Good
afternoon, and welcome to this Sunday Sermon for Covenant of Hope Ministries. I
am Rev. Laura A. Neff, and the ministry knows me as the Rainbow Minister. You
can find us online Sundays. These are our locations online only:
Prayer List: We have many on our prayer list. Some wish to remain anonymous and others only wish to have their first names mentioned. Our prayer list changes week to week, though some prayers may stay the same.
My friend Brenda has requested prayers for her friend Chris who is in Stage 4 Cancer. She is asking for healing and hope that the predictions will be wrong. Keep the family strong as they struggle.
Pray for Elder Cal Jennings who is still having serious health issues. May the Lord provide the doctors some guidance in his healing.
Pray for all the members of Covenant of Hope and all those who they reach out to. May each of the members find grace and peace in His love.
Pray for our leaders, local, state, federal, and around the world. That they make good decisions for the many.
Prayer: Father in heaven, we thank You for this day and for those here that are sharing with us. Our hearts are in need of Your hope, love, and more. We thank You for bringing that to us, no matter the way it appears. We pray for our enemies, and our friends. We pray that Your love and understanding fill their hearts as our own. We pray You bring peace to all so that our hearts may give that to each other. We pray all this in Your Holy Name, through the Savior Jesus Christ, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, Amen and so it shall be.
Opening Song: Love and the Outcome
Pray for Elder Cal Jennings who is still having serious health issues. May the Lord provide the doctors some guidance in his healing.
Pray for all the members of Covenant of Hope and all those who they reach out to. May each of the members find grace and peace in His love.
Pray for our leaders, local, state, federal, and around the world. That they make good decisions for the many.
Prayer: Father in heaven, we thank You for this day and for those here that are sharing with us. Our hearts are in need of Your hope, love, and more. We thank You for bringing that to us, no matter the way it appears. We pray for our enemies, and our friends. We pray that Your love and understanding fill their hearts as our own. We pray You bring peace to all so that our hearts may give that to each other. We pray all this in Your Holy Name, through the Savior Jesus Christ, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, Amen and so it shall be.
Opening Song: Love and the Outcome
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYLoigK4WSI&list=PLWvahZRxLnLMSWeULnub0CCeQzvxGM8hB&index=36
Sermon: Love, life, and death, these are the circle we know of as life. We were born through the gift that is life, in the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve drew their first breaths as human beings. Due to transgressions in the birth of seven troubles, death became part of human existence. This is one thing we have fought to prolongue, but only God knows the lengths of our lives. David, of course, is trying to convince God to tell him how long he will live. So, let’s share what he says.
Psalm 39:4 KJV - LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.
There is
a word change here for ‘how frail I am’ and that would be ‘what time I have’,
in other words, tell me when I’m going to die.
The NIV
shares it this way,
Psalm 39:4 KJV - Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.
Psalm 39:4 KJV - Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.
Again, we
see it here, David wants to know, ‘Hey God, when am I going to die?’ The thing
is, God knows, but He doesn’t know how, because free will determines that.
That’s one gift He gave humanity in the very beginning.
Psalm 39:5 KJV - Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.
Psalm 39:5 KJV - Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.
Okay, so
David wants to show us that our lives are like a blip on the radar for God. You
see, David realized that God is eternal. He lives beyond everything humanity
could think of or believe in. The word change found here is found where it says
‘at his best state’ which also could be seen as ‘settled’.
Psalm 90:4 KJV - For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
Psalm 90:4 KJV - For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
We know
that God is infinite, omnipotent, everlasting, and eternal. Again, we only know
what we need to know, what we should know. Sometimes our steps are difficult
and we’ll fall down or off those paths. Many of us would rather know those
pitfalls ahead of time.
Psalm 39:6 KJV - Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.
Psalm 39:6 KJV - Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.
There is
a word change here from ‘a vain shew’ to a ‘conflict’. Well, we all have many a
conflict and most of those have to do with something we want, in place of need,
in other words one of the seven troubles we’ve spoken so much about, vanity.
Even with a final testament regarding where our effects end up, that doesn’t
mean they’ll go where we intend them to go.
Psalm 39:7-8 KJV - And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.
Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish.
Psalm 39:7-8 KJV - And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.
Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish.
Now,
these are interesting words. David is hoping against hope that God will help
him do these things, without being foolish, and with sharing how, what, where,
when, and why. We see similar thoughts in the NIV version
as we look again at Psalm 39:7-8 - But now, Lord, what do I look for: My hope is in you.
Save me from all my transgressions; do not make me the scorn of fools.
Save me from all my transgressions; do not make me the scorn of fools.
What do
we look for in our footsteps to salvation? Sometimes that is no easy question
for us to answer. Sometimes we have to remember the good parts of our lives,
and let them overpower those bad ones. None of us can know which are going to
be overpowered by our faith and hope and love. This is what David was seeking.
His words merely echo what all of us often wonder or think. Now, that’s
something to think about as we pray in the prayer Jesus taught us saying: After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in
heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine
is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. (Matthew 6:9-13 KJV)
Closing Song: Here I Am Lord
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcxOkht8w7c
Closing Song: Here I Am Lord
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcxOkht8w7c
~Shalom~
Covenant
of Hope Ministries
Scripture
Excerpts: The New Open Bible Study Edition:Copyright © 1990: Thomas Nelson
Publishers, Inc.
Scripture
Excerpts: Holy Bible: Copyright © 1982: E. E. Gaddy and Associates, Inc.
Scripture
Excerpts: Holy Bible: Copyright © circa 1890-1910: International Bible
Press,The John C. Winston Co.; Philadelphia, PA., USA
Sermon or
Study Copyright © 2012 http://covenantofhopeministries.blogspot.com/
Our mission for Covenant of Hope Ministries is not to exploit
fear, but to conquer it, and overcome all that is created through fear together
as the bringers of the light of Jesus found in the midst of darkness.
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