Covenant
of Hope Ministries Sunday Sermon_9_14_2014
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. I have
often described myself as the Rainbow Minister. My reasoning for that is this:
The rainbow symbolizes faith, understanding, and God’s strength to forgive,
heal, and so on. 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 Elder Cal Jennings in your prayers as he is very
sick and spent a day in the hospital now two weeks ago.
- Pray for swift healing for my friend Deborah’s husband who had
a very scary incident this past week.
- Pray for another friend, Thomas, as his father passed away
this past week.
- A high school classmate of mine, her brother-in-law passed
away unexpectedly this week four days ago.
- A friend of mine, Beth, is having many problems and is moving
in with her mother for a while. Keep her in your thoughts and prayers.
- Please pray for my friend Teresa’s sister who is in stage four
cancer and has taken a turn for the worse.
- 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.
- 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 thank you for the blessings brought and for
those yet to come. We pray for those lost and those who mourn. We pray for
peace to reach out from the heart and be heard, felt, and understood. We pray
that Your grace and love would fill the hearts of the many in this world. We
pray all 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:
Sermon:
This
week has been unusual in regard to inspiration for the sermons. Well, this
morning I received an interesting and even intriguing gift relative to last
Sunday’s sermon on miracles. This truthfully is an unusual view, but, in fact,
proves that there are three or more styles of miracle. There are miracles of
life, heart, spirit, and soul. Some of those are combined, and others are
individual. Today we are going to show miracles of the Spirit as seen through
the eyes of the heart and soul. We’ll start with the miracle that kept Jonah
alive in the whale’s belly.
Jonah 1:17 KJV – Now the LORD had prepared a
great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three
days and three nights.
Jonah 2:10 KJV – And the LORD spake unto the
fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.
Three
days Jonah lived in the belly of the fish. Some say it was a whale, in different
points of view in Scripture. Yet, think of it this way. How often do you hear
of a person living inside any type of large fish? It doesn’t seem possible.
Does it? Yet, if you look at it this way, as a miracle, it makes a huge
difference. You see, it is a miracle to survive some of the ugliest, worst
conditions known. In recent history we have seen or heard about babies that
have survived floods, tornadoes, even hurricanes where none around them did the
same. That, like Jonah in the giant fish, would consist of a miracle. Let’s
take a look at a second miracle of survival.
Daniel 6:16-22 KJV – Then the king commanded, and
they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions. Now the king spake and
said unto Daniel, Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee.
And a stone was brought and laid upon the mouth of the den; and
the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords; that
the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel.
Then the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting:
neither were instrumental musick brought before him: and his sleep went from
him.
Then the king arose very early in the morning, and went in haste
unto the den of lions.
And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice
unto Daniel: and the king spake and said unto Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the
living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee
from the lions?
Then said Daniel unto the king, O king, live forever.
My God hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me:
forasmuch as before his innocensy was found in me; and also before thee, O
king, have I done no hurt.
Now,
in all cases, when given a prime opportunity for fresh meat, a lion would chase
after it and rip that meat apart. It wouldn’t matter man or animal. Not only do
we see the miracle of survival in dire circumstances, but the miracle of
realization. That realization would be that God is a lot more than people think
He is. The lion’s den, the giant fish’s belly, both of which most human beings
could not survive within, and yet, both Jonah and Daniel had done so. Now we’ll
see how friends of Daniel survived their own version of punishment that should
never have been. Here is the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
Daniel 3:19-26 KJV – Then was Nebuchadnezzar full
of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego: therefore he spake and commanded that they should heat the furnace
one seven times more than it was wont to be heated.
And he commanded the most mighty of men that were in his army to
bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning, fiery
furnace.
Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their
hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning
fiery furnace.
Therefore because the king’s commandment was urgent, and the
furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those that took up Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego.
And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down
bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste
and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into
the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king.
He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the
midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like
the Son of God.
Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery
furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of
the most high God, come forth and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego came forth of the midst of the fire.
I
don’t know about you, but most of those in the middle of a seriously hot fire
do not come out completely unharmed in this world. Thus, we see another
miracle, two of them in fact, for there was a fourth protecting Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, the Spirit of the Lord. His love does a great deal. We
don’t often see them as miracles. Yet, truthfully, should we survive terrible
incidents, like earthquakes, hurricanes, typhoons, tidal waves, volcanic
eruptions and more, that, in itself would be miraculous. The same can be said
for explosions, bombings, and so many others.
Why
is it we don’t see these events and their outcomes, especially if even one
survives the incredibly slim odds, as miracles? Like the miracle of birth,
there are many. You could add the return of the flowers, grass, even trees,
after those bombings, nuclear issues, and more. Certainly it takes a good while
to get everything cleared away and clean once more, but it can, and does,
happen. 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: With All I Am http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MFpqb3Eazs
~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
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.
This mission statement speaks of the rainbow in the darkness. Every
time I would have a seriously traumatic thing happen in my life I would wake in
the middle of the night. When I do I see a rainbow at the end of my bed, or
even through the window behind my head. I’ll see that rainbow in a dark room
even during the day. It will hover in the shadows and reassure me that God is
with me.
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