 Okay, welcome back. Let's move to the next point. I've been talking about how we being the part of covenant, how do we receive what God has for us and what God has for us even in the part of the new covenant. So next point, I'm on page 63 still. We are overtaken with blessings. When we read Deuteronomy chapter 28, there's this whole portion where God tells the people of Israel, these are the blessings that will overtake you. Let's read 28 Deuteronomy 28. It's a long portion versus 1 to 14. Yes, could one of us please read that? Is it a toly if you can read that? Deuteronomy 28, 1 to 14. Does anyone else can read? John. Deuteronomy chapter 28 was one onwards. Now it shall be if you diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments, which I command you today. The Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the Lord your God. Blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the country. Blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the procedure produced of your ground and the offspring of your beast, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading ball. Blessed shall be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go out. The Lord shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you. They will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways. The Lord will command the blessing upon you in your bonds and in all that you put your hand to and he will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you. The Lord will establish you as a holy people to himself as he swore to you if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. So all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord and they will be afraid of you. The Lord will make you abound in prosperity in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your beast and in the produce of your ground in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. The Lord will open for you his good store houses the heavens to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand and you shall lend to many nations but you shall not borrow. The Lord will make you the head and not the tail and you only will be above and you will not be underneath if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God which I charge you today to observe them carefully and not to turn aside from any of the words which I command you today to the right or to the left to go after other gods to serve them. Thank you John. So we see here in Deuteronomy 28 God is giving this wonderful list of blessings and he says these blessings shall overtake you. Bless shall you be in the city bless shall you be in the country bless shall be the fruit of your ground fruit of your body your netting bowl your baskets will be full when the enemy comes one way he will be defeated in your face the Lord will uphold you the Lord will grant you plenty he will make you the head not the tail and you know every time you go back and listen to this covenant every time you say that you are part of the covenant these are the blessings that will overtake you so it's like God is telling Moses Moses it's been a couple of years now that we've been on in this Egypt we've from Egypt we are in the deserts yes the people have been disobedient they have turned away from me in certain places they have gone to foreign gods they have worshiped idols yet I want you to write this and remember to tell them that if you believe and be part of the covenant that I have made both with Abraham and the covenant that I've made with you these blessings shall overtake you but worse one says this very emphatically says if you diligently obey the Lord what does the word diligently means the word diligently is to wholeheartedly with all your heart mind and soul not just this one time but all the time be diligent means to be consistent in something right so God is telling Moses if you diligently ask the people of Israel to obey my voice to observe the commandments that I've given and when you do that these blessings will follow now the same thing we can translate it as people of the new covenant now when we diligently hear the voice of the Lord when we diligently obey the word these blessings will follow us it's not like these blessings are only for the old covenant it's not like it's only for the people of Israel and not for us no God is saying when you are part of this covenant when you diligently obey the word of the Lord maybe we are praying seeking the Lord you know every day we are spending time in worship reading God's word meditating diligently seeking him these blessings will overtake us it will overtake us we shall be the head and not the tail God will bring make us fruitful our hands will be a hand of blessing to bless others he will open up the heavens why because we are obeying the covenant which God has for us now picture this later on when we see when we continue to read God blessed the nation of Israel during the time of David and Solomon Israel was a blessed nation right Solomon had riches that we could not even talk about or think about God blessed them God used this little man or young boy named David and as a shepherd boy God used him to and made him the king of a nation so as covenant people you and I can declare this over our lives but we declare God I am blessed you may not feel blessed but I'm blessed right God you have blessed the fruit of my body you will bless me you will make me the head you will open doors for me your favor will surround me and these are verses that we can declare over our lives God is a God who has covenant people in community with each other you know when when the people of Israel came out when the people came out of Egypt they were in the in the exodus in the desert God gave them instructions he told them how to live in harmony with each other was there challenges yes plenty we do read that Moses was having a very difficult time handling all these people with all the quarrels and you know petty theft and things that were happening among the Israelites but God said I've made a covenant I brought you out but I'm making a covenant of with all of you to live in community with one another live by taking care of each other welcome the stranger care for people care for the orphaned care for the widowed and then God gives certain instructions on how to eat how to live how to drink what to what are the customs to follow all the instructions God gave them God knew God told them that just as you know I was with Abraham he especially said that to Joshua he said just as I was with Moses so I shall be with you Joshua right you will be taking these people of Israel into the promised land so as covenant people just because God has given us all these blessings and it's there for us there are also certain you know certain kind of priorities that we must have in place to live in community to to take care of each other to welcome the stranger meaning just to care for people to to care for the orphan to care for the poor and being part of the covenant it's not only a part of receiving but it's also a part of giving that's why he goes on and he says it's more blessed to give than to receive God is giving us all these blessings but it's also a blessing to give unto others let's look at how David believed this covenant and how God used him now picture this there are many great people God is using Samuel you know as a mighty prophet during that time the people of Israel are saying give us a king give us a king God is saying you don't really need a king he said no give us a king okay the god says let's make Saul the king Saul is made king and this is a wonderful thing you know when when we read potions of first Samuel it says that uh when when Samuel became when Saul became the king and years later he disobeyed God right with the offer he got the animals from this from Moab and he offered them to God and and Samuel comes in uh you know corrects him and says uh obedience is better than sacrifice what does Samuel say there he says Saul there was a time in your life when you thought very small of yourself right Saul was just an ordinary man he was not not a great you know uh not from a big family just an ordinary man his father used to look after donkeys so it was it was he was not some rich man no it's a very simple man but God chose him made him the king and when he became the king he forgot about you know uh obeying God he forgot that he's part of the covenant which he has to follow and he disobeyed God and God reminded him by saying that Saul there was a time when you were very small in your own eyes just because I made you the king of Israel doesn't mean you don't have to follow the covenants you don't have to follow the the the you know the blessings that I have given to you doesn't mean that you can just do whatever you want and from then on uh you know the anointing left him but what happened this man named Goliath comes and you know defying the armies of Israel saying you know who wants to come none of them are willing to go can you picture this all of them the army of Israel everyone were part of the covenant what happened here everyone were part of the covenant none of them were willing to go and fight Goliath what had happened was the covenant was there but they did not receive or it did not become life into them God uses this young man David David says hey I am part of a covenant God has made a covenant with me so I don't have to be afraid of this fellow's time because God says I've made you the head and not the tail and you know he has all these blessings for us so God will keep his covenant and we know the story David goes forward he says I'll go I'll defeat this Philistine and he defeats Goliath what happened he remembered that David he himself reminded himself I am part of the covenant of the God of Israel and this shepherd boy killed a warrior what does it teach us teaches us an important lesson that when we remind ourselves that we are part of a covenant part of God's covenant when the enemy comes against us or you know Goliaths may come and stand in front of us we must remind ourselves we are part of God's covenant right now especially during these seasons COVID and pandemic maybe we are seeing storms ahead of us challenges ahead of us things that you know we plan to do are not coming through but we can say God I know I'm part of their covenant I will continue to walk as a covenant person I will continue to walk with the authority the anointing that you have blessed me with and that's what happened to David God made him the king did David make his share of mistakes yes plenty of mistakes but he reminded himself that David didn't think I'm sure David didn't think to himself he's going to be the king of Israel I'm sure when he was anointed he would have thought okay what just happened he must have gone back to the fields and looked after his father's sheep but it did not you know it is his whole perspective of the covenant did not change said I'm part of the covenant and so the same way you and I just like how David there will be people around you who will bring you down say this is not possible this is not this is not something that you can do stand fast hold fast to the covenant that God has given us now sharing that you know during the time of Christmas you know many of many people told me you know don't do carols anywhere outside there's persecutions there's going to be trouble people will come and so I had put it away thought okay let me not do any carols but one day when I woke up you know just I had this in my spirit where the Lord is telling me I have made you a blessing to the city like it was just there in my heart I made you a blessing to the city and no weapon fashioned against you also all these powerful verses started coming into me said I've not given you a spirit of fear but of power love and sound mind and so I remember thinking to myself no we have to do something we have to reach out we have to share the gospel we have to share the love of Christmas to people they should understand they should know God is with me I'm part of his covenant his protection his blessings are on me so I remember just calling up the malls and telling them you know we want to do carols they gave us dates we then saw the places the venues and we did all the carols we shared the gospel in all the malls and after the events one of the you know organizers of the mall were so happy with the whole event that they said you know all I did all we did was we played Christmas carols we shared about Jesus it was quite intimidating because there were many people from different faiths standing there but I kept telling myself God I'm part of your covenant you are there with me and after the whole event the organizers came to us and said you know we're so happy that you came in the year next year 2022 Christmas we want to send you to you know different cities they want us to go to Mumbai and Hyderabad and some more cities to go and you know do carols and so what am I trying to say there will be times when the enemy will intimidate there will be times when the enemy will say you cannot do this right but if God is putting in our hearts and and we know that you know we we are part of God's covenant we know that God is with us God is assuring us go ahead and do what God is calling you to do don't let other voices tell you what to do now all the people the pastors leaders said don't do anything because there's going to be trouble but I but the important thing is we are to listen to the voice of God God has made the covenant with us right and so he will choose to bless us what if we didn't go we wouldn't have got opportunities to go to different cities and do carols and and you know 2022 we are looking at doing at different cities in our nation all because of this right so there will be things that you are going through stand fast stand fast on the covenant stand fast on the promises that God is giving you I want to apologize for the sound I think there's some renovation work that's happening above me sorry about that right so let's move on God is saying it's also with your descendants Deuteronomy 30 and 6 and the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live Isaiah 59 21 as for me says the Lord this is my covenant with them my spirit who is upon you and my words which I've put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth nor from the mouth of your descendants nor from the mouth of your descendants descendants says the Lord from this time and forever so God is saying when I give the covenant I'm giving it to you to your descendants to your descendants and your descendants descendants what a wonderful God what a wonderful God it's not like God is saying I will only bless you you know sometimes we look at our lives and we think you know I didn't do much to especially you know I myself when I look at myself I say I didn't do much to you know you know we pray we have we worship the Lord we pray as family and but what did we do that we are blessed what did we do that you know God is blessing us in so many different ways it is because God has probably our descendants the blessings have just passed on and on and on and on and it will go on to the coming generations as well why because God has promised it it will be with your descendants and the descendants so each one of us if you know we are part of his covenant we teach it to our children then it goes from our children to our children's children and it goes on to descendant after descendant and God will continue to bless all that he said to Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 28 all those blessings will flow into our lives into our children's lives and children's children why because it's a covenant that is everlasting there's no due date to that covenant it's not like God is saying okay 2025 the covenant ends no it's an everlasting covenant it will go on but here it says go on and we see that not everyone obeyed the covenant there was there were people who violated that covenant who broke the covenant what is the meaning of violating it's it is to it is to break it certain rules you just break that rule you've violated the rule or if you made a promise and you break that promise with a friend you violated that promise what happens there's defeat there was suffering there was captivity let's read leviticus chapter 26 14 to 16 leviticus 26 14 to 16 now we read the blessings now let's read what happens when we violate the covenant yes any one of us leviticus 26 14 to 16 yes anybody but if you do not obey me and do not carry out all these commandments if instead you reject my statutes and if your soul oppose my ordinances so as not to carry out all my commandments and so break my covenant I in turn will do this to you I will appoint over you a sudden terror consumption and fever ice and cause the soul to pine away and also you will so your seed uselessly for your enemies will eat it up yeah thank you John yeah worst I think your voice was cutting off yes worth till verse 16 yes yeah yeah so there are consequences for violating the covenant when we obey the covenant we receive everything that God has for us but when we disobey we are violating the covenant what does he say if you despise my statutes your soul oppose my judgment you so that you do not perform all the commandments I will also do this to you I will appoint terror upon you now we need to understand the scriptures meaning what God will let go of his hand now when we are part of the covenant God has us in his protection when we say no I don't want to be part of this covenant I don't want to believe in God I don't want the promises that he has us all this is a lie we turn our face away from God and we go away from to the things of this world God takes off his hand and when God takes off his hand what happens the enemy comes in suffering it's something that will happen there was defeat there'll be captivity right now when we read in the Old Testament they were continuously violating the covenant what happened God sent I love the Babylonians to come and destroy Jerusalem then the second time it happened then the Assyrians came then the Amalekites came so there was so much of you know because they were violating they were taken into captivity for many years Daniel was in captivity even though they were in captivity God continued to keep his commandments God continued to keep his you know covenant by saying still I will bless you now when we read the Old Testament we may think oh you know God is so strict no he's not there were consequences for violating the covenant and even though the people of Israel were in captivity living in sin God continued to bless them it was like okay you've broken your side of the covenant I haven't broken mine you've gone into exile you've gone into this place in Babylon the Babylonians have come and defeated you it is because you'll have broken the covenant yet I will still choose to bless you I will still choose to honor you in the place that you are right and now in the new covenant God is calling us and he's saying we are part of the Ark you know the the new covenant we are part of all the blessings that was there in the old and also the blessings that are there in the new right so I think we'll stop here we won't I'll pick up we can pick up from Jesus under the old covenant from next class so that we you know try to you know break it up is everything okay is is it too much of material are you able to understand yes Zillatoli salt of the covenant salt okay Zillatoli has a question salt of the covenant to be offered with all offerings salt covenant numbers 18 19 mentioned let's speak between 20 okay okay yeah so the the mention of salt is in in Leviticus God is telling the people you know you you put salt salt was you know it was like it's like adding flavor right you add flavor to if you're eating something you add salt it's flavor you remember the the offering where you know of unleavened bread they don't add anything right it was to signify that they were living in you know they were not part of the things of this world but salt was more of an ingredient they would add there was no kind of significance as such only to the salt but the salt covenant was more of you know saying that everything that we have the the food the the offerings that we are giving is is going to be unto God and it let it be a pleasing aroma in God's in God's eyes so we can talk more about the salt covenant maybe next week but let me just check if there's anything more that's mentioned on the salt covenant one thing we know that is in the salt covenant the salt is only to bring taste and good aroma to the food and so basically it was more of you know let the Lord be pleased with our offerings yeah so there's anything more mentioned in that we can talk about it next week too yeah we can also talk about it in the new covenant where the Lord Jesus mentioned salt so but as far as I know salt was to add flavor to add fragrance to food that we eat and so it was more to say that God let this be a good offering in your sight a pleasing offering in your sight right any other question any other question any other thoughts I wouldn't encourage you to sorry go ahead I have a question actually um okay you know in the New Testament Jesus said like you have suffering while you are in the world and now that we are talking about the covenant in the Old Testament and all the blessing that we have in the suffering that comes to us when what comes to us came to Israel when they break the covenant so I had this thought about like why Jesus like promised suffering under the new system like the new covenant because that comes with the Christ like like um the Christian career of the Christian path and how like what what can we infer about that in the Old Covenant where suffering only came from doing like breaking by violating the covenant so just trying to understand how or why or I don't know yeah that's a that's a very good question Joy I struggled with that as well but let me give you succinct answer let me try to be as clear as possible now we know that you know the enemy he comes to kill to steal to destroy right and once Adam Adam fell uh sin entered this world right now God made this covenant saying that when you are part of this covenant these blessings will follow you these are the things that you can walk with right yet there the just because now we are in this covenant the enemy is also working on his side right now he is trying to do all he can to get people to not believe to lack faith and he's trying all he can right and the Lord Jesus so sometimes you know we we have sickness we have troubles right now there are different kinds now we must understand for example if I go to a colder place a colder city right and I don't wear my jacket I don't wear something warm right I don't look after myself properly I end up getting a cold and fever now I can't say that the enemy is doing that to me right that's what I have done I have not looked after myself I'm not taking the proper care and so I've got cold and fever but there will be times you know that the when we are you know when we are doing everything right yet we seeing the enemy trying to bring trouble in our parts now here's the thing we must understand that yes we are part of the covenant but why is this trouble coming we must understand that God sometimes allows that so that he will teach us we will learn from it and also we will continue to depend more on God right now it does not mean that he's breaking the covenant God you said I will be a blessing but here I'm going through the troubles I'm going through difficulties now just because we go through difficulties and troubles that does not mean we are not blessed right the Lord Jesus said you know in this world you will have tribulation take heart I have overcome the world right so now in the New Testament we have all these wonderful covenants we have all these wonderful promises you know we have all the things that the Lord Jesus has said to us but why is it that we are going through troubles why is it that we are going through constant let's take persecution why is it that pastors are being beaten up and thrown into prison and are they doing God's work they're building God's kingdom yes the enemy is working through people to cause all this persecution and troubles but the established fact is that God has chosen to bless us whether we feel it whether we experience it or not God has called us into a covenant now how do we you know the question that I also had was you know you know what's the point if I don't you know receive those blessings or experience those blessings in life what's the point I mean living a good life how will I say that you know I'm blessed there's a thing we can I love what Paul says you know when the thorn and the flesh he says God says my grace is sufficient for you so even through those challenges even through those turmoil even through those difficulties we know that the enemy is working and God allows it to happen remember God is sovereign yeah if he wants he can just completely stop it right he can completely stop a problem from coming your way but sometimes out of the you know he allows certain things to happen so that we can depend on him even more and sometimes it's you know problems that we face are our own challenges right so for example our own mistakes remember this family came up to me and said you know I'm bearing debt and I asked him what happened and he said you know I took a car loan which is a high amount and you know it was early 2020 he took a car loan a high amount and then there was the lockdown and he lost his job and he's got this loan and he's telling you and now he's not able to pay it he's gone into financial debt feel sorry for him but I after we kept discussing I realized that this young man he's in his early 30s he's already got two cars and he's bought this car because he liked the car right now it was not really needed but he bought it and now he's going through this consequence now whose fault is it it's not like God is not blessing him he already has what he needs but then even through that God he was saying you know it's difficult but he has to deal with wrong decisions that he has made and and and God is not going to come through like it's not like God is going to come and say I'll clear off your loan no so we should be wise in certain decisions that we make now if I if I know that this is a wrong step don't take it because we take it and then we are stuck in between we cannot say God I'm part of your covenant now I'm stuck here so you need to go back we need to rewind and check where did I go wrong right now not always in certain places we are wrong certain places we've been right all the time that's where God's grace comes through I'm reminded of this another elderly woman in our church a very sad story you know at a very young age they were traveling from one city to another and she's a very strong believer the family is a very strong believer they had two small children as they were driving from one city to another the car met with an accident she has one son and a daughter son was about five years old daughter was about seven years old the husband and the son died on the spot this happened 20 years back and 20 years for 20 years she's been living in that you know I can't see my son and it's a painful very very painful thing the only questions he asks is why why am I going through this I mean I'm a good Christian I go to church every Sunday I've not I'm just a simple teacher but why why I've not done any wrong to anybody but you know what she ended up that whole conversation she would always tell me pastor I'm living by the grace of God I don't have answers but I'm living only because of the grace of God and she's there she continues to trust God she's continuing to say I'm blessed I'm delivered God has healed me God has restored me it's a very very and hers and you know her son and husband died on Easter Sunday so every Easter is a reminder 20 years back I lost my husband and my six-year-old boy it's very painful but he gives us the grace the Lord Jesus himself went through all of these you know being God he you know Jesus was not murdered but he gave his life right it was his choice for us so so it's wonderful to even if we are going through these challenges these turmoil the enemies throwing at us yes we have to fight it don't accept anything right Paul says in Ephesians 6 put on the armor of God and fight every work of the enemy but there will be times the fight is too long sometimes the fight is short but at the end we can say that's Paul writes to Timothy in his last letter and he says I have fought the good fight I finished the race so that's something that we can say so I hope this answers your question joy yeah thank you so much any other thoughts any other question okay all right so let's stop here we'll pick up from where we stopped from next week I want to encourage you if you have time go ahead maybe you can go to google and read about those offerings it's really very interesting the you know the feast of the unleavened bread the feast of the Passover the feast of the trumpets read about them get an idea of what these feasts are what are the offerings you know you don't have to read deep into them but you can just get an idea of what they are and really it'll open up your mind to such beautiful covenants that God made for us and that we are still part of including this new covenant all right let's close in prayer maybe one of us can close in prayer Rosalind can you please close in prayer or Zellie that is totally if you can please close how do we come before a presence in the name of Jesus we want to thank you so much for these sessions Lord whatever truth that we have learned from these two sessions Holy Spirit I pray that you will continue to speak to us and minister to us Lord Lord as we are disposed from this Lord I pray that the Holy Spirit to guide us lead us throughout the day Lord we give you the glory and the honor in Jesus name amen amen amen thank you Zellie thank you everyone have a great week ahead I'll see you next week God bless you