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
NOTE: From all of us at Covenant of Hope Ministries we wish all the fathers, including our Heavenly Father, a
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!
NOTE: Thank you, Elder Cal Jennings, for the first song in our sermon
today.
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 continue to pray for Elder Cal Jennings and his
health issues, which are numerous. He has been doing well since his surgery on
another crushed vertebra in his back. Continue to pray for his health as he
soldier’s on.
- Please pray for faith and hope boosters to help bless
Sister Theresa Bogard.
- 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.
- Pray for our fathers in this world that they may make
sound decisions and aren’t lonely on this Father’s Day.
Prayer: Father in heaven, this
is our prayer for today. May those who are ill be made well. May those who are
injured be healed. May those who have died be remembered by those who knew and
loved them. May our pains and sorrows be brought before you and relieved. May
our love for You be magnified with each moment we think of You. 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: Holy, Holy, Holy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBSB8BK7mBQ&list=PL614A115BF39E5936&index=219&t=0s
Sermon: Ephesus was quite a
different place than Jerusalem for the Apostles and Disciples. In comparison it
would be like St. Louis versus New York in some ways. Yet, much like most
bigger cities, it proved to be an excellent location for spreading the
knowledge of God’s Word, the Savior and His path toward salvation. This is why
Paul, Peter, John the beloved and all the rest enjoyed their time in this Greek
city. Here we find Paul teaching about redemption through the blood of Christ.
Ephesians 1:7 KJV – In whom we have
redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of his grace;
Paul and the other Apostles wanted to ensure that people
understood what it means to follow in the footsteps of Christ. It is, in many
ways, the road less traveled. There are places we can fall to the side or off
the edge and yet, still have the ability to return to it. This is something
Jesus wanted the Apostles and Disciples to teach others about. The only way is
His way.
Hebrews 9:12 KJV – Neither by the blood of
goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place,
having obtained eternal redemption for us.
We have to pay attention to how we pursue the holier
route toward God. It’s something we must work every day toward. God intends for
us to talk to Him every day. He also intends for us to listen and hear His Word
every day. Not just once a week, or even once a month, every single day. Doing
so does a million things for each of us. Disobeying God’s Word only makes life
harder for us. That’s what Paul shares in Colossi and Peter shows as well.
Colossians 3:6 KJV – For which things' sake
the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
1 Peter 4:3 KJV – For the time past of our
life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in
lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable
idolatries:
Now we go back to Ephesus and Paul’s journey there.
Ephesians 1:8-9 KJV – Wherein he hath
abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having made known unto us the
mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in
himself:
Jesus wants us to learn from all the mistakes made in the
past, and pursue a better way, the true way, His way. To do this we aren’t
supposed to destroy and erase that which has happened in the past. This is
something especially pertinent to the world today due to the blatant racism and
lawlessness to be found. Jesus prophesied that this world today would be in the
very situation it is in as a result of the many broken pathways and turnabouts
most people in this world have managed to create. Jesus is our only method
toward gaining that everlasting life God promised would be available to us.
Timothy shares this view as well.
2 Timothy 1:9 KJV – Who hath saved us, and
called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began,
Remember, Jesus Christ would be the living view of God’s
Word. He is the fulfillment of God’s Word and if we walk in that path of God’s
truth, we will find everlasting life. God’s amazing grace is so important to
understand. You see, it was His will that Jesus would be resurrected to ensure
that the gift of Unconditional Love would be ever-present in the world even two
millennia later.
Ephesians 1:10-11 KJV – That in the
dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things
in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Everything that happens here, no matter how minute, would
be represented in some way up in heaven. So, if we think about all the
destruction, the hatred, the criminal actions, the disease and more that has
riddled the earth, remember, even in heaven those scars can be seen, and felt.
Yet, at the same time, those stumbling blocks have been overcome by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul shows the Romans this fact in these words
that follow.
Romans 5:6-10 KJV – For when we were yet
without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
Romans 3:24 KJV – Being justified freely by
his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
We are justified by His Grace, through His Redemption by
the Resurrection of Christ. Those three days, when Jesus was scourged until He
bled, nailed to that cross, hung up in the hot sun and stabbed so He bled all
the blood onto that cross, over the grass beneath Him, all of the sins of every
person living, dead, or yet to be were swept away, washed clean, by that
devastating sacrifice Jesus made for us. That’s a lot to go through for one
man. We see things that happen to people today and have no realization as to
just what Jesus’s sacrifice really fulfilled. Imagine, just for a moment, one
person enduring every pain, every sorrow, every injury, every death, all at
once, for thousands of years before and after that moment in time. Not just a
little terrifying, and yet Jesus knew it had to be done. That’s why we still
have baptisms, we still have anointings, we still pray for one another, to this
very moment of time.
Colossians 2:12 KJV – Buried with him in
baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation
of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
Acts 20:32 KJV – And now, brethren, I commend
you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to
give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
With this, we see how important it is to learn what God’s
Word means to each of us individually, and all of us as believers collectively.
Our Father wants us to know that WE ARE LOVED. Celebrate this Father’s Day with
a thanksgiving prayer to God for the time we have with our mortal fathers and
with our Heavenly Father, because it is important for us to remember Him
always. 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: Father’s Love https://youtu.be/ALrJ17qKpHg?list=PLXW27li5w-yduve9N2806GMc06_Y4rLN8
~ 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 © 2020 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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