Covenant of Hope
Ministries Sunday Sermon_12_8_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.
- Please keep Elder Cal Jennings in your prayers as he is still
not well. His condition continues to go up and down in seriousness. Pray
that his heart returns to a steady beat that he might manage maneuvering once
more. Pray that his doctors will find the correct path toward his healing. Pray
that our faith may help his and thus boost his spirits.
- Please keep a close friend of my youngest brother up in
prayer. His name is Eric. His wife was beaten and is in intensive care
bleeding internally. They have a very young son. She is not expected to live
and needs a miracle through prayer.
- Please pray for my friend Teresa’s sister who is in stage four
cancer.
- 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.
- Let us keep another friend, Jeff, and his family in prayer
after a disappointment that has them searching for answers.
- Please keep my whole family in prayer for the pain, suffering,
and chaos we are going through.
- 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.
- Let us keep the family, friends, and colleagues of Nelson
Mandela in our thoughts and prayers as we remember his great contributions to
this world.
- 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. Bring
peace, faith, and hope to everyone around this world as we approach the end of
the year. Calm our sorrows and pain, ourselves, friends, family, and enemies
too. Help us to remember that the gifts of the heart are more than enough. Heal
the sick so that they too may celebrate life, love, and happiness. Comfort
those who hurt and are suffering. We ask all of this in Your Holy Name through
our Savior Jesus Christ, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, Amen and so it shall
be.
Sermon: I don’t know how many times I have
heard someone say there must be no God, or there isn’t one. He doesn’t listen.
I’ve heard it more often than could be described. God has heard it as many
times as there are sands on the beach. It is most likely that would be every
beach over the many years of life. One word, yes I say one word, explains how
this should be viewed. That word is foolish. Note how Scripture describes the
fool versus the good here in Psalm 53:1 KJV – The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt
are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good.
The
corrupt, the evil, the wicked. There are many views of this particular word.
Each of them, in view of this verse, would be the fool in their thoughts and
actions. This view is shared here in Psalm10:4 KJV
– The wicked, through the pride of his
countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
However,
there is a way to change that view. That is to do good things. Even the fool
can learn to do the right thing. Even the corrupt can be just. They just have
to learn how. Here is an incentive of sorts as described here in Romans 3:10 KJV – But
glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and
also to the Gentile:
Now,
people know the words angels watching over me. God’s angels, sharing with Him,
who watches and wants us to hear and then He will help. God knows. He always
knows. That’s why all we need to do is ask. Jew or Gentile, all we have to do
is ask. One way or another, He will answer. There are many reasons He knows.
This is but one. Psalm 53:2 KJV – God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to
see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.
This
would be supported here in these verses in both Psalms and II Chronicles. We
see He is watching the sons of men. That’s us, of course. The Lord is with you.
He is always with you. This is something we often hear in many forms of
ministry and the services shared.
Psalm 33:13 KJV – The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth
all the sons of men.
II Chronicles 15:2 KJV – And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto
him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; the LORD is with you, while
ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake
him, he will forsake you.
I am with
you. That’s what God is saying. Note this also, Jesus said the very same thing.
All you must reflect on would be the parables Jesus taught. Here is but one
verse to share that proves the point. John 15:4, 7
KJV – I am the vine, ye are the branches: He
that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for
without me ye can be nothing.
7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye
will, and it shall be done unto you.
If you
live in God, through Jesus, then you have God within you as well. This is just
one gift God and Jesus have given us. Think of it. God has given us a mind with
free will. He has shown us good. Outside forces have shown us evil. There is a
path and it is our choice to take. Yet, here comes the kicker. Jesus says to
use knowledge in our work so that wisdom can follow. If we do not put our
knowledge of God and His part in our mind, our body, our spirit, and our soul,
then we no longer abide in Him, and He will stop insisting until we come back
again. What does it show us? It shows us that we must come to realize that our
minds, our bodies, our spirits, and our souls all connect, not just within our
selves, but with those around us who share beliefs, faith in one another,
unconditionally, the way love should be. There would be the view of those who
forget this as shared here in Psalm 53:3 KJV – Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether
become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Mankind
has done quite a lot in the realm of both good and evil. We see it in every
direction throughout history and on into present day. We see how God reacts
here in Ecclesiastes 7:29 KJV – Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man
upright; but they have sought out many inventions.
They have
sought out many inventions. In other words, they have found many ways to avoid
truth. In our lifetimes we have seen quite a lot in the realm of what is truth,
and what is false. We have seen it not just locally, but internationally. How
much is the truth, unblemished? This is the challenge God has with teaching us.
It is also one for each of us, because truth is truth. How we view truth would
be something as individual as our face, our body, our mind, and more. Psalm 53:4 KJV – Have
the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread:
they have not called upon God.
This is a
question many have asked. “What were they thinking?” Even this one has been
asked. “What was I thinking?” Often it doesn’t hit us just where these words
would fill our hearts and why they do in the first place. Is it fear? Is it
something more? That is something we must ask ourselves. When we do, all we
have to think about is asking God the same. Hey, I know I’m missing something
here, God. Could you help me figure that one out? He’ll answer in His time, our
patience simply must allow for it. Otherwise we would appear as God saw here in
Jeremiah 4:22 KJV – For
my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and
they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they
have no knowledge.
Fear can
do many things. It can be both good and bad. Yes, it makes no sense to some
that it could be such. Fear, honest fear, often has a source. It is up to our
hearts, our minds, our spirits and souls to seek where that source would be.
Knowledge helps us do that. That’s the beauty of God’s voice, His love is there
and we should already know it. Knowing that fact will bring more to our hearts,
if we simply try to see not with our eyes, but with the eyes of our hearts.
Fear the likes of that which is shared here would no longer be. Psalm 53:5 KJV – There
were they in great fear, where no fear was: for God hath scattered the bones of
him that encampeth against thee: thou hast put them to shame, because God hath
despised them.
6 Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God
bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel
shall be glad.
Salvation,
the gift of love that is everlasting, unconditional, and there for us to reach
for. 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)
~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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