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.
- Please continue to pray for Elder Cal Jennings and his health issues, which are numerous. Latest news has him suffering pain from something doctors didn’t think to inform him of.
- Please pray for job opportunities or offers to help bless Sister Theresa Bogard.
- I have several family members who need prayers for their various situations at this moment in time. Please pray for health, strength, and the ability to overcome these issues.
- Please pray for a dear friend and colleague who has just learned they might have serious problems. She has had so many issues that this week the doctor has insisted on special tests to determine what is going on. Help me help this friend of mine with strength of compassion and more.
- Please pray for those suffering COVID-19 Corona Virus, Influenza, and all the other diseases being suffered around this world. May they be cured, healed, and praise the LORD for the gifts of life and health.
- 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 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, this is our prayer today for some seriously needed relief, for our front-line leaders in the fight against disease, viruses, and more. 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 the rest of this year is better 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: Don’t Be Afraid ~ https://youtu.be/ONPoSGyk-SA
Sermon: Faith, hope, love, patience, all the things we hope to convey to one another even in times of crisis like the current COVID-19 Coronavirus health threat we are experiencing in life here and now. God wants us to remember, reflect, and share with others exactly this concept. He shares Unconditional Love in so many ways we cannot accurately give a number to share the immensity of that gift and all the components within it. This is what Paul wants us to realize as he shares this concept with those in Thessaly, Greece.
1 Thessalonians 1:3 KJV – Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;
It takes work to express all the aspects of God’s Unconditional Love as taught through Jesus Christ our Risen Savior. It is something we have to work at every moment of every day. We do this by sharing that love with others, working our faith, believing in what Jesus taught. Not easy when we are confronted with all sorts of chaos, including the evil nature of some, illness that cannot be stopped, in some cases, without extreme measures. That’s why we have to remember to share in His Faith, His Love, His Righteousness.
John 6:29 KJV – Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
Notice how Jesus shares just that thought in this one verse? It is meant for each of us to follow the winding road of Righteousness. Why does it wind? I have heard that question many times over the years. It winds back and forth because we’re human. We make mistakes. We forget to listen and hear. We tend to do that because that is the nature of life. When Jesus said He was the path toward eternal life, He never said it was going to be an easy journey. That’s where hope helps our prayers be stronger, as shared here.
2 Thessalonians 1:11 KJV – Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power:
I can name at least a dozen friends, colleagues, and family members who have shared the thought that if it weren’t for prayer, they would have been dead and gone long ago. True prayer can be the best healing balm, the calm in the wake of a storm, the strength and resistance we need to protect each other from evil and harm. Our work teaching each other, sharing God’s unconditional love with each other, whether we know names, faces, or not, is vital in this world today, much as it was in the days when Scripture was lived. Here is one such view in support of our verses on hope.
Hebrews 6:10 KJV – For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
Ministering to one another, whether we have more than passing knowledge of others around us, or not, is important, not just for them, but for ourselves as well. I know that several of those who are part of Christ’s church have pursued this form of sharing God’s love in many, many ways. We should be glad because this is the day God has made. It is one that helps hope shine through in the darkest of eras on this earth.
Romans 12:12 KJV – Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;
We’ve seen this verse before. It says a lot in regard to Paul’s journey when teaching everyone who would listen of the Master Work Jesus instilled in each and every follower even up to the point of His Resurrection. It is awesome, the power of the truth in God’s Love, God’s Word. The power of prayer is a phrase many have heard, and some have wondered if there is any power in the action of prayer. Sometimes it takes experiencing prayers being answered before people can believe. Much like seeing someone do something everyone says is impossible. It is only impossible if you want it to be. Through God and Jesus with the help of the Holy Spirit, anything, and everything, is possible. That is the power of love, the very essence of hope.
1 Thessalonians 2:19 KJV – For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?
Everyone hopes and prays that eternal life is more than words in Scripture. Eternal life is believing in something beyond what we can see. When we hope for that potential of eternal life, we are exercising our belief. That brings peace within us. Peace and Hope are as essential to Love as Faith and Righteousness. When Paul was in Corinth, he taught those around him willing to listen exactly that.
2 Corinthians 1:14 KJV –As also ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Rejoice, be glad in the fact that even with human suffering around this world, there is something amazing, awesome, waiting for us when the gates of heaven open and Jesus brings us home.
Philippians 4:1 KJV – Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.
Stand fast, Paul tells the people of Philippi. Hang on even in the worst of times. God’s Unconditional Love is stronger than anything or anyone on this earth. His love will carry us through. That’s what Jesus taught in the 33 years of life He lived here on this earth. Just because you cannot see Him physically doesn’t mean He isn’t here. The very essence of God is in everything, everyone, on this earth. You see pieces of God’s love in every leaf, blade of grass, cloud in the sky, and on and on through everything we recognize as being nature around us. That’s why we should always hold on to hope, no matter how awful life is, no matter what roadblocks are in our way, with God, we can find a way. Jude shares some of this here. He proves that we have the gift of hope because, even when we screw up something in life, God sees that our intentions were set to have things happen just right.
Jude 24 KJV – Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
In the presence of His Glory, Jude shares, we will be seen as faultless. That’s the essence of hope. Whether we were there for Jesus’s life and legacy back thousands of years ago now, or not, He is the foundation of hope. This is what Jesus promised to be for us. He shows just how evil man could get when it comes to corruption and such. That’s why He shared this from the gospel of Matthew.
Matthew 3:7 KJV – But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Paul and John the Beloved share so much in their words spoken with everyone, even though they could not see into the future to see how the Word inspired by God and Jesus through the Holy Spirit impacts us even today. We are justified by His blood. Our love for Christ and God would help ensure that eternal life is more than a dream hope creates. We see it in the thick of the battle after Jesus’s Resurrection with Paul, and in the view of Heaven’s truth while John the Beloved was in exile away from his beloved home in Ephesus.
Romans 5:9 KJV – Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
Paul realizes here what it means to be one with Christ through the Holy Spirit. We as His followers, as Christians, sometimes forget these elements of HOPE. It takes work to realize and recognize we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. That’s something special in this world today with all the drastic changes that have occurred just in the past few months. John the Beloved is one who always shares the relief found in Hope, where that huge pile of pain, fear, and sorrow, just melts away because Christ is with us, always. That’s what he shares here.
Revelation 1:7 KJV – Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
There is no place for evil in the days when Christ returns and brings eternal life for those who follow His teaching, and embrace it personally and publicly as well. Remember, the size of your hope is not important. What you do with the gift of hope, an element of unconditional love, does matter, always. Love one another, that’s what we’ve been taught. It isn’t easy. If it were easy, we wouldn’t need thousands of pages of Scripture to help us through. With Jesus as our Savior, we can conquer everything that stands in our way. 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: Rejoice ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o6K1-AMgbI
~ 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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