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. At this time, he is trying to heal from
pacemaker surgery. May the Lord bring his spirits up and help heal him.
- Pray for my grandmother, who is still healing from her
back surgery and has other issues plaguing her.
- Pray for a friend, Karen, who suffers from cancer, that
God’s hand keep her comfortable.
- Please pray for relief in the trials and tribulations for Sister Theresa due
to pain from a terrible hit and run accident late last year.
- 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 those in suffering in the Midwest due to the
severe flooding after their recent storms.
- Pray for our sick and wounded that they may heal.
Prayer: Dear
Heavenly Father we pray today for all our soldiers who have died in the line of
duty. We pray for those who have lost their lives in the past few months due to
the weather and life in general. We pray for our sick, including Elder Cal
Jennings for his heart and new pacemaker, and several friends of ours, Karen,
Janice, Kristy, and those who would be in our thoughts. We pray for my
grandmother, Emilie, who has been having issues in her health for a few months
now. We pray for my nephew, August, that they find solutions for his seizures
and that those solutions work. We pray for those we have lost due to illness or
age. 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: You’ll Never Walk
Alone – Elvis Presley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN8oN8I3lrk
Sermon:
We
are continuing our sermon series on the ideal of believe and see the truth God
and Jesus shared with us. The Gospel of John the Beloved is an ideal source of
how to believe and why we should believe. Let’s start here.
John
6:29-30 NIV – Jesus answered, “The work of God is this:
to believe in the one he has sent.”So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?
Jesus repeated Himself many times, as God has done the same from the beginning. He sent Jesus down at the time for one reason alone. That reason, to help everyone BELIEVE in what God was telling them, and is telling us even today. BELIEVE, Jesus insisted. BELIEVE in His teaching, His connection to the Father, always, regardless of what others say, and so forth.
John 6:36 KJV – But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not.
What does it take for any single person to BELIEVE in
God? In Jesus? In the Holy Spirit? The Three together as One? It takes
something that literally scares, shocks, or surprises us to our very core,
sometimes. In this day and age there are a lot of shocking surprises around every
corner, through every door in life as we live it. The thing is God shouldn’t
shock or surprise you. Jesus and the Holy Spirit shouldn’t surprise or shock
you either. They should be there in your heart, your mind, your spirit and
soul, just because they belong there, as you have to believe they would always
be.
John
6:64-69 KJV – But there are some of you that believe not.
For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who
should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come
unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. From that
time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then
said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then
Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of
eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of
the living God.
There are those in this world who have turned away after
learning about God and Jesus and the Truth through Scripture. There are those
who have stayed on His path. It is never easy to believe fully in one thing
alone. Jesus proves that when in doubt, learn more on how to believe, and He
will shine through in those teachings. That’s why we must always BELIEVE in Him,
because His arms are always open for us. He is waiting for each of us to find
His path, walk in His light, and seek Eternal Life through Believing.
John 7:1-5 KJV – After these things
Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews
sought to kill him. Now the Jew's feast of tabernacles was at hand. His
brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judaea, that thy
disciples also may see the works that thou doest. For there is
no man that doeth any thing in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known
openly. If thou do these things, shew thyself to the world. For neither did his
brethren believe in him.
Notice, even the Gentiles realized and recognized there
are many reasons to BELIEVE in Jesus and His message. The Gentiles! The ones
who almost never interacted with Jews at that time. Why is it so hard to teach
others about believing in God and Jesus? Because we all are born with a
stubborn part of ourselves known as Free Will. It is not easy to show that part
of ourselves how believing helps in a million and more ways all at once.
John
7:39 KJV – (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe
on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus
was not yet glorified.)
The Holy Ghost, the
Holy Spirit, that part of Jesus and God which descended onto each and every
believer, and still does to this very day. The belief that Jesus left us with a
piece of Him in Spirit that we would be comforted in times of trouble, able to
laugh and sing and spread the truth in His Word as Believers, true, reverent,
unhindered believers.
John
9:35-38 KJV – Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found
him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?
And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.
And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.
That’s the whole point of what Jesus taught, believe even
if you haven’t seen His miracles in person. We see miracles every single moment
of the day. We do so because opening our eyes even to see the ordinary is a
miracle for many. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but we should know
that with Jesus beside us, there is a pathway to tomorrow that is sure, steady,
and eternal. 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: We Believe – Newsboys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjZ01FcK0yk
~ 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.
