Welcome to Covenant of Hope Ministries and our sermon today. You will normally see us posted on Sunday, live or not, both in writing and video most of the time lately. 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
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.
- We have an urgent prayer request from my daughter’s sister-in-law. Her best friend was in a car crash after a semi crashed over the top of their vehicle yesterday. The young girl was airlifted to a local hospital listed in very serious condition. Her parents also were in the crash and escaped without major injuries. Father, we pray You may bring peace to their hearts and healing to their bodies.
- We have another prayer request for a dear writing friend of mine who learned yesterday that his brother died by suicide this past week. We pray for his brother’s spirit and soul and pray for my dear friend as well.
- Please continue to pray for Elder Cal Jennings and his health issues, which are numerous. He has been having issues with his pain, vision, and memory. Add to the prayers with a need for new housing as the family is in dire straits there at this point in time.
- Please pray for calm and peace for Sister Theresa Bogard who is going through a lot right now. Her pain levels are quite high, making it difficult to get anything done right now.
- We are ever watchful in regard to the weather, the unrest, and the ever evolving virus and the worldwide 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.
- Continue to pray for several of my family members as they go through some dramatic changes in some cases.
- Be thankful for each day we live as we do not know what tomorrow brings.
- Pray for all of our outreach ministries with Pastor Stephen Okoth, Pastor Robert Nganwa, Pastor Simon Peter Javaji, Rev. Lisa Tyler, and all the others who have joined us.
- 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.
- Pray that truth is revealed where falsehoods have been shared around this world.
Wishing a Happy Birthday to our member and my niece, Hope Bogard!
Prayer: Father in heaven, this is our prayer for today. We bring our sick and wounded up in prayer that their illness be overcome through Your grace and healing powers. We pray for answers to mysteries for health issues and money issues with several members and family members. We pray for our poor and desolate, our brothers and sisters who have been brought devastation due to the terrors around this world and all of the natural disasters, storms, just in the past month or so. We pray for all those who lost loved ones this past week. We pray for those in our outreach ministries that their reach gains momentum and magnitude and their needs are met. 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: Look Up! ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT1nNdt9HZI
Sermon: We are continuing our exploration into the aspects of discerning the true and godly view of good and evil. Today we will begin with the New Testament Gospel of Matthew. There is a lot to talk about, so let’s start here.
Matthew
5:43-48 KJV – Ye have heard that it hath been said,
Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to
them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute
you;
That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh
his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and
on the unjust.
For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the
publicans the same?
And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even
the publicans so?
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
It is important for us to recognize the amount of necessary information there would be in these six verses alone. Jesus was adamant that His Apostles, Disciples, and other followers had to understand exactly what God’s plan for humanity was in bringing Jesus our Lord and Savior through Immaculate Conception only to die due to false accusations, fearing the loss of power, for the governors and the various Jewish leaders. They were exhibiting all seven troubles in bright, brilliant and pinpoint points of view, then as well as now.
We all know the seven troubles by this time. For a refresher in that realm, the seven troubles are: vanity, envy, lust, enmity, wrath, shame and doubt. You will see each and every one of these troubles in just about every view of communication there is on, in and around this earth we live on. In this world today, filled with false prophets and fake news, information that has been taken completely out of context and the rest, we see exactly what Jesus and God saw two millennia in the past, as easily as opening the newspaper, turning on the television, fighting our daily commute, interacting with others anywhere and everywhere, or even just walking to our mailboxes. Still, it takes practice to discern what God wants us to manage. That’s where the next verse in the Gospel of Matthew comes in.
Matthew 7:11 KJV – If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
I can almost hear a question coming from this verse. Can those with evil natures and tendencies even know how to give good gifts to their children? It is sadly true, there are those who are very good at disguising their evil deeds. It’s why we have murder mysteries, unsolved homicides, missing persons not relative to natural disasters. In most of these situations the family of the perpetrator would never have thought someone that close to them could hide such evil and wickedness. That is how easily evil can be disguised as good.
Matthew 7:17-18 KJV – Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
These two verses show that, even those who are adept at disguising their evil nature, it cannot hide forever, and often it poisons the rest of the family in ways that can cause a great deal of sorrow and fear, yes, even death and destruction. That’s when we get to this next verse. It is one of those verses that shows just how frustrating it is for God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. That issue is corruption. It is something we have often shared when social upheaval occurs in this world around us. Here Jesus is teaching the priests, and the normal people entering the temple just how easily evil can be disguised as good.
Matthew 12:34-35 KJV – O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good
things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things:
and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.
God and Jesus consider the soothsayers, the wolves in sheep’s clothing, vipers, which are some of the deadliest creatures on this earth. You should recall that the serpent in the Garden of Eden was there to sow discord and evil, to entice Adam and Eve into disobedience. It’s hard to be obedient to God’s Word in a world filled with distractions, soothsayers, false prophets, and more. This was happening back in the days before hardship was even a word in the vocabulary of mankind. Discernment is not an easy methodology to learn and put into practice. It takes time to understand just how to discern truth from fallacy. It takes that same amount of time and effort to learn how to put discernment into practice for anything and everything. This last verse shows us that evil can be seen as good, and good as evil, as easily as free will allows the thought to manifest in an observer’s mind. That’s all it takes, free will to lead us down the wrong path and for us to leap before we look and make assumptions that shouldn’t be made.
Matthew 20:15 KJV – Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?
Automatic assumptions occur all over the world, in just about every household, marketplace, office, school, just about everywhere at any time, often without our even realizing we are doing just that. If you’ve known me for any time at all you have most likely heard me say, “Leap before you look gets you in a mess.” It’s true, leaping to conclusions can cause all sorts of havoc, in your life, your mind, and in the lives and minds of those who surround you. It’s quite similar to my thoughts regarding judgment. Judge not, Scripture says, if you know little to nothing about the situation as it presents itself. Final Judgment is not ours to make. That is up to Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Evil is not easily seen because it disguises itself and presents itself as Good, when it would not be such in the slightest. It takes a lot of knowledge, a lot of practice, to be wise enough to discern those wolves hiding in sheep’s clothing. Each of us has an opportunity to understand why the seven troubles continue to exist even this far beyond the resurrection of Christ. In the times as they are now, the view of evil hiding in plain sight is more and more apparent and more and more recognizable as the previews of Revelation around this entire world would 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)
Closing Song: Michael Combs ~ I Bowed On My Knees and Cried Holy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BefoS0tuOMM
~ 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 © 2021 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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