Covenant of Hope Ministries Sunday
Sermon 11/11/2012
Welcome
to this Sunday Sermon for Covenant of Hope Ministries. I am Rev. Laura A. Neff,
and the ministry knows me as the Rainbow Minister. You can find our sermons on
Sundays, blogged here on these locations, online only:
Main Site: http://www.covenantofhope.multiply.com
Our Main Video Feed: Covenant_of_Hope
We have
email and Instant Messenger available Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday 10AM to
2PM ET US via Yahoo IM. We’re still working this out between the three of us as
to what will happen, our Elder, Cal Jennings, our Apostle/Shepherd, Mary C.
Michel-Lynch and I. At this time, due to a terrible stroke, Sister Mary would
not be able to assist for the moment, until and unless we pray that the Lord
heal her. The IM is available if you ask first and identify the reason as being
part of the ministry. This IM is connected through Facebook as well. I will be
informing you further in regard to changes being made. These changes were made
due to health reasons. If, through the grace of God, the health issues for all
of us are solved, our sermons will again be live. The sermon length will be
shortened dramatically, but we are unsure as to when that might be.
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 has grown from last week. This is our current prayer list for this week.
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 has grown from last week. This is our current prayer list for this week.
We want to bring all the soldiers, to honor the veterans of all
wars and battles, that their lives be blessed in Your gift of hope and
unconditional love.
We celebrate the birthday of my sister Lisa today, and Brother
Wayne Bartosh on the 13th.
We bring Sister Mary Michel-Lynch into prayer after a
devastating stroke, may she be healed in Your Love and Hope, the gifts you have
through Y’shua, our Savior Jesus Christ.
We bring friends Heather, Kristie, Art, Hope, Teresa, and many
others into prayer for healing and faith with hope and love.
We continue to pray for Elder Cal and Rev. Lisa for healing.
We pray for all the ministries that would be connected with
Covenant of Hope.
We pray for the nation as trials and tribulations would ensue,
not just in one place, but in every place.
We pray for those who were lost due to hurricane Sandy and the
super storm that struck.
We pray for those affected by storms, earthquakes and other
chaos around the globe.
We pray for friends, family, our enemies and so much more.
We pray for little Phoebe Fair, who continues to fight AT/RT
cancer. Please also pray for all of her family as they help her through this.
Please continue the prayers for my family as we continue in
prayer for each of our trials and tribulations, some are very devastating.
Prayer: Father in heaven, we
thank You for this day and for these who are here to share it with us. We bring
many friends and family members up in prayer for health, financial, and other
reasons. We bring our soldiers, our veterans, who have served honorably in all
conflicts and wars, past and present. We add our soldiers who are out around
the world, that they keep safe and warm and are able to return home. We pray
for family, friends and colleagues. We include our enemies, as You have taught
us. We do all this in Your Holy Name through our Savior Jesus Christ and the
gift of the Holy Spirit, Amein and so it shall be.
Opening Song: Trading My Sorrows http://www.singsnap.com/karaoke/r/c28da8988
Sermon: Due to the events of many of us
this week, our Lord and Savior, and our Father in heaven chose a different
direction, at least for this sermon. They brought me to the Scroll of Luke. Not
only did They bring me to this particular section, They taught me something I
didn’t realize we all need. Let’s see where the Lord Jesus and our Father led
me as we begin here in Luke 1:69-70 KJV – And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house
of his servant David;
As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets which have been since
the world began:
Salvation,
sounded through a horn, for all of us through David, King of Israel. God has always spoken through the holy
prophets who have came and have been since the very beginning of this world as
it was, and as it should be still. They
are watching us, like shepherds as shared here in Jeremiah
23:5 KJV – And I will set up shepherds over them
which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither
shall they be lacking saith the LORD.
When God
says feed them, He means to nourish us in the Word, in the truth that is faith,
hope, charity, salvation, righteousness, wisdom and more. We would never lack,
and you should remember that lack would be missing something within our hearts,
our spirits and souls. Some of us have suffered this many times in our lives.
Yet, if we turn to God, and see His love is right there, wrapped around us, we
would remember as Jeremiah shares here in Jeremiah
30:10 KJV – Therefore fear thou not, O my
servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for lo, I will
save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob
shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him
afraid.
Fear has
two sides, like a coin. There is a good form of fear, and a bad one. Many of us
suffer from both, depending on the situations we are in, or things we have seen
in our lives. This is not something so unusual, but if we remember God’s love
is unconditional, then we will remember that He is right here, walking beside
us, or carrying us through the times that are rougher than we can manage.
Daniel
9:24 KJV – Seventy weeks are determined upon thy
people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end
of sins, and to make reconcilliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting
righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most
Holy.
Here
Daniel speaks of the ending of sins, through our Savior, and our Father, as He
brings Jesus into this world through the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary. In
the future, as promised to David, to Abraham, and Noah and more before and
after each of them. The promise made that the earth would be returned as it was
from the beginning with Adam and Eve. This is shared with the words in Acts 3:21 KJV – Whom the
heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God
hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
It is
again shared here in Romans 1:2 KJV – (Which he had
promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures, )
After
this we are able to share the fact that we can be saved if we listen, and hear,
and follow His truth believing He can assist in all things, whether it would be
fighting enemies of all sorts, and fighting the trials and tribulations in our
lives.
Luke 1:71-72 KJV – That we should be saved from our
enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;
To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his
holy covenant;
The
reason God would remember is because it was a promise made, many years before
Luke and his lifetime, and mercy was promised not just through our Father, but
through our Savior Jesus. God remembers everything, knows all that is, and was,
and will always be, as Scripture also shares in many ways through Scripture as
seen in just one view here as we look at Leviticus
26:42 KJV – Then will I remember my covenant
with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham
will I remember; and I will remember the land.
When we
swear an oath, a promise, it means we make an unbreakable promise. It’s not
easy to keep promises. Yet, it is still possible to manage. This is shared here
in Luke 1:73-74 KJV – The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,
That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the
hand of our enemies might serve him without fear.
Luke is
sharing a past prophecy, a past gift of unconditional love toward a friend of God,
who was Abraham, as shared here in Genesis 12:3 KJV
– And I will bless them that bless thee, and
curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be
blessed.
Blessings
are what promises can bring, and when God makes a promise, it’s one of the
greatest views of promises to make, because it is a promise from His heart, His
spirit, and His unconditional love, as we can see here in Hebrews 6:13 KJV – For
when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he
sware by himself.
This is a
repeated view of a promise made and kept in the gift of His unconditional love.
We see what it means as we continue seeking the truth shared in the gospel of Luke 1:75-76 KJV – In
holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.
And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for
thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;
To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the dayspring
from on high hath visited us.
Luke, of
course, speaks of the Savior, Jesus Christ, who would prepare the pathway, the
highway, the road toward salvation. You will see, even God knows what a highway
is. There is one heart, one way, one path to share with each of those who
believe, who have faith, who are tested and pass every trial, every
tribulation. In each of our lives this is exactly what would be seen. Yet,
together we are strong within faith and love written here in Jeremiah 32:39 KJV – And I
will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the
good of them, and of their children after them:
If you
remember, Jesus spoke of putting on the new man. It means to leave everything
earthly behind. This is very difficult to manage as we have to fight the seven
troubles, the wickedness of earthly behavior and more. It is shared here as
well in Ephesians 4:24 KJV – And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created
in righteousness and true holiness.
Something
else we should note, for all that God has given, we should be thankful. For the
promises that Jesus brought to us in the path toward salvation, we should be
grateful, and do so always. Again, this is not easy to manage. People change
the way the Word is written, shared, and understood. Many of us don’t realize
how much is changed as again shared here in II
Thessalonians 2:13 KJV – For this cause also
thank we God without ceasing, because when ye received the word of God which ye
heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the
word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.
Amazing
as it sounds, God created the method for us to build roads, highways, and more.
We may never realize this, but it is proven in His word through the prophets,
as seen here in Isaiah 40:3 KJV – The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye
the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Mercy is
found in the fact that God would indeed be there to help us through the worst
parts of our lives. He manages this by bringing the Holy Spirit to our sides,
thanks to the Savior Jesus Christ, who brought this to those who love Him as of
the day of His death, and then His resurrection sealed that promise of
salvation as would be shared in Luke 1:77-80 KJV –
To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the
remission of their sins.
Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on
high hath visited us.
To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of
death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the
deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel.
‘By the
dayspring’ could also be ‘or for the dayspring’. So many people forget that God
and Jesus are walking amongst us, see us going to and fro, up and down, all the
way around. The gift of omnicience is one thing God could not share with us,
but would share with Jesus, who knew many things from the past, the present,
and the future. He was one who knew how many would walk in darkness and could
be brought out of that darkness with the gifts of faith and hope, and charity
of the heart. It is shared here in Isaiah 9:2 KJV –
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great
light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the
light shined.
Fear is
not easy to forget, to leave out of our lives, but it can be done. Fear of the
Lord is to fear that which would happen, not here in an earthly fashion, but in
other ways. This is why He tests us. This is why we suffer, only to learn what
hope would be, what unconditional love can prove. Now, that’s something to
think about as we pray in the prayer Jesus taught us saying: After this manner therefore pray ye: 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 KJV)
Closing Song: Just As I Am http://www.singsnap.com/karaoke/r/bfb76dfc8
Covenant
of Hope Ministries
Our Main Video Feed: Covenant_of_Hope
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 © 2012 http://covenantofhopeministries.blogspot.com/
Our mission for Covenant of Hope Ministries and
Poetic-Expressions is not to exploit fear, but to conquer it, and overcome all
that is created through fear together as the rainbow in the darkness.
No comments:
Post a Comment