You Cannot Break What You Refuse to Renounce

Think about the thing you keep saying you will stop. The late-night scrolling. The bitter story you replay about someone. The relationship that pulls you backward every time. You did not sign anything. But somewhere along the way, you started acting as if you had.

In his series Breaking Covenants, Part 3, from Hebrews 8:6-13, Romans 6:16, and 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, Pastor Alan taught that this is how spiritual bondage often works. It is not usually dramatic. It is an agreement you keep renewing.

1. A covenant is a binding agreement

Pastor Alan defined it simply: a covenant is a binding agreement, and people form them with “habits, addictions, people, thought patterns, and sin itself.” Humanity has a record here. Adam and Eve broke their covenant with God, and Israel broke it again and again. We tend to break the covenants we make, and we tend to make the wrong ones.

The good news is the New Covenant. As Pastor Alan put it, it “doesn’t just reconcile you to God.” It gives you power to break every other covenant you have made.

2. Obedience becomes ownership

Paul asks in Romans 6:16, “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey?” Pastor Alan’s outline shows how quickly it happens: obedience, then repetition, then contract. You do something once. You do it again. Eventually it is simply who you are on a Friday night.

This is not a call to panic about every bad habit. It is a call to be honest about who is getting your obedience.

3. Renounce it out loud

Here is the line to remember: “You cannot break what you refuse to renounce.” Pastor Alan taught that you must verbally and spiritually reject the agreement. He gave words for it: “I renounce my partnership and participation in these agreements.”

He also gave a definition worth writing down: “Breaking a covenant means refusing to let a behavior, circumstance or person take the place of Christ.” Renouncing is repentance with a voice. It is saying, out loud, I am done with this, and I am turning back to God.

4. Tear down the mental contract

Second Corinthians 10:4-5 speaks of “pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.” Pastor Alan’s outline put it this way: “Strongholds are mental contracts. Break the thought, break the covenant.”

Most strongholds are built from reasons. Just this once. Everyone does it. I deserve a break. Write down the sentence you keep telling yourself, then answer it with something Scripture says.

5. Look at your partnerships

Paul asks, “What communion has light with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14). Pastor Alan taught that you cannot walk in the light while keeping partnerships with darkness, and that emotional attachment can harden into covenant. His words: “Old spiritual alliances must be put away to make room for God’s presence.”

Be careful here. This is not permission to cut off every difficult person or label them dark. It is a question to ask honestly: what influence in my life is pulling me away from Christ, and what am I doing to keep it?

6. Old identities need to go too

Simon in Acts 8:23 was told, “For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.” Pastor Alan used him to show that a person can carry an old identity into a new life. If someone gave you a label years ago and you still wear it, that is an agreement worth renouncing.

What to do this week

Pick one agreement. Name it plainly on paper. Say the renouncing words out loud, alone, as a prayer. Then tell one trusted person what you did. If a habit has a hold on your body, your health, or your safety, bring in a doctor or a qualified professional alongside your prayer. Seeking help is not a lack of faith.

If you are in White House, Tennessee and would rather not face this alone, Today’s Victory Church meets Sundays at 3 p.m. and for Bible study Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. You do not have to have it figured out to walk in.

Scripture in this piece: Hebrews 8:6-13; Romans 6:16; 2 Corinthians 10:4-5; 2 Corinthians 6:14-16; Acts 8:23