Covenant of Hope
Ministries Sunday Sermon_11_24_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 (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.
- Please keep a close friend of my youngest brother up in
prayer. His name is Eric. His wife was
beaten and is in intensive care bleeding internally. They have a very young
son. She is not expected to live and needs a miracle through prayer.
- Please pray for a family who lost three children in a terrible
accident when a tanker truck rolled over theirs. They were eighteen, sixteen,
and four. The tragedy happened just an hour away from my home.
- Please keep Elder Cal Jennings in your prayers as he is still
not well.
- 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.
- Pray that all those traveling this week stay safe during the
Thanksgiving holiday here in the US.
Prayer: Father in heaven, we
thank You for this day and for these who are here to share it with us. We bring
thanks to You Lord, for the gifts you have given. We are thankful for Grace,
and Hope, and Peace and all they can bring. We pray that those in our hearts
who are hurting, sick, or in any form of sorrow that they be lifted into Your
embrace for comfort and solace. We pray that each of us, friends, family,
unknown and more would be built up in Your love. We pray all of this in Your
Holy Name through the Savior Jesus Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit, Amen
and so it shall be.
Opening Song: Where the Spirit of the Lord Is ~
Chris Tomlinson
Sermon: Last week we spoke about
thanksgiving. This coming week will have
the celebration of Thanksgiving here in the US. There are many things we would
be thankful for, not just in the here and now, but in those things hoped for.
That is what inspiration brings this week. Restoration of the joy in His
salvation and the lifting up of our spirits through His free spirit. Those are
things to be thankful for. We read that
ideal here in Psalm 51:12 KJV – Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me
with thy free spirit.
There are
some interesting comparisons to this in the New Testament. What is interesting
is it refers to both past and present. The past would be the bondage, how we
were living there held down by sin and sorrow and were freed through the gift
of Jesus. The most beautiful part is that we should be thankful, not fearful,
as we accept the Spirit of Adoption from God.
Why are we adopted? When we accept
Christ, we become His brothers and sisters. Well, think about it in terms of
family. If you are brought into another family no matter the method, you’ve
been adopted as part of that same family, through marriage, friendship, or some
other method. That’s what is seen here in Romans
8:15 KJV – For ye have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption,
whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
What is
the best part of that gift of Spirit? Well, there is one amazing gift to be
brought to us, and that is the Lord. The Lord is that Spirit, and wherever that
Spirit of the Lord would be, there is liberty. What type of freedom would this
be? Any and all kinds of liberty is what. Liberty from fear, pain, captivity,
not just on the outside, but on the inside as well. See that gift here in II Corinthians 3:17 KJV – Now
the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
Being
thankful, happy, about anything wouldn’t be easy for so many of us because we
do forget that the Spirit of the Lord is there in front of us. We just have to
open our eyes to see it. The righteousness brought as a result bring pleasure
for the Lord. With that, we should be happy to, thankful in fact, that God
would indeed be happy as well. See that in Psalm
51:19 KJV – Then shalt thou be pleased with
the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering:
then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.
Now comes
the best part. What do we receive so that we might be thankful? We are given
the ability to find something we often want to see, hope to have. We hope to be
seen as good and pure in life and in spirit. That’s what is shared in regard to
finding our path toward it here in Malachi 3:3 KJV
– And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier
of silver; and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and
silver, that they may offer unto the LORD, an offering in righteousness.
Offering
righteousness and He will be just as thankful for our gifts of love and
understanding as we should be for his. 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: Thankful
~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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