Covenant Of Hope Ministries: We Will Hear His Voice

Covenant of Hope Ministries Sunday Sermon_9_22_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:

Main Site: http://covenantofhopeministries.blogspot.com/

Rev. Laura’s Other Sites: Facebook & Twitter & Google+ & Blogspot

Our Main Video Feed: Covenant_of_Hope

We have email (instant messenger if you need me) through Facebook every day. 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.

- 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 after a disappointment that has them searching for answers.

- 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 bring praise for the gifts of friendship, laughter, and love as they make our days go by and let us remember them with a smile. We pray that we find a method toward giving peace from ourselves and that others will find the ability to return it. We are thankful for the gifts of grace You bring each of us. We pray that our friends, our families, and yes, our enemies, would find common ground and realize that love is the best reason for life. We pray all these things in Your Holy Name, through our Savior Jesus Christ, in the gift of the Holy Spirit, Amen and so it shall be.

Opening Song: Awake My Soul http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWpvknKuYrg

Sermon: Well, we start a new psalm today. The first verses bring images of the Revelation. Though the first six verses are a portion that says stop and think about it, we’re only going to focus on the first four. There’s a reason for that. Everything has its own time. We’ve heard the words “God Has Spoken” many times. In this particular segment we find just that, not once, but twice. As Scripture would have it, at the beginning, and at the end no less. Even before we get to the verses there is something to study. The title of this section itself A Psalm of Asaph can also be seen as A Psalm for Asaph. Let’s see what Scripture says here in Psalm 50:1-4 KJV – The mighty God, even the LORD, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.

Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.

Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.

He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people.

Well, there’s a lot to say here. From the beginning until the end. The rising of the sun until it sets. It’s not just speaking of a single day here. God’s talking about Genesis to Revelation. This, as though it were hours. For God has His time, but set ours to be sunrise to sunrise. These verses, like many we have studied, pull no punches. They say God is coming out of Zion and He’s not going to be gentle. He won’t be quiet. He will come with fiery, booming, tempestuous noise surrounding Him. We, most of us, know what it means to listen to fire, thunder, and wild winds. Those of us who use other senses can listen in their own way. Regardless, it’s very, very loud. Our only referenced verse comes from Micah 6:1, 2 KJV – Hear ye now what the LORD saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.

Hear ye, O mountains, the LORD’s controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the LORD hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel.Now note this. God is pleading with Israel. Nobody thinks that He wants all of us to end up amidst that fire, that storm of winds, the noise either of them make. Of course He’s going to plead with us to first listen, and then hear, because if we don’t do both, then it won’t be easy to learn from the mistakes we make. God isn’t just pleading with Israel and the Jews. He’s pleading with all of us. Every single one of us has to learn the gift of listening and hearing. Not just listening and looking like we are hearing. This is yet another reason we hear the fire, feel the wind, because they are fierce, and relentless. He has been relentless in His work. He perseveres, as He wants us to do. He wants us to overcome those things that keep us from understanding, from wisdom, so that we can see where He would be, listen when He needs us to listen, and hear what He wants us to hear. Look, listen, hear, and glory we can find. 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: Bring It On http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1RdTsNSkcA