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Welcome to Covenant of Hope Ministries and our live Sunday sermon. I am Rev. Laura A. Neff. This ministry shares the Word of God, the Spirit of Christ Jesus. We as members and leaders of Covenant of Hope Ministries 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 & LinkedIn
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 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.
- We are ever watchful in regard to the weather with tropical weather and with the high winds around many places. We continue to pray for those who suffer or have suffered from the COVID-19 chaos. Let us pray for calm skies and seas, calm voices and spirits, and also healthy outcomes for those who are affected.
- My friend Mary has lost some very close friends and has at least two in the hospital right now.
- We pray for those who are dead or buried in the disastrous collapse of a building in Miami, Florida on Thursday. We pray for the rescuers and those who wait to find out if relatives or friends would have survived.
- We pray for those who have lost loved ones in this past week.
- 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 who are jobless, homeless, no matter what might have ended up causing either of those. Pray that providence would find them and ease the suffering.
- 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.
Prayer: Father in heaven, this is our prayer for today. We pray for those friends and family members of the residents of the apartment house in Miami as they wait for word on the survivors and victims of the building’s collapse. We pray for the ones suffering as a result of shootings and unrest around this world. We pray that truth can be seen where too many lies have filled life as we know it. We pray for the ability to work in society and gain confidence as a result. We pray for our children and grandchildren, that this world will be a better place than it was for our ancestors. 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: Phil Wickham ~ Hymn of Heaven https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjB0mkj0XaM
Sermon: We continue our exploration into Peter’s writings to see how the founder of the first formal Christian church, upon whose shoulders Jesus laid a lot of the foundation that would become what religion became after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Savior.
1 Peter 1:7 KJV – That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
One of the biggest questions I have answered over the past thirty years or more would be how I weathered the tests of my faith. I’ve had several times in my lifetime where faith was stretched to the breaking point. I can’t deny it, on occasion I felt as though I were in a very dark place. Most of those have had to do with loss. All of us in this world have suffered some form of loss in our lifetimes, no matter if those lifetimes are short or long. Isaiah suffered quite a lot of this very physical and mental pain in his lifetime. This is what he shares about one such incident in his lifetime.
Isaiah 40:6-8 KJV – The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
As we all know, James said a whole lot in just a few chapters. Those five chapters are, as they were, a wake up call for Christians the world over. Here he describes His brother, Jesus, and the fact that God ensured Jesus would bring eternal life into full fruition.
James 1:18 KJV – Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
The word of truth, God’s Word is that Word of Truth as Ya'aqov in Hebrew, or Iakobos in Greek, brother of Jesus, known by many as James. The Word of Truth is something he lived as he worked with his brother, Jesus Christ, to bring the Word to as many people as it was possible to manage. In five little chapters, James proves to us that we still have a great deal to learn. That is something all the Apostles and Disciples of Jesus worked so hard to manage. Here are two instances when Paul did just that.
1 Corinthians 3:13 KJV – Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
Romans 2:7-10 KJV – To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:
When John the Beloved was still alive after the death of all the Apostles and many of the Disciples as well, people could not understand why this would be so. John the Beloved was the one Apostle that Jesus trusted beyond compare. He did so enough to ensure that John took care of His mother Mary and the entire family as well. This is what John was assured of when he was guided to write the most controversial Scrolls in all of Scripture, and that is the Revelation as he shares his experience on Patmos all those years ago.
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.
So many people do not understand how important it is to carefully study Scripture, no matter how ancient the writing would be. It is so important to understand what the times were all about then, not just because these men, women, and children, lived on this earth far back in the history of this world, but also because there is quite a bit of relevance to today’s world we are living in. Peter shared just how important Jesus should be for each and every human being on this earth. Faith and Belief are two words that we don’t always see with accurate eyes, hearts, minds, spirits, and such. That’s why Peter shares this.
1 Peter 1:8 KJV – Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
At the time Peter was teaching those around him about our Savior Jesus Christ, nearly all the original Apostles and Disciples were long dead. This is yet another reason that the last ones to share the truth of God’s Word and the Salvation of Jesus Christ were two of the most well known of the Apostles, Peter and John the Beloved. This is what John shared in his gospel.
John 1:1 KJV – In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:14 KJV – And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
What is the importance of being there when the ministry of Jesus became well known? What is the importance of the fact that John the Beloved’s gospel, and his epistles would carry such weight even to this very day? Eye witness accounts vary, no matter the situation. We know this from psychological examinations after mass shootings, murders, war crimes, and other life-altering events occur. John the Beloved had, quite literally, lived through all of those possibilities in his long lifetime. He learned quite a lot about humanity in his ninety-three years of life. We see that in this verse here.
1 John 4:20 KJV – If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
John asks a very good question. It is a question many who convert from what they started from to Christianity ask. It’s something all of us should ask ourselves. What do we believe? Why do we believe it? Why do we feel the need to share that belief, that faith, which drives us in this world to keep going even in the darkest of our days. Paul, Peter, and John the Beloved proved that their words and actions formed the church Jesus laid the foundation for while He lived on this earth. Let’s remember to put away the old man, as Paul shares in Ephesus, and bring forth the “new man” or “new woman” into this world to share faith, belief, and hope in this world filled with so much despair, depravity, and all the rest of those things created by the troubles of humanity.
Ephesians 4:22 KJV – That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
Ephesians 4:31 KJV – Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
Peter and Paul had a tough mountain to climb. All of the Apostles and Disciples who carried on after the resurrection faced huge obstacles to sharing the Word of God through the faith of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. All of them willingly did so. Why? What was driving them? They did so because Jesus proved to them that there is more to life than birth and death. Jesus proves that to each of us every day if we pay attention. Peter shares what we should feel in this regard.
1 Peter 1:9-10 KJV – Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
Notice how Peter says, ‘the end of your faith’ and ‘salvation of your souls’. When we feel as though we’ve reached the end of that proverbial rope, that’s where faith will see us through, that is, literally, the end of our faith. It is that end that causes us to realize and recognize the salvation of our souls. This is something Jesus promised as we see it in the Gospel of John.
John 16:22 KJV – And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.
Jesus made some amazing promises. In those promises it would be past, present, and future. Each of us in this world who believes and has faith in the very existence of God and Jesus through the Holy Spirit, will see, without the troubles of this world, that His Word prevails, no matter the unrest, the pain, the sorrow we see at every turn in today’s world. We should all take comfort in the words Jesus shared with us as He did so within all the gospels, as seen here.
Matthew 18:3 KJV – And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
It is vitally important for us to take part in the Word, and sharing the Faith, and Belief that exists within that very Word. Jesus and God designed it that way. That’s why past, present, and future we get links that produce what these last three verses share with us.
1 Corinthians 3:2 KJV – I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
Daniel 9:3 KJV – And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:
Psalm 34:8 KJV – O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
All of us have an incredible opportunity in this world, to learn from past mistakes managed by our ancestors, and to prevent falling back into those same mistakes in the future. This is what Jesus, what God, all wish we could manage in our lifetimes and in the lives of those who will follow after our time on this earth is done. Now, that’s something to think about as we pray in the prayer Jesus brought us:
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: Jordan Smith ~ Only Love https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6DPyiE5e3M
~ 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.
