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
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.
- A relative of mine has just recently been diagnosed
with pancreatic cancer. Pray that the Lord will provide comfort and a cure for
this devastating diagnosis.
- Let us continue to pray for Elder Cal Jennings, he
still is suffering major pain in his back due to a broken vertebra. It is hoped
that the brace works, and the added medication will also help.
- Please pray for job opportunities or offers to help
bless Sister Theresa Bogard.
- Please continue to pray for my brother Scott Newman, as
he adjusts to life with his recent health issues with a new place to live and a
dog that can help prevent him having potential harm due to an oncoming seizure.
- Please pray for a dear friend and colleague who learned
they indeed have very serious problems. She has had so many issues that the
tests prove there is something bad going on, and they are working on preventive
measures to ensure that those issues are solved. On top of that, my friend also
has the flu, and is struggling to get rid of it. Help me help this friend of
mine with 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 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 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 all of those who are suffering the various
illnesses that are consuming this country and the world, including the
coronavirus, flu, and so many others. Pray that the panic dies down and sanity
returns to curb the rush to stockpile things that will actually not help these
situations worldwide.
- 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.
- Today my family and I will celebrate my 50th
birthday. God has been very good to me in this first half of my life, and I
know He has my path ready for the second half of my life.
Prayer: Father in heaven, this
is our prayer today for seriously needed relief of those in far-away places
suffering from the various contagions around this world, those suffering the
aftereffects of armed gunmen, bombings, and so forth, that their spirits be
lifted and calmed. We pray for those who suffered through crazy weather, travel
cancellations, and so forth. 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: I Have This Hope ~ Tenth Avenue
North https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjetZn5lrBc&list=PLNgHXy1QUJzP347S_jTZZ2FtdDNEh-2ai&index=136
Sermon: This world, this
week and beyond it, suffers from panic, pandemonium, fear of the known and
unknown in the realm of these illnesses that are taking lives everywhere in
this world. Finding hope in the midst can sometimes be very difficult. We have
seen so many wondering if there wouldn’t be an ounce of hope available at this
point. With God on our side, there is always hope. We’ll start here:
Lamentations 3:18 KJV – And I said, My
strength and my hope is perished from the Lord:
Jeremiah, when he wrote Lamentations, wanted to share the
hopelessness he saw around him and prove that looking toward God would
alleviate the desolation, desperation, of His chosen people. Sure, we suffer
from a lot of chaos in our lives. Sure, sometimes things look pretty hopeless.
God wants us to learn from those times, not feel as though we can find nothing
good in the midst of so much bad. We see a lot of that these days.
Psalm 31:22 KJV – For I said
in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest
the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee.
It is not surprising that we forget to look beyond where
we are sitting in that particular second. There is more to life than illness,
madness, mayhem, and despair. There is more to life than preparing for
disasters of monumental proportions. In this world today there is a lot of
panic, pandemonium, regarding overstated and over-embellished talk regarding a
form of the flu, or a different virus, like Coronavirus, will decimate the
population. There have been many views of viral outbreaks that will, according
to some officials, utterly destroy humanity. God promised us that such
devastation would provide warnings to remember His Word and Spirit and the
sharing of it. Remembering hope is something we often neglect to do. That’s
what Jeremiah is sharing here.
Lamentations 3:19-22 KJV – Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
Lamentations 3:19-22 KJV – Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
Even in the midst of the worst potential this evil and
sickly world would have surrounding us, God still gave Jeremiah hope. It might
not have seemed enough at the time, but to Jeremiah, it was light at the end of
the proverbial tunnel. He wanted to share his insights with others, and still,
so many would think “no way, dude, there’s nothing left to hope for” that’s how
this next verse fits in.
Psalm 35:21 KJV – Yea, they
opened their mouth wide against me, and said, Aha, aha, our eye hath seen it.
Hope is something that can be renewed
and strengthened as days pass. This is something Jeremiah wanted people to
hear. However, too many were afraid of what was happening and not seeing beyond
their immediate situation. The chaos that is surrounding us these days does
indeed appear to be quite similar in actions and reactions to this virus,
illness, that is running rampant around the world. Hold on to your hope,
because it gets stronger even in your weakness.
Lamentations 3:23-24 KJV – They are new every
morning: great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul;
therefore will I hope in him.
Hope is something that, even in the worst views of chaos,
pain, sorrow, fear, exists with the tiniest view, as Jesus shared when He told
us the power of faith even in the minuscule size of a mustard seed. God is
there for us. He is here for us, surrounding us, filling us, supporting us.
That is the hope in the midst of chaos, the light that flickers and holds
strong in the darkest of nights. That’s what is shown in these three verses
from Psalms.
Psalm 89:42 KJV – Thou hast
set up the right hand of his adversaries; thou hast made all his enemies to
rejoice.
Psalm 73:26 KJV – My flesh
and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for
ever.
Psalm 130:7 KJV – Let Israel
hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is
plenteous redemption.
Look at what is shared here in David’s
words. God is our strength. He is that part of our hearts that holds us
securely and soundly to where faith dwells within us even in the worst of
situations and circumstances. Israel had, at the time, every reason to hope for
the future. We, as true believers in God and Jesus, supported by the Holy
Spirit, have the ability to see just what hope can manage. That’s why Jeremiah
did everything to teach the tribes of Israel that God had, has, and will have,
a reason for everything that comes to pass. This is shared in the words found
here.
Lamentations 3:25-27 KJV – The Lord is good
unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a
man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. It is good
for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
Notice, Jeremiah offers a tip or two here in this set of verses. God is good. He proves it to those of us who seek Him, hope that we find Him, right where He has always been. Salvation is found the moment we realize that God is always here with us, no matter what may happen outside in this world, in the place we live in, and around the world, God is always here.
Notice, Jeremiah offers a tip or two here in this set of verses. God is good. He proves it to those of us who seek Him, hope that we find Him, right where He has always been. Salvation is found the moment we realize that God is always here with us, no matter what may happen outside in this world, in the place we live in, and around the world, God is always here.
Micah 7:7 KJV – Therefore
I will look unto the Lord; I
will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.
Why do we forget this fact? God hears us
every day, every night, through any circumstance. Yet, we walk around this
world sometimes forgetting the fact that there is someone watching out for us.
God proved it in the life and death of the Savior Jesus Christ. The proof was
in the fact Jesus was resurrected and walked on the earth three days after His
death and burial. The proof continues in the fact that even in the worst times,
the Holy Spirit still fills us and brings us hope, faith, and more. No matter
what, hope exists, even in the worst of circumstances. That’s what is shared
here.
Lamentations 3:28-29 KJV – He sitteth alone
and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. He putteth his mouth in
the dust; if so be there may be hope.
Yeah, there are times in life when nothing seems to go
right, or what we see as the way it should be going. Times like now, where
diseases like the coronavirus, and the rest of the list, influenza,
tuberculosis, included, of a myriad of devastating diseases and epidemics that
are going around this world today, there is one thing left at the end of the
dark, panic filled tunnel. That one thing is a gift God and Jesus brought us.
HOPE. Remember to have HOPE in our FAITH even in the smallest of amounts would
be far more important to our salvation than worrying about the devastation any
disease may have upon this earth we live on. 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: Hope for the Future ~ Paul
McCartney https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=163_C5UVU-I
~ 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
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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