Welcome to Covenant of Hope Ministries and our Sunday sermon. I am Rev. Laura A. Neff. This ministry shares the Word of God, the Spirit of Christ Jesus. Our ministry was created with twelve people around this world back in 2008. Each of us shares God’s Word in ways He guides us to utilize. 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 & 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 pray for my nephew Drew, just a year old, stricken by COVID and quarantining.
- Please pray for friends of my friend Mary who have called in hospice for a dear friend.
- Please pray for my mother’s neighbor, her name is Larri, since she lost her husband to COVID this past week.
- Please pray for my friend Faith whose parents are stricken by COVID again.
- 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.
- Please pray for our friend Regina who is, as far as I know, still in the hospital.
- Please pray for my friend Jeff’s father who suffers cancer and is considered terminal at this point.
- We are ever watchful in regard to the weather with snow and ice 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 pray for calm skies and seas, calm voices and spirits, and also healthy outcomes for those who are affected.
- Pray that another friend gets good news in one week regarding their healing process going well.
- Pray that my son-in-law’s grandmother is able to get healthy again, she has been ill.
- 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 bring our sick children up to you in prayer, including Drew and little Everleigh. We pray for all those ill in hospitals and hospice care around this world, friend or stranger, including Faith’s parents, Regina, Jeff’s father, and so many others. We continue to pray for the ones suffering as a result of shootings and unrest around this world. We pray that truth can be seen where blatant lies have filled life as we know it. We pray for those whose jobs are in a scary position. We pray also for family members of colleagues and friends. We pray for those traveling back and forth across this country and around the world. We pray for the other travelers around this world so they remain healthy. We pray for the medical scientists, and physicians who battle on the front lines of the COVID-19 virus and all the other terrible diseases in this world. We pray for those who thirst for knowledge in Your Holy Word, that their studies bear fruit. 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: In the Garden ~ Alan Jackson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F1o8m-VGqQ
Sermon: We continue to explore Peter’s second epistle today. There is so much conveyed in the three short chapters written. Let’s start here.
2 Peter 1:11 KJV – For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
The Twelve Apostles spoke often of the entry into the kingdom of God and Jesus. The principle concept for all who are Christians is BELIEF, and proving that belief. Remember, just because you say you believe, it doesn’t prove that you do. We can choose how much or how little we wish to believe. That’s both a benefit and a drawback of the gift of free will, which all of us are born with, as written in our very DNA. We see how faith and belief combine with the words from David, first king of the Jews and Paul, one of the first teachers of Christianity.
Psalm 145:13 KJV – Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.
Romans 2:4 KJV – Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
1 Corinthians 15:24 KJV – Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
Our Heavenly Father, our Savior Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit are, were, will always be, part of everything here in this world and beyond. Remember, Jesus said in Revelation, as we studied a year ago or so, “I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” Jesus also warned that those who are first here and now will be last on that day when He returns to judge the living and the dead. We see that alluded to here in the words of Timothy.
1 Timothy 6:17 KJV – Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;
2 Timothy 4:18 KJV – And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Belief, faith, understanding of the knowledge that we obtain in our pursuit of those very same things. That’s what Peter, Timothy, Paul, John, and the rest of the Apostles and their family members, who were Jesus’s brothers in life, death, and beyond.
2 Peter 1:12 KJV – Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.
Remember your fellow Christians, in prayer, in thought, in action. This is what Peter is teaching us. In this world today we often let things go in one ear and out the other. That’s the hard part, we have to teach each other not to do that because it can hurt us as much as it might be hurting them. This is why we have to learn, re-learn, and renew that learning so often in life. This is what we want to hear.
Colossians 1:5 KJV – For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;
1 John 2:21 KJV – I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
Here John the Beloved points out, I’m not writing you because you don’t know the truth, but because you do know it, and should be sharing that truth for what it is, not lies in place of it. That can be a challenge even today in this world. However, the more we are willing to learn, spiritually, physically, mentally, consciously and unconsciously can only bring us closer to God, closer to Christ, closer to Eternal Life, which should be everyone’s goal at any and all points in time. John pushes us home with this next verse.
2 John 1:2 KJV – For the truth's sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever.
The youngest brother of Jesus adds to the thought with this one.
Jude 1:5 KJV – I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
Now let’s go forward with Peter’s second epistle with this verse.
2 Peter 1:13 KJV – Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;
Memories, we all have them. Many people like to do a lot of reminiscing. In Peter’s case, he wishes it was more than just reminiscing. All of us should feel this way when we pursue faith as Jesus wants us to do. We should all want that moment where life will be everlasting, eternal, and filled with unconditional love, not all the hate, the pain, the peril that we have here on earth now. Let’s look at how Isaiah reflected on his life.
Isaiah 38:12 KJV – Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me off with pining sickness: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.
There is not one person anywhere on earth who hasn’t had fear thick enough to cut with a knife at some point in their lives. That’s past, present, and future to boot. It is something that God and Jesus continually ask us to stop doing with the words “Fear not”. Do you know how many times that sentence is managed through Scripture? 170 TIMES! The word FEAR shows up a whopping 501 TIMES! Fear can be good or bad. Good fear is the kind that saves our lives, like getting out of a burning house, or hanging on to prevent a bad fall and things like that. Bad fear is something that prevents you from doing anything at all. Like everything else in life, there has to be a way to balance the good and bad. That’s why we have the Holy Trinity, three sides, together as one. Those three prevent us from falling, but don’t impede us from pursuing life and daring to push the limits of things around us. Paul shares some insight in this here.
2 Corinthians 5:1-4 KJV – For we know that if
our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God,
an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house
which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we
would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of
life.
We see additional thoughts from Paul in Philippi.
Philippians 1:7 KJV – Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace.
Philippians 3:10 KJV – That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
Now let’s return to Peter’s second epistle. Here we listen as he shares that soon he will be putting off his tabernacle. What does that mean?
2 Peter 1:14 KJV – Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.
Peter is sharing that his life is temporary at the time of his writing and teaching. We only get so much time on this earth to work together for God. We see that more and more clearly with every new day. Life on earth, for now, is short. Yet, all the Apostles, and all the truly devoted faithful Christians in this world know that this world is only here as it is for so long. It is the moment we all wished to be able to follow Jesus into eternal life for all at long last, but we have to remember what Jesus said, as he shares in these two verses from the Gospel of John the Beloved.
John 13:36 KJV – Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterwards.
John 21:19 KJV – This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me.
Follow me. Don’t follow anything else except the Word of God, the Path of Jesus Christ, the Gift of the Holy Spirit. That’s a tough choice in this world because there is so much temptation in so many formulas surrounding us. Here Peter shares that even in death we can remember Jesus.
2 Peter 1:15 KJV –Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.
Our final reflection on Peter’s epistle ends in actions and words spoken by our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Luke 9:31 KJV – Who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.
Luke 12:58 KJV – When thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate, as thou art in the way, give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him; lest he hale thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison.
Jesus wants us to follow Him! God wants us to reach that summit, the pinnacle where death and destruction are no more. When we can see that, we have found the face of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and the road to eternal life has been reached. Now, that’s something to think about as we pray in the prayer that Jesus taught 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: Alan Jackson ~ When We All Get to Heaven https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mei1MYF_fm8
~ 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 © 2022 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment