GOD’S SPECIAL AGREEMENT. God has made a special agreement with his people.  Within this agreement, God offers special promises. Is this agreement offered to a certain group of people, and if so, who are those people?  (Split)

We are living in very challenging and stressful times in which possession, money, and wealth matter to all. However, if not careful, the pursuit of wealth will pull us away from what really matters, which is our relationship with God and one another. 

Satan uses the things of this world to tempt and lure us to him. However, the Word of God provides us with the guidance needed to avoid his trap. In the Bible, God has provided us with practical guidance on how to live above the stresses of life, and we are given instructions on how to manage the resources He has given us.

In this series, from a biblical perspective, we will look at how to manage effectively the resources God has given us while prioritizing what really matters.

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Asking For God’s Guidance

Holy Father, as we search your Word, the Bible, as if searching for hidden treasure, we ask that You through the power of your Holy Spirit enlighten us regarding your teachings so that your blessings may fall upon us. In Jesus the Name Amen

MEMORY VERSE:

In Deuteronomy 28:1 and 2 God established His agreement with his people, the Israelites as a nation. In this agreement, they were tasked with certain responsibilities.  They fail to keep their end of the covenant. Thus, as a nation of people, they forfeited the covenant agreement.  Because of what Jesus did on the cross, today this same covenant is offered to each of us individually. 

1 “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth.

2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God:. (Deuteronomy 28:1-2)

Sometimes these covenants are referred to as contracts or agreements, and most commonly they are called promises. As a contract, most of God’s promises have two parts. Legally speaking, most contracts are bilateral, meaning that both parties have a part to play in the contractual agreement. So, both God and humans have a part to perform.

An example of a two-part promise or agreement is “If you do this, then I, God, will do that.” Or, “I, God, will do this, if you will do that.”

A rarer type of covenant is what is called a unilateral covenant. This type of promise has only one part. An example of a one-part promise is: “I, God, will do this, even if you don’t do anything.”

Only a few of God’s promises to humanity are unilateral. For example, regardless of what we do or don’t do, we can trust that God will give us sunshine or rain, just as it is expressed in Mathew 5:45.

“ ‘He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust’ ” (Matthew 5:45, NKJV)

Another example of a unilateral promise or covenantal agreement is after the Flood, God promised humanity and every animal on the earth that there would never be another flood to cover all the earth this promise is found in Genesis 9:9–16.

9 “And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you,

10 and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth.

11 Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

12 And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:

13 I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.

14 It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud;

15 and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.

16 The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” (Genesis 9:9-16)

And, another example of a unilateral covenantal agreement is God’s promise in Genesis 8:22 that “ ‘While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease’ ” (Gen. 8:22, NKJV).

 In other words, God promises that regardless of what we do the seasons will come and go.

In this series of lessons, we will study some very important two-part or bilateral covenants or promises between God and His people. May as we study and learn what part we have in the agreement we will seek to keep it by the Grace of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, in the Name of Jesus.

Here we have looked at several unilateral agreements. In these agreements, it is understood that we do not need to do anything for God to keep these promises.

But salvation is a bilateral agreement. A bilateral agreement requires action from both parties. What must we do to ensure that this agreement is carried out? Find out on Day 2: The Salvation Covenant

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