Covenant
of Hope Ministries Sunday Sermon_9_29_2013
Good afternoon,
and welcome to this Sunday Sermon for Covenant of Hope Ministries. I am Rev.
Laura A. Neff. The ministry knows me as the Rainbow Minister. Find us posted on
Sundays and studies on Wednesday. Our locations are online only:
Our Main Video Feed: Covenant_of_Hope
We have
email both through the Gmail address and through Facebook every day (instant
messenger if you need me). These are now extremely variable. We’re still
working this out between the two of us as to what will happen, our Elder, Cal Jennings
and I. I will inform you further regarding changes. These changes were made due
to health reasons. The sermon length has shortened dramatically. We are unsure
as to when there might be video presentations.
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.
- Continue your prayers for Phoebe Fair as she is in hospice.
She has her good days and her bad days. Her tumor has come back, and they don’t
know what will happen right now. She is at home with the hospice care, but it
is very hard on the family. This week they had a little scare but she’s doing
as well as expected.
- There is a prayer request brought by my sister that asks us to
keep a nine year old autistic boy named CJ, and his family, in prayer. The
boy’s mother was diagnosed with brain cancer a year ago and has just been given
less than two weeks of life expectancy. She is currently in hospice.
- My brother Scott has requested prayers for his boss Paul and
for him self, regarding patience, and understanding, sanity and more in regard
to their jobs.
- Please keep my friend Laura in your prayers.
- Please keep Elder Cal Jennings in your prayers as he is very
sick and spent a day in the hospital recently.
- Please pray for my friend Teresa’s sister who is in stage four
cancer.
- Please keep others known by any of us up in prayer for
whatever they might need.
- Please keep my friend Heather in prayer for patience and safe
haven.
- Let us keep another friend, Jeff, and his family in prayer.
- Please keep my whole family in prayer for the pain, suffering,
and chaos we are going through.
- Pray that the adversity and the pain we have seen around the
world would be relieved, and swept away. May we find common ground in many
ways, even if we start with just one step.
- Remember those who have been lost either violently or
peacefully this week.
- Keep the ministry in your thoughts, each member, no matter
their location, their circumstances, because a group of friends, a ministry,
should support one another.
- There are many in our ministry who are searching for more in
regard to our presence with my health, and with the health of others. We pray
that there would be health found once more, and that we have answers to all and
for all.
Prayer: Father in heaven, we
thank You for this day and for these who are here to share it with us. We are
blessed in all that You bring to us and praise You for those gifts. We bring
many of our friends and family members into prayer this day. We also bring
those known and unknown into our prayers, including our enemies. We pray that
good things await all of us as this day moves forward and for the days to
follow. We pray all of these things in Your Holy Name through our Savior Jesus
Christ, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, Amen and so it shall be.
Opening Song: I’d Like To Teach The World To
Sing
Sermon: Shepherds gather their sheep, as
God has often spoken of gathering the righteous together. Jesus spoke of
Himself as the Great Shepherd. Well, in a lot of ways we are speaking of the
righteous, from those who do all they can to be such, all the way up to the
saints them selves. Notice there are views of the covenant, the sacrifices made,
yet, there are warnings to be had. We’ll start with our opening verses here in Psalm 50:5-6 KJV – Gather
my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by
sacrifice.
And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is
judge himself. Selah.
Gather
everyone, all of the saints, to him. He considers the saints to be those that
have made a covenant with Him by sacrifice. There are a lot of types of
sacrifice. Some of us give up a lot. Some of us only a little. There are those
of us who give up quite a bit to do His work. We all remember what Jesus said,
take up thy mat and follow Him. The greatest ideal to Jesus, and God as well,
would be food to keep from hunger, shelter to keep from cold, wet, or heat, and
water to drink. Some of us have a great bit of difficulty seeing these basics
as all that is needed. His biggest gift is in having us learn what is a want,
and what is a need. This would bring us closer to the ideal of great sacrifice.
Small
sacrifices could be any little thing we do just to make ourselves realize there
are better things than what we have in excess. Those excesses, though we may
think they are needed, might just be a want that can be shared with someone
else. When we take and become one with Christ, accepting His existence with God
our Father, we must learn what it means to be sanctified, not just baptized,
but to be sanctified. We are baptized into the faith, and sanctified through
it. There is a difference. This is one thing it takes us a while to learn about
and is shared in Isaiah 13:3 KJV – I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also
called my mighty ones for mine anger,
even them that rejoice in my highness.
It isn’t
easy to understand what it takes to be sheltered from God’s anger. Those of us
who are accepting of the command for sanctification would be MIGHTY in His
eyes. Rejoice in that fact. Believe that He is with us and understanding will
come, righteousness will be within reach, all we have to do is believe so we
can reach to where we see. The next problem is, not to let our ego get the best
of us. That is warned about here in the next verse. I
Corinthians 6:2 KJV – Do ye not know
that his saints shall judge the world:
and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest
matters?
When it
comes to judging, we can’t just give all of our decisions up. God said to
choose well the path to follow, not to go without choosing at all. He doesn’t
want us to give up. He wants us to find the best path. There is a difference.
Too many of us in this world want to just give up and leave it at that. Those
who look for their options can overcome the obstacle, and thus prevail, taking
the best path in a bad situation.
I Thessalonians 3:13 KJV – To the end he may stablish your hearts
unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ with all his saints.
So many
see that, the minute we accept we are seen as unblameable for all sin. Are we
really? In this view, He has to be in your heart and we have to remember that,
not just pretend it, but to remember it. Then, at that time, we can see as
Enoch shared and is repeated here in Jude 14 KJV – And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of
these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints.
The Lord
comes with ten thousand of his saints. Ten thousand! That is either a small, or
a large number. But then, remember, Scripture shared David defeating Goliath.
Even the small shall overcome the largest of obstacles. Ten thousand may not seem
like a lot in comparison to the number of people on this earth, but, it’s
nothing to ignore either.
Exodus 24:7 KJV – And he took the book of the covenant, and
read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said
will we do, and be obedient.
Here we
get back to the ideal of a sheep and his shepherd. It isn’t easy to see with
more than our eyes, listen and then hear what it means as well as what is said,
but when we do, what doors will open, what paths will be freed, and what glories
shall be shared. This, as the rest, can be seen here in Isaiah 59:20, 21 KJV – And the
Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in
Jacob, saith the LORD.
As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit
that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart
out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy
seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.
This is
simply repeating what we have seen. What I say and give to you, as God shares,
will be shared with you, and you will share it with your children, and they
will share it with theirs, and so on. It lasts forever, spoken of from
generation to generation that it might be seen, heard, and experienced. All of
this is done to share the idea of Jesus giving us the gift that is love, or the
expression of it. It is through the gift of God, that we will find what He has
always promised would be there. Hebrews 8:6 KJV – But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by
how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established
upon better promises.
There is
a saying, there are better things in life. We just have to know where and how
to find them. 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: Something Beautiful ~ Newsboys
~Shalom~
Covenant
of Hope Ministries
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.
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