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. He has been doing well since his surgery on
another crushed vertebra in his back. Continue to pray for his health as he
soldier’s on.
- Please pray for faith, hope, and strength boosters to
help bless Sister Theresa Bogard.
- 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 those who have survived the COVID-19 threat
and for those who have lost loved ones, as well as those who are still fighting
this beast of a pandemic.
- Pray for those of us in this world that are on the
front lines fighting the COVID-19 pandemic with laboratories, studies,
treatment, and more with the doctors, nurses, and all the other emergency responders
entrenched in this battle worldwide.
- 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.
- Pray for those of us who have lost friends and family
to any of the perils of this world this week.
Birthday Greeting: Sending
a belated Happy Birthday to Pastor Stephen Okoth. His birthday was July 4th.
Prayer: Father in heaven, this
is our prayer for today. We pray for our doctors and nurses and other frontline
heroes in the fight for life amid the Coronavirus. We pray for the ill and the
injured, for their support systems, and for the economy worldwide in the midst
of the pandemic. We pray for our friends and families that they will be safe,
secure, and healthy for many years after this. 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: Steve Grace ~ Faith, Hope,
& Love https://youtu.be/FqQx4O5CgCg
Sermon: We continue with Paul’s journey through Ephesus as he preached the Word of God to all who would listen.
Ephesians 1:18 KJV – The eyes of your
understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his
calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
When we start on the journey of knowing Christ and
knowing God through the Holy Spirit which was left to us as an inheritance of
Christ, it’s not easy to understand what the path is and where it will go. New
Christians often fall off the path because it is so very new to them. Yet, even
those who have traveled the path of Christ as much as humanly possible can get
lost and stray away from the path. Understanding the meaning of Christ’s life
and the commission He gave to the Apostles is important to grow faith, engage
in the enlightenment Christ’s very real, very human, sacrifice was meant to
share. Remember, Christ said that we Christians would help become the
foundation of faith for centuries to come. Peter shares this here.
1 Peter 2:5 KJV – Ye also, as lively stones,
are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual
sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
There is so much to learn in Scripture. It takes a long
time to absorb all of it, and many times we learn something new every time we
read the same verse at a different time in our life. It is life and what
happens within it that brings us back to Scripture to read the familiar verses,
and learn something new from them. We all fall backwards, as this clerk in the
Scroll of Acts proves.
Acts 19:35 KJV – And when the townclerk had
appeased the people, he said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth
not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess
Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter?
It is very difficult to put the past where it should be
in some ways. We’ve learned this tough lesson in this world today through the
various eruptions of racial and cultural tension with riots and serious,
dangerous, demolition of so much of our history. Yet, this was also done in
Scripture as shared by the various Apostles and other writers of the New
Testament, as well as the Old Testament. In Ephesus, this was obviously
apparent as shared here by Paul.
Ephesians 1:19 KJV – And what is the
exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the
working of his mighty power,
Paul, the Apostle who had done everything possible to
continue to share the Word, was very concerned with how the people of Ephesus
were acting and reacting. We as Christians must prove to ourselves and to
others just how faithful we are to Christ and the Word of God. We accept Christ
again every day we live. In doing this, we are able to show just how much
loving Christ and loving God can do for our health, our well-being, our lives
as we live them. That is one of the most important lessons to learn when
starting out as a new Christian, but also for those of us who have been
Christian for many years. There’s always something new to learn about
Scripture. Justifying ourselves in the Word of God is important, as Paul shows
us here.
Romans 3:24 KJV – Being justified freely by
his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Colossians 2:12 KJV – Buried with him in
baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation
of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
Acts 20:32 KJV – And now, brethren, I commend
you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to
give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
Learning about the truth that is Jesus Christ our Risen
Lord and Savior is something many spend a lifetime working to understand fully.
Some days it is easy. Other days you wonder what direction is the right one to
go in. The Apostles of Scripture were no different than we are today. Even they
had days they wondered just what the point was to be risking their lives to
share Christ the way He had commissioned them to manage upon His Resurrection.
It is very important to remember that commission and be the teachers Christ
ordained us to be.
Ephesians 1:20 KJV – Which he wrought in
Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in
the heavenly places,
I have seen many views of chaos, neglect, war, and peace
in this lifetime. Christ saw that and more, including being shunned for
“blasphemy” and “illegal activity”, namely healing a man on the Sabbath day so
that the man could get up and walk home to his family once more. Each of us has
heard the words in our heads before. Get up, get moving, keep going forward.
Tomorrow is a new day. That is the epitome of the faith Jesus wanted us to
share with each other and with ourselves in our hearts and minds and spirits.
Romans 4:16 KJV – Therefore it is of faith,
that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the
seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the
faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,
We all come from the best part of God’s love. Those are
peace, joy, and happiness. This trio of emotions are shared when we teach of
Abraham, the Friend of God as his name translates. It’s important to be a
friend of God and thus a friend of Christ. That friendship builds up our spirit,
our strength of heart and mind and moves our souls. Jesus wanted us to feel
this for ourselves and be as individual as we are collective in our belief.
That’s what this next trio of verses shares.
Ephesians 1:21-23 KJV – Far above all
principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named,
not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
With this, we have reached a point where we are seeking
more answers to still more questions cropping up as a result of this walk with
Him side by side. We may not know what tomorrow brings, but with Christ in our
hearts, our Spirits, and our love, we can do something to help newcomers, and
even to help those others who believe but are shaky in their faith. It is when
we test our faith that the truth of Christ is felt, seen, and recognized. That
is what Paul shares in this supportive verse here when he was in Rome.
Romans 10:17 KJV – So then faith cometh by
hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
We have spoken many times about the difference between
listening and hearing. We can listen all we want, but until we want to hear
what is being said, we don’t get anywhere. This is something I have heard
questions about for decades. How can you not hear when you are listening?
Humans have tons of things that can distract us from actually hearing what we
are listening to. In this world today we have computers, televisions with
hundreds of channels sharing all sorts of information. Not only that, we have
news and media that bombard us in every form, whether written, video-taped, or
whatever. It’s not easy to sift through all the information to find the truth.
That’s one thing I know people can get lost within. It’s no simple task to
disseminate the truth from fiction, reality from fake, etc. Jesus knew this
before any of today’s technology was thought about, much less available to just
anyone. Paul shares that understanding the desperate need to share His Word the
right way. That desperate need continues on even today. We see that here.
2 Corinthians 1:22 KJV – Who hath also sealed
us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
Jesus gave His Apostles the biggest job they had ever
worked within. It was definitely not easy, and even today we know that.
Spreading the truth in God’s Word is dangerous even now in some places around this
world of ours. Christianity and our unshakeable faith in God and Christ through
the Holy Spirit is something that will carry us beyond the chaos of deadly
pandemics, diseases that are often overlooked, and immersion in the sins of
humanity. There’s a reason for this and a benefit within it that was shared
with the citizens of Corinth here.
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.
Peter, Paul, and the other Apostles ordained by Jesus to
spread the true Word of God had more than a slow sloping hill to climb when it
came to teaching new Christians to believe something that they never
experienced themselves. It’s one thing to be a great story, as Paul and the
others realized. It’s another to believe it was reality and would become
reality at some point in the future.
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.
The fruits of the spirit are peace, love, joy, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This is what
Paul taught the Galatians, and what he shared with others including the
citizens of Rome and many other cities as also shared here.
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.
Take heed, he says. In other words, pay attention to what
YOU are doing, what WE, as Christians, are doing. God gave us a mission to
fulfill on this earth. None of us have the same mission, but we do have the
same destination to hope for. Jesus doesn’t want His sacrifice to be in vain.
We shouldn’t want that either. Remember, we are followers of Christ, and in
being such, we have a mission to share that path with any and all who we meet
in some way, whether prayer, discussion, or whatever that might be. Within
that, we find the freedom to be the best Christians we can possibly be. 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: Beckah Shae ~ Faith, Hope &
Love https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRebriS-p-s
~ 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.
A belated Happy Birthday, Pastor Stephen Okoth!
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