Welcome to Covenant of Hope Ministries and our sermon or midweek study. You will normally see us posted on Sunday and Wednesday. I am Rev. Laura A. Neff. Our ministry was built on the truth of God’s love. It doesn’t conform to society’s wishes. This ministry shares the Word of God, the Spirit of Christ Jesus. Those who know me well will recognize that there are definitive differences in the creation of every sermon from this point forward. It is God’s will that has brought this to be. We wish only that God’s truth will be shared within His words as brought to us by the Spirit as it fills my heart, mind, and soul to be shared with my hands, but with His words alone.
You will find us in the following location: http://www.covenantofhopeministries.blogspot.com
Introductory Music: Here With Me ~ Mercy Me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74CNUExD4I8
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 grows or changes
every week. This is our current list.
- Today we celebrate a belated birthday wish for our very
own Elder Cal Jennings. Though he has suffered a great deal with his health, including
this latest bout with the flu, he is still here to share his devotion and love
for Christ. May the strength of his faith carry him farther than even he
imagines.
- Please pray for solace and faith to help bless Sister
Theresa Bogard in seeking job opportunities or offers to help.
- Please pray for those who are sick on our friend lists
and even on our friend of friend lists, anonymous or not, prayers are always
welcome when we are in times of trouble.
- Please continue to pray for a dear friend and colleague
who has recently learned they might have very serious problems. She awaits the
results of special tests to determine what is going on. Help me help this
friend of mine with the strength of compassion and more.
- Be thankful for each day we live as we do not know what
tomorrow brings.
- Pray for our nations that the voice of God is heard through the Spirit.
- Pray for our friends and families that their tomorrows bring blessings and pray our own be the same.
- Pray for those suffering as a result of the terrors
that have occurred just this past week around this world.
- Pray for our sick and wounded that they may heal.
Prayer: Father in heaven, our
prayers this week continue for those suffering from natural and not so natural
disasters around this world. We pray for those who are sick, injured, or
fighting for sanity in an insane world. We pray for family, friends, and
colleagues who have had difficult times and are seeking hope in the midst of
despair. We pray that each of those worries melts away and peace, prosperity,
and love prevail. For each of these we pray in Your Holy Name, through our
Savior Jesus Christ, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, Amen and so it shall be.
Opening Song: There You’ll Be ~ Faith Hill ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NkRNg0TZOw
Sermon: There are many
things possible in this world and some things people consider impossible. In
Scripture, you find only nine verses that portray what humanity believes to be
impossible. One of those has to do with what scholars call ‘immaculate
conception’ for the moment when Mary found herself the chosen womb for the Son
of God, who would change everything in this world from the moment of that
conception and on through His death and resurrection. The first verse shared
would be from the moment Mary learned that she would be the one to bring about
the impossible, along with her much older cousin, Elizabeth, who was far beyond
the normal age to bear a child. We start here.
Luke
1:37 KJV –
For with God nothing shall be impossible.
Even today, conception has enough mystery to have many
thinking bringing children in, even at an older age, can be impossible. If it
were to be completely impossible, giving birth at the age of seventy wouldn’t
occur, and yet it has done so many times over the years. I have known several
to have their children later in life, including family friends, and several
others who have brought children into their lives well past the age of forty,
which seems to be what others consider miracles. There are many views of
miracles, and Jesus proved that over, and over again. Faith allows for those
miracles to prove themselves, to you in many ways. We’ll start with what Jesus
says about the amount of belief it takes.
Matthew 17:20 KJV – And Jesus said unto
them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto
you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this
mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall
be impossible unto you.
Faith,
the single strongest part of a Christian’s belief system is something that can
be measured in giant size, or minuscule, like the mustard seed. Now, if you
know how mustard grows, you’ll note that the grain is tiny, but, when it
flowers and is ready for harvest, it is an amazing view to be seen. God is part
of anything and everything. His influence is amazing when we realize just what
it means.
Matthew
19:26 KJV – But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With
men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.
We
often forget that God is with us, even in times when we think everything is
working against us. Whenever we feel hopeless, destitute, frustrated, God is
still there with us every step of the way through the Holy Spirit, as Jesus
promises here. We just have to learn to remember that. A long while ago someone
asked me to do one thing. Jesus asks the same thing every single day. What
would that be? “Don’t forget to remember me.” When what we perceive to be the
impossible happens, remember God’s amazing grace. That’s why Scripture exists.
It would be something that lives, breathes, moves, shares emotion, and
everything else we each do individually and together. The rest of the Gospels
share this as well, as we find here.
Mark
10:27 KJV –
And
Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is
impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.
Luke
17:1 KJV –
Then
said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that
offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!
Luke
18:27 KJV – And he said, The things which are
impossible with men are possible with God.
After
the resurrection of Christ, teaching that there is nothing impossible would
become even more challenging for the Apostles and the other followers of
Christ. This fits into our series of sermons on belief. The reason is simple.
If we forget that God finds nothing impossible, then humanity should always
remember that through faith, with God in our corner, anything, and everything,
is possible, doable, always.
Hebrews
6:4 KJV – For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have
tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
The
many times we think we’ve seen even the impossible managed, we just have to
remember what it must have felt like for the Apostles when the Holy Ghost, also
known as the Holy Spirit, descended upon them. Remember, they all spoke in
different languages, given the gift of many tongues to communicate through the
world beyond Jerusalem and Israel. With that, Christianity took on broader and
broader horizons. We see this here in the next verse.
Hebrews
6:18 KJV – That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to
lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold
upon the hope set before us:
The
Scriptures here prove something interesting. The faith it requires to continue
to pursue Christ’s path is sometimes seen as impossible in so many ways where
we see so much evil and devastation throughout this world. What happens with
humanity today, whether it is something easily decided, or something
monumental, with God on our side, everything is possible. It starts with the
smallest grain of faith, belief, and grows exponentially from there. Here is
our last verse to share what impossibility requires from us to combat it.
Hebrews
11:6 KJV – But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh
to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him.
Finding that point where we can defeat the I and M in
impossibility, transforming it to POSSIBILITY, helps us grow our faith, our
hope, our love, and understanding, thus ensuring that inner peace that seems to
elude us far too often in this world. Now that’s something to think about as we
pray in the prayer that Jesus taught us saying:
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)
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)
Closing Song: Faith Like a Mustard Seed ~
Emrand Henry ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzT01ebO5EA
~ Shalom ~
Rev. Laura A. Neff
Elder Calvin Jennings
Covenant of Hope Ministries Main Site: http://www.covenantofhopeministries.blogspot.com
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 © 2020 http://www.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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