Welcome to Covenant of Hope Ministries and our sermon or
midweek study. You will normally see us posted on Sunday and Wednesday. I am
Rev. Laura A. Neff. Our ministry was built on the truth of God’s love. It
doesn’t conform to society’s wishes. This ministry shares the Word of God, the
Spirit of Christ Jesus. Those who know me well will recognize that there are
definitive differences in the creation of every sermon from this point forward.
It is God’s will that has brought this to be. We wish only that God’s truth
will be shared within His words as brought to us by the Spirit as it fills my
heart, mind, and soul to be shared with my hands, but with His words alone.
You will find us in the following location: http://www.covenantofhopeministries.blogspot.com
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 grows or changes every week. This is our current
list.
- Please pray for Elder Cal Jennings who has been suffering
greatly with his health. He has been diagnosed with tuberculosis and is
currently under 24 hour daily medical care. May the Lord bring his spirits up
and help heal him.
- Pray for our friends and family who would be ill and in need
of comfort.
- Pray that my family gets answers that will help us in our
current situation.
- Be thankful for each day we live as we do not know what
tomorrow brings.
- Pray for our nations that the voice of God be heard through
the Spirit.
- Pray for our friends and families that their tomorrows
bring blessings and pray our own be the same.
- Pray for those suffering as a result of the terrors that
have occurred just this past week around this world.
- Pray for our sick and wounded that they may heal.
Prayer: Father in heaven, our prayer today is
to have the Spirit bring clarity to each of our decisions. We thank You for
that gift and the many more You have brought us. May our fears be drawn out of
us. May our pain and sorrow be eased. May peace be brought from our hearts and
shared with others. May Your gifts of love shine through us toward others. We
pray for our friends who are ill or in dire straits. We pray for the poor, the
sick, the sorrowful, the wounded, and the frightened. We pray for the soldiers,
the Samaritans, the children, and the rest. We pray in thanksgiving for every
gift brought us. We pray that every tomorrow bring good things. For each of
these we pray in Your Holy Name, through our Savior Jesus Christ, and the gift
of the Holy Spirit, Amen and so it shall be.
Opening Song: Anytime You Need a Friend https://youtu.be/fNxXyKjiyoQ?list=PL614A115BF39E5936
Sermon: Today’s sermon is, in some ways, an extension
of our last one. In this case it was inspiration based on a single verse sent
in my email. The Lord works in mysterious ways as we all know. So we start in
the scroll of James. With what we have learned over the years in this
particular epistle says a lot more than is often realized at first. Let’s take
a look.
James 1:21-22 KJV – Wherefore
lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with
meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
But be ye doers of the word, and not
hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
Now last week we spent time discussing giving gifts of God.
This week we’re doing the same in another view. Do what the Word says after
hearing it. Otherwise you’re deceiving yourselves. This is repeated in many
ways. Let’s take a look at another verse.
Matthew 7:1-5 KJV – Judge not that ye be not judged.
For with that judgment ye
judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured
to you again.
And why beholdest thou the
mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in
thine own eye?
Or how wilt thou say to thy
brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in
thine own eye?
Thou hypocrite, first cast
out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out
the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
Now Jesus says quite a bit throughout the gospels. Here is
another that is shared in Matthew’s Gospel.
Let’s take a look.
Matthew 7:12 KJV – Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do
to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
We all know how hard it is not to judge a person. There is a
saying ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’. This applies in so many ways to what
Jesus shares in these verses. You can’t judge a person by what you see on the
outside. You can’t always judge a person on what they say alone. You have to
look at the whole picture because if you say one thing and then do something
different you are lying. That’s something you definitely don’t want to do. Yet
don’t judge the person. Judge their actions. If you judge the person alone you
end up judging yourself. That’s what Jesus cautions us about. He does so as God
has done many times as well. We see it in the Old Testament as well as the New.
So let’s learn something about this. If you would be glad to have someone save
your life, no matter the method, then you should be willing to do the same for
another. Now that’s something to think about as we pray in the prayer that
Jesus taught us saying:
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)
Closing Song: Thank You For Being a Friend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN3E9Yyd1HA
~ Shalom ~
Rev. Laura A. Neff
Elder Calvin Jennings
Covenant of Hope Ministries Main
Site: http://www.covenantofhopeministries.blogspot.com
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 © 2015 http://www.covenantofhopeministries.blogspot.com
Our mission for Covenant of Hope Ministries is not to exploit
fear, but to conquer it, and overcome all that is created through fear together
as the bringers of the light of Jesus found in the midst of darkness.
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