Welcome to Covenant of Hope Ministries and our sermon or
midweek study. You will normally see us posted on Sunday at least once a month.
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. May the Lord bring his spirits up and help
heal him.
- Pray for my grandmother who has been in the hospital.
She is 101 years old and all prayers are welcome.
- Pray for my eldest son’s father-in-law, who has been in
the hospital for the past few days.
- Please pray for relief in the trials and tribulations
for Sister Theresa as she has had a great many over the past year and more.
- Please pray for a dear friend of mine who asks that we
not share her name. She is going through a lot of upheaval.
- Please pray for my nephew August, who suffers seizures
daily, which are devastating to his health. They have put in for donations for
a seizure response dog, which would help save his life.
- 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 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 our
decisions, and our needs. We pray for enlightenment and understanding while
studying Your Word. We thank You for these gifts and the many more You have
brought us. May our fears be drawn out of us. Help us to see the many gifts
Your love brings and the unknown locations it might be found. 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 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 would 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: Honestly – Stryper https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R543bI-gII
Sermon: Today’s
sermon was influenced by a verse or three I saw in my reading this past week.
The word BELIEVE is something people often spar over when it comes to
Christianity, or any form of religion, and many other subjects found in society
today. We are working toward Easter, and belief is something that gets spoken
about quite often in the weeks leading up to the celebration of Jesus and His
death and resurrection. But, in order to understand His truth in the New
Testament, we have to start with a bit of building that belief as shared in the
Old Testament.
Exodus 4:1-5 – And
Moses answered and said, “But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken
unto my voice: for they will say, ‘The Lord hath not appeared unto
thee’.” And
the Lord said unto him, “What is
that in thine hand?” And he said, “A rod.” And he said, “Cast it on the ground.”
And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from
before it. And the Lord said unto
Moses, “Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail”. And he put forth his
hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand: “That
they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God
of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee.”I have yet to meet very many people who would willingly have a serpent close to them unless they are trained to work with them. Moses obviously was not accustomed to snakes being remotely tame, so, of course he would want to panic and run. Yet, the calm and collected command from God, soothed his fears and he followed instruction to change his staff back into a staff. That is the power of belief, real belief.
Let’s take a look at our next verses.
2 Chronicles 20:5-9 – And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court, And said, “O Lord God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee? Art not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever? And they dwelt therein, and have built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name, saying, If, when evil cometh upon us, as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house, and in thy presence, (for thy name is in this house,) and cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help.”
Jehoshaphat was quite the interesting character in the journey of faith. He was one of the few kings of Israel that realized, sometimes a little late, that God’s truth wasn’t the popular vote amongst humanity. That is something we find every day even now. Preaching and teaching Scriptural truth and the belief of that truth is not easy in a world that is continually becoming less and less focused on Scriptural truth as shared in God’s Word. Believing is more than reading and studying, teaching and preaching. Believing is absorbing God’s truth and seeing what that belief can do to our hearts, our minds, our spirits, and our very souls. The gift of believing Him and the existence of His Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit, is one of the greatest, strongest, most unbreakable gifts to ever manifest in our lives.
2 Chronicles 20:20 – And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.
Believe, share in that belief with all you might meet,
whether it is in a greeting and saying ‘have a blessed day’ or ‘be blessed’ or
even ‘blessed be’ we are sharing the TRUTH as we BELIEVE in HIS ETERNAL,
UNCONDITIONAL, LOVE. 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)
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: Believe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5z-jjWyAJQ&list=PL614A115BF39E5936&index=48&t=0s
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 © 2019 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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