Covenant of Hope
Ministries Sunday Sermon_12_01_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. They are going to do some tests and possibly go back in to
adjust the stent which they are afraid may cause death.
- 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 for the family, friends, and fans who mourn actor Paul
Walker who died in a fiery car crash last night.
- Pray that all those traveling this weekend stay safe during
the conclusion of 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 are
thankful and blessed for the gifts of love, family, and friendship You help us
develop and bring to each heart we touch. May Your love shine in those gifts we
share and pull us together in the times of greatest need. We praise Your gifts
in every form You bring. We are blessed by Your gifts of mercy and
understanding. We pray that patience, faith, and love be spread beyond our
selves, our families, and our friends. We pray these things in Your Holy Name
through the love shared in our Savior Jesus Christ and the gift of the Holy
Spirit, Amen and so it shall be.
Opening Song: Every Good Gift http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ncnz3M-wCnc
Sermon: We spoke of thanksgiving last
Sunday and some of us continually seek what we should be thankful for. We
should be thankful for that which is right before us. Life in His love and
mercy. When we see life in those eyes, His eyes, we’ll see it as though we are
brand new, strong, and more. This is shared here in Psalm
52:8 KJV – But I am like a green olive tree
in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever,
Trust in the mercy of God is what this shares.
It doesn’t say for a little while, either. Trust in that mercy, for ever and ever. Have
faith in it. Believe in it. Then you prove it exists, mercy manifest, in our
hearts, minds, spirits, and souls. We live in God’s house. The problem is we
don’t see it as being the same. No, I’m not talking the pain and strife found,
but the world without that would be God’s house, wiped clean as the sacrifice
Jesus made would bring once more. We
just have to learn to see that with the eyes of truth, the heart of
unconditional love. That’s when we will realize we can be brand new like a
fresh bloom on a vine. God is an awesome gardener and has shared that much in
many ways. Here is just one that refers us to an even more familiar view. Psalm 92:13 KJV – Those
that he planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our
God.
With the
end of the year swiftly approaching many are turning to the celebration of the
birth of Christ. In some ways this is the pick me up people need. It should be,
but, we should have that same gift seven ways to Sunday, as opposed to once or
twice a year. The definition of love is that it would exist every moment, of
every day, within you and out around you. Love can move from the inside out and
the outside in, from all directions, family, friend, stranger, colleague, and
more. That is the way to make faith, hope, love flourish. That’s something
Jesus portrayed in many ways as our Father did the same. John 15:5, 7, 8 KJV – I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that
abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me
ye can be nothing.
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye
will, and it shall be done unto you.
Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye
be my disciples.
We often
miss out on the fact that the gifts He gives us are more than transient. They are eternal. Life is eternal because we
are hoped for, brought to be, shared and cared for by someone, even if it would
be God alone. Someone will remember us and share our memories with others. This
is what we do in regard to God, to Jesus, and to the gift of the Spirit,
because we embrace that love, absorb it, and then share it in reflection and in
life. That’s why it’s important to think about sharing, not just with God, or with
each other, but with our selves. It is at that point we can be joyous and share
praise toward Him for all He gives us.
Psalm 52:9 KJV – I will praise thee for ever, because thou
hast done it: and I will wait on thy name; for it is good before thy saints.
While we
give praise for His gifts, we must remind ourselves that gift giving should
always be reciprocated freely and willingly. So, what gifts do we give? They don’t need boxes and bows, pretty paper
or any of that. Truth and faith, and love given freely without strings
attached, those are the kinds of gifts to give because they are the ones you
want most to receive. A gift without those strings can seem like an impossible
sacrifice, or the perfect choice.
Psalm 54:6 KJV – I will freely sacrifice unto thee: I will
praise thy name, O LORD; for it is good.
You can
decide which you prefer. Each choice we make is a gift in one way or another.
We just have to learn what door opens and hope it leads us in a direction where
learning will bring more understanding in the love that is unconditional. 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: Eternal Gifts http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmdP7NzYWP0
~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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