that Solomon binding agreement we said this phrase and you you'll have heard it many times but when you get married you say this phrase till deaths do part right till deaths do part and that's a really important phrase that is fundamental to understanding Covenant um because the only way out of a covenant is death right um so you you you you enter the Covenant and the only way out is death and actually more than that if it cost me my life to fulfill the terms of the Covenant I was expected to do it which is I mean you took these things seriously when you got in there right so Covenant is not a contract and it's really important to say that the Covenant is not a contract because a contract can be broken usually with very little consequence there might be a fine but you know if I don't if I break my mobile phone contract it's not like e is going to come and kill me right uh because I broke the terms of an agreement I'm just going to get fined so Covenant is different to contract now the Bible talks about different types of Covenant uh we have the Covenant uh on given to the Israelites on Mount Si with Moses there looking all kinds of red in that image um we've got the Covenant with David we've got the Covenant with Noah we've got the New Covenant that Jesus gets us involved with which we're going to talk about later in fact the word testament means Covenant so when we talk about the New Testament we're talking about the New Covenant the Old Testament the old Covenant okay so the Bible is a record of covenants now this gets interesting when we look at this chap called Abraham so we have been uh going through the Book of Genesis I think we're on number 11 uh in in the Genesis series and we want to focus in on Abram and the COV the Covenant that God makes with him now Abram and Abraham are the same person and for the uh pedantic biblical Scholars out there if I say Abraham I know that he was Abram when the Covenant was made I just might forget and just use the two names interchangeably but they are in fact the same person okay so just want to put that out there extend me some Grace now for context Abraham uh is one of the key figures in the Bible right he is this sort of ancient figure born in ancient Mesopotamia and he is the patriarch of three world religions Judaism Islam and Christianity and they can all Chase uh Trace Chase no Trace their Roots back uh to Abraham and in this relationship that God has with him we see a series of promises that God makes to Abraham each one building on the next right and to put it in context it's like God promised Abraham land about two and a half times the size of whales he promised him sort of elong musk levels of wealth uh and he promised him descendants as numerous as the Stars now when God made these promises he is talking to an old man who is married to an old woman and she is Barren she can't have kids right um and so it's a massive promise and we know that God is faithful to his promises but for some reason the verbal promise is not enough for God here and he goes and he does something a little bit different and he goes and he makes a covenant with Abraham and Genesis says this um it's it's sort of a verse in the Bible where God is talking to Abraham and he says bring me a heer right which is a female cow uh bring me a female goat and a ram all of which are three years old bring me a turtle dove and a young pigeon which all feels like a very very odd shopping list doesn't it it's like God what are you doing um you've made all these amazing promises and now you want all of these animals but it gets weirder so in the next verse it says Abraham brought those to God and he cut them in half and laid each half over against the other okay so this is where it starts to get a little bit gory and it can also feel a little bit odd now when I read this despite what my degenerate friends would say looking at no one looking straight at the camera um I am a civilized person I heard that Michelle I am in fact a civilized person the person sitting next to you is in fact a civilized person we live in a Civ cized Society we do not do this thing that in effect butchers animals we don't do it right it feels odd to us yeah for Abraham this is actually quite normal because What's Happening Here is a covenant ceremony is starting and what happens is uh you would take an animal you would cut it along its spine and the two halves would then be separated and that would create an Alleyway or a pathway between the two halves of the animal right and in that pathway in that section would be a lot of blood and it was smelly and it was messy and it was gory and it was graphic and like I say it feels all a bit odd but in ancient times what would then happen is the two parties who were having that Covenant who were making that Covenant would stand in that blood and they would exchange their vows to one another okay again very different to Modern day living um but this is how covenants were made and the symbolism isn't subtle in any way it's quite big in so many ways and in effect what they were doing when they were stood in that blood they were saying uh they were making a vow which said in effect May what happen to these animals happen to me if I break this Covenant now blood is a central part to the Covenant right I'm in effect vowing uh to be involved in this until death till death is due part it was it was a um a significant a solemn and binding agreement right so what happens next with Abraham so as the sun goes down um Abraham falls asleep it's been been a bit of a day for him he's tired we're all tired right bit of a day and so he falls asleep and in that um Abraham has a dream actually it could be more like a nightmare the Bible says Darkness Came Upon him and in that dream Abraham uh God talks to Abraham about the promises but he also talks to him about the consequences okay so the consequences of the Covenant so we like the promises from God because they're nice you know they I like the money I like the land I like the the children that's all wonderful but um God tells Abraham that for 400 years these descendants go into slavery and it's I find this fascinating that God would do this it's like full disclosure is needed right like God has to tell you everything and we see Jesus doing the same thing right he tells his followers um in this world you will have tribulation I don't even know what tribulation is right but I I I know that I don't like the sound of it I know that I probably don't want it it sounds like we're going to have to go through some stuff it sounds like uh we're going to have to deal with some things like it's not actually all plain saing you know it's not all sunshine and rainbows Jesus promises that we will have tribulation and if you are going through something and you're watching this uh the the the the good thing is you can take heart uh scripture tells us because Jesus said I have overcome the world which is a covenant promise it's amazing I have to go through tribulation sure but I can take heart because Jesus has overcome the world and I am in Covenant with him and knowing that changes how I deal with the challenges that I face how I deal with the problems um how I deal with whatever I'm facing now in marriage let's talk about marriage again um marriage has to be more than a sort of a contract doesn't it marriage has to be a covenant because of this reason because there's tribulation there's difficulty it's not all it's not all plain sailing and the thing about it is if marriage is not a covenant What tends to happen is when things get tricky or when things get difficult man we're out of there right I that's it I'm gone I've had enough and we treat marriage like a contract and actually when we break that contract sure there's some Financial implication somewhere but actually it's broken and away we go but marriage is not a contract marriage is a a covenant which we're going to talk about some more but first let's see what happens next with Abraham so in Genesis chapter 15 it says when the sun had gone down and it was dark uh Behold a smok in fire pot and a flaming torch pressed between these pieces and on that day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham so what's going on here right that smok in fire poot that flaming torch well that's God sort of coming to Abraham in a way that is going to make sense to Abraham a bit like um when God appeared to Moses it was in a it was in a fiery Bush wasn't it the the the fire bush uh when he appears to the children of Israel it's in a pillar of fire I mean God's got a thing with fire what can I say uh I like fire god seems to like fire as well uh but God himself is in this Alleyway between the animals and he is making this Covenant with Abraham and I think about this and I'm I'm like God what are you doing because it's actually quite mind-bending when you think about actually what this means and the implications of this but if you were listening to this story in the ancient near East uh when it was first told and you were familiar with covenants it would be utterly mind-bending in so for so many reasons the main two being that firstly we see this sort of Paradigm of Grace appear what do I mean by that that when we read about this Covenant uh it's God that invites Abraham into it Abraham didn't ask to be in the Covenant with god um God didn't need to be in Covenant with Abraham Abraham was not a fully righteous man at the time there were a few things wrong with the old fell um but God invites him in and there was nothing that Abraham did or didn't do to help with that right so we see grace it was an invite from God and I still believe that God invites us into Covenant with him to day the second thing that we see which totally blows my mind if I'm honest with you is normally in a covenant ceremony both people would be standing there between the animals right and they would make this exchange of vows and they would be bound together and they both would take responsibility for that Covenant so in a marriage or in our marriage both Sharon and I we are equally and severely liable for our marriage so a good legal phrase right there but we both take responsib ability right but in this story in Genesis Abraham's not in that mess it's God that is in it right so Abraham and God make a covenant but what this means is God takes all the responsibility for that Covenant upon himself not Abraham God takes it all which is why everyone's like going what is going on here why one Gods aren't interested in people because you know gods are angry at Humanity that's what they thought at the time but we see a God that's not only interested in humanity but is making Covenant with them and taking all the consequences on themselves this is pretty radical but it goes deeper because when you read the story The Covenant that God makes um is not just with Abraham it's with Abraham's descendants and there's this beautiful verse in the New Testament where the Apostle Paul writing to the church at Galatians said this he said if you are Christ then are you Abraham Offspring and HS according to its promise in other words right God is making a covenant with Abraham but also Abraham's descendants and Paul tells us we are Abraham's descendants so when you read this story of God making a covenant with Abraham he's making it with you and he's making it with me if you are in fact Christ right this where it starts to get really really interesting so let's look at question number two what did God actually put on the line that's a really good question the answer is simply himself he put himself on the line the story of Our Gospel is not weak it is not watered down I know that there's quite a lot of people wanting to take the crucifixion out of it there's quite a lot of people want to take the cross out of it and the blood and the sacrifice but the power of the Gospel the power of the good news is because it's a covenant ratified in the blood of Christ that's how serious it is and that's how God uh how committed to it God is right and if we fast forward from that time of Abraham uh to the time of Christ I believe as we believe as Christians that Jesus was God in human form and that he was crucified and that his body was broken uh and that he shed his blood uh making a new covenant for for us as Christians in fact at the Last Supper and this is why we're going to do communion in a few minutes if you haven't got your bread and wine go fetch it now or grape juice which is what we've got um but if we if we look at what happened uh at the Last Supper Jesus said this he he held he held up the cup and he said this cup is the New Covenant in my blood there is exact words this cup is the New Covenant in my blood and it was in that moment he wasn't just creating like some Memorial ritual that the church had to bizarrely follow as it sort of went through um it's not you know it answers a lot of questions isn't it God's not some bloodthirsty maniacal kind of weirdo actually this is blood Covenant this is sealed in the blood of Christ and we see this outworking at the time of Abraham and this New Covenant that we see through Jesus uh which we're going to get into it trust me um is for everyone every tribe every tongue every person all you have to do is put your trust in him and I think actually being part of the New Covenant changes how we act as Christians which lead us leads us on to uh our last question very nicely what does this mean for me what's this ancient Covenant got to do with us today well first and foremost I think it has everything to do with our marriages right our relationships uh and men looking at the men uh when it comes to marriage the Bible tells us that we have to love our wives as Christ loved the church now when I was doing this this morning I was speaking at the morning service all the wives started elbowing in their husbands like listen up uh we have to love our wives as Christ loved the church this is a Commandment that is deeply rooted in Covenant right because Covenant is not based on how we feel it's based on our decision to live up to the vows which we exchanged now I know right there are nuances to this um you may be single you may be married you may be in a relationship um you may have a good relationship it may be a bad relationship there may be Sparks it may be sparkless you could be separated it might not even be your fault and you could even be divorced and yes the Bible does give us uh reasons to get divorced and we call it the Three A's adultery abandonment and genuine abuse but even then it's not actually set in stone you see I think that whatever your Facebook relationship status is God has hope and God has Redemption and in fact if you haven't done so already check out Steve pemberton's story uh on the what's the story podcast um it was a great conversation I had with him him telling the story of how God redeemed his marriage even after his wife had an affair great story relationships can be hard and marriages can be hard but there is one thing that I do know and it is this right that great marriages are built around honoring our covenant vows every single day and being utterly committed to it no ifs no buts no outs right it just is what it is so Covenant changes our marriages it changes our friendships it changes our relationships especially our relationship with God now many religions are built on a sort of a transactional basis do good get good uh do bad get bad but obviously Covenant as we've been talking about is something quite different there's a well-known phrase uh in the church which says your worst day doesn't disqualify you from God's love which I I believe is utterly true but also your best day doesn't earn it either uh you're not entitled to to God's blessing because you've prayed enough uh or you know served enough at church it just doesn't work like that instead actually the call of God on our lives is to take up our cross and follow him every day right it's a it's a a journey of cost a journey of sacrifice we don't often like talking about these things we like to talk about the nice you know God's love God's kindness God's Comfort God's provision God's healing but actually we don't like to talk about blood and we don't like to talk about the cost like taking up your cross we don't like to talk about sacrifice especially if it's me that's having to sacrifice right I don't want to do that so it changes our relationship with God it puts us in a place where we're willing to uh to accept his lordship and it also changes like I said earlier it opens up I think Covenant opens up the scriptures in so many ways to us so you can read things like um I will never leave you I will never forsake you and you you can read that as like nice words on a piece of paper right you could maybe take it a bit further and go well actually that's a promise from God God has promised never to leave me or never to forsake me or you can look at that and go actually that's a covenant promise sealed in the blood of Christ so when he says I will never leave you I will never forsake you that is so true that actually Jesus has sworn by himself because there is none higher and the only way for that not to be true is if God himself died right because then he's out of it so it it just feels different and it acts different this is why Paul wrote These very famous words uh the Apostle Paul to the church at Rome he said who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation right notice that word again tribulation Jesus talked about that shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword the answer is no all of these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us some of my most favorite verses in the Bible it doesn't matter what I am going through nothing can separate me from his love your body might be broken depression might be ravaging your mind you may be hungry and or lonely or destitute and broke War may be just destroying your nation but does any of that separate you from the love of God absolutely not because in all of that we are more than conquerors through him who loved us which I think is an incredible thing and I I I think you feel that you don't always necessarily understand it but you start to feel that deep in your soul because I think Covenant affects your very identity so who I am is not who I was what I was is not who I'm going to be because I am in him I am one with Christ we are in Covenant with him in fact Paul put it this way in Galatians he said there is neither Jew nor Greek there is neither slave nor free there is neither male nor female We Are All One in Christ Jesus so just like when Sharon and I got married Jesus said the Two Become One flesh you become bound together when we become Christians when we become followers of Christ we are bound together with him in in this Covenant we become one which is it's just a beautiful thing on so many levels and it changes your identity uh old fragmented broken identities are replaced with our covenant identity with Christ so what's our response to this well fundamentally the only response that I think is appropriate is communion and when you talk about God's covenant uh you you should talk about communion and when we take communion as Christians um we are partaking in the Covenant ceremony that Jesus himself established in the Last Supper that as I mentioned the bread represents his body which was broken and the cup remember Jesus specifically said represents the New Covenant which has been ratified in my blood just as God walked alone uh in the animal pieces before Abraham Christ walked alone on that road up to Calvary and he paid it all for us so when we take uh when we drink from the cup uh we're not just remembering a historical event in fact the word remember is a covenant word we remember our place in this Covenant with Christ and so I would encourage you uh we're going to do it here now um actually I don't know how we're going to do this on the live stream do you want to pass out the um let's take out some of the bread and the wine and stuff do you guys want to hand that around if you're at home uh take your bread and your wine and just remember who this Jesus is what your position is with Jesus we are bound to God through Christ's blood not because of our perfect Perfection uh but because of his perfect sacrifice and that Covenant that we're in is so strong that not even death can now break it in fact it took death to establish it and Christ's Resurrection proves it will never be broken so take that remember that pray if you're at home with your spouse um and your marriage is going through a tough time take communion together and and and just pray together just reaffirm yourself to your marital vows that actually no we're in this we're committed to this and of course for your yourself as Christians whatever you've done bring it to Jesus as you take the blood and the wine Legend thank you yeah I'm just going to pray and then we're going to go into conversation Street Jesus I thank you for this New Covenant in which we stand the Covenant which you put into place the Covenant that invites Us in through Grace not on our performance but on your sacrifice that Covenant that changes our identity the Covenant where you took all the consequences upon yourself and I thank you Lord that your promises are now sure and true to us as we connect with you as we take uh this time just to seek you and EXP exp erience you Lord would you uh encourage Us in that conversation Street time and the rest of our time together amen so if you've got any questions please put them in the comments uh and we will try and answer them in conversation Street um but yeah oh I don't know what that was oh the communion cup um but yeah thank you so much let us know in the comments what your key takeaway was would love to hear your thoughts on this whole thing uh but I'm going to hand back to my beautiful wife uh in conversation Street massive massive subject I think I feel like we say that every week but actually Covenant is one of the main themes in the of the Bible and I feel like we don't always talk about it that much um me and Dave started our discussion before we went live and uh honestly we we could have gone on so many little rabbit Trails so we're going to try and keep it a bit more to the point um so Dave would you like to start I can ask you something more more specific if you prefer or I can leave it open no I think you know as you said um it's a massive topic and um in order not to lose anything that Matt said I think we're just going to try and focus in because Covenant at heart is about God and because he's a relational God and he wants relationship with us so I think we picked up Matt point that we wanted to focus in on marriage yeah I think one of um before the live stream I kind of looked up what is the difference between Covenant and contracts which are kind of new but one of the key things was the relational aspect of Covenant whereas contract can be quite dry can't it but Covenant is very very deeply rooted rooted in relationship yeah and we did talk I think um because we talked about how covenants were part of Abraham's culture so for him it made sense you know um if he's saying God how can I know that this is true the easiest way for God to show him it's true is by taking a practice that would had very deep meaning to him and going this is how you know but for us that's not a massive thing but all of us have potentially seen marriages maybe good marriages maybe not so good marriages so could you just expand on how Mar marriage is like a picture of that Covenant relationship that God has with us possibly um do you want me to ask you something a different question it's okay it's okay keep going no um I I think it it's it's really important to realize that there there are cultural issues here um so um Abraham would be familiar with the language and with what was being asked of him he would be um just familiar in in the whole thing what a covenant is but part of it is also illustrative when we understand you know the Hebrew culture they don't just NE seldom do they say anything in a line or a sentence it's a whole story because they're a people's story so that's why it reads you know some of the way it does um maybe we could start off by saying about marriage is that I did their marriage prep and and Sharon was really good and um it's it's it's really important because you know Sharon said we've all experienced seen um marriages um I'm talking about you know as as a Christian we've heard of marriages that have done really well and others that have struggled for a whole array of different things but um we we want to focus in on how God sees marriage e yeah definitely I thought you were going to carry on then you are setting you up there but I would say that marriage is a covenant it it is a God Covenant it is something that God desires for us he says it's good and it is supposed to be lifelong and I know you know I don't want to you know just gloss over the fact that people have problems either due to their own failings or the failings of others but um I I would just say one of the greatest things I've seen Ministry um was to do with marriage and it was a young couple who came to see us and and not not us I take it not you again no no no you probably wouldn't have wanted to say that and um and the lady had committed adultery and um there were just an amazing couple and they were totally broken they were a perfect C but they they messed up hugely but I believe the thing that got them through was yes God's grace but it was the fact that they knew that they had made a covenant before God you know to each other but God was in there and we use the phrase for them a lot that we believe that in marriage that your partner is God's perfect gift to you and when you get a revelation of that you have to respond different but you do need a revelation of it yeah yeah I I find the whole concept of marriage very useful in helping me understand how committed God is to us and that whole relation relational aspect I think because um even if you've not seen a good marriage I think there's something deep inside of us that we know we have this kind of yearning for what it should be I think we have this yearning that our spouse should be there for us should be um there for our our benefit um there to support us to encourage us to be on our side to fight our cause and so when that goes wrong it is deeply painful and I I think there's that inbuilt sense and um but the Bible says that um marriage is a picture of how Jesus is with us and it it helps us so um and yeah you want to yeah yeah yeah in in Ephesians 5 and you know if you're if you're watching this and um you know I don't apologize but you know our my Approach is purely from what scripture says and what I understand from scripture and a lot of it really doesn't fit with um lots of people's view society's view but this is scripture says this and um in verse Ephesians 5:22 it says wives submit yourself to your own husband as you do to the Lord and you know I believe with with covenants um there is a structure around them for them to work well you know and yeah I I mean that's not very PC for the UK as a you know um wife submit yourself to your own husband and then it goes on to say for the husband is the head of the wife and straight away we would have th thousands of things coming through right now but this is this is just what scripture says and it says and wife um sorry husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church his body of which he is the savior and but it says husbands love your wives yeah so it says wife you know submit and and it's not like you know um know the wrestling thing where somebody is overcome and you force your partner you force your wife or your husband sorry your wife to submit to you it's a free will thing and it comes out of love yeah I think in the past this has been abused quite a lot so we've seen the abuses of it um I think especially years ago in this country where the husbands would be like the Bible says you've got to submit whilst forgetting the other bit The crucial bit about loving your wife like Christ Lov the church how did Christ love the church he sacrificed himself so and I think the submission bit is easy if you've got someone who is laying down your life who is there just going I give you everything I do everything for you know to help you succeed for your good I want you're good that changes it completely if you've got I think in any relationship if you've got both people people playing their part both if you've got both people who are willing to be sacrificial you can have an amazing relationship if only one of them does that or none of them do that then the relationship's not great is it yeah because Brokenness comes in and Brokenness is established rather than Covenant and within the Covenant within marriage we have to be really gracious with each other um probably marriage is probably one of the the hardest things um that we have you know start and our partal because we're dealing with somebody's life somebody is in putting so much trust in you you know and they see you on your best day and your worst day and um and I think it's I think it's really important to say my my experience is regardless to what as I'm saying this as a man regardless to what the wife does it the the husb if the wife doesn't do hair parts or subit the husband still has got to love his wife it's not dependent on her fulfilling her part and I think you know that we we need to understand that and I am I think you know it is you know we hear things like give me something to you know to honor you know we hear that phrase quite a lot don't we you know I'll honor you if you give me something to honor no no no no we do it because it's the right thing to do and um I think you know marriage is challenging but it is there to perfect us and it is an illustration of Jesus Jesus's love to the church isn't it yeah and we we talked as well before about how this whole idea of sacrifice and that how incredible is it that God himself who created if you look at I love looking out at the stars and everything and Imagining the immenseness of God and then looking down to the like the finest detail in a cell and thinking wow the detail that God's concerned about and then going but this is The God Who Lays himself down for us that is amazing it it is I mean when we're walking really close to God and everything is good we're like yeah let's how it go you know but when life becomes challenging um it's a we're looking for the get out you know it's a little bit like you know when you walk into you know church building I'm haven't got them here but we've got signs saying you know fire exits and I think too often we identify the exer and I would discourage people from you know um in their marriages and in their relationships thinking well if it doesn't quite go the way I want there's an exit you know because I think when you identify something in your vulnerable moments the enemy will just give you the pr and say there's a door yeah definitely you know yeah and I think that and having an understanding of Covenant both God's covenant with us and how that then relates to marriage I think helps with that doesn't it it it puts it on a whole deeper level and we understand that level of commitment that then a from God to us that we're then able to pass that on yeah more yeah I mean people say that marriage is um 5050 that would not really be my experience you know and I'm sure if Julie was here um she'd give you a better picture um I'm trying to think what other the proportions you're going with there well yeah I mean I think what what day is it you know um am I being Mr Grumpy or whatever and you say we' got to keep it real we do have to keep it real but for me it's a matter of heart and I think we are called to give 100% yeah but the question is 100% of what am I loving you like Christ love the church that's a big one and that's a challenge eh that is a challenge yeah I think I think it sounds really nice in here when when you're surrounded by you know people that easy to get on with but then yeah well it's a bit like it you know when I get get up and I've got to go to Manchester and I'm running 15 minutes late the cat's being sick and me slippers this is an illustration cuz we haven't got a cat and Julie hasn't put Petrol in the car again um which isn't an illustration um go you know I'll get that up there space it's a safe space won't be after and he's only brave because Julie's not here right now but you know the there those little things that have really too big an impact on us that Rob us of our joy and we forget you know I remember you know because we married you guys didn't we you know and I I can remember your faces and I remember when you were walking down there and I always say you know to the groom when I give you another look around but I shouldn't have B to M like because you're never going to do what he's told anyway and and he's looking at you but it's you know yes it is a wedding day and the brides are always gorgeous but the look on his face was just wow H you know it was just wow this is what I've been waiting for this what we've been talking about it's just amazing you know and we need to remember that I you know I constantly say you know to myself and to people you need to remember that look yeah you know when you when you're feeling like you know she's driving you crazy or it's challenging um um I'm sure that's not true of you I wouldn't know what that means Dave no when there something to best and you know I I I do think we need to remember because covenants are there to be remembered yeah that is really important you know build an altar an altar of Thanksgiving an altar of Praise an altar of testimony and when you're going through your really challenging times that's when we need to go and do that recall thank you God for your faithfulness I thank you that you're steadfast when I'm not yeah you know and and thank you God because of your faithfulness we will come through these challenging times and a lot of marriages I think you know a lot of the challenges they face they can be through our own stupidity but also through external stuff you know but regardless I still think you know as a man I have to say am I loving jly like Christ loved the church you know and and that's a hard question it's not one you want to ask because you you know the answers no I'll ask Julie later well I'll tell you I don't see you know something yeah um just try to check in time I think we uh yeah we've only got a couple of minutes left um just um bringing that whole Covenant thing thinking more of our relationship with God um I know because there's this whole element of Grace there isn't there it's like Jesus took our punishment on himself and um I know a Muslim friend once said to me well you know if Jesus Took the punishment and you can just get forgiven for anything what is the incentive to live right which I think is quite a common question for Muslims because if you understand the grace of God enough it does lead to that question but the um Paul picked up on this and was saying hang on does that you know shall we keep on sinning just because you know God's going to forgive us Dave would you like to pick up on that one just to finish yeah I I I would say you know when I hear people say that I'm like well you don't really understand repentance you know um you know repentance for me there has to be a sense of remor something that is beyond saying sorry and you carry on and you you you think I could do that again tomorrow but it's okay I can I can repent you know and that's that's not repentance at all you know quite often that's sorry you've been caught oh you know and um I think repentance comes out of a sense of understanding you grieved the heart of God and um you know I think we saying earlier um when was the last time you heard a talk on sin we don't have sin anymore we have issues so people will never know how to deal with it and they'll never know how to repentance we have to realize that actually Grieves the heart of God and it will rob me of my intimacy with God yeah and my wife yeah because we started off by saying that covenants are to do with um relationship they're not just a contract and all throughout the Bible we see God forming these different covenants with different people with the end to have this relationship with all people and I think like you said that's the key bit because in a relationship if you actually love the other person you don't want to hurt them you don't want to do things that's going to cause them pain whereas if it's just a case of a contract it's just like who cares but I think we'll finish on this note really that the whole story of the Bible is about God wanting a relationship with people a loving relationship where he's already willing to lay down his life for us but the other way it it works both ways like a good marriage if you both lay down your lives for each other you've got a good thing going on but if you have if one person insists on just walking their own way the whole time and upsetting the other that's not a good relationship but this is the good news that the creator of the whole universe wants to be in relationship with us totally amazing so I think we will finish on that lovely thought for today tell people what up next week oh yeah actually I don't know what's coming up you can do that what's coming next week Mar uh that's on I do know as far as I'm aware you're speaking next week I forgot yeah it's me yeah I'm speaking next week uh continuing in our in our um journey through Genesis yeah so you're looking at the sacrifice aren't you of Abraham talking about we're still talking about Abraham and uh looking at something very difficult that God asked him to do and kind of looking at the question is God cruel so oh it's going to be an interesting topic the other thing that I'd say is if you're watching this online um and you would like to come say how's it come say hello to us then in the comments we are going to put a link is that right we've done that well done zo uh we've put a comment where you can come join us on Google meets go. crow. Church MeetMe um I thought I'd spell that out given today's topic uh different type of meat um come meet us in in Google rooms we'd love to meet you would love to say how's it and howdy uh they that link will be open in a couple of minutes as soon as we finish so um yeah come meet us come say how's it it's in the comments on YouTube and on Facebook I don't think it's in the comments on Instagram for some reason we can't post comments on Instagram while we're live streaming anyway uh go. crow. Church meet be great to see you in there goodbye have a great week be blessed
