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
Rev. Laura’s other sites: Facebook & Blogspot & Twitter
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. His voice is still quite strong, and we should ask God to keep that one going. Continue to pray for his health as he soldier’s on.
- Please pray for healing, faith, and hope boosters to help bless Sister Theresa Bogard. She has been out of the hospital since Tuesday or so and is on new medications to help her health.
- Please pray for Philip Widmer who is family to one of those in my many groups. He has been COVID-19 positive and is still on a respirator now 20 days.
- 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, including Kaylee Roberts’ son who is suffering from pneumonia.
Happy Birthday to my sister Cathy Goins whose birthday was yesterday.
Prayer: Father in heaven, this is our prayer for today. Today we pray for health and healing for the many who suffer from illness, whether it be viral or otherwise. We pray for those in pain that it be eased. We pray for those who have been injured or killed in the riots and unrest around this world. We pray for strength and hope to fill the hearts of those who are in despair and filled with sorrow. We pray for those who have died, that their souls be at rest and their families be comforted. 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: Phil Wickham ~ This Is Amazing Grace https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFRjr_x-yxU
Sermon: We continue with our voyage into the Scroll of Ephesians. We have learned quite a lot as to how Paul taught those in the city of Ephesus all those years ago. Some of that teaching is still necessary for people today in whatever walk of life they are having. Putting ourselves in the sandals of the Apostles and Disciples of Christ in those early years of Christianity.
Ephesians 2:4-5 KJV – But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
We have a hint as to what Paul is writing about. The gift of Amazing Grace. We are all one with the Church that is Christ. Our sins are forgiven and forgotten because Jesus ensured it by suffering and dying on the cross. It’s something we often overlook in our daily lives. There is a reason we all are here on this earth at this time. There is a purpose for our learning and sharing the gift of Christ’s love. This is further emphasized in the next verses.
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.
Romans 3:24 KJV – Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
There is a part of us that is fully connected to Jesus. This part of us is our spirit, our soul, because we believe. You remember all of the verses we shared late last year when we were studying the ideal of belief and believing as Christians. To be truly Christian we must understand what part of us connects us fully to God and Christ’s teachings. This is what Paul shares here.
Ephesians 2:6 KJV – And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
Do you realize what this says? This says we have been raised up to be together with Jesus in heaven, sitting beside Him in paradise eternally. Remember, we are baptized to cleanse away the sins of the generations before us. We are confirmed in Christ’s gift of eternal life. This is very important for us to remember. However, we cannot get cocky in this ideal. We have to prove ourselves to each other and to Christ that we are doing our very best to stay on the path He blazed for us.
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.
See what is shared here in these supporting verses? Baptism cleans our spirits to where we can learn the truth of Christ with brand new eyes, with clarity created by our belief and our faith. Baptism must be followed by confirmation. What is confirmation? In Catholicism this is the point in life where we are ready to commit our lives to Christ. In faith as a Christian, confirmation is seen as that moment where we want to simply be one with Christ and do our very best to stay on the path that Christ paved for us.
Ephesians 2:7 KJV – That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Paul isn’t just talking about that day in time when he was speaking with the Ephesians. He’s talking about the thousands of generations after his lifetime. We all should be sharing the Word and portraying the truth within the Word as Jesus taught so long ago. This is just one reason to go back through Scripture, whether on our own or in a group, church, or anywhere else. Paul’s son, Titus carries that thought into the future as well here.
Titus 3:4 KJV – But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,
Jesus IS the WORD made manifest. This is what God wants us to see. Jesus taught that fact as well, fulfilling prophecy from the beginning of Scripture and on through the resurrection. His grace is something that becomes our gift to propel us toward eternal life. This is where belief, faith, understanding, and wisdom come into play.
Ephesians 2:8 KJV – For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Note this, grace, faith, not found completely within us, but surrounding us through the Spirit, is one of the truest, purest, gifts of God. Paul and the other Apostles and disciples believed this with all their hearts, for many reasons. Those reasons include the fact that Jesus lived among them for most of their adult lives. Added to that, Jesus was with them and with God through the Spirit that became the strength of our faith even in the darkest times of life. The years that followed His resurrection were indeed dark times for those earliest Christians. In this world today, we are seeing the very same, just with more clarified consequences. Here we see two views, one from Timothy and one from Paul showing just how important Jesus would still be even this far beyond the day He rose from the dead to be beside God on the right side of God’s throne in heaven.
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,
Romans 4:16 KJV – Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,
These verses carry us back to when Jesus was teaching the Apostles and Disciples. His truth points out an important factor. Let’s remember this as He shares.
John 6:44 KJV – No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
John 6:65 KJV – And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.
There is only ONE path. That is the path Jesus taught, the path He provided to us as laid out in the Scriptures. It’s no easy path. There are no shortcuts. It’s something we must pay attention to. Even in our darkest days individually and collectively we cannot afford to forget His path and how to follow it. 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: Grace Flows Down ~ Christy Nockels/Passion band
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YWiH90AYhU
~ 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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