Covenant of Hope
Ministries Sunday Sermon_11_10_2013
Good
afternoon, and welcome to this Sunday Sermon for Covenant of Hope Ministries. I
am Rev. Laura A. Neff. The ministry knows me as the Rainbow Minister. Find us
posted on Sundays and studies on Wednesday. Our locations are online only:
Our Main Video Feed: Covenant_of_Hope
We have
email (instant messenger if you need me) through Facebook every day. These are
now extremely variable. We’re still working this out between the two of us as
to what will happen, our Elder, Cal Jennings and I. I will inform you further
regarding changes. These changes were made due to health reasons. The sermon
length has shortened dramatically. We are unsure as to when there might be
video presentations.
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.
- Pray for our veterans, as we celebrate their service this
Monday. Pray for the families of those veterans who fought for this country,
and lost their lives in doing so. Like Jesus did for all of us, they believe
and believed that it’s more important to save the many over the few.
- Continue your prayers for Phoebe Fair’s family as they
continue to grieve her loss.
- Please keep Elder Cal Jennings in your prayers as his health
doesn’t know where it wants to be.
- Please pray for my friend Teresa’s sister who is in stage four
cancer. Keep Teresa and her daughter in prayer for many other things that have
been weighing down on their hearts, minds, and spirits.
- Please keep others known by any of us up in prayer for
whatever they might need.
- Please keep my friend Heather in prayer for patience and safe
haven.
- Please keep my whole family in prayer for the pain, suffering,
and chaos we are going through.
- Please keep praying for a child from my sister’s classes who
lost his mother. He is nine years old. The family is devastated and needs
prayers for solace and understanding.
- Pray that the adversity and the pain we have seen around the
world would be relieved, and swept away. May we find common ground in many
ways, even if we start with just one step.
- Remember those who have been lost either violently or
peacefully this week.
- Keep the ministry in your thoughts, each member, no matter
their location, their circumstances, because a group of friends, a ministry,
should support one another.
- There are many in our ministry who are searching for more in
regard to our presence with my health, and with the health of others. We pray
that there would be health found once more, and that we have answers to all and
for all.
Prayer: Father in heaven, we
thank You for this day and for these who are here to share it with us. We thank
you for watching over our soldiers and our veterans who have served for this
country’s freedom. We pray for friends and family and all, no matter their
situations. We pray for the ability to bring audio for sermons once more. We
pray for those on our prayer list, may their lives be in Your hands as all
those who are in our prayers and thoughts. We praise You for every gift past,
present, and future. We pray all of 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: When You Believe ~ Whitney Houston
and Mariah Carey
Sermon: This week it seems that it is time
to look at Thanksgiving. The offering in place of the holiday, as it is shared
here in Psalms. It means that there will be some skipped verses in this latest
chapter we were studying up until two weeks ago. So, let’s see what we find
here in
Psalm 50:14-15 KJV – Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy
vows unto the most high:
And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and
thou shalt glorify me.
Thanks be
unto God. We hear that a lot in this world. When prayers are answered, even to
the smallest of prayers can be. There are many, many things we can, or should
be thankful for. One of the biggest is the fact that we live in the first
place. Another is that love can find us
if we share that same love. You can be
loved but you won’t really realize how much unless you love yourself and each
other. Love comes on a million levels, and all of them are worthy of giving
thanks. Use your words as thanksgiving. That’s what we see shared in the next
two reference verses.
Hosea 14:2 KJV – Take with you words, and turn to the LORD:
say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously; so will we
render the calves of our lips.
Job 22:27 KJV – Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him, and he shall hear
thee, and thou shalt pay thy vows.
He will
hear us. He will listen and hear our prayers.
We should see grace and be grateful and thankful when God accepts us as
we are. Yet, we should do the same for each other. Be thankful that you have
neighbors, no matter the type, open the door to your house and look in all
directions, those neighbors, countries, and even the world as well. Even with
water, borders, languages, and cultures that are so very diverse, we are still
neighbors and should be thankful. Why is
that? If we don’t have neighbors, if we don’t feel that God and Jesus are our
neighbors with them, then we are alone. God never wants us to be alone like
that. That is yet another reason to pray in thanksgiving.
Psalm 22:23 KJV – Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye
the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.
Many
times you will see the words fear the LORD. Then there are those quotes like
there is nothing to fear but fear itself. In this case, fear the LORD, respect
Him, praise His wisdom, and both listen and hear in all three. Every man and
woman, and even child, shares some kind of fear. This is regardless that time and again it is
said to fear not. Fear, as in the hide me away style of fear, keeps us from
seeing what is truly there. Fear, as in the wanting to understand but not
knowing how, that is the type of fear spoken of here. Think about it this way.
If we fear the consequences of something, we’ll watch our steps and learn what
it means in regard to facing those consequences. This is the type of fear we hear and see
written here. Being good isn’t easy.
Yet, even with being good, sometimes we forget. That’s why others are there to
remind us as Jesus shares here in Matthew 5:16 KJV
– Let your light so shine before men, that they
may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
People
who see will tend to believe faster than they will believe so they can see.
Children can do the second more easily. The reason is that their minds are
open. If we open our minds, our arms, we’ll see what it means to let that
little light shine in front of others. Every small light collects into a much
larger one. If you have ever just watched the stars come out at night, notice
how one by one they are tiny pinpoints until they spread across the sky like a
blanket. That is a lot of light to shine.
Yet all it takes is one to start shining. Wouldn’t you like to be one of those shiny
pinpoints of light?
John 15:8 KJV – Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so
shall ye be my disciples.
This last
verse comes from a favorite passage in the Scroll of John. When it comes to
bearing fruit, that is a gift of thanksgiving. Perhaps it is something too many
miss. To bear fruit is to give. Thanksgiving is all about giving. We are
thankful for many reasons in life. So, when you celebrate the days of
thanksgiving, remember that you should be thankful for God’s gifts, all of
them, enemies, friends, family, the world around us, and the love that can be
shared between and around them. Notice, everything, human or otherwise, is
worthy of thanksgiving. Be thankful for
the wind, the rain, the animals, the air you breathe, life, and more, because
all of them help keep you going. We may not always see that with our eyes,
often causing us to forget to believe. That’s the difference. We need to learn
how to remember that believing is seeing as opposed to seeing it first before
doing so. There are several songs titled Believe or I Believe. How many can you
think about remind you to do more than see when it comes to believing? There
are many, sung in every style of music, from childlike to those that literally
touch the soul. That’s what believing and being thankful for doing so means, or
should mean, for all. 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: Brooks & Dunn ~ Believe
~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.
I'm glad you were able to write the sermon this week. My health is extremely poor and they are afraid to even go it to look at the crooked stent that punctured my artery wall. It's really good to see you back!
ReplyDeleteMy prayers have been with you because of this chaos in your life and health. I'm glad I was able to write one as well.
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