Wesleyan Covenant Service

WESLEYAN COVENANT SERVICE - 2012

Adapted from John Wesley - 1781

Songs:

            How Great is Our God

            By Your Side

            Amazing Love

Call to Worship

Pastor Tim:  "Come; let us join ourselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant which will never be forgotten."

We come together on this first Sunday in this New Year to join in a covenant service. Our purpose is to be reminded of our deep need of God's grace.

Every person must recognize their sinful condition and remember they cannot experience forgiveness outside the grace of God. Then we must acknowledge that our need of his grace is deeper than forgiveness for wrong acts, but goes to the cleansing work of his spirit at the very core of our beings.

From the very beginning, God has called people to enter into a covenant relationship with him.  We never have to worry that God might forget his part of the covenant, but too often we forget our covenant commitment to him.  So today, at the beginning of a new year, we gather together to be reminded of our covenant commitment to God. 

Responsive Reading: 

Leader:      We have come to make this covenant today because we need God’s grace.

All:             We realize that without his grace we are lost in our broken and sinful condition.

Leader:      The grace of God is deeper than forgiveness, it is the very activity of the Spirit of God working inside of us, cleansing our hearts from sin and molding our character into his image.

All: Today we long to experience anew the transforming grace of God as we rededicate ourselves to the covenant relationship with God extended to us through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Song:

      Halleluiah 

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Pastor Tim: This service comes to us through John Wesley, the forefather of our theological tradition.
For him what it meant to be a mature disciple of Christ was the joining of believers in a covenant "to serve God with all our heart and with all our soul."

He urged his Methodist followers to renew, "at every point, our covenant, that the Lord should be our God."

 On August 11, 1775, Wesley refers to an occasion when he conducted a service that provided opportunity for persons to make or renew that covenant with God.

Listen to this account from his daily journal:

Reader:
 "I mentioned to the congregation another means of increasing serious religion, which had been frequently practiced by our forefathers, namely, the joining in a covenant to serve God with all our heart and with all our soul. I explained this for several mornings and on Friday many of us kept fast to the Lord, beseeching him to give us wisdom and strength, to make a promise unto the Lord our God and keep it.

On Monday, August 11, I explained once more the nature of such an engagement, and the manner of doing it acceptably to God.

At six in the evening we met for that purpose. After I had recited the tenor of the covenant proposed, all those who desired to give testimony of their entrance into this covenant stood up, to the number of about 1,800 persons.

Such a night I scarce ever saw before. Surely the fruit of it shall remain forever."

Pastor Tim: It is important that we recognize our continuing need for confession. We have tended to connect confession only to the moment of turning to Christ for the first time. But scripture validates, and Wesley affirmed, even the Christian’s need for a periodic prayer of confession as well. In Wesley’s own words:

Reader: "The most holy among us is subject to a thousand infirmities which spring from our fallenness. Our shortcomings and human failings need the atoning blood of Christ as well as our 'properly so-called' sins. According to the apostle Paul, all of us must live daily recognizing our need of the cleansing work of Christ. “

Pastor Tim: Today we recognize again not only our great need of the grace of God, but our need to express our communal covenant and our personal covenant – that in 2012 we will love and serve the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Responsive Reading:

Leader:      Almighty God, it is ridiculous for us to try and hide our hearts from you. 

All: Our hearts, our desires and all of our secrets cannot be hidden from you. 

Leader:      Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the moving of your Holy Spirit,

All: So that we may love you perfectly and bring honor and glory to your name. 

Pastor Tim: Jesus invited us into this covenant relationship with God. Nowhere is that more evident than when Jesus invites us to pray the prayer we have come to call, "the Lord's prayer." It is a communal prayer. Together we pray our Father - recognizing that he has drawn us to himself as a people. It expresses our desire together to see God's kingdom revealed among us - and so let us pray together:

All:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come.  Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Amen.

MESSAGE

Pastor Tim: My dear friends: There are three basic principles that we should all write upon our hearts:

First, that our lives should be invested in things eternal rather than in things that are temporal;

Second, that there are deep spiritual realities that we cannot see which are as certain as the things that we can see;

And finally, that the choices we make each day matter not only today but in eternity.

Therefore, we must each day choose Christ and his ways.  For if we choose Christ each day we are blessed both in our today and in our tomorrow.  But if we refuse Christ, all that is good in life is undone forever. So then, brothers and sisters, we need to make our choice.  There are not many roads from which we can choose.  There are only two possibilities.  We can only turn to the right hand or to the left.  We can choose Christ with his yoke, his cross, and his crown; or we can choose destruction by giving ourselves over to pursuit of wealth, to the desire for pleasure, or to the curse of sin.  Let us ask ourselves right now, “Self, you see the options before you; what are you going to choose to do?  The first road is narrow but leads to a crown and the second road is wide but at its end is no kingdom - but the curse.  Which will we choose?” 

If we choose the crown, we must always remember that the day we choose the crown of Christ we also must decide to take up his cross and be his servants.  Those who wear his crown must also share in his sufferings. 

What are we going to do?  Are we going to keep on pursuing the gains and pleasures of sin – knowing that we will also reap sin’s curse?  Or will we yield ourselves as servants of Christ and wear his crown?

It is important to remember that we must decide.  We cannot ride the fence or delay in making a decision.  If we remain undecided, we have already made the wrong decision.  Our lives have been created in such a way that we must serve somebody.  To remain undetermined for Christ makes us servants of self-centeredness and sin.  As Joshua implored the children of Israel, we must choose this day whom we will serve.  We cannot rest until we have chosen our master.  This is, without question, the most important choice we will ever make.

Let me encourage us to follow Christ.  Let’s give everything we are to God and allow our lives to be an adventure with him.  Let’s give ourselves over to his righteousness.  We are sojourners and aliens in a land estranged from the presence of God held captive in habits of violence and selfishness.  The problem we face is that the world keeps pressing us into its mold.  If we stay where we are we will perish with all of those caught by sin.  Christ offers, if we will follow him, to free us from sin’s bondage and to conform us to a different image – the image of his Son.  All we need to say is, “Lord Jesus, rescue us!  Bring us out of this dark land and into your land of promise.  We will follow you.  We cast ourselves upon you, upon your mercy, and upon your righteousness.” 

Experiencing the salvation of Christ and freedom from sin is not difficult because it is a gift of God’s grace.  Unfortunately we tend to make our covenant relationship with God more difficult than it ought to be.  Sometimes after recognizing our sin and their danger, a person will look for help and deliverance, but we will look for help everywhere else before we look to Christ.  We are so broken.  We will try every thing we can to fix the mess of our lives on our own before we submit to the lordship of Christ.  We even will try to fix our lives using “holy stuff.”  We go to prayer meetings, we listen to sermons, we read books, and we even participate in worship and praise, hoping that our salvation can be found in throwing ourselves into holy activities.  But even the most pious acts of worship – although they have their place – are ultimately of no saving help. We can even commit ourselves to great works of charity and service looking for our salvation, but even these can’t help.  In fact, one of the ironies of sin is that often these “holy acts” become an additional trap of sin because they fill us with the sin of pride.  Many believers in our tradition even try to find their hope and salvation in forms of legalism.  To these dear brothers and sisters, strict obedience to the law looked like a good well – but legalism is devoid of any living water. 

Always remember this: any attempt to find salvation through our own righteousness will end in failure.

So do we utterly forsake our own goodness and strength, and trust only in Christ?

COMMITMENT

We now yield ourselves to the Lord. As his servants, we must give up the dominion and control of ourselves to Christ.

"Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey it evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness. But rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.

Pastor: “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law but under grace."

All: We are yours, Lord. We reverence you. We dedicate ourselves to your service.

In so giving ourselves to the Lord, we affirm that we will heartily embrace what he has appointed us to do, both corporately and personally.

Let him appoint you to your work.

Christ has many services to be done; some are more easy and honorable, others more difficult and menial. Some are suitable to our inclinations and interest; others are contrary to both. In some we may please Christ and please ourselves, as when he requires us to feed and clothe ourselves.

Indeed, there are some spiritual duties that are more pleasing than others; as to rejoice in the Lord, to be a blessing and praising God. These are the sweet works of a Christian.

But then there are other works, wherein to please Christ is to deny ourselves.

 Pastor: Find what it is that Christ expects of you and then give yourselves totally to his will, without bargaining and without reservation.

All: Make us what you will, Lord, and send us where we are to go.

Pastor: Let us be vessels of silver or gold, or vessels of wood or stone; as long as we are vessels of honor we are content.

All: If we are not the head, or the eye, or the ear, one of the nobler and more honorable instruments, then let us be the hands, or the feet, as one of the lowest and least esteemed of all the servants of our Lord.

Pastor: Lord, place us in your kingdom in the roles you have designed for us.

All: Lord, make all of us your servants.

Pastor: In exalted places, or humble places.

All: Let us be full; let us be empty.

Pastor: Let us have all things; let us have nothing.

All: May we freely and gladly embrace our places in your kingdom.

Songs: (Offering)

     Grace Greater Than Our Sin

COVENANT REQUIREMENTS

Pastor Tim: Beloved, the commitment to Christ we have just expressed is the essence of discipleship. When we have laid all our hopes upon Christ, casting ourselves wholly upon the merits of his righteousness; when we have with understanding, given ourselves to him; then we indeed are Christians. His people are a willing people. He will be all in all, or he will be nothing at all. 

It does not matter what Christ expects from us, we must yield ourselves to his complete will.  There is no renegotiating the terms of our covenant with Christ. 

Are you still ready to be covenantal citizens of Christ’s Kingdom?

The COVENANT

Leader: Let us confirm our commitment by a solemn covenant to him.

What would it take for us to make a covenant with God? What would it mean for us to commit ourselves to his plan for our lives in 2012?

First, it would mean the forgiveness of our sins and the constant realization of our continual need of the grace of God in our lives.

Second, it would mean a resolve in our own lives to live as disciples of our Lord, forgoing our own selfish motivations and living in our world as servant to others in the name of God.

Finally, it would mean not trusting in our own strength and abilities, but anchoring in the source of our strength and abilities . . . God himself.

God is here in a very real way. His presence is here to give evidence of his promises to us. Will you trust him?

Leader:            Lord Jesus Christ, if you will take us into your house,

All:                  If you will have us as your servants,

Leader:            We will obey you on your terms. 

All:                  Impose on us any condition you please;

Leader:            Write your law on our hearts;

All:                  Call us to whatever assignment you will; Let us be your servants.

TESTIMONIES & DIRECTED PRAYER
Pastor Tim: "What do you want God to do for you spiritually in 2012?"

·         Give thanks for what he offers

·         Ask to be shown the barriers you have to allowing him to be in control.

·         Ask that he show you the freedom of letting him be fully in control of your life.

·         Commit it to him.

INVITATION TO THE TABLE

Pastor Tim:  Jesus invited us into this covenant relationship with God. Nowhere is that more evident than when Jesus invited his disciples to share in table fellowship.

I invite you to join me at the table today. 
Song:

            Remembrance

BENEDICTION PRAYER

Pastor Tim:  And now receive glory, o God, from your children.  We thank you for the privilege of calling you Father.

And glory be to the son, who has loved us and washed our sins in his own blood, and has now become our savior and redeemer. And glory to the spirit, who by his mighty power has turned our hearts from sin to God.

You, God, have now become our covenant-friend, and through your unlimited grace we are your covenant-servants.

Song:

            Amazing Love

BENEDICTION

Pastor Tim:  May the covenant we have made on earth be ratified in heaven. May God enable you to live faithfully before him. For this reason we kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

                                                                        Go and Love.