“Live the Love” – FBC Morning Light (9/25/2023)

Covenant Loyalty Must Be Lived Out

Well, a good Monday morning to you, and here we go, beginning the last week of the month of September. The third quarter of 2023 is about to wrap up, and it's already autumn. So hope you're enjoying the autumn weather thus far.

Well, to listen today, we're reading in Isaiah 57 and 58, 1 Timothy 1 and Proverbs chapter 20. I want to zero in on a verse in Proverbs 20. You know, I was about to say, every couple that comes to the marriage altar enters into a covenant that they're going to remain married to one another for the rest of their lives.

That isn't so true anymore, I guess. I mean, hopefully, church weddings, that kind of a commitment and covenant commitment will be made. But of course, in a modern day, a lot of modern couples are modifying such vows as to say something like, as long as we both love each other, or something crazy like that.

But anyway, I think you get the point that traditionally speaking, a couple comes to the marriage altar and they make a vow that they will be true to one another and be married to one another until death do them part.

Now, that kind of a covenant involves, well, what the Old Testament Hebrew word is hesed. It's a loving commitment to the covenant, loving faithfulness to the covenant. So the practice of hesed, for example, would involve the spouses making whatever sacrifices need to be made for one another, for the other person's benefit, and even if it means great sacrifice for themselves and not for their own benefit, necessarily.

That's one of the hallmarks of covenant love. Well, the reason I bring that up is, Proverbs 20, verse 6 says, most men will proclaim his own hesed. He'll proclaim his own steadfast love. He'll proclaim his own loyalty to the covenant.

But then it goes on to ask, but who can find a faithful man? In other words, it's not enough to proclaim steadfast love, it actually needs to be lived out. So it's not enough for a husband and wife, a bride and a groom, to stand at the altar and proclaim steadfast love, proclaim faithfulness to the covenant until death do us part.

It's got to be lived out on the day-to-day grind of making a life together, as the vows go on to say, in sickness and in health, in poverty and in wealth, whatever comes, till death do us part. We will be true to one another, and we will love one another, and we will be committed to one another.

The Failure to Live Out Loyalty

Yeah, it's not enough to proclaim loyalty. It needs to be lived out. We actually see some examples of failure to live out proclaimed loyalty in the disciples, don't we? Obvious example would be Judas.

At some point along the way, when he's chosen to be one of the Twelve, there would have been a commitment on his part that would have been a proclaiming of loyalty to Jesus as a follower of Jesus, but then when all was said and done, he betrayed him, turned his back on him.

And then of course there's Peter, and Peter is probably the most vivid example because we have recorded in the Scriptures his proclaiming of his steadfast love, his proclaiming of his loyalty. Remember the night of the betrayal, the Last Supper.

Jesus said, all of you are going to forsake me and leave me. And Peter was adamant. He said, listen, if everybody else forsakes you, I'm not going to forsake you. I will remain true to you. I'll be true if I have to die.

And then of course, you know what happened just a few hours later. One denial after another. And of course, Peter recognized his unfaithfulness, and it drove him to tears and to repentance. Yes, it's not enough to proclaim your loyalty.

You have to live it out. Think of that or apply that in every dimension of life. It's not enough to proclaim your loyalty to your spouse, you have to live it out. It's not enough to proclaim your loyalty to your local church, you have to live it out.

Not enough to proclaim loyalty to a friend, you have to live it out. Not enough to proclaim loyalty to your work, to the company you work for, you actually have to live it out and work hard and be diligent about your task.

And on and on you can go in every area of life. Yes, it's not enough to proclaim steadfast love. It must be lived. So let's ask the Lord to help us live out covenant loyalty. And so Father, to that end, we pray this morning and just ask that you would help us to be a people who are faithful to our word and faithful to you, faithful to the covenants and the commitments that we make.

This we pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well listen, have a good rest of your Monday. I hope your week gets off to a great start. God bless.