In this informal, conversational sermon titled “Covenant in Commotion,” the pastor (Gavin Arham) and several participants unpack Isaiah 59:19, focusing on the image of God moving “like a rushing stream driven by the wind of the Lord.” The speaker contrasts the King James translation with the Christian Standard Bible, arguing that modern translations reveal God as the active flood rather than a passive observer. The sermon identifies two primary obstacles to God’s people: external forces (political enemies, economic pressures, societal violence) and internal sin. Central to the message is the theological claim that because of the covenant God has with His people, He does not wait for an invitation; He moves toward them, intervenes in their mess, and brings rescue even when they are in places they “should not be.” The preacher uses a series of vivid analogies—a moon that seems to follow you, a baby that cannot ask for help, a flood that appears destructive yet carries God’s deliverance, and a helicopter rescuing flood victims—to illustrate God’s omnipresent, proactive love. Throughout, the speaker repeatedly exhorts the congregation to admit personal sin, trust God amid chaos, and recognize that the covenant guarantees God’s presence and aid regardless of external pressure or internal failure. The tone is informal, enthusiastic, and persuasive, with frequent repetitions, humor, and a pastoral urgency to encourage believers to rely on God’s covenantal promise.
Chapters
Invitation I want to extend to you, and I pray that you accept. You've been invited to fellowship with me this morning in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter number 59. Y'all sitting in amen corners, y'all got to say amen. Put the left side too. Y'all say amen in the corner. There you go. That's a requirement. Isaiah 59, and we're going to go down to verse number 19. Now hear me well, if you have a King James translation, don't look at it, okay? Don't look at it. If you have a King James translation, you may have one of two options. Either look on the screen if it's there, or just hear my voice. Since I know your heart, you can't even read anyway, you might end up confused. All right, so Isaiah chapter number 59, and I want to read verse 19. I'm reading from the Christian Standard Bible. It's on the screen, so listen to me, okay? Verse 19 reads, hear me well: they will fear the name of the Lord in the west and his glory in the east, for he will come, meaning God, like a rushing stream Driven by the wind of the Lord. You may be seated. We thank God for his word and for the perpetual nature that lies within. I purposely made sure that you did not read your translation, King James Version, and you'll understand why if you pay attention to what we read this morning. the preeminent God will come like a rushing spring, driven by the wind. For just a few moments on this Sunday morning, I want to lift the subject Covenant in Commotion.
Covenant motion.
It's called parallax.
You've seen it in play in your personal lives. Have you ever been walking or driving at night?
It seems like when you pass houses You didn't see the houses anymore. But when you look up at the moon, it seems as if that nowhere, no matter where you went, that according to an optical illusion, that it appears as if the moon is following you. This happens because the moon is so vast, so large, so powerful, so much higher than what we are, that it appears that this higher Power goes every place in which we go. It's not really doing it, but since it's higher than what we are, it appears to follow us wherever we go. I can go to a good neighborhood The moon is there. I can go to a bad neighborhood, the moon is there. I could go places where I'm supposed to go, the moon is there. I can even go places I'm not supposed to go, and the moon is there. Moon teaches us that because it's higher than us and more powerful than us, that no matter where we go, it can follow us to that place. I can tell already, Diakonos, y'all gonna make me preach hard today because I have something that's better than parallels, have something that's not an illusion. But I have something that's real this morning that has proven time and time again that no matter where I go, he's always there.
In the good times, he's there.
In the bad times, he's there.
In good weather, he's there.
In bad weather, he's there.
In places I'm supposed to be, he's there.
In places I'm not supposed to be, he's there.
In the hospital, he's there.
At my home, he's there.
In church, he's there. On the corner, he's there.
And many of you are too afraid this morning to admit that you've been some places that you were not supposed to be. But I will go ahead and be the first to admit this morning that I have been found in locations, sometimes in places that I had no business being. But the truth of the matter this morning—
don't preach hard, Gavin—
is that the reason that I've been able to make it past those places is because I have a God who had the ability to have covenant with me, and he followed me, and he moved with me, and he rescued me everywhere I've been. And before I go into my introduction this morning, I'm just curious this morning, is Gavin Arham the only one who has that testimony? Who knows that you serve a God who knows how to go where you are and that when you can't go to where he is, he's God enough to come to where you are. That when you didn't know who he was, he had his mind on you and he followed you and he had his hand on you. And somebody this morning needs to be encouraged because you are in a place that may feel uncomfortable, but let me give you some good news this morning. That since you have a relationship with God, that God will move to where you are and meet every last one of your needs. Y'all too busy being distracted by Tony, and I'm trying to tell you this morning that you serve a God who walks with you and talks with you and follows you and favors you and heals you in that place of distress. I'm so happy you showed up, Tony.
We're in Isaiah chapter 59. We are in a strange predicament.
We are in a post-exilic, or either a near post-exilic experience. Gavin, what does that mean? It means that Judah is either after Babylonian exile, or they're almost about to come out of exile. And in this 59th chapter of Isaiah, we have a strange problem. There are enemies that have still had the reluctance to let go of their siege of Judah. We have outside enemies going against Judah. We have political enemies going against Judah.
We have people outside of God's people who are a threat to God's people.
Is there anybody this morning who's in that position? You have some outside forces that continue to try to separate you from the love of God.
You got this outside force called a bill that just keep on showing up at the beginning of the month. You have these outside forces called people who are crazy, who you almost have lost your good religion a time or two against them because they can't keep their mouths off of you. You have these outside enemies in places of political power. You have outside forces that perhaps may have caused these gas prices to lose their everlasting mind.
You have these outside forces where all throughout this state, the utility bills are higher than they've ever been.
You have these outside forces that cause violence in our schools and cause violence even in our churches and cause violence in our communities. We all must admit this morning that we are being victimized by outside forces. But can I be true to the text?
Not only are there outside forces. But if you read this text, you will see that not only are outside forces the problem— I feel happy this morning— but there's also internal sin that's the problem. Now this one, I'm about to lose my saved church because no one in here is going to admit that you still have internal sin.
You ain't picked up a blunt, you ain't picked up a bottle, you've been sleeping in your bed, but guess what?
As long as you're breathing, you still wrestle with internal sin.
And the danger is, is that sometimes you know what your sin is, but it's also dangerous because sometimes you don't even know what your sin is.
But because you live in the flesh and you live in the earth, you still wrestle with internal sin, and you have sinned already today.
Some of you sin since you've been in the house of God. Some of you have sinned since I gave my exegetical invitation, so please don't make me upset and go ahead and take your holy halo off and admit that I still deal with some internal sin. I know them children running me crazy and they doing all this sagging and they smoking all this dope and you're worried about their sin. But there's some sin in this house this morning that's been committed by the youngest and those who are not so young. From the oldest to the not so old, we all have common ground and we deal with sin.
I hate to have to remind us of that. Sometimes we get a little bit up, and I wouldn't be a good pastor if I left you up in it?
Got two problems.
You got external foe and we got internal foes. And on March 22nd, 2026, we got external foe and we still have internal foe. That's chapter 59. But I read to you this morning in verse 19 that despite the external forces and despite the internal forces, in verse 19, God says that none of them are able to save or redeem themselves.
So the verses before verse 19, it says that God pretty much took matters into his own hands. Because I know they gonna go Sunday morning and they gonna sing and they gonna preach, but they still can't save themselves.
I know they paid their tithes.
I know they gave an offering.
I know they gonna put them suits on.
I know they gonna come and look like some good church folk. But at the end of the day, they are dealing with some mess that they can't fix. They're dealing with some fools that they can't fix. They're dealing with some foolishness in them that they can't fix.
So God says, how—
here's what I do.
Since they can't fix it, and since they belong to me, how about I move to them? Y'all missing your shout this morning because you still trying to be perfect. God says, I'm not expecting you to move. Because if I waited on you to move, I'll be waiting forever. But since I am God, and since I love you so much, when you don't know how to move and when you don't know where to move, God says, I'm gonna move to you and work in your situations, and I'm gonna move into you and work in your problems, and I'm gonna move towards you and dry your weeping eyes, and I'm gonna move towards you and give you peace in the midnight hour. I'm gonna move to you and give you joy in this chaotic world.
I'm gonna move towards you, and when you should be stressed out, people will see you with your hands lifted up and your mouth filled with praise, and with a heart of thanksgiving.
You can tell the devil, I will bless thee, O Lord.
Stay calm, Gavin, because you're about to raise your voice, and you made a March resolution to no longer raise your voice. So before you do that, Gavin, the people want to know, Pam, what's the thesis? Here's my thesis.
Say it slow.
Because of the covenant God moves towards us when what's against us is strong and when what's in us is wrong. I work too hard on that all week for y'all to sit there and look at me like I'm ugly, and you know I'm handsome.
Say it again, Gavin.
Because of covenant, your God moves towards us even when what's outside is strong and when what's in us is wrong. In other words, because he loves us He does not let anything or anybody, including us, be against us. Don't look at me like that.
I moisturize my face. Don't look at me like that.
God loves you so much that he doesn't let anything or anybody stop him from getting to you, nor does he let you stop him from getting to you. I need a witness this morning because I'm sick of y'all looking at me like that. Who knows that God has come to you and rescued you and helped you and healed you and blessed you and provided for you and anointed you and saved you and took care of you and makes them— blotted out your mistakes and erased your errors and healed your body and paid your bills and saved your soul and lifted you up and turned you around. He's that type of God.
me this morning, and I'm trying to stay calm. He has a covenant in the midst of the commotion. Since you clean, I'mma preach to you and say this. God moved towards the people, but the people didn't invite God. But God intervened, and God intervened without an invitation.
And you're here this morning, and the reason that you need to give God your best is because God didn't wait on your invitation before he had divine intervention. But while you were in sin, God came to you.
And while you didn't even know a problem existed, God came to you.
And when you thought the problem was still prevalent, God said, I already took care of it.
He says in the text I'm gonna move. If you read the whole chapter, please do so.
You know that God is kind of fed up.
You got these enemies and you got his children. They're almost out of exile.
They're almost still—
they're almost through with punishment, but they still got hell in them. They're not alone.
God delivers and delivers and delivers and delivers.
But we still got some mess in us.
And I'm discovering, the older that I get, some of the most blessed people are some of the people who still got the most mess in them. Different sermon, I ain't preaching that today.
But God moves towards these people anyway.
Now, that's problematic.
Because when God moves, he's coming like a rushing stream, which means that God is not coming to play. That scares you, don't it?
Because you know God don't play.
Oh, you better be wary because he's coming.
You better be wary because he's coming.
Can I help us this morning?
If you're saying the arrival of God should not cause fear, but the arrival of God should activate your faith, because when God is moving in this text, he's moving to help his children, and he's moving to eliminate the enemy.
However, the problem is— I feel good this morning—
that both parties—
here it is. God is moving to manifest his presence and power.
He's moving towards people who have just as much sin in them as the enemy, but God doesn't eliminate his children. He saves and redeems his children. And eliminates the enemy.
So your question for me should be, Ham, why did God not eliminate his children but eliminated the enemy when both sides are guilty? It's simple. God didn't have covenant with the enemy.
But God had covenant with his children. So here it is, even when God comes to correct, his correction is going to be in a place where it's going to build you up. So that means that when I get saved, I don't have to hide my sins from God, but I need to let God come in my sins because the presence of God could eliminate me, but since we have covenant, his presence heals me. Any healed people in the house this morning who know that God's presence should have wiped you out, but because of the blood of Jesus the Christ, what should have eliminated you, he worked in your heart.
He's taming that tongue, he's taming those thoughts, and it's because the covenant that he established with you.
I'm failing at not raising my voice.
This is why it's important to be saved first before you quote unquote get it together.
That's why even when you know you're not ready to make a change, that you submit to God. Because God says you never will be ready, but let my presence show up in your life and what a wonderful change can come over you. And you gonna still mess up, you gonna still drop the ball, but God just keeps on moving towards you.
I want you to go tell somebody today with their sin and say, God sees the mess you in right now, but he wants you just like that.
He's going to show up in your life just like that.
And when you get to the house of God, don't you let nobody else on your pew make you feel like you're by yourself in sin, because I guarantee you— I'm glad I didn't cuss— that they got just as much mess on the inside of them.
They just know a few more hymns than what you know.
They just know a few more Dr. Watts. They just know what holy oil is, and they just know what devotion is. But at the end of the day, we all need a Savior to come.
Yes, a multi-purpose intervention. No one asked for him. He just got upset with them. My children, I'm sick of them in a mess.
I'm sick of them being plagued by the enemy.
I've had enough and I'm getting ready to show up.
And I want to tell somebody today, God sees your mess and he wants to show up. God sees your issues and he wants to show up. He sees your imperfections and he still wants to show up.
Y'all ain't too hot, are you?
Let me get a little bit more of this out.
I got both my hands up, so y'all know this something I've been working on, and the expectation that I have of you is that you better like it. Here it is: God invites himself into the circumstances of people who've accepted his invitation. Honorable Mayor, do we need to pass an ordinance or something?
God invites himself into the lives of people who've accepted his invitation. You may not be Reverend You may not be bishop, you may not be deacon, deaconess, presbyter, but if you've accepted his invitation, he ordains himself to say, I'm gonna invite myself into their mess.
He doesn't wait on the mess to clean up before he show up, but he shows up and then clean the mess.
I'm preaching too long.
I should have slept better last night or something.
Any parents in the house? I've learned something from babies. Babies helped me preach today. Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh.
Babies Any parents, or you don't have to be a parent, if you just observe babies, this will resonate with you. Uh-uh, babies are not born with the ability to talk. So when babies have a problem, the parent comes and fix the problem, but the baby didn't ask.
But the reason that the parent comes to the baby is because the baby belongs to the parent.
So the parent says, I'm not gonna wait on the baby to say it, but because I know my child, I'm not gonna wait on their voice. I'm gonna visit without their voice.
Preach, boy! Lord, uh, let me, let me make it more plain for you and make it more plain for you. Babies have the tendencies— oh, little stinker butt, my little stinker has the tendency to excrete without going to the proper place. The baby makes a mess, and the baby sometimes cries, but all the time the baby does not cry.
But the commonality is, is that the baby never says, 'Hey, Mom, come change me.' And when they start saying that, that means it's about time to potty train them.
All right, ain't no pediatrician.
But here's what bless me.
Who's they coming?
Even though the baby can't talk to the parent The baby's mess can. And all I'm trying to tell you this morning is that you're here today not because of what you said, but your mess has a way of talking to the God of who you belong to.
Anybody in here ever made a mess?
But your mess talked to God.
It didn't run God away, but your mess made God come in and clean it up. He invited himself even when you didn't invite him.
I done preached too long today.
It's because my clock fast.
I gotta close. He serves a multi-functional multi-purpose intervention. But I got to close.
This is my favorite point to start up this.
You know this about God.
God is a meteorological instigator. He's a meteorological instigator. What I'm trying to tell you this morning is that as a child of God under covenant, never be fooled by floods. Don't be fooled by floods.
God— you, you read the text and you heard it, but it didn't scare you. Not supposed to, after what I just said, but stay with me now. He moves like a rushing stream powered by the wind of God. God's moving like a stream, and he supplied his own gas to move. He didn't stop by Sicto, Sherbron.
He said, I got my own gate.
I ain't got to pay what y'all got to pay, 'cause I got my own. He moves like a rushing stream. You know what a rushing stream leads to? It leads to a flood.
A rushing stream It's disrupt.
A rushing stream looks chaotic. Many of us this morning, our lives filled with rushing stream.
You thought that the rushing stream and the flood was an indicator of the absence of God.
But since God is moving like a rushing stream powered by his own power— I'm not saying God causes chaos, but what I'm saying is that floods that scare you should perhaps make you find God in it.
Can we go to school real quick? Y'all ready?
Verse 19.
I told you not to read what translation?
King James.
Here's why.
Some of you probably already did.
King James said something that we're familiar with.
Y'all interested? King James says, when the enemy comes in like a flood, then the Lord shall lift the standard. That's what King Jimmy says. But we've advanced now and we have different translations, and we've discovered in later study through to some differences in different, uh, vowel sounds in certain words that we've discovered that the enemy actually may not be present.
Y'all read it.
The Lord moves like a rushing stream.
It's not the enemy moving like a rushing stream, like a flood.
It's the Lord. If you read it in King James, it makes you think that God is waiting on the devil to move, and then he moved.
But more accurate translations that we read today teaches us that our God is not on the fence waiting on the enemy to come like a flood. God says, no, I'm the one who's the flood.
I have more power than the enemy, and the enemy is already too late because I've already been moving in your life.
You know why that's a shout?
I'm closed. I might cuss.
I'm gonna cut some of this off.
You know why that's a shout?
If the enemy comes in like a flood, the flood may have already gotten you.
By the time God can lift up the banner.
So if the enemy came through the flood, you may not survive the flood.
But I'm looking at some people in Pilgrim Rest today who I know are flood survivors.
And the reason that you survived the flood is because God did not wait on the devil to move like a flood.
God says, I'm gonna move first, and I'm gonna move in a way that sucks destructive.
I'm gonna move in a way that looks like it's harsh.
But when you stay and survive the flood, you will discover that not only did the flood not help take you out, but you messed around and found that you got favor even in the midst of the flood. Now y'all ready for me to shut up, but I can't shut up until I tell you that sometimes the faith— the favor of God is found in the flood. Sometimes the favor of God is found in destruction.
And what you think may be destroying you today may be working together for your good.
He may be using that to take you higher. He may be using that to clean things out. He may use what looks destructive to get people out life who don't need to be there, to put you in new places, to put you in new opportunities, because he can move like a flood too.
And you know, if God had his hand in the flood, you know—
want to know how you know?
Is that on the other side of the flood, you didn't drown.
You still here?
You still got to praise.
That's how you know God was working in the midst of it.
I'm not saying God caused it, but God moved in it and started cleaning some stuff. Anybody ever came through a situation that looked destructive, but you look now and say, God, if it had not been for that flood, I would not be where I am today?
That's because he moves like a flood. Be confident even if you're dealing with the flood, because if he's in, you can survive.
Because if it was the devil, it would take me out a long time ago. But it had to have been God, because you shouldn't have came through that. It had to have been God because it should have taken you out.
I like watching. I used to like watching CNN hurricanes and stuff. You ever notice when flood waters come, they always show like a helicopter going to rescue somebody.
Top of the house, saw it. People are waiting, asking for help.
So therefore a helicopter comes down to help those who are in the midst of a flood. When the helicopter gets there, have you ever looked at what happens to the water? The water was calm, but when the helicopter shows up, all the water gets to shaking, and it looks like that all that shaking water It makes it look like the helicopter is doing more harm than good. But here's what I learned through watching the news.
Good night. That just because the water is moving don't mean that the help is not there.
In fact, the moving of the water does not suggest the absence of help.
But the movement of the water suggests the presence of help. Who am I talking to on my way up?
Beloved 167, you're looking at the water in your life and it's got you thinking that you have no help. You're looking at the chaos in your life and it's making you think that the help is not there.
You see what's going on in Iran and you're wondering where God is.
You're looking at the gas prices and say, is there a God? But I came to tell you today that that moving water is our God. He's moving things around. It may look chaotic, it may look crazy, but hold on to his unchanging hand, and you will discover that what looks like it's hurting you is him helping you.
We all for Jesus this morning.
