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 and his health issues, which are numerous. He has been doing well since his surgery on another crushed vertebra in his back earlier in the summer. Continue to pray for his health as he soldier’s on.
- Please pray for health, faith, and hope boosters to help bless Sister Theresa Bogard as she continues to recover from her latest stint in the hospital due to an ulcer.
- Please pray for several of my family members due to several things occurring at once in their lives. Two have health concerns and are working through those slowly to get everything right. Two others have been given some amazing news and hate that isolation is preventing them from sharing them the way they would like to share them. Also, my mother’s birthday is on Tuesday.
- We are ever watchful in regard to the weather, the unrest, and the virus and response to that virus. Let us pray for calm skies and seas, calm voices and spirits, and also healthy outcomes for those who are affected.
- We pray that the upcoming school year is filled with progress for our children who are attending and for the teachers and staff that must adapt to what is considered the “new normal” around this world.
- 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, including Kaylee Roberts’ son who is suffering from pneumonia.
Prayer: Father in heaven, this is our prayer for today. We pray that those of us affected by the violence and the destruction around this world be minimal and would be over with swiftly. We pray for discernment in the views of truth and fiction for many things occurring right now. We pray for family and friends, that they be safe, secure, and sound through this troubling time. We pray for health, happiness, peace and relief for all people around this world. 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: Just a Closer Walk With Thee ~ Randy Travis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIfqa_741s0
Sermon: We are still working our way through the Scroll of Ephesians. We’ve learned quite a lot so far with this journey Paul is sharing with us. Let’s get started where we left off last Sunday.
Ephesians 2:14 KJV – For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
If you recall in the Gospels in the final breath of Jesus the veil was ripped to bits and pieces. For a reminder, here is that verse.
Matthew 27:51 KJV – And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
His final breath here on earth as a man was able to destroy the part of existence that separated us from God. The veil was put in place due to the original sin of Adam and Eve when they chose to disobey the directive of eating from the Tree of Knowledge. It was that part of divine love that was separated from us but promised to return. In this world today, a promise that incredible should make us jump up and shout hallelujah. Eternal peace promised thousands of years ago as shared here.
Micah 5:5 KJV – And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men.
It is a promise God vowed for Adam, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, and on into the future until the birth of a very special Savior named Jesus Christ. With the ultimate gift of Christ’s love for us, we should remember all that Jesus promised us as we follow Him. Here we see that in a passage from Paul’s speech before the citizens of Philippi.
Philippians 4:19 KJV – But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Paul, as most of the Apostles did, shared from his personal experience with Jesus in his life and the fantastic eternal gift waiting for all of those who believe in the power of Unconditional Love as shared by the Savior and are willing to stake their lives, hearts, spirits, souls, their very lives, for that eternal gift. We are strong when we have Christ in our lives.
Ephesians 6:10 KJV – Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Our lives are filled with all forms of temptation, of waywardness and distraction in this world today. Yet, true faith, true belief, must stand within us, individually and collectively. That strength in our belief, our faith, will bring us closer to each other, no matter where we live on this planet. This is what Jesus meant by spreading His Word far and wide and be teachers, hearers, doers of the Word. It’s something all the Apostles worked very hard to teach those of the fledgling faith known today as Christianity. Here are three verses from John the Beloved and Paul’s walk in faith for Christ.
Colossians 1:11 KJV – Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
John 10:16 KJV – And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
Galatians 3:28 KJV – There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Pay close attention to the last of these three verses. There is no color, no classification of gender, race, or any of the vanities that are earthly by nature. We are ONE in Christ Jesus. That’s the most important takeaway from all of this. If we learn nothing beyond faith and belief, it is to understand that we are each individual, but we are also one body in Christ. There is a reason to remember that. Paul shows us that very reason here.
Ephesians 2:15 KJV – Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
Imagine, if you will, a single breathe, a last gasp upon the death of our Savior Jesus Christ, did something no other Scriptural hero ever managed. This was all for a single reason. Faith and belief in that faith, toward the promise of the Father all the way back to Adam and Eve. That promise would be simply to ensure that we as individual, unique, human beings, will indeed be welcomed into paradise by our Savior, Jesus Christ. There is more to God’s law than words. What is that something more? It is heart! It is spirit! It is so much more than we can fully understand outside of prayer, and pursuit of Christ’s Unconditional Love as an extension of God’s Holy Spirit, and God Himself as well.
Romans 7:22 KJV – For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
There is more to this gift of Unconditional Love beyond the law and the prophets. This is something Jesus constantly worked to help the Apostles and Disciples understand. It is something ministers, and teachers of the Word still work hard to first understand and then teach through that understanding. God wants us to realize that His law is far more than words written in a book. God’s Word is living, breathing, part of us, part of the world as it goes on around us. That’s what this next verse shares.
Colossians 2:14 KJV – Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
There is a reason we have to get this through our heads and into our hearts. That reason is Jesus Christ, our loving Savior, the salvation that each of us has that ability to reach that point. So, next we see here with Paul what he sees as the ability to live a Christ-like life.
Ephesians 2:16 KJV – And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
Enmity is a word many people may not understand. It is a problem humanity has in every aspect of life, in every city, state, nation, around this world. Yet, understanding what this trial and tribulation, this one of seven deadly downfalls for humanity, truly is, that is our challenge. Enmity by definition is a feeling or condition of hostility; hatred; ill will; animosity; antagonism.
Unconditional love is the absolute opposite of enmity, and all the other seven deadly downfalls, doubt, shame, wrath, vanity, envy, lust, all would be the parts of life that actually erode our path out away from what is before us. Teaching what those bits are that can sabotage our walk with Christ is important, because all of us have the challenge of these seven troubles that are mentioned so often in Scripture. That’s why Jesus had to repeat Himself using so many parables and lessons throughout His life here on earth as we see here.
John 14:23 KJV – Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
It’s not easy to remember those revered steps Christ left for us to follow as our light in the darkness. Jesus is the path that destroys all seven troubles, with finality, thus taking them from us for eternity. We see here two passages from the lessons Paul taught in Colossi and John shared of the time all twelve Apostles shared with Jesus our Savior.
Colossians 2:7 KJV – Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
Colossians 1:20-22 KJV –
And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all
things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things
in heaven.
And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works,
yet now hath he reconciled
In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and
unreproveable in his sight:
John 1:16 KJV – And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.
We all have a path to blaze in life. Staying on a godly path, a truly Christian path, is not easy. It’s not meant to be. We have to learn where our paths lead us. It’s trial and error and sometimes we have to start over many times before finding exactly where our path takes us in faith and in love through our entire life. 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)
Closing Song: Order My Steps https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmzCyxHIYoI
~ Shalom ~
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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