MESSENGER

Sunday, January 5, 2020

Ready or Not, Here He Comes


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

 Rev. Laura’s other sites: Facebook & Blogspot & Twitter


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.

- Please continue to pray for Elder Cal Jennings who has been suffering greatly with his health. His pain is constant and little to nothing helps. May the Lord bring his spirits up and help heal him and ease his pain.

- Please pray for relief in the trials and tribulations for Sister Theresa due to pain from a terrible hit and run accident late last year. Pray that her daughter, Hope, will have a safe voyage home and a successfully bright semester in college.

- Be thankful for each day we live as we do not know what tomorrow brings.
- Pray for our nations that the voice of God be 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 prayer today is for the relief of those in faraway places suffering from forest and brush fires in Australia, those suffering the aftereffects of armed gunmen, bombings, and so forth, that their spirits be lifted and calmed. We pray for those who have been suffering illness or pain, that they will be given comfort and healing. We pray for blessings in the midst of pain, sorrow, terror, and more, so that this year is a better one for all around us. 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: People Get Ready ~ Crystal Lewis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REc6uRQRnV0


 

Sermon: Today I am continuing our study of 1 Corinthians 15 because it is important to explore Scripture that makes us think. The reason for that, would be that we need to spend more time just studying this world we live in, and the beliefs we have, to find the right footsteps to take toward a future that satisfies our spiritual needs as much as our physical, mental, and emotional ones. This applies to all views of relationships in this world, friends, enemies, families, and all the rest. God is our Creator, and sometimes we have to ask Him one question. “Where do I go from here?” Paul shows us one method to do this here, and gives us hope to add to that. 


1 Corinthians 15:25-28 KJV – For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.
And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.


Remember, God created us in His image, and He has high hopes for us. If He didn’t, we would never have had the opportunity to reach heaven at the End of Days. Jesus teaches us every hour of our lives, if we pay attention long enough and if we follow through to follow His guidelines in the first place. Then, as a result, we will be able to destroy the one that brought death to this world, the intimidator, the destructor, the Devil, Satan, the Enemy of all, not just one of us, but all of us. It takes work, practice, to realize the path Jesus and God want each of us to take. That’s why we must study the Word syllable by syllable. Let’s start with connections to these verses bring. 


Psalm 8:6 KJV – Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:


Ephesians 1:22 KJV – And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,


Hebrews 1:13 KJV –  But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?


All of these verses refer to the idea of a footstool as what enemies and all that which torments us in the world around us would end up as. It is a huge hope that many who believe in everything Christ promises, in everything God our Father represents, that we each, even with our faults, our sins, will be forgiven and buried beneath the footstool under God’s feet, under Christ’s feet as well. That’s something to look forward to for every single one of us who believe. 


1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 KJV – For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

These verses here show that EVERYONE is eligible for forgiveness, for entering the kingdom of Heaven, God’s realm filled with mansions for all of us to forever dwell within. That’s a hope, a promise, a gift, to help us see beyond our daily turmoil, trials, and tribulations. We see still more of this description through the eyes of Hosea. 


Hosea 13:14 KJV – I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.


This is a foretelling, a foreshadowing of what Jesus Christ would bring to this world, changing everything, bringing light into the darkness that this world suffers from so much now. Salvation is something we hope to see. This is something alluded to in the words of the many Apostles and Disciples of Christ, from the days when He walked this earth in the flesh, and on through today, bringing hope to the many, not just the few, so long as we remember to believe. The end of death as we know it, is coming into this world, promised to us through Christ our Savior in His own words so long ago and reflected on, remembered by, everyone who truly believes. Here is Timothy’s view.


2 Timothy 1:10 KJV – But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:


Death is history, never to affect us in the same way again, a promise brought to us through Christ as He gave up the Ghost on the cross at Calvary. Immortality brought to us right then and there. Proven in the last words inspired to be written through John the Beloved. The Scroll of Revelation is one that is often misunderstood, and in some ways feared. John the Beloved wrote these words while suffering exile from the one place he loved to live while here on earth. This exile imposed because John’s love of God’s Word, of Christ, defeated the efforts of the then emperor of Rome. 


Revelation 20:14 KJV – And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.


In this world today, God’s Word continues to defeat the evil that is found around, and sometimes surrounding us. We have to be aware at all times, just in case we miss the Second Coming. Jesus shared with us that nobody would recognize Him. Much like when He rose from the dead and stood before the Disciples and Apostles three days after dying on the cross. At first look, nobody realized it was Him until He spoke. We will only know it when we are in the midst of it. That’s a warning every Apostle and Minister of God has shared through all of history, even up to this very day. Here we see several of those.


Zechariah 9:14 KJV – And the Lord shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the Lord God shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south.


2 Peter 3:10 KJV – But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.


Matthew 24:31 KJV – And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.


John 5:25 KJV – Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.


Philippians 3:21 KJV – Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.


2 Corinthians 5:4 KJV – For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.


These verses may not look like they go together, but truthfully, they share the very same thing. That is the fact that He will walk this earth again, and it won’t be to teach or preach. This time, the End of Days will have begun, and we will learn what part of that we each will play. Everyone, and everything, will be brought to judgment. None of us will know the results of that until it happens. We have to ensure that we learn now, how to be prepared, with an open heart and a studious spirit and soul, we will reach that victory found in Jesus. It takes practice, lots of practice, to truly understand our Father, and His Word and what it means to one and all. 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)










~ 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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