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 posted on Sundays. These are our locations online only:
Our Main Video Feed: Covenant_of_Hope
We have
email and Instant Messenger through Facebook available most Tuesdays, Wednesdays,
and Sundays 10AM to 2PM ET US. We’re still working this out between the two of
us as to what will happen, our Elder, Cal Jennings and I. I will be informing
you further in regard to changes being made. These changes were made due to
health reasons. There will be live sermons, and the sermon length will be
shortened dramatically, but we are unsure as to when that might be.
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 has grown from last week. This is our current prayer list for this week.
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 has grown from last week. This is our current prayer list for this week.
I need a new prayer list. I haven’t had anything new in months save
a select few. Here are the ones that are new.
We have a new prayer, and it is tragic. Pray for the family of Shane
Thrift, his wife, daughter, and unborn baby, after a terrible accident, he was
taken off life support. They are friends of my niece.
We have a most urgent, tragic and more. This comes from Pastor
Mary Kemuma Moriango, wife to Pastor Richard Nyaitira. He passed away in
December. Sadly, he left wife and five children, two boys and three girls. They
need prayers for school fees, food, and shelter for them. Pray for the memory
of Pastor Richard, for his family, and his friends.
Continue your prayers for Pastor Eric from our Outreach
Ministries. He is having issues with his leg and needs funds to manage fixing
the problem, pray that the funds are made available for his health and
strength.
Pray that Elder Cal Jennings would heal at last, don’t just
pray, claim that God can heal him, because we know He can do just that through
the Spirit which was given through Jesus.
Please pray for success for my youngest brother, that his
continued education be beneficial toward a great career.
Pray for my daughter as she prepares for her new career.
Pray for my eldest son who is just beginning his collegiate
pursuits, that he would grow in his learning and understanding.
Pray for friends Karen, Christie, her son Calvin, Art, Heather,
Chris and his family, Jackie and her father, Debby, Tom, Teresa, Hope, during
the start of the year for their issues of many forms.
Pray for Fran who is suffering a lot of pain and other issues.
Pray for my friend Grace as she has had pretty bad migraines.
Pray also that her stepson would make the right decisions. They are having a
hard time, may we have praise from the LORD.
Pray for my friend Laura who continues to heal.
Pray that results from a test done this past week would bring
answers as to my health.
Pray that the Lord will find a way for my family to reach the
ability to solutions that are necessary for health, shelter, and more. Praise
the LORD more than half of those issues have been solved. There are family
members who continue to need prayer. Claim that God knows and will be there.
Pray that pain, which all who we love and care about may suffer,
would ease, no matter the type of pain it would be.
Continue your prayers for the continued success for little
Phoebe Faire. She is doing very well. Praise the Lord.
Pray for our outreach ministries, and all on their separate
prayer lists, no matter where in this world they would be.
Pray for all the members of Covenant of Hope Ministries 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.
May the LORD allow us to claim His truth and His healing hands.
May we listen and hear and understand what those things we listen to and hear
as well.
Prayer: Father in heaven, we
thank You for this day and for these who are here to share it with us. We know
You hear our prayers, whether they are prayers of hope, sorrow, or solace. We
know that You hear our voices, whether in song or in sorrow. We know that if we
are still, we can hear You. So please help us to be still and listen to hear
You, whether it is but a moment, or for a long conversation. May You teach us
to be still, listen, and hear. We ask prayer for friends, family, and those we
don’t know. We ask prayer for solutions to the troubles that surround. We ask
these things in Your Holy Name, through our Savior Jesus Christ, and the gift
of the Holy Spirit, Amen and so it shall be.
Opening Song: Whisper of Angels http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jLOwUrwWho&list=FLys7UjSJHrgrNHy9kLrkxpw
Sermon: Our title says a lot. It shares the
fact that there are many ways we seek refuge, a safe haven, and yet, all we
have to do is calm down, and be still. We’ll find it right there in front of
us, all we have to do is claim it as a gift from God. We complete this chapter
with some interesting verses that share both the same and the opposite of what
we had for our last sermon. There is a song titled He Is In the Midst. This
particular song gets its title in many locations, this is only one of
them. Psalm 46:5 KJV – God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: Good
shall help her, and that right early.
Who is
she? Well, she is the earth, of course, she is the troubled, filled with
troubled human beings, plants, animals, and the dust beneath our feet. She
shall not be moved, in other words, she shall stay and the good will come to
help her, that means not just the land and water, but each and every one of us.
Deuteronomy 23:14 KJV – For the LORD thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy: that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee.
Deuteronomy 23:14 KJV – For the LORD thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy: that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee.
The ideal
of being delivered from terrible things in life, like war, disease, false
imprisonment, those kinds of things, is something we often hear about in
Scripture. We often wonder about the enemies. There are many forms of enemy,
they can be human, animal, or behavioral. That’s where vanity, envy, enmity,
lust, wrath, shame, and doubt come in. You remember those seven. Changing from
earthly to holy takes quite a lot of work, not just for ourselves, but for God,
because it requires an understanding that God is with us, everywhere, and
always.
Isaiah 12:2 KJV – Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and not be
afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my
salvation.
Be not
afraid. How often do we hear that in Scripture. If we were to look, there would
be many, many verses that would share it. This is one of the additions to the gifts
given to us, provided for our use, if we choose to. That’s yet another thing,
to choose or not to choose. Many of us live with decisions that we look back
upon and doubt that they were the right ones. But, think about it this way, it
is yet another bridge we have crossed. Now we look at the view of the Gentiles,
also known as heathen in the Old Testament. When bad things happen, they don’t
just happen in regard to the Jews, there are many times Gentiles would be
involved. That is shared here in Psalm 46:6 KJV – The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his
voice, the earth melted.
Yet again
we get the ideal of vanity, and no, it’s not a good thing to consider. Our next
verse is in an earlier Psalm and shares a view of the heathen and how the Jews
feel about them. On top of that, consider this as well, even the Gentiles were
susceptible to the seven. You see it in
these verses in Psalm 2:1-2 KJV – Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain
thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his annointed, saying.
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his annointed, saying.
What
happens when we argue? Does it ever have
a good result? A good portion of the time one or both parties stomp off in
frustration. Sure, we can fight against the truth, but the truth is always going
to overcome that which makes us fight it. Sometimes this is a painful
realization. On occasion we pay for it through God’s voice as shared here in Psalm
18:13 KJV – The LORD
also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest
gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire
The idea
would be shared more than once. There are differences, in the fact that this
next verse shares how strong God is, both in His goodness, and in His sharing
of truth. These are shared in the next two verses. Joel 2:11 KJV – And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his
camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of
the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide in it?
The land
shall melt, the ones dwelling there will mourn, and Egypt’s flood will be
repeated. This is something God promised wouldn’t happen, but, in this case, it
alludes to the sorrow, the grief, in the fact that they had been wrong. It’s
hard to admit we’re wrong. It’s even harder to forgive and forget. That’s what
this one shares here in Amos 9:5 KJV – And the Lord GOD of hosts is he that toucheth the land, and
it shall melt, and all that dwell terein shall mourn: and it shall rise up wholly
like a flood; and shall be drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.
Yet,
there is a blessing. Yes, I said there is a blessing. Lessons learned will
often allow us to realize the best parts of being within God’s love. We see
that also in many places, but often remember it here in Psalm 46:7 KJV – The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our
refuge. Selah.
He is our
refuge, our hiding place, our haven. It ends with musical thoughts. Why does it
say Selah? Remember, this is a musical term. Is this a prayer within a psalm?
Is this a song that celebrates the fact that God is with us? In this instance,
look at it this way, God shares it as being both. That is one reason pardon,
mercy, and more would be seen in His gifts to us. Many times we will beg, ask,
plead for pardon, and we see that here in the next verse Numbers
14:9 KJV – Pardon, I beseech thee, the
iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou
hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now
The
greatness of God’s mercy, that’s a lot of greatness. Mercy often is seen in
different ways. It is seen as a step toward forgiveness, a step toward
salvation as it were. Forgiveness, that’s what we look for, remember we pray
for forgiveness of our sins. It doesn’t matter what they are, but, if you think
about it, that iniquity suffered is something we must learn to overcome and
consider them as lessons learned. There are consequences in relation to
iniquity as it is seen in this pair of verses, nearly at the end of this
chapter. Psalm 46:8-9 KJV – Come behold the works of the LORD, what desolations he hath
made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he
breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the charoit in
the fire.
What desolations he hath made in the earth. What would be
desolate? You remember that desolate means leaving them alone. There are those
who fear being alone. This is something shared with us. Look at how it says
that they feel alone because they feel that God has destroyed everything.
Actually, what did He do? He pointed out what would be good, and what would not
be. The ideal of being desolate, or alone, allows us to realize where we have
been excessive, and more. He takes war away, enmity, the ideal of man versus
anything and the wrath man, beast, or the earth itself might be. Too often, in
those times, we don’t realize that we can erase it as easily as we can create
it. How can we do this? The easiest way is to accept God’s unconditional love.
Fear often clouds that ideal and it would be seen here in Ezekiel 39:9 KJV – Thou shalt ascend and
come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all
thy bands, and many people with thee.
And still
yet, He asks only the easiest things in the world. We are the ones who make
them difficult. He asks such amazingly simple considerations, yet, we quite
literally can’t see that which is right in front of our face. This is when we
have to pay attention as we see here in Psalm 46:10 KJV – Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among
the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
Think
about it this way. How often were we asked or told to be still? How often are
we now? We hear that a lot in regard to children, from babies to teenagers.
Sometimes we hear it as adults. In truth, we need that. Stand still, sit still,
and just listen to that which is around us. When we do, everything settles
down, and clarity comes into view. How often is it we actually think, see,
understand what is shared in Psalm 100:3 KJV – Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made
us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
God made
us. God created us from the dust of the earth. There are many who don’t
remember that, or even refuse to remember or believe that. Yet, it is truth. We
are His people, likened to sheep, but meant to be seen as followers. If you are
familiar with farming and caring for sheep, you gather them together when they
are feeding in the meadows. It is seen as being humble, that’s something. It
really is. Being humble is sharing modesty. It is the opposite of vanity. That
is what is seen here in
And we
see here again that musical term and that God is with us. God is here. The true
God, the One God. Now, that’s an amazing thing brought to us here in our final
verse
Our
refuge, our haven, again we see this, and it shows that not only is it such,
but it is also seen as higher ground, safety. We often think of safety in the
midst of bad times, or sorrowful times. We often share a need for that haven,
that hiding place, the higher ground to get out and away from fear, pain,
sorrow, and so much more. 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: Keeper of My Heart
~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 and
Poetic-Expressions is not to exploit fear, but to conquer it, and overcome all
that is created through fear together as the rainbow in the darkness.
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