Welcome to Covenant of Hope Ministries and our sermon or
midweek study. You will normally see us posted on Sunday. 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. He has been doing well since his surgery on his vertebrae, the weather has wrought havoc on his
sinuses and allergies.
- Please pray for faith, patience, strength, and hope
boosters to help bless Sister Theresa Bogard.
- Pray for several people of my acquaintance that have become
even more frail this past year. Pray that the Lord gives them strength in
spirit and in body.
- 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 multitudes of sick and wounded that they
may heal.
Prayer: Father in heaven, this
is our prayer for today. We pray for those who have lost loved ones in this
past week, whatever the cause. We pray for our first responders who are on the
front lines of the aftermath of violence and this pandemic. We pray for those
who have died this past week, and for the families that mourn them. 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: Glory to God in the Highest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGfxlGeNVmQ
Sermon: We have been
studying Ephesians these past few weeks and, much like other Scrolls of
Scripture before this, God wants to share with you exactly what it means to
trust God beyond human boundaries. It means realizing there’s much more to life
than waking up, working, playing, and sleeping. Salvation is a gift that can be
realized and recognized in how we study Scripture. This is something all of the
Apostles realized was not as easy to teach as it seemed to be. We start our
voyage this week with this pair of verses.
Paul and the other Apostles might not have realized just how important their role in Christianity would become until the resurrection and the lessons learned in faith and belief that day. To live in the footsteps of one of the most important figures of life as it is, makes the burden of proof fall on them. Paul, Peter, John the Beloved, and all the rest worked hard to have the new Christians understand just what it meant to live the life of Christ long after He rose from the dead. Faith, hope, knowledge, understanding, wisdom, take practice from all methods of learning, listening, hearing, seeing, and so on. Paul shows another point here in this verse.
Romans
10:17 KJV – So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by
the word of God.
Faith comes by hearing the truth. Hearing the truth of
the Word of God adds to the faith that we already have. Seeking the source of
that truth can be hard, because there are times this world can get in the way.
Paul teaches here that, regardless of what is going on in this world, hearing
the truth that is Christ is supposed to help us sweep the rest of the drama of
life away.
2
Corinthians 1:22 KJV – Who hath also sealed us, and given the
earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
Ephesians 1:14-16 KJV – Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,
Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
The
song presented at the beginning of this sermon says, “praise Him, praise Him,
Jesus our blessed redeemer”. He is always worthy of praise and blessing, for
many reasons, one of those is impossible not to recognize and realize. Jesus
bore every sin, no matter the complexity, when He was nailed to that cross and
hung there to die. That is no small amount of agony while hanging there in the
blazing sun. The fact that Jesus went through all that, provided us with the
essence of His sacrifice to help us through the bad, painful, worrisome, and
anxiety driven things of this world.
2
Corinthians 5:5 KJV – Now he that hath wrought us for the
selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
God wants us to lead the way, following in the first
footsteps of our Savior Jesus Christ. What Jesus taught was not new, but seen
in a new light. God always wants us to study and test our faith through our
study of Scripture. If all we do is read it, we’re not fulfilling the plan
Jesus has for us. Teacher, leader, or follower, we should all find a way to
live scripturally, even if we are not perfect people, the love of Jesus makes
us perfect to God and to each other.
Romans
8:23 KJV – And not only they, but ourselves also, which have
the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves,
waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Acts
20:28 KJV – Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all
the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the
church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
The
Holy Ghost, or Holy Spirit created a group of people who are now overseers of
the entire Christian faith, seeing to it that the truth of Jesus Christ and His
gift to the world, the ability to be perfect through He who saved us, is
something that I have been asked, “Just how do we know it is the right way to
share Christ?” Well, that is a good question, because every person teaches
others differently, and every person learns differently. It takes practice, and
no, we won’t all be successful every time. That’s one of the things Jesus
shares with us, be careful in how you teach, and how you choose to learn.
There’s a right and wrong way to do anything and everything on this earth and
in our lives. This is where knowledge and understanding reach wisdom.
Ephesians
1:17 KJV – That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of him:
Glory
is something you hear a lot about in Scripture. You may not realize that glory
is more than winning a small game of some sort, or a war of man versus man.
Glory is much more than that when it comes to God and Jesus. The glory of God
is becoming more and more like Him, following the path that Jesus blazed
thousands of years ago. At that point, we understand fully what resurrection
means, and why it is not as easy to attain it as some may think. It is also a state
of being beyond mortality, as Jesus shares the moments between death and
resurrection here.
John
20:17 KJV – Jesus saith unto her, Touch
me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say
unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your
God.
My
father, your Father, my God, your God, all are one and the same. Jesus wants us
to realize that there is only one God, and He is Three In One, Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. The Father, Creator of all. The Son, Redeemer of all. The Holy
Spirit, Protector of all. That brings us to this last verse today.
Colossians
1:9 KJV – For this cause we also, since the day we heard it,
do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the
knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
Prayer is a powerful gift. It is something God taught as
early as Adam and Eve and continues to teach us even now. Jesus taught us a
special prayer, so that when we couldn’t find the words ourselves, there are
words that help universally. 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: Ben Speer~ A New Name in
Glory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujerQ8MvbVg
~ 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.
