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 in the hospital once
more. May the Lord bring his spirits up and help heal him.
- Please pray for friends of friends that have requested
prayers for illnesses, hospitalization, and loss.
- Please pray for relief in the trials and tribulations for Sister Theresa due to continued pain from a terrible hit and run accident late last year.
- Please pray for relief in the trials and tribulations for Sister Theresa due to continued 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 and the disaster left in the wake of
it.
- Pray for our sick and wounded that they may heal.
Prayer: Father in heaven, our
prayer this day is to have the Spirit bring healing and solace to each of our bodies,
minds, spirits, and souls. 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 which
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: Why I Believe ~ Nichole Sheahan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVzdE6GLreo
Sermon: This morning’s
sermon has been brewing in my head and heart for at least a week. It wasn’t
until today that I found where His Word was leading me in the actual writing of
this sermon. It has been a tumultuous life for far too many in this world.
Jesus asks only that we believe, in Him, His teaching, and His unconditional
love. He wanted to show the Apostles and disciples who followed His teachings
while He lived that what they believe did not consist of only what they saw
before their very eyes, but that God’s mission for Jesus was far grander, far
more complicated, than those things seen and done while the Savior walked this
earth we live on. We’ll start where we left off in the last sermon.
John 14:1 KJV – Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe
also in me.
I have known others in this world who have asked me if I
truly believed that God had a reason for everything in our lives, no matter
what it was to be. Unequivocally, I have no doubt God has touched my heart and,
over the years, proved His love in a million ways. Certainly, I have suffered
trauma and tragedy, illness without guidance as to where it was coming from,
loss, misunderstanding, and more. Yet, there is always some way that God proves
the Spirit is with me, sometimes in the strangest ways possible. This is yet
another verse where Jesus asks His disciples and Apostles to believe.
John 14:11 KJV – Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or
else believe me for the very works' sake.
Jesus worked miracles of every shape and size, some of
them dramatic, including bringing Lazarus from the grave alive and well. That
is some amazing work for a single man to accomplish during His short life here
on earth. Jesus warned everyone who believed in Him at that time, and still
does even now, believe in Him as the Truth of God, and Proof of God’s Word. Yet,
He still had days where unbelief filled those around Him.
John 14:29 KJV – And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it
is come to pass, ye might believe.
Believing in anything takes
faith, hope, and love. Those who had true faith in Jesus were willing to
believe everything He said. Yet, even some of the most devoted followers had
their days when doubt would creep in. Doubt is a sneaky little trouble that
takes us away from the truth and the real belief that Jesus lives, even today,
in the Spirit. Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit in this next verse, promising
that with the revelation of the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit would transform hearts
in millions of ways. John 16:8-9 KJV – And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me;
Jesus wanted to warn His apostles and disciples that there would come a time when He physically would no longer be there with them. Yet, though His body wouldn’t be present, His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, would be with them always. That is something that Scripture offers people for many years, yet, not as a near physical manifestation as Jesus promised. When we are filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we feel it through every inch of our bodies. God wants us to know this, and that’s why Jesus taught as He did for the short time that He lived on this earth as a man. It took a while, but the Apostles and disciples finally figured out what He was sharing with them.
John 16:30-31 KJV – Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God.
Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe?
Jesus wants us to be sure we believe, even if we cannot physically see Him here on earth. In truth, He is always with us. God wants us to know that He brought Jesus to us for many reasons, teaching being only one of those. Jesus was brought here to unleash the single best gift God could ever give us here on earth, everlasting life. Sure, it may be a while before this earth becomes brand new again, but that time is coming. Scripture promises us that.
John 17:20-21 KJV – Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
Jesus is speaking directly with the Heavenly Father here.
He wants to find a way for His teaching to prove to the Disciples and Apostles
exactly what it means for Him to be crucified, die on the cross, and then be
buried, only to be reborn into the Spirit view of our Savior. It is a tough
lesson for those who followed Jesus back in the days when Scripture was born.
Yet, even today the powerful impact of Jesus and His life is felt and there are
believers who transform others into believers because His Word is breathed
through the body, mind, heart, soul, and spirit of each and every believer, no
matter the strength of their belief.
John 19:35 KJV – And he that
saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true,
that ye might believe.
John shares here that those who were
present for Jesus in life, and in spirit, had to share that fact, as proof that
the Word of God is more than just written on paper, or taught in the temples,
memorized, or any of that. The Truth of the Word of God is that we don’t have
to see it in action. It doesn’t take sight to believe. It takes a heart and
mind that work together in the Spirit toward understanding wisdom in His Word.
John 20:25 KJV – The other
disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print
of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand
into his side, I will not believe.
Even today there are those who doubt the
glory of God and Jesus through the Holy Spirit. There are those who do not wish
to understand, just like Thomas, the doubter of all the disciples and Apostles.
He had to see it, in order to believe it, regardless that Jesus Himself said,
believe no matter what happens, that He is the Savior, the Beloved Son of God
the Father of all.
John 20:31 KJV – But these
are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God;
and that believing ye might have life through his name.
Life, eternal life, not just earthly life, that’s the
promise of God’s gift of Jesus through the Holy Spirit after the death and
resurrection of our Lord and Savior. Understanding comes with recognizing the
wonder of God’s unconditional love. It is more than anything we will ever
realize here on earth. Believing is a gift of the heart, mind, spirit, and soul
of every human being who chooses that belief. 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: This I Believe ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRzI_FbWTkg
~ 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 © 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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