Menlo Park Presbyterian Church
950 Santa Cruz Avenue, Menlo Park, CA 94025 650-323-8600
Series: No Strings Attached
Genesis 15:8-18
February 21, 2016
“Whole Hearted”
John Ortberg
John Ortberg: I want to say hi to everybody here, people at all of our campuses, folks who are joining us
online from all around the world. I'm so glad you're being a part of this series which we're concluding this
weekend.
Just before we do, a little bit of family news. We had a whole bunch of middle school students who went
to Hume Lake a couple of weeks ago. They actually got snowed in for a day. They missed a day of school.
They were grateful to God for that. There were 15 of our middle school students who made a first-time
decision to trust Jesus Christ as the Savior and Lord of their life. We never want to take that for granted.
Thanks so much for being a part of that.
Then I just want to add, the series that starts next week I've never experienced anything like this to go to
Israel and to be able to stand where Jesus actually literally stood and talk about what it is he taught and
how he lived so we can learn together how to live an intimate life with God where we are. I've never
experienced something like that before. There were amazing moments, and this is going to lead up to
Easter. There's also great material for Life Groups and for individuals to kind of apply what we're doing
every day as we lead up to Easter. I just wanted to make sure you know about that and don't miss it.
Now we've been looking at this whole deal of commitment. The first week in this series we looked at how
we tend to be afraid of commitment. We're afraid of getting trapped, and yet without it, we don't actually
have an identity. We don't have the freedom for community. Then the next weekend we looked at
financial commitment and how Jesus said, "Give, and it will be given to you." In other words, he didn't
say, "Give, because God needs your money." He said if you give, you'll actually experience a better life.
I was thinking about this because God's commandments are always given to us for our benefit. Usually
when the offering is being taken at any of our sites, somebody will say, "If you're just visiting, take a pass.
Don't worry about obeying the command to give." We never do that with other commandments in the
Bible.
If we're talking about the command that says, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," we never say, "But, you
know, if you're just visiting this weekend, feel free to take a pass on this commandment," because life is
better if you don't commit adultery. Life is better if you give. The commandments we commit ourselves to
we don't do for God. They make our lives better.
Then last week Scotty looked at relationships, because to say to somebody, "I'm going to commit my life
to you" is something I don't want to do unless I know, "Can I trust you?" In friendships, in families,
especially in marriages… You know, a wedding at its core isn't about the music or the clothes. It's a
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promise. "I take you for better, for worse, for richer or poor, in sickness and in health, to love and to
cherish till death do us part."
That promise is so important that it has to be witnessed. In old wedding ceremonies, there actually used to
be a question, "Does anybody know any reason why this woman should be not married to this man? If you
do, speak now or forever hold your peace." In movies, that part is always in a wedding, and somebody
always says something really dramatic so Sandra Bullock can marry the right guy and not the wrong guy.
It struck me. I go to a lot of weddings. Nobody ever asks that question in real weddings. Did you ever
notice that? I thought, "I'm a minister. I could do that." When my daughter got married, I actually asked
that question. "Does anybody know any reason?" I had set this up ahead of time. My brother-in-law was
in from out of town, so when I asked the question, Craig actually stood up (it was right here in this room)
and said, "Actually, I'm Laura's probation officer, and I have really serious reservations about this
wedding taking place."
It was (I thought) absolutely hilarious. Unfortunately I had neglected to tell the groom's family I was
doing this, so it came as a total surprise to them. They didn't think it was nearly as funny, but I thought it
was really funny. When you're making a commitment, you want to know, "Can I trust you?" When I was a
kid, we used to actually take a little oath, because we're often not trustworthy. We get desperate if we
really want somebody to believe us.
The oath went something like this: "If I'm not telling you the truth, I'm going to keep my word. Cross my
heart…" Anybody ever hear this one? "…hope to die. Stick a needle in my eye." That's kind of gruesome,
isn't it? Who came up with that one? "I want you to know, if I'm not telling the truth, may bad things
happen to me." All of this leads to the great question today, "Can I trust God?"
I was talking to a guy who has suffered a lot. He was saying, "You know, if I really trust God with
everything, he is going to hurt me." "God, can I trust you with my relationships, with my money, with my
sexuality, with my time, with my life and my death, with my children?" It turns out that God not only
understands, not only tolerates that question; he actually welcomes it.
When it got asked for the first time in the Bible, it kind of changed history, and it can change your life. It
might do that this weekend, this service. We're going to take a moment to actually think about and express
our commitment to God. You can start thinking about that. This all began way back when God was going
to begin a redemptive movement in human history, and he came to a man named Abraham (originally his
name was Abram).
God said to him, "Abram, I want you to be my guy. I'm going to give you a son, and I'm going to begin a
new community with you. I'm going to bless you, and through you all the peoples of the world will be
blessed. I want you to leave your home and go to a land I will show you, and you will take possession of
that land."
It's very interesting because Abram is being asked to do a lot. "But Abram said, 'Sovereign LORD, how
can I know that I will gain possession of it?'" It's kind of an interesting tension here. "Sovereign Lord."
That's a big title. "How do I know I can trust you? How do I know you're actually going to do this? How
do I know you're not going to hurt me?"
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If I was the Sovereign Lord, I would be tempted to say, "Well, puny little man, how do I know I can trust
you?" God doesn't do that. God instead responds in a really different way. "So the LORD said to him…"
Again, Abram is asking him, "How do I know I can trust you?" "So the LORD said to him, 'Bring me a
heifer [a calf], a goat and a ram, each three years old…' Abram brought all these to him, cut them in
two and arranged the halves opposite each other."
What in the world is going on there? That's weird. Well, in the ancient world, everybody would have
known immediately. In the ancient world, when people were going to make a commitment to each other,
they would do what was called a covenant. Covenant is just a word for a promise, but it's a really serious
promise. It's a really solemn vow that binds people to each other. "You can trust me. I will do what I tell
you I will do. You can count on my commitment."
Because we're often untrustworthy, they would actually take kind of a promise. They would make an oath.
It was called an oath of malediction. "May something bad happen to me if I don't keep my word to you."
They would take these animals like a calf and a goat and a ram and literally cut them in half. Now later
they'd have a big meal, a big celebration, so it was kind of a banquet thing. First, they would put one half
over here and one half over there as a way of saying, "If I don't keep my word to you, may what happened
to these animals happen to me."
Then they would go on together what was called a covenant walk. It looks really gruesome and bloody to
us. There's half a calf here and half a calf there. If you've ever gone into Starbucks and somebody has
ordered "half caf," now you know where that came from. No, I apologize. I don't know why it seems
funny to me. It doesn't seem funny to anybody else.
Anyway, that's this covenant walk deal. It's a really strange thing in our day, but it was because an oath
was so serious. In fact, if you ever read through the Bible and you see the phrase where two people make
a covenant, literally in the text in the Hebrew language, it's they cut a covenant. It's referring precisely to
this custom they would have. It was a way of saying, "If I'm not telling you the truth, cross my heart.
Hope to die."
When covenants would get made, if they were made, say, by a king and a bunch of less powerful people,
it was because there was always something in it for the king. He'd always get grazing rights or water or
gold or something. Here's the covenant. Then there's Abram and God. Abram is going to get great
blessing and great wealth and a people, a child, and a land. What does God get out of this covenant?
Somebody to bless. Somebody to commit himself to.
It kind of blew Israel's mind. There had never been in the history of the human race the idea of an allgood, all-powerful God who actually wants to enter into a covenant relationship with people, who wants
to promise himself, commit himself. They all believed in gods, but they thought of it more as a contract,
what we would think of as a contract kind of a thing.
Zeus or Baal or whoever would be my god, and we'd build him a temple. We'd offer him sacrifices and
give him grain and have a little cult of worship. Then it was his job to give fertility or rain or wealth or
health or whatever. It was kind of quid pro quo deal. If he didn't give me what it is I wanted, if I couldn't
get it from Zeus, I might go to another god. I might go to Apollo. It was a contract thing.
In our day, a lot of people approach God as if it's a contract kind of relationship. We don't think about God
for a long time if things are going okay, but then when I want something, then, "God, you have to give me
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this job. You have to give me this relationship. You have to give me my health. You have to give me my
kid's health. You have to arrange my circumstances right. If you do that, I'll go to church more often. I'll
give. I'll read the Bible. I'll do something."
We think of it as a contract thing, and then we play all these kind of spiritual games to get what it is we
want from God and to try to look more spiritual than we actually are. A guy says to God, "God, I really
want a doughnut, but only if it's your will for my life. I will drive to the doughnut shop, but I will only
have a doughnut if there is an open parking space in front of the shop. Then I will know a doughnut is
your will for my life." Sure enough, his sixth time around the doughnut shop, there's a space there. "God, I
just want your will."
It's kind of a contract thing. When it's a contract relationship, I'm always looking for loopholes. I'm always
trying to read the fine print. I'm always wondering, "Are you trying to take advantage of me? How do I
get out if I need to get out?" Have you ever tried to get out of a cell phone contract? Covenant is a
different kind of a deal. Covenant is a promise from the heart. A lot of times we'll try to make it sound
like that, but it really isn't.
I was reading in a book a while ago. They said the corporation is today what the family used to be. Your
company, where you work, that's your new family. No, it's not, because it's a contract deal. The quickest
way to prove it is, just don't do your job for a couple of weeks. Then when you get terminated, when the
pink slip comes, go to your boss and say, "Hey, you can't terminate me. I'm family." He will tell you, "No,
you're not. Yesterday you were family. Today you're fired."
See, one of the differences between a company and a family is in a family, you can't get fired. As family,
you can't get fired. See, a family is built not when somebody gets born but when there's a promise. "I'm
your daddy. As long as you live, I will always be your daddy. I don't care where you go or what you do.
You can betray my values. You can deny my God. You can break my heart. You can spit in my face. I'll
always be your daddy."
It's a heart thing. God comes to this little man, Abram, and says, "I'll always be your Daddy. I'll always
love you. I'll always be there for you. I'll walk with you." That blew the minds of people in ancient little
Israel, and they couldn't get over it. They loved to talk about God as the God of the covenant. They used
that word more than 300 times in the Bible, and they would talk about how God made a covenant with his
friend Moses on Mount Sinai when he gave the Ten Commandments and how God made a covenant with
his friend David when he made him king and how God made a covenant with Noah after the flood.
In fact, on this one, God was so excited because love loves to commit. God actually does this. God says to
Noah, "I now establish my covenant with you." God is so excited about this. "Not just you, Noah. With
your descendants." Then it's like God is so excited. "Not just with them. With every living creature that
was with you on the ark. The birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals…every living creature on
earth." God is making a covenant with the birds, with animals. "I promise I'll watch over you, and I'll give
you a sign of my covenant, and the sign is the rainbow." Noah had to love the rainbow.
Then God comes to this man named Abraham, says, "I will make a covenant with you and your people,
and I will give you a sign to remind you of our covenant together. That sign is circumcision," which had
to be a big disappointment to Abraham after Noah got the rainbow. "Couldn't we do some other kind of a
symbol of the covenant or something?"
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God loves to make a covenant, loves to commit himself to people. He does that with Abram. Then there's
this covenant walk, but there's a really strange thing that happens in it. It would've been very apparent to
people reading this in the ancient world. "As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a
thick and dreadful darkness came over him. […] When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a
smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the LORD
made a covenant with Abram…"
He cut a covenant with Abram. There are these bloody halves of animals on either side, and it's time for
the covenant walk. What's weird is in this vision Abram has, the blazing torch of course would stand for
God. Fire is the presence of God. That goes on the covenant walk, but Abram does not. Only God does the
covenant walk. It's like God is saying, "I'll do the covenant walk for you. If this covenant gets broken,
may the curse of the broken covenant fall on me. Cross my heart. Hope to die."
The covenant always involves two parties, and it's what we're going to be thinking about in a few
moments (what we're going to be doing together with God). "God, I want to renew my covenant with
you," if you want to do that today. "I want to recommit my life to you," because we have a way of
slipping in our covenants.
I was thinking of a picture of this. I will often end up getting emails from email providers that I don't
want. I don't know how it ever got started, but they just inundate me with them, and I feel like I'm really
tired of this. Then I'll remember there's a little word at the very bottom of the email. If I click on that
word, it terminates our email relationship. Does anybody know what that word is? "Unsubscribe." What a
wonderful word. Unsubscribe.
I was thinking how often with God in my relationship with him, there will be moments where I'll think, "I
really don't want to obey what God is asking me to do." "I'd really rather indulge this sexual appetite."
Unsubscribe. "I don't really want to bring God my tithes and be generous with my money." Unsubscribe.
"I don't really feel like praying to God right now. I don't really feel like having my mind shaped by the
Bible. I'd rather just let it be shaped by whatever kind of garbage the world is sending its way."
Unsubscribe.
You know, it's African American history month. "I really don't feel like learning about what oppression
and injustice and a lack of love looks like and how my own heart is with that kind of stuff. Where do I
need to be convicted on that? Where is God calling me to change? What does God want to do?"
Unsubscribe. See? I do that with God all the time. God's people did, and it wounds God's heart. Then he
feels distant. I kind of wonder what happens.
God created a kind of vehicle that's called a covenant renewal ceremony where people could renew their
covenant again. A long time after Abram, Moses comes along, and God makes a covenant with Moses on
Mount Sinai. God reminds the people of Israel, "I'm your father. I'm your daddy. I delivered you from
slavery in Egypt. I'm going to make you into a great people." He gives them the Ten Commandments.
You may know this about the Ten Commandments. They're chiseled on two tablets. There are two tablets.
Moses comes down with two tablets.
I always used to think that meant there were five commandments on one tablet and five commandments
on the other tablet. That's not the deal. Anytime there was a covenant, there would be two copies, two
records of the covenant made, one for each party. When Moses comes down with two tablets, one tablet
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belongs to the people of Israel. Guess who the other tablet belongs to? That's God's, because God is the
other part of the covenant. It goes into what's called the ark of the covenant, the promise.
Moses reads the covenant to the people. Look what happens. "Then he took the Book of the Covenant
and read it to the people." It's all about God and how much God loves them and what life with God looks
like. They're so overwhelmed by this that, "The God of the universe wants to be in a covenant relationship
with me!" "They responded, 'We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey.'" The idea is not
that it's grudging. It's not, "Somebody else is making me do this." It's not, "I guess I have to follow a
bunch of rules." It's like, "I want to give God my heart."
My parents have been married now 61 years, and they decided when they hit their fiftieth anniversary they
wanted to renew their covenant. When they got married the first time, it was kind of a sudden thing. My
mom was only 18. My dad had just turned 21. It was kind of a hurried wedding. It took place in a little
dinky town on the Rock River back in Illinois. When they hit their fiftieth, they decided they wanted to do
it right, so they did it in a beautiful setting overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Laguna Beach. Has anybody
here ever been to Laguna Beach?
We were all there. The first time around on their honeymoon literally my dad took my mom on a two-day
honeymoon to a weekend tennis tournament in Dixon, Illinois. That was my mom's honeymoon. I still get
grief from my wife because I took her on a two-week honeymoon to Door County, Wisconsin, a beautiful
place. She whines about going to Wisconsin on her honeymoon, but I digress. My mom only got two days
at a tennis tournament that my dad was already signed up in.
For their fiftieth, they decided they were going to do it right. They did this at a gorgeous setting
overlooking the Pacific Ocean. All of us children and grandchildren were now there. My dad was wearing
a tuxedo, and my mom was wearing a wedding dress. After 50 years and all kinds of joys and absolute
heartbreaks… They both had hip replacement (their original hips were no longer part of the ceremony)
and spinal stenosis and Bell's palsy.
They stood there and said, "For better or worse, in sickness and health, richer or poorer, to love and to
cherish, until death do us part, which it's going to do a lot sooner now." You know, we were all just
cheering them on. See, the heart of love loves to commit. It loves to make promise. When you love
somebody, you just want to say, "I'll be there for you. Just give me a chance to promise."
Now the part of the ceremony… I have to talk about this. This is really important, really weird to us.
Covenant commitments generally involve symbols, because when the heart is involved, it's so deep that
words can't quite convey it. At a wedding often it will be rings. There's a symbol in the covenant renewal
that's really important. Moses reads the book of the covenant. People say, "Whatever God says, we'll do.
We'll obey."
Moses then took the blood of the covenant. Remember it's a really bloody deal. Animals die for this.
"…sprinkled it on the people and said, 'This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with
you in accordance with all these words.'" Now just picture this for a moment. Moses takes this blood.
Animals have died for this. He takes the blood, dips it out or takes a bucket of it or something and springs
it on the people. How would you like it if we did that here? I thought about it, but I decided I'd kind of
like to keep my job. So I don't think I will. What is that about? Why would you sprinkle blood on people?
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Well, see, they lived in a really different world, in a world where they were really aware of life and death
and bloody messes. We live in a really different world. Charles Taylor in a brilliant book says we live
with what's called the "buffered self." We buffer ourselves from all of the harsh realities of the world in
which we live. We think of the universe like this big, giant machine. We're really smart. We've about got
it figured out. We can understand it through science. We can control it through technology.
We can shunt death away to where we don't have to look at it. We don't have to smell it. We'll just put it
in hospitals. We'll probably figure it out one of these days. We forget what a bloody thing birth is. I had
not seen birth till my wife gave birth to our kids. That's where I found they don't come in neat, little
cellophane packages. It's not like they just come out of a vending machine. It's like something out of a
science fiction movie. If you've never seen it, it's awful. It's slimy. There are openings and stuff coming
out. It's horrible.
When one of our kids was born, the doctor got there too late. Nancy was lying in this bed, and my favorite
jacket was laying next to her. While she was lying there, her water broke, and all of this stuff came out of
her body and just defiled my favorite jacket. She is normally a quite tidy person, but she didn't even
apologize for it. It's like she didn't even feel badly about it. That's not like her at all.
Another one of our kids was born, and the doctor was there for this one. But he got really serious all of a
sudden. He explained to us the umbilical cord was wrapped around the neck of the baby, and it was a
really serious deal. He took a scalpel, and inside my wife's body, he made a cut. Blood started spurting out
like a fountain. I was trying to coach everything and be helpful, but I just lost it at this. This was awful.
I got white as a ghost, and I was feeling kind of woozy. The doctor said, "You need to sit down on a chair
and put your head between your legs." I did that. A couple of minutes later (because it was so serious),
Nancy asked the doctor, "Is everything okay?" The doctor immediately said, "Yes, your husband and your
son are both pinking up at just the same time."
You know, we forget because we live in a buffered world with a buffered self. We're born in blood, and
we live as long as our blood allows us to live. When we lose our blood, we lose our life. Life is in the
blood. They wanted to know, because they lived in an unbuffered world with an unbuffered self.
Covenant deal is a heart deal, and that's a blood deal. It's a life or death deal.
When a little baby comes into this world, if it cannot trust that somebody is going to keep a promise to
that baby, "I will be there. I will be with you. I will be your daddy," that baby is going to die. When you
wake up in the morning, you have the luxury of forgetting about this, because you're a buffered self in a
buffered world. If the sun doesn't come up, if the law of gravity doesn't hold, if your heart doesn't keep
pumping that blood and you can't control any of that stuff, you have to trust…what? The universe? God?
We keep breaking that covenant, and this great God who made all of that, who gives us our lives… There
was a day when people were so much more aware of the wonder and the mystery and the uncontrollability
of life that faith came easier to them than it does to us not because they were unscientific or foolish but
because they lived in unbuffered reality. We doubt and we question and we clutch and we hold and we
sin. Our hearts get hard and cold.
God makes another promise. "'The days are coming,' declares the LORD, 'when I will make a new
covenant with the people of Israel…'" A new covenant. "I'll make a new promise." "It will not be like
the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand…" There's this tender picture.
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"…when I took them by the hand…" like you do when you love somebody. "…when I took them by the
hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant…" "Because they broke my heart."
"…though I was a husband to them…"
He uses the most tender, the most intimate picture that is possible to use of human love. It's like a husband
and a wife. It's like a groom and a bride. "Does anyone know of any reason why this woman should not be
married to this man?" Yeah, I do. I do! Me. My heart. My ego and my pride and my selfishness. "I'm
going to make a new covenant," God says, "not like the old one. That got broken. It broke my heart. I tried
to take these people by the hand. They broke my heart."
He thinks, and he thinks, and he thinks. Then one day he sends his Son Jesus. Nobody has ever talked
about the heart of God, the Father love of God the way Jesus did or just embraced everybody. Jesus taught
about God's covenant with his creation in ways nobody had ever heard. Then he faced a lot of opposition,
and he was going to die.
He understood something was happening in his death that he wanted the world to know but didn't get. The
night before he died, he gathered his friends together. He sat them around a table, and he poured out a cup
of wine. He said, "I'm going to die. I'm going to the cross tomorrow. You're going to be wrecked. You're
going to think it's the end. You're going to be in despair. It's not. I'm going to rise again. Here's what's
going on."
He poured out a cup of wine, and he said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured
out for many…" That promise God made a long time ago that's a life or death deal, that's a blood deal,
this is it. He is quoting Moses here. Moses said, "This is the blood of the covenant." Jesus doesn't say,
"This is the blood of the covenant."
Jesus says, "It's my blood. You know that covenant walk that happened so long ago with Abraham and
God, that promise God made? It's my blood." When Jesus went to the cross, guys, he was doing the
covenant walk for you and for me. "Cross my heart. Hope to die." That's our God. Now this is our
moment with him.
I just want to ask you, wherever you are, is there any area where your commitment to God, your covenant
to God, has been slipping? Any secret sin nobody knows about? Any hidden habit? Any relationship
where you've hurt somebody, you've wounded somebody, or somebody has hurt you? You've been saying
to yourself, "Do you know what? I get to nurse a grudge. I get to put them in a category where I don't have
to love them. I don't have to live with a tender heart toward them."
Maybe with your time. Maybe there was a time in your life when, you know, like Israel hearing the book
of the covenant. You used to just love to read God's Word. Now it's just been sitting on the shelf for a
long time. Or you used to love to pray and talk with God. Now you haven't talked deeply to God for a
long time. We renew our covenant with God.
I'm going to ask the team to come out and Charley to come on up. It's going to be a real kind of simple
deal. It always helps to have a symbol. You don't have to do this if you don't want to, but we have hearts
that are set up around the room. That's kind of a picture of the heart of God, a picture of your heart. We've
been doing this all weekend. You just take a string, and you can tie it onto that heart as a way of saying,
"God, I'm renewing my commitment. God, I'm renewing my covenant with you."
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Say a little prayer to him. Kind of like my mom and my dad did with each other, you say again, "With all
that I am, with all that I have, God, it's all yours." If you're up in the balcony, you can get a string. You
can come on down. I think there are hearts down below, or if you just want to get it and hold it and make
that prayer up there, wherever you are. I'm going to be around. Some of us are going to be around. If you
want to pray, we'll do that. This is our time together to love the heart of God. Charley, if you want to
come.
Charley Scandlyn: Would you pray for us?
John: Yeah, I'd love to. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, you know about every heart in this room. God, you know where we've gotten maybe
cold or hard or busy or distracted or guilty or afraid, angry, wounded, but now you come to heal us. Now
you come to just slay us with love and then bring us back to life again. Thank you, God, that you promise
to love us. You promise to be our daddy. Thank you, God, that you do the covenant walk we cannot do.
You make the sacrifice we cannot offer. You suffer the death we could not give.
Now, God, this is your people. We're kind of a mess, God. We often think we're smarter and better and
brighter than we are, but we're kind of a mess. We bring our mess to you. We bring our messy hearts and
lives to you. We do that in our families. We do that in our groups. We do that one-on-one. We're your
children, God, and we want you to have our hearts. We want to tell you again with all that we are, with all
that we have, we're yours.
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