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. His eyes have been giving him grief. This is why the sermon is being printed so much larger and I am attempting to do live sermons if possible.
- Please pray for Sister Theresa Bogard, she has been in the hospital since Friday and is hoped to return home later today or tomorrow.
- Please pray for Sister Theresa Bogard’s niece and that niece’s new baby, born by caesarean on an emergency basis this past Wednesday night. The baby is healthy and weighs 7 lbs. and 4 ozs., and is 20 inches long.
- Please pray for our teachers and our students as they work to navigate through the major changes that have come to education in the past seven months and as states and cities open up again following the health crisis.
- Please also pray that calm and peace will be brought to the forefront as opposed to the lawlessness and rioting we are seeing in far too many places.
- 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.
Prayer: Father in heaven, this is our prayer for today. We pray that this virus will simply become a bad memory soon. We pray for peace in Your Love and Light to fill this world. We pray for health and happiness for those who deserve the relief from trial and tribulation. We pray for hope and faith to prevail in this world filled with angst and strife. We pray for the knowledge and wisdom You share to be heard, and understood, by all who are touched by it. 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: Chris McClarney with Hollyn ~ I’m Listening https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef52AmdVwYI
Sermon: Today we begin our voyage into the second chapter of Ephesians. Paul and the other Apostles have so much to teach us from their lessons learned through their teacher and savior, ours as well, Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 2:1 KJV – And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Now, one thing you will notice is that we are repeating ourselves in this writing. You’ll see in the reference verses some of the identical verses from our last several sermons on the first chapter of Ephesians. God taught His believers that sometimes repeating ourselves will help us learn something new each time we hear whatever is being repeated. In this world today, it is hoped that we learn from the mistakes of yesterday and not repeat them tomorrow and on into the future. We start with this supporting verse, from the words of our Savior Jesus.
John 5:24 KJV – Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
To sin in this world is to invite death into our future, and not just any death, at least if you see the Old Testament thoughts. Jesus washed sins away with His life blood. He did so to save us from our own stupidity, our inability to stay on that straight and narrow path Christ led His people toward. We see another supporting verse in Colossi.
Colossians 2:13 KJV – And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
Notice the theme we are sharing, Paul, Peter, John, all were very glad to share the Word of God with anyone they met in Italy, Greece, and further away. Here we see Peter’s writing and his thought regarding the true church built up in Christ.
1 Peter 2:5 KJV – Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
This world today is often seen as still needing to understand the Word of God. It’s not a simple task to learn well what the Father wants from each of us individually and collectively. That’s why Jesus was always repeating Himself and why we must continually repeat the truth of God’s Word many times in our lives, to share how important the true path of Christ would be. Let’s see the next verse as Paul teaches the Ephesians about God and Jesus.
Ephesians 2:2 KJV – Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
We cannot understand what it means to be fully Christian if we don’t recognize the need to see how Scripture reflects life and living it even in this world today. The one thing I have learned in the fifteen years I have been preaching now is that going back and rereading, reliving an older view of thoughts on the same verses will add more understanding of what God was saying through my hands on the keyboard. Here we see in Acts where Paul was showing how easy it is to fall off the path of Christ. Notice how deftly Paul shares his reflection from one point in his teaching, to the next, and back again.
Acts 19:35 KJV – And when the townclerk had appeased the people, he said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter?
Now that we have gone back, we’ll move forward and see just how much learning requires us to repeat ourselves. Seriously, how many times did we have to read and recite our multiplication tables, our verb tenses, and all that, while we all were in school as children and even young adults? This is the reason for the repetition throughout Scripture. There’s one way through life, that’s by moving forward and reflecting on our lessons learned in life before this very moment.
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 twelve Apostles and we hear from all of them at some point in the New Testament. Here we are listening to and hearing about the voyage in Ephesus for Paul, yet he shares the thoughts and words of his fellow Apostles, including Peter as we see here. When speaking of corruption of things, I am often reminded of the thought “you can’t take it with you”. When we die, things do not matter. Money, clothes, homes, and all that, none of it matters. We often hear the words “make your peace with God” for those of us who have been given devastating news about our health. The thing is, we should do that whether we’re sick or healthy, rich, or poor, old, young, or in-between. We see those thoughts in the next two verses.
1 Peter 1:18-19 KJV – Forasmuch as ye know
that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without
spot:
Colossians 3:6 KJV – For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
Remembering the lessons that we learn in the event of a bad day, week, month, or year in our lives, will help us understand what the true path of Jesus would be as we move forward in life. None of us is perfect on our own. Jesus taught us that much. However, Jesus was the first to point out, “with God, everything is possible, and nothing is impossible”.
Ephesians 2:3 KJV – Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
It’s nearly impossible to be completely pure in the world today. This is something that everyone probably realized when they got past puberty at some point. We can try our best to be as good as we can, but the sins of humanity, as some would share, are often very difficult to avoid all the time. We all have past events in our lives that we are not proud of. This is just a reminder that our being one with Jesus is the reason we are soon to be members of a heavenly choir. In these last three verses we are seeing just that effect on life that God’s truth, God’s Word, has on each of us, always.
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:
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,
Psalm 51:5 KJV – Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
God knows us from before our conception to our last breath, and beyond. That is a lot of knowledge for the Omnipresent Father who loves us enough to allow the terrible sacrifice His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ endured when He was scourged, nailed to that cross, and hung there in the beating sun to die. It is something we should never forget. All of that pain, anguish, agony, allows us the gift, yes, it is a gift, of being chosen at some point to become citizens of heaven. 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: Speak Lord I Am Listening ~ John B. Miller https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87QoP21iM6A
~ 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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