When Two Agree: Unlocking the Blessings of Covenant | Rev. Elisha Satvinder


Summary & Key points
In this sermon, Ps. Elisha examines the biblical concept of covenant, highlighting the importance of God’s mission for humanity as seen from Genesis to Revelation. He emphasizes that covenant is not merely about rules but a divine relationship where humanity, created in God's image, is invited to partner with God in stewarding creation and living purposefully. Contrary to traditional views that begin with the fall in Genesis 3, Ps. Elisha stresses that the story of humanity begins in Genesis 1, with creation itself and humanity’s inherent purpose in God’s plan.
  • God’s Covenant and Human Responsibility: Ps. Elisha emphasizes that covenant is sacred and comes with blessings and responsibilities. He reflects on the covenants with Adam, Noah, and Abraham as examples of God’s commitment and humanity’s duty to follow God’s boundaries. He explains that covenant requires obedience, mutual respect, and partnership with God, urging the congregation to reflect on their responsibilities within this divine agreement.
  • Marriage as a Covenant Example: Using marriage as an analogy, Ps. Elisha illustrates how the covenant relationship in marriage reflects the relationship between God and humanity. He calls for mutual respect, partnership, and shared responsibility, challenging both men and women to honor their roles within marriage. He reminds that marriage should reflect God’s original design, where both husband and wife support each other as equal partners in fulfilling God’s purpose.
  • Boundaries and Blessings: Ps. Elisha discusses the significance of boundaries in maintaining harmony and fulfilling God’s covenant. He explains how crossing boundaries leads to personal and societal consequences, while respecting boundaries aligns with God’s purpose and brings blessings. He reflects on how obedience to God’s principles impacts not only individual lives but also families, communities, and the church.
In conclusion, Ps. Elisha calls the congregation to live in covenantal harmony with God, respecting His boundaries and walking together with Him in unity. He encourages everyone to reflect on their responsibilities in this sacred relationship and to seek a closer alignment with God’s purpose, underscoring the transformative power of genuine agreement and commitment in all areas of life.
Show Transcript

Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Okay, I thought I missed something.

Okay, you know, we continue in our pursuit of looking at Genesis and understanding this place of covenant and understanding this place of our relationship with God—where we missed it, how it got all messed up. We’re just laying simple layers, simple foundations, but as you will see in the weeks to come, when you look back, you’ll understand it’s a better picture, and we understand what God is doing.

You know, when we hear this word “mission,” many times in traditional mindsets, we think of packing our bags, going to another country, or going to Oras Kong, or somewhere else to do work. But when we look at the true sense of that meaning, actually, that’s not what it is. That is just something that we do. But when we frame this word called “the mission of God” or “the purpose of God,” then it’s a bigger picture. It’s a clearer picture of what we see from Genesis chapter 1 all the way to Revelation. It’s a flow. It’s a continual story. It’s a narrative.

For most people, for most Christians, the Christian walk starts in Genesis 3—the fall. And that’s not true. It starts in creation. God creating, God doing all of that. God creating men and women, God doing all that is necessary, inviting us into His purpose, His plan, and working through all that entire thing. And that’s when we understand it better. Because if we start at chapter 3, it doesn’t work. Then we get stuck with different things.

So hopefully, in the next few weeks, we are able to look at that a bit better.

So we’re going to look at a few scriptures that we’ve been looking at. Genesis 1:27-30:

So God created mankind in His own image.

Now that is such a loaded verse or one sentence—so loaded. God created mankind in His image. Today, we look at the distortion of the image of men. God created mankind in His own image. In the image of God, He created them—and just pause there, okay—male and female He created them.

When we think of this, male and female, He created them. God created mankind. Everyone from a little child when it’s born—that child is born created in the image of God. When we look at humanity, humanity is created in the image of God.

What is the image of God? IM, isn’t it? They use that word. What is the image of God? We all look at images, isn’t it? We have an image, a professional image. We always are conscious of image. But go all the way back—what was it originally?

So here: God created mankind in His own image. In the image of God, He created them. Male and female, He created them. God blessed them. He just didn’t create and say, “Okay, bye, see you around,” you know. And God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful.” It kicks in here. God creates. God creates with purpose. And He says, “Look, now I invite you. Together, you need to do a few things here. Let’s do this together.”

So God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number. Fill the Earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds of the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

God created man, right? God created the Earth, correct? God created everything that is on the Earth. So, and I’m going to drop you a text tomorrow inviting you to pray with me on something that I’m going to do in the second week of September.

Can you imagine—you’ve seen—some of you have heard me talk about this before. Can you think of a triangle? Right at the top is God, is whom? Then just think—whichever side of the triangle at the bottom is creation, okay—creation, mankind, okay. Creation. On the other side of the triangle is Earth. Earth and everything, okay? So you see God, man, and land. God is the owner of both. Man, created by God, is the steward of what God created. So God invites us in His creation as well to take care. But we see—we butcher the Earth, isn’t it? Yeah.

So He blessed. He said, “Rule. All this is yours, and you’re supposed to care over it—the birds of the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Have we done okay?

Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.”

Just keep going on.

“And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

We see men. You know, sin entered. What happened? God says, “Now you’ve got a leaf.” The multiplication—Cain, Abel—all the different things that happened. And then again, man, as he multiplies, begins to do what he wants to do. Eve did it as an independent person. Adam also—you know, all that compromise.

But I will establish my covenant with you. He’s speaking to Noah. “And you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.” After the flood, God speaks. It’s like a reset. We talked about it a few weeks ago. Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the Earth.” But remember, this time, He says they could eat meat, all right? So, it goes on.

So we have this thing—creation and God blessing. God says, “There’s a covenant. Come. There’s an agreement. We are in. We are in partnership. I’m your God. You’re my people. Let’s work together.” Then God says, “But there are responsibilities. As much as I bless you, as much as I do this, you have a responsibility.” So whether it’s a mission or purpose, God invites us.

When we go to Genesis 12, we then come across this person Abraham. So towards the end of chapter 11, he’s already coming in, and God speaks to Abraham and says, “The Lord said to Abraham”—he’s not yet Abraham, huh—”Go from your country, your people, and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse. And all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you.”

Now, God was not just speaking to a specific people, as many times we would like to look at it. But this is also speaking about Jesus coming, because only through Him the earth is blessed. Amen? Okay. Not as selected few as some would think. All right? So, the earth will be blessed through you.

So God’s initial call to Abraham made him a promise. He said, “I’m going to bless you. Make you a great nation.” Then we see in Genesis 15, God saying, “You know, your descendants multiply. I’m going to make a covenant with you.”

So this word covenant—what is covenant? What is covenant? We hear it in church. We hear it in different places—marriage covenant, agreement, whatever it is. What is the meaning of covenant? God—we hear God is a covenant-making God, a covenant-keeping God. We are supposed to be covenant people. What does it mean?

Well, I’ve tried to capture it in two slides. It is sacred. It is sacred—why? God is holy. Amen? So it’s sacred, a binding agreement initiated by God with humanity, with you and me, in which He establishes the terms of the relationship, okay? It’s a relationship including promises, blessings, and responsibility.

Unlike a contract, a covenant reflects God’s unchanging commitment and faithfulness. Often sealed with a sign or ritual—you know, for Adam, you know, God had to kill an animal, isn’t it, to cover his shame. With Noah, again, God says, “I’m making a covenant.” Then there was an altar he made. With Abraham, it was God bringing animals, cutting them, and saying, “You come. I come. Look, we’re going to agree on this.” And it goes on.

And we see in olden days how people cut covenants. You know, we’ve got blood covenants—you know, put our hands, mix up with blood. People do all kinds of things, right? So that’s a seal, all right? So, sealed with a sign or ritual and is grounded in His desire—we cannot miss these few things—to redeem and bless His people.

Covenants in the Bible reveal God’s unfolding plan of salvation from the beginning. When we look all the way to Revelation—God’s unfolding plan—it all comes cumulatively in Jesus, okay? Progressively revealing His character and His redemptive purposes, ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who established the new covenant for the forgiveness of sin and restoration of relationship with God.

Yeah. So while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, okay? For God so loved the world that He gave. So God, all the time, is reaching out and saying, “Come. Be restored.”

What happened? Sin messed up. We talked about it briefly. The whole idea is—the word sin is crossing over a boundary set by God, okay? Another idea is missing the mark. God gives us a purpose, a clarity, but we miss the mark. We’re not there. If you sit for an exam and if your target is 70 and you hit 50, you miss the mark, right? So you miss the mark. If you’re in sports, athletics, you know, there are times you miss the mark. You didn’t get where it’s supposed to be.

So God sets these boundaries, this covenant, and then we miss the mark, okay? So we stray from the path. Why? Because we are always wanting to break barriers and boundaries.

So I try to lay a foundation here. But boundaries and foundations have positive and negative. Would you agree with that? Okay, why do you agree? Okay, let me tell you why you agree with me.

If we think of sports—the positive part. Okay, we just had Olympics and whatever not. How many are familiar with the name Roger Bannister? Okay, don’t worry about it. He broke the four-minute mile, okay, for the first time in 1954. The barrier was broken. He ran. And because of what he did, he broke a barrier. All of a sudden, human potential became very clear. Wow, we can break the barrier in running.

So men started doing it, and today it’s under 10 seconds—100 meters, isn’t it? Wow, you think about it. People constantly trying to break, you know, records. They’re pushing, they’re pushing, okay? So continuous performances are enhanced. But of course, if you go and take performance enhancement, you break one barrier, but you break another rule. So it doesn’t work, okay? It doesn’t work that way. See, again, breaking barrier, breaking what? Foundations that God gives—parameters, signs.

Alexander Fleming—anybody familiar with that name? He gave us penicillin, okay? That was in 1928. What happened? Wow, saved millions of lives, isn’t it? Saved millions of lives, improving public health, revolutionized medicine treatment. And what happened? It inspired people to do more research. How can we help people more? Healthcare.

Sound barrier—Chuck Yeager—this guy’s name—1947. And you know, they couldn’t break the sound barrier. In fact, if you read the story, it’s a funny story. He thought he was going to die. When his plane was shaking, he thought it was going to explode. And he’s leaving a message: “Tell my wife I love her,” you know. But he breaks through a sound barrier, and all of a sudden, everybody felt like, “Wow, you know what? We can advance in aviation.” Aerospace came about—faster aircraft, exploring space—because one guy broke the barrier positively. Speed—jet engines—travel is quicker. Those of us who want to fly from one place to another place, you know it’s so long. And now—wow, very fast, very quick.

But there’s also negatives. What are the negatives? When there is unfaithfulness in our relationships, whether it be marriage or whatever it is, divorce is also a painful thing. Neither one is excusable. We can always work at it, but what happens? It—the violation—it’s a consequence. It hurts people. It hurts the children. Whether we like it or not, it hurts. It damages. Our world today—relationships on-off, on-off—it’s so easy, it’s so simple. But we damage the image of God.

Ethics in business—whether it’s 1MDB, whether it’s Enron, whatever it is—corruption. What does it do? Unethically, we upset people. Other people lose their jobs. People lose their lives. Businesses collapse. People lose things. Governments are shaken. Confidence is eroded. Why? Because there’s compromise in business. When the ethics are wrong—why?

If we think back—made in the image of God, covenant—these are all covenant-breaking processes. If we understand the image of God, we will do all we can to maintain that and see a better Earth, isn’t it? Man is always saying, “Let’s make it a better place.” So Michael Jackson sings, “Let’s make it a better place.” You’re going to molest children? Why? All so wrong. So cannot—all these things that happen, we are breaking covenant.

Environmental exploitation—deforestation—whether it’s the Amazon, whether it’s our jungles, how we butcher hills, what we do. I remember the first driving to Bentong years ago, and now I systematically see hills disappearing. Systematically, I see hills disappearing. You know why? Greed. Ethics.

Anything—I put “table,” you know. I just put, you know, the table becomes the… Jesus says the table of the Lord—covenant. But then we go under the table—bribes. We do all sorts of things, you know. And Christian businessmen—you better be ethical. Yes be yes. No be no. Don’t break covenant. Don’t cheat. Don’t compromise. You are made in the image of God. Don’t cheat at work. You’re made in the image of God. This is important.

Then we have social media—overuse, addiction. Media platforms access. What happens? There’s anxiety, depression. What happens? Decrease of face-to-face social interaction. Yes, the pandemic—after the pandemic—hey church, return to facial expression. We sit—it becomes convenient. We detach. No image. God—we need interaction. We need people working together. It’s important.

You sit at home, and you worship versus you come here and worship together. There’s a stark difference, right? Amazing difference. So many things that come—that dynamic. So we understand what is it so that they affect us—mental health, relationships. People go and commit suicide—social media. It can be good within the boundaries you deal. You break the boundaries—you break what is right—you suffer.

So in a positive sense, barriers lead to progress, achievements, benefits to humanity, innovation in science, in athletics, education, technology. Wow. We advance. We’re pushing boundaries. We’re working. We’re pushing the limits and saying, “It can be done.” Inspired advancement—we look at it and say, “Wow, it can be done.”

But when boundaries are crossed in the wrong way—when we violate ethics, relational language, natural law—the consequences are damaging and far-reaching. Very far-reaching. And we may not see it for one generation. We may not see it for one generation.

So, the examples on how God’s boundaries are crossed started here. Adam, Eve—it started there. The first couple. The first married couple. The first husband and wife—it started there.

So, what does it lead to? Disorder. Our personal life, society, environment is damaged. Homes are damaged. Ethics are violated. You know, God tells us to explore with the gifts that He gives us. Yes, God wants us to push forward, but He sets boundaries to protect us. Hear this: He sets boundaries to protect us, to guide us toward success that you and I cannot imagine.

When we read Ephesians 3:20, “God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly far more than we can ask, think, or imagine according to the power that works within us,” we are made in the image of God. God is a God of covenant. I cannot take Ephesians and pray when I’m violating covenant all the time. So when I violate those things, it results in brokenness. Staying in them brings fulfillment and blessing.

“I’ve created you. I’m blessing you. Take care of this. Hey, just don’t do one thing.” So, covenant has a sense of responsibility, obligation. But I see it lost. And please hear my heart—I see it lost in the church today. I see it lost in congregations—even ours. I see it lost in Christian families. I see it lost in society. I see it lost. We’re very independent.

Church, look at me seriously. I think we’ve lost the fear of God. We’ve lost the fear of God—a healthy fear of God. We’ve lost it. We’re very independent. We’re actually Eve incarnate—very independent. We don’t like to be corrected. We don’t like to be told. “I live my faith the way I want to live.” But we are made in the image of God. God gives us a covenant.

A younger generation makes excuses on how, “You know, God is outdated.” Really? You’re made in the image of God—not an ape. You’re made in the image of God—not an ape. So stop behaving like a monkey. “I don’t like this. I don’t like that. You know, there are principles. I’m not required to do this—that’s the old generation.” You’re made in the image of God. Right is right. Wrong is wrong. Principle is principle. Get it right.

You violate—you may not do it now. Thirty-five years old—you will reap it. And that may be too late. Maybe you’ll reap it when you’re sixty years old. Our lives are determined by covenants and our response to them. Our lives—they actually protect us. Principles always protect us.

In the book of Ephesians, in chapter 5, God uses a metaphor of marriage. We will look a bit—I alluded to it a bit—I want to look at it today, not exhaustively, of course. This metaphor of marriage—so it boils down to one thing. Excuse me—it boils down to one thing. Relationship. Everybody, shout that word out: “Relationship.” Really, it boils down to one thing. It boils down to one thing.

All of us are in relationship. We have relationships in one way or the other, okay? So, in marriage, the Adamic covenant symbolizes what? The union and partnership between husband and wife. I’m going to try my best, okay? So be patient. You can start praying for me and for each other, okay?

Reflecting the original unity of Adam and Eve before sin, it highlights the need for mutual respect. Mutual respect, cooperation, and shared dominion. Now, those two words are lost today, and especially in Asian cultures—lost. Lost. Mutual respect, cooperation, and shared dominion over—oops—over the Earth.

Okay, marriage—it’s a covenant where both partners must honor their responsibility and work together in harmony, okay? Now, young people who are all excited about getting married—boyfriend, girlfriend, “I want to have sex. I want this. I want that”—you’re made in the image of God. Think of it very carefully. You want to get married? Think about it carefully. I’m not saying don’t do it—do it. But do it right.

All of us who are married—pay attention, please. This is not my word. This is God’s word. Mutual respect and shared dominion. God wanted Adam and Eve to work together in harmony. Why? They were supposed to reflect God’s original plan designed for humanity. You know something—sorry, husbands, wives—look at me. Don’t be shy. Look at me. You are supposed to reflect God’s original plan in marriage.

We, men, women, married, are supposed to do that. If I miss Genesis and I don’t look at it carefully, I miss it. The culture of the world tells me how I’m supposed to behave. The culture of my tradition, of my upbringing—Chinese, Punjabi, Tamil, Indian, whatever it is. Husband dies; after that, the wife goes and burns herself and kills herself. Oh, so horrible can that be? Can you all clear your throat or something like that? All so quiet.

It’s harder for me to say this than for you to listen to. Please, it’s harder for me to say this because I know most of you. It’s harder for me to say this. Trust me.

Adam and Eve were called to steward creation. Couples are called to steward their marriage and their family. Marriage, as a covenant, relates to God, reflecting God’s relationship with us. See, marriage is not just a human institution. Okay, let’s go. Let’s register. Okay, come to a church for a while. I get married. Bye. Trust me, I’ve been brooding over this for a month. It’s a divine covenant that—what?—that mirrors a mirror. A mirror always shows, isn’t it? It mirrors the relationship that—between God and us.