Valley View Baptist Church Pastor Curt Audet
6N656 Route 25 July 12, 2026
St. Charles, IL 60174 vvbcil.com
“Covenant Relationship With God”
(Genesis 8:1-22)
17th in the message series Harbors For Our Soul
BI: God establishes relationships with His people based on His promises, and His people walk with Him by faith in response.
We are well into our series in Genesis, entitled “Harbors For Our Soul”. This is why we have the orange notifications on the Bow (front), Stern back, Port (left), and Starboard (right). We need to be able to find the Harbor for our soul in a stormy world. Our friends, families and neighbors need a Harbor for their souls. Going through the storms of life with no Harbor for your soul—particularly truth that establishes your life choices and direction—brings the full weight and terror of life’s storms upon your life, your body, your mind and your family.
A grievous report came from Lake Geneva last week when a seasoned boater faced a sudden storm squall on 7/4. So fast and furious was the stormy wind and rain that he was unable to maneuver the boat and find safety in the lake’s nearby harbor. I can’t get to the Harbor! Soon the 90-100 mph winds struck the starboard side of their recreational motorboat with 10 people onboard, including six adults and four children. The man desperately was attempting to navigate to safety, but became overwhelmed by severe wind and waves, took on water, capsized and subsequently sank. I can’t get to the Harbor! Seven people were hurled into the lake! Three drowned in the boat’s lower level and did not make it through the storm. Families in Wheaton and Batavia are devasted. Selah.
Click on these source links for the news story and the GoFundMe pages for the families affected by this tragedy.
Source Links:
Fundraiser by Jonathon Schmidt : Honoring Kate Schmidt’s Legacy
Fundraiser by BRAD OSWALD : Charity Fund for Caleb & Abigail Oswald
3 kids dead as Geneva Lake boat capsizes; storms hit Chicago area
1,656 years after Creation a storm system unlike any other rained with water bursting from the recesses of the earth and pouring unceasingly down from the skies. For 150 days without relief or mercy water rose to 22.5 feet over the highest mountain. Mount Everest is the tallest mountain today at 29,031.7 feet (2020) above sea level in the Himalayan mountains on the border between Nepal and Tibet. This means the water in the days of the Ark may have risen to 29,054 feet!
There were no more Harbors to flee to for anyone. The only survivable haven was the Ark and God had shut that door five months before. God did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness—with seven family members—when He brought that flood upon the world of the ungodly as judgement. (1 Peter 3:5) In Genesis 5-10 we have been reading about the Ark.
Chapter 5 – Noah connects to his ancestors in faith. The prayer of his father Lamech, asked God to bring rest through his son Noah, which mean ‘rest’. His three sons are named. (5:28-32)
Chapter 6 – Noah finds favor with God. The majority of the earth is indicted as evil continually both in action and thought. God grieves His creation of humanity. God promises a new start, a re-Creation. God promises a covenant relationship with Noah. Noah builds the Ark. (6:1-22)
Chapter 7 – Noah and his family enter the Ark. The door is shut by God. The judgment rains on the earth for 40 days. The waters rise to 100% cover the earth for 150 days. All that breathes air is blotted out from the earth. (7:1-24)
Chapter 8 – God acted on His promise to wipe out the world population as well as begin again with Noah’s family. God saves 8 people through the judgement of the earth. Noah, his family and the animals emerge from the Ark. (8:1-22)
Chapter 9 – God establishes terms and promises of the covenant relationship with Noah. God marks the covenant with a first-ever rainbow. The Ark gave a short reprieve, but sin was still a moral capacity choice for people, and a preference too. Like Adam, Noah’s suffers deep wounding family sin among his sons. (9:1-28)
Chapter 10 – Noah’s family begins the next genealogy tracking through his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth to repopulate the World. (10:1-32)
I. What is a ‘Covenant Relationship’? (8:1; Jeremiah 31:33)
The Bible’s first use of the word ‘covenant’ is in Genesis 6:18 where God tells Noah: “I will establish My covenant with you.” And here in Genesis 8, we see God’s follow-through with His promises. “God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark.” (v.1)
Of all the millions of souls on the earth one year earlier, soberly, only Noah and his family remained. And they remained because of God’s faithfulness. In chapter 9, the word, ‘covenant’ will appear 7 times defining specifically the Noahic Covenant. A covenant in its general sense and definition is solemn a mutual agreement between two or more parties.
A contract is similar, yet primarily a legal agreement based on mutual obligations. And a covenant is primarily a relational commitment grounded in promises and loyalty. When you buy a house you write up a contract defining the agreement, terms and conditions. When you get married, this is a human covenant, a sober, serious commitment made for a lifetime ‘till death do we part’. A covenant is more than a casual agreement, it decision made with God as our primary witness.
In the Bible, God makes covenants with people. It is a solemn, binding relationship established by God, in which He makes promises, sets terms, and commits Himself to His people.
In a covenant which binds the relationship established by God, in which He graciously promises to be God to His people, and they are called to respond with faith, obedience, and loyal relationship. Here are –
Key Features Of A Biblical Covenant.
Initiated by God: God is the one who establishes covenant relationships. He takes the initiative in revealing Himself and making promises.
Relational: A covenant creates or confirms a personal relationship between God and His people.
Binding: Covenants involve solemn commitments. God binds Himself to His promises, and covenant members are called to respond by faith trusting Him.
Promises & Obligations: Covenants include divine promises and often expectations for human response, such as faith, obedience, worship, and loyalty.
Confirmed by signs: Many biblical covenants include signs that symbolize the covenant relationship. Think of rainbow, circumcision, the Sabbath, or the Lord’s Supper.
One of the clearest covenant examples is: “I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:33; Genesis 17:7; Exodus 6:7; Leviticus 26:12; Revelation 21:3) This phrase captures the heart of covenant relationship between God and people. God commits Himself to His people, and they belong to Him.
God’s Covenants Throughout Scripture
Noahic Covenant (Genesis 9): God promises to preserve the earth and never again destroy all life with a flood.
Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 12, 15, 17): God promises Abraham descendants, land, and blessing for all nations through his offspring.
Mosaic Covenant (Exodus 19–24): God forms Israel as His covenant people and gives them His law.
Davidic Covenant (2 Samuel 7): God promises that David’s line will have an enduring kingdom.
New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31–34; Luke 22:20): God promises forgiveness of sins, a transformed heart, and a restored relationship through Christ.
II. The ‘New Covenant’ Relationship With Christ-Followers Today. (Jer 31:33; Jn 1:12; Jn 3:16; Lk 12:22; 2 Cor 5:17) For Christians, the primary covenant relationship with God is understood through the New Covenant, established by Jesus Christ. Jesus said at the Last Supper: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” (Luke 22:20)
Through Christ, believers enter into a covenant relationship with God characterized by:
The New Covenant
- Forgiveness of sins through Christ’s sacrificial death.
- Reconciliation with God, restoring fellowship that sin had broken.
- God’s indwelling Spirit, who enables believers to know and obey God.
- Adoption into God’s family, making believers His people.
- Assurance of God’s promises, including eternal life and final redemption.
God’s covenant relationship with us is His gracious commitment to be our God, forgive our sins through Christ, dwell with us by His Spirit, and make us His people, calling us to respond with faith, love, and obedience. God’s covenant relationship with us means that He graciously binds Himself to His people, promises His presence and blessing, and calls them into a faithful, trusting relationship with Him through Jesus Christ.
III. God’s Covenant Relationship with Noah (Gen 8:1-22)
When Noah led his family on to that Ark that he had been making for 75-120 years, he took steps of faith up that ramp, in to the Ark, against the mocking crowds of his day. Noah had learned that faith in God is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. And that by faith people receive commendation. By faith Noah understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen in front of him was not made out of things that are visible.
Through the faith his ancestor Abel was righteous. By faith his great-grandfather Enoch walked in relationship with God. Noah knew that without faith it was impossible to please the Lord; he knew that whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. And by faith he led his family into the Ark (Hebrews 11:1-7). And through the storm and now, out of the Ark safely! Look at the relationship between God and Noah, the person who had a covenant relationship with God.
Genesis 8:1-22, But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. 2 The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, 3 and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had abated, 4 and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
6 At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made 7 and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. 9 But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. 10 He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. 11 And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. 12 Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore.
13 In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. 14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. 15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. 19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark.
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
All this was God’s doing and Noah’s faithful responses to the Lord. Enter covenant relationship with God and live with, in and surrounded by the Harbor your soul desperately needs. You and I are invited into a New Covenant relationship with God. If you have trusted God the Son as your Savior, you enter not physically into the ark, but in a saving, forgiving, reconciling relationship with Jesus the crucified One, the buried One, the risen One, the coming again One. In a world of storms’ challenges and difficulties, the Harbor For Our Soul is Christ Jesus our Lord. He is our Ark. He is our redeemer. May your and my lives be living sacrifices upon the altar thanking God, worshiping God, loving God with all our heart, soul and mind—living this out by loving others in our lives.
Source Links:
Fundraiser by Jonathon Schmidt : Honoring Kate Schmidt’s Legacy
Fundraiser by BRAD OSWALD : Charity Fund for Caleb & Abigail Oswald
3 kids dead as Geneva Lake boat capsizes; storms hit Chicago area
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