361: Starting Over | Dave Sloop

Introduction

Thank you, Brian. You could be seated. I thought Brian had a few more verses to go there. Here we go. Well, I’m so glad that you guys are here today. My name is Dave Sloop, and I am on staff here. I’m in the process of becoming one of our pastors. Very excited about it. And, you know what, guys? I just have an announcement to make. It’s something I’m very excited about I haven’t shared with you yet.

Have you heard of this book, A Praying Life, and the conference is coming up on March? Okay. There’s a lot of excitement. A lot of excitement. I actually wanted to share with you a conversation. This is something we’ve been talking about for quite some time, if you haven’t picked up on my sarcasm. But after the Ash Wednesday service, Ginny Noble came up to me and she said, Dave, when I first read the brochure about the conference that’s coming up, she said, I didn’t think it would be something that I was interested in. But because you guys kept talking about it, I got the book and I read the book, and I couldn’t put it down. And I was so excited about it that I got it for a friend, and we’re coming to the conference.

And she said, you know, the thing about this is that it’s not so much a conference or a book about prayer as it is a book about life. And that struck me because here’s the deal. I would be willing to bet that there’s probably not a ton of us that often had the instinct, you know, I need to get better at prayer. If I was to ask you, is there room for improvement on prayer? We would all say, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. But we don’t necessarily have the instinct like, yeah, this is really something I want to work on. But there’s not one person in this room that would not say, that has not had the thought, I want to get better at life. And this is a conference that I really do think is going to teach us how to live in the rhythm that God designed us to live in. It’s the way He designed life to function and to work.

So, if your calendar is open on March, here’s what I would encourage you to think. Not, should I go? But if you don’t have anything already on your calendar, why wouldn’t you go? Why wouldn’t you just create that space to see what God might do with that time? Okay? Promise, that’s the last time I’ll talk about it, maybe.

Engaging with the Seasons of Weather and Life

Okay. Hey. Who is ready for some warmer weather? Anybody? It is chilly this morning. In honor of warmer months ahead, I thought I would share a story. This is the first time I ever went to the ocean, ever went to the beach with my family. Do you remember that first experience when you saw the ocean for the first time? I was about seven years old. This was the early eighties, and my family, we lived in Georgia. But my dad had a friend who had a condo in Hilton Head. And so we piled into the station wagon, and we made the long trek to Hilton Head Island.

And instead of going to our condo, which was a quarter of a mile from the beach, my dad just drove straight to the public parking, and we ran out, and we sprinted fully clothed into the ocean. And I just could not believe how expansive and massive it was, and just the sand and the beach, and I was so excited. And to think that we had an entire week there, and we had such a blast.

And my parents, you know, they had some guidelines. They said, Dave, you can enjoy yourself on the beach, but if you can’t see us, then you’ve gone too far. You can go out on the water, you can play in the sand, but you need to stay in our line of sight. And I was like, no problem. Because the beach was brand new, and I was so excited to experience all that it had to offer. But a few days in, I start wondering what’s down at the other end of the beach. I got curious, and I started to think, you know, I’m seven years old. I deserve some autonomy.

And so when my dad wasn’t looking, I just started making the trek down to the other end of the beach. And if you’ve ever, like, run away from home, you know, that initial rush of exhilaration, like, you’ve broken free from the chains of just, you know, your parents’ supervision. And so I am excited, and I’m checking things out. But after a while, I realized, you know, this part of the beach is absolutely no different than the part of the beach that we’re at. And I start to miss that comfort of my dad’s protection. And so I turn around and I start making the trek back. But as a little kid, I got disoriented, and I thought, did I go too far? I turned around and I start walking back, and suddenly, I’m just completely turned around, and I’m lost. And in that, kind of fear of being lost, I started to panic, and I started to cry.

These two college girls, they felt compassion on me. They saw me crying, and they invited me to sit with them on their towel. It was the last time that any college girl would ever invite me to sit with them. I didn’t realize, like, this was a moment to hang on to. But the truth is their comfort didn’t do anything for me because I needed my dad, his protection. And after a few moments, I would hear my dad walking down. Can you imagine, by the way, being a parent having lost it? I have a six-year-old. My dad must have been panicking. He was walking up and down the beach going, David.

And finally, I hear my dad’s voice, and I see him. I leave those college girls behind, and I start running for my dad in slow motion, and Chariots of Fire came on in the background, and we were just sprinting towards each other. And in this beautiful moment, right there at the water’s edge, my dad embraces me, and he bends me over his knee. And he just, he didn’t really do that. He didn’t really do that. But that story has served for me not only as a metaphor for my childhood but as a metaphor for my whole life.

I have a wandering heart. A heart that looks down at the other end of the beach and wonders, what am I missing? It is a heart that is constantly looking for greener grass, better things, something richer, fuller, better. And here’s the deal. I don’t know every single one of you here, but I do know something about every single one of you here. It’s that you have a wandering heart too. It is the essence of being human. You have a vacancy, a perceived emptiness inside you, and you go to get it filled. You look for something to give you a sense of worth and significance and purpose or joy or adventure or love or pleasure. We look for something to satisfy. We look for it in our work, our career, through relationship, through love, through experience.

And here’s the deal. If you don’t find something to satisfy it and fulfill it, then you will go and find something to distract it or to numb it. It is just the essence of being human.

The Covenant in Genesis 9

This morning, we’re going to be looking at Genesis chapter nine. And this is a significant passage because it is the first covenant that God explicitly makes with humanity. It’s the first time that this word covenant is mentioned in the Bible. But in order to understand the significance of this covenant, we have to understand what happens in the first eight and a half chapters of the book because there’s a lot of wandering that has taken place so far.

So I’m just going to do a quick summary of the first eight and a half chapters of Genesis. You ready?

In Genesis chapter one, God creates the heavens and the earth, and it is perfect. It is exactly as He wanted it to be. And then He creates human beings, male and female, He created them, and He put them in the garden, and He gave them dominion over everything. And He said, everything is here for you to enjoy, be fruitful, and multiply. Make it better. And so they did for a little while.

But you see, eventually, Eve, she started looking down at the other end of the garden. She started wondering what is God withholding? Because God had only laid out one stipulation. The stipulation was this, do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Because in the moment that you eat of it, you will surely die. But Eve started to wonder, what’s so special about that tree? And she wandered near the tree. And eventually, she was tempted by Satan. And here’s what he said to her.

Did God really say that you would surely die if you ate from this tree? — Genesis 3:1-4

And she said, he did say that. And he said, you will surely not die. And then Satan said, in fact, when you eat of this tree, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God. And when she saw that the fruit was good for eating and it was pleasing to the eye, she ate it. And she gave it to Adam, and he ate it too. And in that moment, all hell broke loose. Sin entered the world.

It’s interesting because this first act of sin is a seemingly benign thing. I mean, she just ate a piece of fruit. An outsider looking in would say, what is the big deal? But we have to understand what was the attitude and heart that was guiding that first mistake.

Eve believed two things primarily. Number one, she believed, I know better than God. It was very clear to her what God has said, but some here, where along the way, she decided, I know better. But it wasn’t just that. I know better. It was, I can do better than God.

Did you hear Satan’s second invitation to Eve? He said, it’s not just that you won’t die if you eat it. It’s that you won’t really live until you do. There is something that tastes better than what God has given you, what He has offered. And she took it, hook, line, and sinker. She took the bait. She knew better, and she thought she could do better.

And what’s crazy is that this seemingly benign act in chapter three, it would evolve. And in chapter four, it becomes a half-hearted sacrifice, and then jealousy, and then murder. And then by chapter five, there’s a guy named Lamech who has multiple wives that he treats like property, and he has bragged about how many people he’s killed and how much more powerful he is than God. Humanity has come off the rails.

And in chapter six, listen to what God says about His creation:

The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. — Genesis 6:5

It’s a big statement. Only evil all the time. God created man on the sixth day, and by the sixth chapter, He regretted it. And He said, I will wipe humanity from the face of the earth. But there was one who found favor with God. His name was Noah. And God spared him from the coming judgment. Him and his family, they all climbed on a boat with all of the animals, and God spared them through the flood.

And then in chapter eight, the ark opens, and humanity gets a second shot. It’s interesting that it’s chapter eight, too. How many days did creation take? Six days to create; God rested on the seventh day. A new creation here in chapter eight. It is unapologetically a Genesis 2.

If you look at Genesis 2, He says, be fruitful and multiply. Work the ground. Make it better, and there’s something you’re not supposed to eat. And here in Genesis chapter nine at the beginning, you see God say to Noah, you have dominion. Be fruitful and multiply. Make it better, and there’s something you’re not supposed to eat.

God is saying, we’re going to try this again. And if we are paying attention, the question that we start to wonder is, will this have a different outcome? What is different about this second Adam? Will he be any better than the first? And the answer is no. He will not. But there will be a different outcome. And the reason there is a different outcome is because what God establishes in verses eight through 17 in what’s called a covenant.

God decides that He is going to bring about His redemptive purposes for humanity through covenant relationship. That is what a covenant is. It is a relationship. It is a relationship that is accompanied by binding promises and signs and ceremonies. When we think of a covenant, most of us think of a marriage, which is accompanied by a ceremony, vows, and a sign and a symbol.

God is going to make a covenant with His people to bring about His purposes of redemption. There are five major covenants that happen. It starts with Noah, then Abraham, then Moses, then David, then Jesus. God is bringing about His purposes of redemption through this covenant.

The Covenant in Genesis 9

Now, in verses eight through 11, we see the substance of this covenant. In verses 12 through 17, we see the sign of the covenant. So let me read what happens in these verses.

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and with every living creature that was with you, the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you, every living creature on earth. I will establish my covenant with you. Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood. Never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth. — Genesis 9:8-11

What was the promise? What was the covenant that God made? I will not destroy you. God says, I promise to withhold judgment. This is a covenant of mercy.

Do you know what mercy is? Mercy is when you don’t get what you do deserve. That’s what mercy is. Some of us have children that are frequent beneficiaries of our merciful pardon. God says, I’m going to extend mercy. Now, God is not saying, I’m going to overlook your sin. He’s saying, I’m going to delay judgment. I’m going to stay my hand.

Because here’s the deal. When God said to Adam and Eve, in the day that you eat of the tree, you will surely die, that is still true. The wages of sin is still death. God is saying, I’m going to be merciful. I’m going to be patient in hopes that you might turn from your wicked and evil ways. He makes a promise, and it’s a promise of mercy.

Now, notice some characteristics about this covenant. Did you notice who the covenant is aimed at? I’m going to read it again. It’s kind of humorous when you read it, how excessive it is. He says, I established my covenant with you and your descendants, with every living creature, the birds, the livestock, the wild animals, all that came out of the ark. And by the end of this chapter, it’s every living thing on earth.

The first characteristic of this covenant is that it is universal. It is for everyone and everything. There is not a living creature on planet earth that is not a beneficiary of this covenant, which by the way is still intact to this day. It is universal.

But secondly, it is unilateral. God says, I will establish. Twice He says it. He’s not looking for Noah’s input or feedback or opinion. They don’t agree on the terms together. God said, these are the terms. And thirdly, it’s unconditional. Did you notice that? There’s nothing He expects Noah to do. There’s no good thing Noah needs to do in order to receive or accrue the benefits, and there’s no bad thing Noah could do to lose the benefits. It is unconditional.

You know, this word covenant, it actually comes from another Hebrew word that means to cut. And one of the greatest pictures of this is in Genesis chapter 15 where God had made a covenant, His second covenant with Abraham. And He had promised Abraham land and seed—that there would be an heir and that he would be an inheritor of some land. And Abraham says to God, how will I know that you will do it? And God says, bring me a heifer and a ram and a goat and a dove and a pigeon. So he did. And then Abraham, without God saying so, he cut all those in half and separated the pieces because Abraham knew what God wanted to do.

This was a custom in that day, that if you were going to make an oath or a covenant with someone, you would separate these animal pieces. You’d cut them in two, and then the two people that were agreeing upon the covenant, they would walk through the pieces together. And what it signified was, may it be to me as these animals if I do not follow through on my end of the bargain. And do you know what God did for Abraham? He caused Abraham to fall asleep, and then He came, and He walked through the pieces. It was an unconditional covenant. He said, I’m going to do it, and you don’t have to lift a finger. I am going to accomplish it. And it’s the same thing here. God says, there’s nothing for you to do. I am going to unconditionally follow through on my promise to not destroy.

Therefore, it is undeserved. It is not just unconditional. It is undeserved. Not only do they not get what they do deserve, but they’re going to get something they don’t deserve. And that’s what grace is. This is a covenant of grace.

And here’s what the covenant of grace is for Noah. I’m going to let you and your descendants live in my house. You can live here rent free. Explore it. Enjoy it. I’m going to let you breathe my air, feel the warmth of my sunshine. I’m going to let you interact with people that I’ve made. Every single one of them is unique and different, but they all reflect my image. And every time that we laugh or we love or we look at a sunset or a mountain peak, it is meant to evoke a sense of wonder and worship at the one who made it all. But God says, even if you don’t acknowledge that it came from me, I will not pay you as your sins deserve. I’m going to withhold my hand of judgment. I will be patient.

Now, here’s the bad news. This is common grace, and it is extended to every single one of us and every living thing on planet earth to this day. But the problem with common grace is that it is ineffective. I know that’s not a word, but it starts with a u. Ineffective. It’s unproductive. It’s un— it doesn’t work, is the point.

This covenant ends in verse 17 and in verse 18, we see Noah getting wasted, and his son dishonors him, and sin runs rampant. And in Genesis chapter 11, we see the Tower of Babel. It is a united humanity saying, I will be like God, and I will erect a tower to the heavens so that I don’t need to obey Him. It is humanity saying, I know better, and I can do better.

So the question is, why on earth would God make this covenant of common grace with the people who are not going to change? That is the substance of the covenant. It is a covenant of mercy.

The Sign of the Covenant

Now we’re going to look at the sign of the covenant to see perhaps what it is that God is doing. In verse 12, He says, and God said, this is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come. I’ve set my rainbow in the clouds and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

God says, I’m going to give you a covenant sign. Now, when we think of a covenant sign, I’ve already referenced it, but one of the most familiar ones for us is the wedding ring. Emily and James are going to get married soon. Natalie and Jacob are going to get married soon. And likely, the pastor is going to look at you, and he’s going to say, exchange rings. And when you do, he’s going to say, in the same way that this ring is a never-ending circle, as far as this life is concerned, your love for one another is to be endless, and the wedding vows unbroken. It’s a symbol.

When you look at it, it’s supposed to tell you something about the promise that you made. When I look at this ring, I remember, I belong to someone else. I belong to Melissa. And it’s a sign to the rest of the world too, by the way, that I’m off the market. Okay? No one’s asking, but if they do, just tell them.

I was sitting over there. Dan was reading the scripture, and Nancy says, ladies, he’s taken. Just know that. Okay? It’s a sign of the covenant.

What is this sign of the rainbow supposed to cause Noah to remember? Two things. Number one, he would likely remember that God has promised to be merciful to us. God has promised that He will not give us what we deserve. But secondly, Noah would remember the costliness of sin. Because Noah had passed through the flood, he remembered the judgment that came because of the wickedness on the earth. He would remember the costliness of sin, and he would remember the promised mercy of God.

But what’s interesting is that the Bible is pretty clear that this sign is not meant as a reminder for Noah. Look with me at verse 14. Whenever I bring the clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.

Whenever I bring the clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind on the earth. — Genesis 9:14-17

Do you hear the language there? It’s my bow. It’s my covenant. And when I see it, I will remember. Now, does God forget His promises? He does not. But He wants us to know that when He sees that rainbow, it reminds Him of something else. And it reminds Him of the same two things it reminded Noah of: that He promised to be merciful and the costliness of sin.

You know, Tim Keller wrote a book called Reason for God? And in it, he talked about this idea that there’s no such thing as forgiveness that doesn’t cost us anything. Forgiveness always costs something. If you offend me, either it’s going to cost me or it’s going to cost you. You will have to repay the debt that you incurred when you offended me. Or if I decide to forgive you, then I absorb that payment. But there is no such thing as forgiveness without cost.

I have a friend here who goes to this church, and they were pulling out of the parking lot here at Church of the Holy Spirit a few months ago, and inadvertently clipped the corner of my car, and it broke my side-view mirror. They were contrite about it. They apologized, I forgave them. But it didn’t change the fact that my side mirror was broken. They had to repair it, but being the gracious, godly man that I am, I said, no. No. It’s okay. I’ll absorb it.

But here’s the deal. Them saying sorry, and even me absorbing it, it doesn’t change the fact that my wind—my side mirror—is still broken. They to repair it, but being the gracious, godly man that I am, I said, no. No. It’s okay. I’ll absorb it.

But here’s the point. When God looks upon this rainbow, it reminds Him that He’s promised to be merciful. And therefore, it reminds Him of one who is coming, who would absorb the debt that had been incurred.

You see, in Noah’s day, God looked at the whole world and there was one who found favor with Him. There was one righteous man, and God spared him in the destruction of many. Thousands of years later, there would be another man named Jesus. And in Jesus’ day, God would find one righteous man, and He would destroy Him in the saving of many.

How is it that this sign of the rainbow reminds God of that one who was to come? Do you know, in the Hebrew, that word rainbow doesn’t actually mean rainbow? Do you know what it means? It means war bow. It is a weapon of war. It is a weapon of vengeance and wrath and justice, and that is how it is used everywhere else throughout the Hebrew scriptures.

Do you notice that when God says, I place my bow, my war bow in the sky, it is not pointing any longer at Earth where it belongs. Where is it pointed? It’s pointed to the heart of heaven. When God looks at that bow, He doesn’t simply remember His covenant with Noah. It’s pointing to a better covenant with someone else who’s coming, someone who would take the bow, the arrow that we deserved, and would be pierced for our transgressions.

You see, God remembers a new and better covenant that is coming for you and me. And it’s a covenant of grace too, but it’s better than the first one. You see, the first one is a common grace, and it does not change you. But the new covenant that comes, it transforms.

In Ezekiel 36:26, that’s precisely what it says. God says, there’s a day coming when I’m going to sprinkle water on you and clean you. See, the first time water came, it wiped them out. It destroyed them in a flood. The second time the water comes, it cleanses. And then He says, I will take away your heart of stone. I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put a new spirit in you. And then, get this, I will cause you to obey me.

The first Adam couldn’t obey. The second Adam couldn’t obey. But there will be a final Adam coming, and he will obey perfectly. But then he will trade places with us. He will give you credit for his righteous life, and he will take the penalty for your unrighteous life. He will take God’s arrow, the arrow that you and I deserve so that we can be set free.

Application and Response

Some of us today, we need to remember. We need to look back at the ring and remember what God has done. And I think that primarily, we need to remember two things. Number one, I would be willing to bet that there are some people here that are being crushed under the weight of some sin that He has already dealt with. You are living and swimming in some shame that God has already paid for.

But secondly, we need to remember that something actually happened, that when we accepted Him by faith, that it wasn’t just philosophical, it wasn’t just intellectual—that something actually came in to transform—that I am a new creation. When I accept His covenant of grace, that He comes and lives in me, He gives me a new heart, and I begin to change from the inside out.

Now, we are still prone to wander. There’s a song that we’re about to sing, and my favorite line from this song: Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Doesn’t that resonate with you? You and I, we still live in a body of death, the Bible calls it, and we sometimes forget. But the way that we come back home is we fix our eyes on the one who took our place. We don’t earn it. It’s an unconditional covenant. We come back and receive it. We look at the ring. We remind ourselves of what is true.

And for those of you that are here today that have never by faith trusted in this one who took your place already, all you have to do today is say, yes. You receive it. And He will come and He will live inside you and change you from the inside out.

We’re going to respond today a little differently than we normally do. Normally, we take some time for quiet reflection. The rails will still be open if people would like to pray with someone. There would be someone down there. But here’s what I’m going to ask us to do.

In just a moment, we’re going to stand up, and we’re going to sing this song, Come Now, Fount of Every Blessing, and we’re going to respond with worship. And I don’t know if you’ve ever been somewhere where people actually are just shouting at the top of their lungs, singing in worship for what God has done, but it makes the hair on your neck stand up. And I wonder if we might do that this morning—that we would actually worship God.

In fact, Brian, I’m going to ask that we bring the lights down low in the house so that people can feel a little more comfortable to sing and not look around to see who’s looking at them. But we’re going to just stand up now, and Eric is going to lead us in this song. Go ahead and stand up, and I’ll pray to close.

Father, thank you for this time together. I pray that now as we come to worship and reflect and remember what you have done, I pray that you would receive praise, honor, and glory. Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for taking our place.

Christ’s name. Amen.