Covenant
of Hope Ministries Sunday Sermon_7_27_2014
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. I have
often described myself as the Rainbow Minister. My reasoning for that is this: The rainbow symbolizes faith, understanding, and God's strength to forgive, heal, and so on. 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.
- Bring into prayer a dear friend, Kerry, as she is having
serious issues with scar tissue and it is threatening her life.
- Please keep Elder Cal Jennings in your prayers as his health has
gone up and down far too often of late. Please also keep in prayer his
well-being, spirit, and faith. May the Good Lord Above shine His light around
you, through you, and within you.
- Please pray for my friend Theresa’s sister who is in stage
four cancer. Keep Theresa 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 pray for a friend Laura, as she has a great many test
results to go through.
- Continue with the prayers for Brother Wayne Bartosh as he
continues settling his father’s estate.
- Please keep my friend Heather in prayer for patience and safe
haven.
-Pray that things continue progressing for housing and more with
our family. We are thankful for all the prayers and good thoughts you have
brought for us.
- 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. There are so many suffering with trials and
tribulations we bring to You. We are thankful for You as You listen, hear, and
see, especially when we need that, not just when we want it. We pray that Your
grace fill the hearts of those around us. We pray each of us would feel that
light, that radiance, within us, as it surrounds us. We pray all this in Your
Holy Name through Jesus our Savior and the gift of the Holy Spirit, Amen and so
it shall be.
Opening
Song: Music
Like A Radiant Light http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD8-5gqkkgI
Sermon:
Just
about everyone has heard the phrase ‘have the last word’. Well, often we don’t
think about it beyond an argument of one type or another. When you take the
Scriptures into account you’ll find some interesting views of the ‘last word’.
We’ll start here with a title before the verse.
God’s Final Word In His Son
Hebrews 1:1-4 NASB – God, after He spoke long ago
to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,
in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He
appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.
And he is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation
of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had
made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on
high,
having become as much better than the angels, as He has
inherited a more excellent name than they.
So
what is the last word? It’s quite simple. JESUS. He is radiance. He is the way.
He is life. He is truth. He is pure. These are things the prophets taught us to
hope for. They are the promises Jesus Himself made. These very words were brought
forward by the apostles, and more. Here we see the wisdom of Jesus as to what
we choose to hear and see, as opposed to what is truly there. Let’s look here.
Luke 10:23, 24 NASB – Turning to the disciples, He
said privately, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see,
for I say to you, that many prophets and kings wished to see the
things which you see, and did not see them, and to hear the things which you
hear, and did not hear them.”
The
hardest thing for some of us is to both listen and hear the way we should be
doing the same. Notice I said should be. I didn’t say want to be. We need to
listen and hear what IS as opposed to what we WANT. These are the things Jesus
warns about. Sometimes it is all but nose to concrete obvious and we refuse to
see it. This is one of the things Jesus was teaching, see beyond that concrete
to where the truth would be. Walls are only there in our way if we build them
and keep them there. God proves it in yet another view here.
Psalm 2:8 NASB – ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely
give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your
possession.
Who
owns everything? Well, to know that you have to ask who created everything in
the first place. God said “ASK OF ME” and “I WILL SURELY GIVE”. The problem is,
we don’t want to ask for help when we know we need it. Jesus is that help. It’s
why He was born, lived, and willingly died a horrible death. He did so because
He is the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIGHT, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning
and the end. Here we’ll see more in that view.
John 1:3 NASB – All things came into being through Him,
and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
We
wouldn’t be here without Him. We can’t truthfully live without Him. With Him in
our life we can see more than the concrete, the brick, and other barriers.
There are only barriers if we refuse to see God’s pinpoints of light, that
candle in the darkness. His name is Jesus, and through him Life is Everlasting.
Love is Infinite as it is Eternal. That is why He brought us Unconditional
Love, because it is Infinite, Eternal, and Everlasting, all at once. 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: Light
In Me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGUkJv1Jx08
~Shalom~
Covenant
of Hope Ministries
Our Main Video Feed: Covenant_of_Hope
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
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.
This mission statement speaks of the rainbow in the darkness.
Every time I would have a seriously traumatic thing happen in my life I would
wake in the middle of the night. When I do I see a rainbow at the end of my
bed, or even through the window behind my head. I’ll see that rainbow in a dark
room even during the day. It will hover in the shadows and reassure me that God
is with me.
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