Covenant Relationships / Danny Silk - OneVoice 2018, Tauranga, New Zealand

[Applause] thank you you know the word revival isn't even in the Bible it has to live in you and one of my favorite definitions of revival is the inrush of the spirit into the body that threatens to become a corpse so we're the body of Christ and like this gal singing Christ in her is hope bringi and we have to go in there and get that and connect with the God and bring it say right here first like what bill used to say is I'll put a circle around myself and say we gods start with revival right here in this circle right here and one of the one of my favorite stories about my granddaughter she was watching I was watching the movie The Lion King with her and we watched the sad part of when the hyenas tricked Simba if I'm ruining the movie I'm sorry it's really old and the and they tricked him and he went into the canyon and the wildebeest trampled with Mufasa and killed him and it was horrible and I said Delaney what did you think about that movie she was why I didn't like that one part I said yeah it was really sad she goes well if I were there I would have stood in the canyon and I would have said stop in the name of Jesus I was like okay this is the generation that's going to change the end of the story you're a generation that gets to change the end of your story so don't settle for what's happening right now you can you say Lord I want to bring the Spirit Christ in me is the hope of glory amen I set him up for use these gatherings right here this is this is the church of Turanga that's who paul wrote letters to he wrote to Ephesus he didn't write to 20 churches in Ephesus Philip I you know there's a there's an angel that's stewarding the city the messenger that's stewarding the city so thank you for gathering thank you for the honor to speak to you City Body of Christ appreciate the leaders putting this together I met the deputy mayor and his wife yes thanks for attending coming I want to talk to you tonight about something that is not not a hot topic and I'm not you know I'm not I'm not gonna try to be cool or anything I'm trying to be trendy I just feel like the Lord has something for you before I get too far into this I do want to just say that I would like to make a deposit into this community I don't I'm not trying to push something this is all free stuff this is this is an app that you can do has a phone here you guys have phones here yeah okay I'd like you to just take it you can do it while I'm talking and I'll be able to tell on the back there it's really dark so I'll be able to tell download it because it is going to leave it's go or it's going to give you seats I'm going to plant some seats before I get out of the city I want you to be able to have resources to sew into the strengthening of your relationships to have seeds to sow into the health of your families and and have seeds to sow into being leaders becoming leaders who know how to lower anxiety in groups of people who are different and become even more productive more creative more effective and so there's a bunch of you know good stuff in here the if you if you like to read there you go there's the blogs if you like to watch there's videos there's content from all of our stuff there is podcasting then there's probably a hundred podcasts on there that are interviews and conversations with people that are going through everyday stuff super good super rich and there's the life Academy and the life Academy is really where my time is being spent these days building content teaching the series the the study guides you can do it's all online you can get at any time you you want once you do it's it's it's there it's available and if you take a picture of this I'll stand in the way if you take a picture of this with this code right here then this is 50% off night right here this is you get anything in there you want half price that includes the culture and conversations of first month which I right now that New Zealand dollars would be around 15 bucks which is coffees yeah yeah yeah yeah it's all the people in the front row were at the conference yeah so it's valuable valuable stuff it's a it's it's something that I definitely want you to have access to and and and there you have it I I would like to talk to you tonight about something that's near and dear to my heart but before I get going on that I I would just like to take you back in time and I want to invite you to 1984 you're sherry and I got married [Music] not many people realize but that is Bill Johnson right there and he's gonna sing for you bill Johnson was the worship leader [Music] the first 10 years of my Christian life [Music] this is my city it's the only time of my life I've ever heard this once [Music] [Applause] bill did everything [Music] don't let worship you took the offering look at those children go preach the message backing video cameras were on your shoulder and do the butterfly stitch there zoom in zoom out one guy in town had one there's a friend of my father loves okay here we go bill here we go [Applause] [Music] yeah it is it's almost over you smile bill [Music] oh gosh okay they're spinny Johnson right there yeah this back when we wore a windscreen on our face there she is now wait for it here comes there's Chris Belton right there oh yeah I met Chris when I was 16 years old there I am being Chris buddy hanging out I'm like yeah he's like get over me flap like I'm gonna make you jump grab his butt whoa there we go yeah we've been planning for a long time probably 1980 I met that guy 1978 is when I met that guy we worked together for five years this one Christmas discovers what a video camera oh there you go hey outdoor for TV come come on hey hello fellow that's me ma wack boom smack like the Three Stooges this is Charlie Harper he's on the senior team at Bethel Church he's one of our good friends he goes way back with us get that video camera here's the moment you've been waiting for there she is now I want you to watch Sheree's eyebrows and her bangs worst haircut of my life the night before my wedding yeah first vows is dropping buckets of water on my head while sure he's getting my hair [Music] I slowed that part down for you [Music] you're welcome [Applause] [Music] [Applause] I'd like to talk to you about covenant tonight I don't know about over here but in the states it's kind of a rare word these days we don't use that word we don't describe our behavior that way it's kind of lost in legal terms and maybe real estate but it's not something that we cultivate the idea of covenant is is really that we are willing to throw our lives in to our relationships now these relationships some of them are 40 years old that is a long time that's older than some of you I mean I have friends older than you now some of you are like I got friends older than you Danny I appreciate that but the idea of covenant is really tied into a practice that goes very it goes way back I mean God is making covenants throughout the Old Testament and then Jesus comes and makes a covenant with us and that covenant is has in its essence it is a an agreement that is that binds us together because of a willingness to die covenant is a binding agreement that requires death it requires a willingness to walk through and to keep walking through in the Old Covenant the the in the Old Testament that the practice of making a covenant is is pretty gruesome in in Genesis 12:15 one of those Genesis's we see it with with with Abram and God it's it's how they did it it's how they made an agreement they take an animal and they cut it in half take a bull cut it in half I used to be a meat cutter a butcher one of my favorite things is to barbecue sacred cows it really is it really is but just imagine taking a bull which is a very large animal busting ass take the halves drag them apart from each other in this particular story there's a bull there's a heifer there's a ram and some birds separate the halves I think you then just throw the birds in there I don't even know what you do with the birds but and then the people who are making the Covenant now walk through the two halves it's before wellies right this is before a rubber boots what are they passing through death blood guts mess this is covenant it's my commitment to you to pass through the mess together see this is this is the binding agreement that requires a willingness to die we see the symbolism in baptism of the new covenant where we are dying entering death with Jesus and being resurrected unless the preachers upset with you Jesus puts it like this he says the air the hour has now come that the Son of Man will be glorified it's time it's time to engage the Covenant don't you know that unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies it remains alone that grain of wheat remains insignificant that grain of wheat remains unfruitful alone and this is the great seduction especially in this era I'm sure it's always been there but now it is so easy to find a comfortable place today and just remain alone just avoid the mess as soon as something messy comes along whoa whoa whoa you guys work it out oh I'll watch it on Facebook oh I heard you were and I heard you were in big trouble I heard you were going through some real tough times I thought I would text it is so easy to remain insignificant today it's so easy to find comfort to protect my life from your life to not really understand what covenant is I thought I got into this relationship because I was going to get something out of it whoa I didn't realize it was gonna cost me anything Paul goes on to say don't you know well you know let me back up when that when that grain of wheat dies there you go boom now the reason you're alive manifests you have a life so you can invest it in other people you have a life so that other people will benefit from you being here that's why you're here you are alive so you could die that's the only way we're gonna be one that's the only way this is gonna get momentum covenant creates momentum in a lack of covenant destroys women we've become a vapor we become nothing but when I'm willing to invest my life Paul says don't you know that the purpose of a seed is to die sowe're the sower of the of the seed doesn't determine that it grows or what grows God is watching over that to perform his word your job my job is to sow is to invest is to give my life to walk through mist to protect the covenant to protect the relationship to become famous as a covenant man or woman of God that's my job that's my job I don't determine what you do with the investment I don't control what happens from with my investment in you do you have any parents in here okay those children have been trying to kill you since they met you they're the most uncomfortable thing that ever happened to your life from the second you met them they were rearranging your comfort zone shrinking that bad boy down to nil and you really don't get anything out of it they just oh look at you oh it's 1:00 a.m. you look exhausted too bad get me something oh look at that new outfit you got me look what I did to the back of it here yeah get me something I know you don't have anything left but get me something and we give and we serve and we sacrifice and we walked through mess and we walk through exhaustion and we walk through covenant and you have a covenant with your child like you have with nobody on the planet and there is nobody that you would lay your life down faster than these little people who have demanded everything and more see this is covenant this brings out the best love you have and you try to avoid that and you stay a love you stay immature you stay insignificant but you be willing to walk through covenant you be willing to hang on you see the mess you see the death and you enter it with courage and commitment and what you grow is the most important thing you can grow as a believer your love you don't have one thing more important than that and this is how it happens it happens because I built a reputation I built a reputation that I will lay my life down for the benefit of the people around me that's who I am that's how I live that's what I do and every time somebody looks at you they think look at that that person knows how to love that person doesn't even really know me and they have a covenant towards me that is a mature believer right there that's one of the contact points between heaven and earth are those people right there the people who are famous for walking through the mess the people who are famous for being willing to die today for your benefit think about it for a minute outside of your immediate family who would you take a bullet for another way to ask is outside of your immediate family who would take a bullet for you see what that thought process does is it puts you in touch with your circle of covenant I mean it is awesome that we've gathered here tonight but really what we're doing is we're just pointing out the circle of our covenant look around how many of you ever saw the movie John Q Dan's L Washington yeah Danza love me some Danza Washington Dan's L is a father of a young boy who has a heart defect he collapses on the sports field they rushing to the hospital to get there they find out he needs a heart transplant he's eight years old needs a heart transplant well John is he's barely employed he doesn't have any health coverage that covers a heart transplant the hospital finds out about it they say no we're not going to help you so this is an anti insurance company anti big Hospital movie Pro socialized medicine movie and John is desperate he doesn't know what to do he's selling off everything he has he's trying to raise enough money to pay cash for a heart transplant his wife she doesn't know what they're gonna do either but she walks into the living room she sees John but you to stop back when your wife says that to you you are going to do something right and so John goes down to the local hospital same hospital goes into the emergency room and he takes everyone in there hostage okay because that's something right fortunately the world's greatest heart surgeon was in the room that day he's one of the hostages throughout the movie they get the little boy in there and now they have Mikey the group world's greatest heart surgeon and a situation we're in trouble job mice blood pressure has dropped into the mid-40s is Adriel blood pressure should be in the low teens it's 35 I'm sorry Joe without a new heart he's not gonna make it okay take mine you heard me take my heart and you put it in Mike only you can't be serious you bet I'm serious I'm dead serious oh my god man that means you'll be dead and my son will live John you can't do this man that means you'll be dead that's exactly right see if we are actually going to show our father to the world then we are people who understand sacrifice lay in my life down for your benefit we're standing in the generation a new generation that's probably had more D construction to the family maybe than ever before children who are raised in mass confusion and anxiety really having no idea who to turn to for an example who to turn to to grab on to who to really be part of a community with and so they are they are talking about genuine community and authenticity and being vulnerable and connected but they really have very few examples and covenant is not a word it's not a defined word in society and I understand I understand struggle I understand how difficult it is but I want you to ask yourself some questions I want you to ask really who have you given yourself permission to be in this kind of relationship with where you will invest in someone but you won't try to control them or you will turn to someone and you will annual let them invest in you and give you leadership you'll give somebody permission to change your mind because you're a powerful person no one can control you sorry if you missed the conference that I said that a lot but you're a powerful person and there is no remote control that makes you do stuff two generations back covenant was a big deal my generation reacted to the control and the abuse of covenant relationship so my generation says you know what we're not we're gonna get away with that we're getting away with leadership we're gonna get away with all that stuff you all we're gonna do we're just gonna we're gonna just have fun you know flat leadership and we're gonna just get rid of hierarchy and we're gonna just try what we can do if we can just get away from covenant how'd that work out for us that's all a child when it was just to move I just want to move around oh you look like you're interested in something give me something do I have attitudes that embrace covenant with other people do I know people who are living to protect connections at all costs walking through death and mess when hold on to you and you are a mess I trusted you and you failed today I found out you're a human I'd like to pretend like there's some relationships where humans aren't involved I don't know where we got that idea but it's usually Church leadership teams yes we don't have any humans on our leadership team these people don't even have toilets in their house we all know Jesus didn't use a toilet nowhere in the Bible's that mentioned so one day you can ascribe to perfection leadership perfection and then when we finally discover that someone's been hiding their struggle because they're so afraid of what will happen when people find out that they're humans so they make a disastrous mess because they've been lying for 25 years the Covenant is that we learn how to deal with people we learn how to deal with mess we learn how to deal with our children we learn how to deal with our marriages we learn how to deal with our leadership and we live as a family how many of you have a family okay half of you good things I didn't know about New Zealand how many of you have family members that you disagree with how many of you have family members who have done things that you would never approve of how many of you realized that those people are still family members see families are not held together by agreement the relationships are not that fragile but we try to build churches with agreement and so relationships are super fragile the body of Christ is a family not an organization and it is a family of people who disagree with each other hurt each other scare each other and do things that neither of them would approve of and we hang on and we walk through the mess and we fully expect to be at Grandma's hundredth birthday together anybody ever been to California whoa has it been a while or you know your are you playing any good trip if you ever get to California please make time to go to the redwood forest it's it is fantastic it's it is amazing yeah these giant trees I mean trees is big around as a section of seats or bigger even bigger than that and you could you can drive a car through one of these trees you have to put a hole in it but then you can drive a hole or drive a whole car through it the hole right there and I say the hole because I've seen people try to do it without the hole and it's such a such a bad idea these trees are 30 stories high they have limbs that make them as wide as this room it's not bigger and they are planted right on the edge of the Pacific Ocean so the storms that are coming off the Pacific Ocean the first thing they hit are those cliffs and those redwood groves storm after storm come hurling across the sea now these 30 story trees some of them are nearly 2,000 years old 1,500 to 2,000 years old standing there say into the Pacific Ocean is that all you got for centuries now here's the interesting thing typically the taproot on an evergreen tree is gonna be about 30% as deep as it is tall so we're talking about a 10-story deep root hanging on in the ground these trees instead have a taproot about two meters deep six feet that's a dent basically they don't have a tapper instead they have a lateral root system that goes in every direction across this entire forest floor that for centuries has been extending further and further out and grabbing on to each other and with each storm that rolls in and hits them they just snug up a little tighter I didn't know it had extra space after 1,500 years yeah and these roots are going and miles in every direction grabbing on to trees that this tree can't even see from here if trees could see giving strength and life and security to places this tree didn't even know existed we can see our Father in his creation and we can we can understand what covenant relationship is by looking at a redwood growth and understanding that this tree that has been here and living covenant and given life and security and also being securely attached is saying to that tree you're not going down you're not going down because we're not going down we are all hanging on to each other and we are living in the benefit of generations past we read about some of them in the Bible we've read about covenant people that their roots have extended into my life into your life and have grabbed on and given us a place to grab on and when the storms come who is snug up a little tighter and you're not going down we're not going down when sherry and I came to Christ we were 21 years old that was five years after I met Chris Fallot and I worked with Chris valeton for two and a half years I resisted Chris valeton for two and a half years it's one of my claims to fame when Sheree and I got married or when we got saved actually when we got saved we we've got say within a month of each other didn't really know each other and we come from very broken families sherry and her two parent or Series two parents and her and her stepfather who raised her since she was six years old and my two parents between those five people there are 15 marriages represented every one of them have been married three times those are the marriages those aren't the relationships those are the marriages now those marriages are giving us counsel this is what covenant looks like Jimmy grew up in a small community you know pretty much everybody in your community I could save they walk into this this community of people I've never seen these people in my life I'm like I can't believe you're here what are you doing here and I meet a couple and they have children and I go oh so all all three of these are yours the two of you just the two of you all three of these belong to just the two of you really so none of these kids visit somebody else huh you you got teenagers both of those teenagers you're the only parents they've known their whole life YouTube just YouTube you have adult children you your children have gone away to school or got married oh and and they didn't have any other parents but YouTube their whole up right Wow just did everybody in this church lie because I've never seen it before I had never seen someone raise their children into adulthood as married people but now had seen it now I've seen it and all of a sudden what I hope was true is staining right in front of me all of a sudden I have people who have done what I thought it could be done never seen it actually you have to understand something when sherry and I got married 12 years in we were we were sitting in bill Johnson's house were on his couch and we were bickering about something and he throws his head back and goes ha ha ha this reminds me that note on your assess but remember that dote no what no remember the taylor-johnson compatibility its assessment I said yeah he's rubber than no no I didn't tell you about the note what note and from the kitchen videos Oh bill you didn't tell them and that Sheree and I are leaning in like what No oh that's weird I mean for 10 years I would take this assessment from the couple put in the envelope send it to the psychologist he would run through software spit out a report mail it back to me I'd go over it with a couple 10 years 10 years I got yours back I pulled it out there's a post-it note on it it said Bill do whatever you can to stop this marriage no you didn't tell us about that fifteen marriages we are clinically incompatible but now we've seen something we have seen something we never saw before we saw people living covenant relationships and now not only is it possible it's now become what we expect of ourselves we now expect to live in covenant it's become contagious everybody around us is living grabbing on to each other saying we're gonna work it out it's messy it's beyond messy this is impossible you've taken impossible characters and you've put them in an impossible situation and I always think this reminds me of corn you're probably asking when's he gonna get to the part about corn well let me tell you somewhere in the middle of the United States they have a lot of corn and they have contests over who is doing it the best and him there's a particular farmer he's running the table he's winning year after year after year after year he's got a corn dynasty going he's world champion so farmers are almanacs sends a reporter out to him and they say how okay how are you doing this how is it that every year you come out with the best corn he says oh that's easy he says what I do is every year I give last year's corn stop to all the farmers around me that way the only pollen that ever blows across my field is last year's champion so my question to you is who have you surrounded yourself with whose lives are influencing the way you see covenant because if you're the strongest covenant person around you you're in big trouble if you're taking lessons from Hollywood from social media from public figures athletes you're in big trouble you have no idea how to live the kingdom of God on this planet but if you can look around and you can see people you know people who have lived covenant who are living in community walking through the mess there are no there are no communities that don't have toilets I'm telling you everybody's making a mess pretty much every day if you're regular please don't look for a place without mess that's a joke that's a deception strengthen your capacity to love strengthen your willingness to die strengthen your investment in other people resist trying to remain alone protect your comfort zone remember why we're here we are here we have life Jesus died to give us life so that we could die to give life to other people that's what we're doing here we have been crucified with Christ it's no longer us who live but it's him given life to the community around us through our willingness to practice covenant together amen amen all right let's all stand together I'd like you to just grab on to somebody near you just you know respectfully but you ain't on somebody near you and let's just let's just let's look like a like a big redwood grove you may have to move around a little bit I see some weak spots I think they're called Isles I'll look you there Oh looky there some people are catching on oh you do not want to be remaining alone in this storm baby I'll tell you what I'll tell you what I'll tell you what there's there's a community outside these four walls that is looking for this right here they are looking for people who are holding on to each other adding strength to each other willing to lay your life down for each other saying to each other you're not going down and you're not going down because I'm not going down we're not going down there's a cyclone outside these doors tearing families apart children who are growing up starving for a family and we call ourselves one we are the best example in town we are the best hope anybody has of finding what their heart longs for and we have the best example of anyone who's made an eternal covenant with us and all he did was he just showed us his father that that was his commitment let me show you my father let me show you that his willingness to sacrifice so that you live Holy Spirit come Holy Spirit come in this place your loom should let us hear how good our Father how much he loves us how thrilled he is with this picture right here any times I got a covenant you are most likely going to run into places where the devil has been successful in people's hearts and when you blew two boards together and he tear them apart they don't just break it to glue part of this board participant that was so people are afraid to keep anymore my heart away because so much of it has walked away and broken so father I pray for a healing to just go through this place right now and there would be the grace to forgive and there would be to believe prayer forgiveness we forget you apsara22 just whispered the name under Brent who don't let me shine from the road come here but Jed i forgiven there may be more than one person their former friends they're your own children there's your spouse's there are people I'm just going to get in through I forgive me whose group those together and there's an opportunity afterwards if you need prayer to come up and just work through some stuff there will be some thumbs up you're never good at that some father that's the [Music] father to bless these people with your mom I said peace and faith let's make Joanne Twomey [Music] [Music] those people must know Jesus look at how they love each other come on thank you Jesus Jesus you

Channel: Kairos Company

Views: 11,056

Rating: 4.9047618 out of 5

Keywords: prayer, unity, Tauranga, OneVoice

Id: 5FNq0rI99V4

Length: 58min 7sec (3487 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 02 2018