Covenant
of Hope Ministries Wednesday Study_5_14_2014
Good
afternoon, and welcome to this Midweek Study for Covenant of Hope Ministries. I
am Rev. Laura A. Neff standing in for Elder Cal Jennings today. You can find
sermons 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. Look
for my name minus the title. These are now extremely variable. Our Elder Cal
Jennings is just as variable and can be found on several sites as noted by his
sermons. 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 Elder Cal Jennings in your prayers as he is very
sick and spends most days in bed unable to move due to his illness. Pray that
answers come and his ability to share would be regained.
- Please pray for my friend Teresa’s sister who is in stage four
cancer. Please also keep Teresa and her daughter in prayer for their current
situation as it weighs down on them both quite heavily.
- 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 two of the potential lights at the
end of our tunnel bring bright and brilliant light proving hope and faith are
true gifts of God’s everlasting and unconditional love.
- 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 thank you for the gifts of friendship and
family. We praise You in the gifts of grace and love. We pray that those who
have lost their confidence may regain it. We pray that those oppressed be
freed. We pray that those suffering be given hope and release. We pray that
those in sorrow find joy and happiness. We pray that violence is replaced by
peace. We do so in Your Holy Name with the Savior Jesus Christ and the gift of
the Holy Spirit, Amen and so it shall be.
Opening
Song: Live
Every Moment
Sermon:
This
week was one that has done two things. One it has given hope to those so
desperately in need of it. Two, there would be many things that must be worked
on in regard to faith, hope, and understanding. Life has become such that we
are seeing more and more say this or that about laziness, and being lazy. I
know this feeling very well, the remarks and more. What does it mean in
Scripture to be a sluggard, or a lazy person? Well, let’s take a look. We start
here in
Proverbs 6:6-8 KJV – Go to the ant, thou
sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:
Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the
harvest.
If
you have ever watched an ant hill you would notice how fast they move. It is as
though they can never get done fast enough. They use more than their bodies.
They use their instincts. This gets their harvest to where it will benefit the
many over the few. That is why there are worker ants, army ants, and a queen,
or leader of those same ants. Yet, they only work fast. They work with the
food, their homes, as though it is the last day they will be alive. Now, there
is a song that says something about that. It often makes us think. That song is
titled If Today Was Your Last Day. It is most definitely not what one would
consider a Christian song, but conveys a message in a format many beyond
Christianity would understand. This is one thing Jesus did as much as He could.
He brought those outside the Jewish realm to see the way God helps us, a gift
none can compare anything to. That gift is everlasting, eternal love. Let’s see
what bad things can be found in a sluggard. Here we see some of that.
Proverbs 26:16 KJV – The sluggard is wiser in his
own conceit than seven men that can render a reason.
Being
conceited is often a bad thing. We, or those who are conceited, would see
ourselves as more important than any others. Those who are such often feel this
way, the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many. This is the
antithesis of the often used proverb the needs of the many outweigh the needs
of the few. Conceit and the life of a sluggard, how interesting that a lazy
person holds more value than a conceited one in their self worth. That is
decidedly different than the view of a ‘lazy’ person. Just because you don’t
get up and run around like the ants, doesn’t mean you stop using some part of
you. There are those who have not been fully healed save in their faith and
hope, the gifts of God’s grace. Their gifts are the gift of the mind, the gift
of the spirit, and the gift of knowledge and understanding. They may not have
lived everything as one who does it all, but as someone who has learned from
those things others have done, and at least attempted the same. That’s where we
come up into the last of these verses.
Psalm 90:12,17 KJV – So teach us to number our
days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
And let the beauty of the LORDour God be upon us: and establish
thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou
it.
The
work of our hands. This work isn’t clarified, so it could be anything from
planting a garden to writing any type of prose or poetry. What type of work is
that? It is exercising the mind, and expressing it through our hands. This, my
brothers and sisters, is work, even if it doesn’t appear to be.
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: If
Today Was Your Last Day http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrXIQQ8PeRs
~Shalom~
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.
Good sermon. Another song that might have been good is "Live Liike You Were Dying.". Good words as long as they don't mean liive like you are in the final stages where you can't do much besides lay in bed. That's no fun at all.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, as long as you look at those songs in a positive light you'll see the truth shining through, like the Word did for me today. Rainbow hugs and God be with you.
Delete