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
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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 earlier in the summer. Continue to pray for his health as he soldier’s on.
- Please pray for health, faith, and hope boosters to help bless Sister Theresa Bogard as she recovers from her latest stint in the hospital due to an ulcer.
- We are ever watchful in regard to the weather, the unrest, and the virus and response to that virus. Let us pray for calm skies and seas, calm voices and spirits, and also healthy outcomes for those who are affected.
- We pray that the upcoming school year is filled with progress for our children who are attending and for the teachers and staff that must adapt to what is considered the “new normal” around this world.
- 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.
Prayer: Father in heaven, this is our prayer for today. We pray for the end of this chaos relative to the panic created for no clear reason. We pray for peace and patience and level heads from our leaders. We pray for the sick and the ones caring for the sick. We pray for those who are on the front lines in this world, whether it be battle, medical, or otherwise. We pray for friends and family who wish to be together in reality more than in spirit. 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: May God Be Everywhere I Go ~ Mosaic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11Gcsm1ZhLw
Sermon: As we continue in our exploration of Ephesians, it’s time to delve even further into the thoughts and actions of the Apostles and Disciples as they worked to teach God’s Word and the gift of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. We start with the definition of omnipresence.
Omnipresence: adjective. To be present everywhere at the same time.
Now, with the definition in mind, let’s continue our exploration of Ephesians. This pair of verses, which bridge together from last week’s sermon to give clarity in the Word.
Ephesians 2:8-9 KJV – For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
When we read this verse aloud, we hear specific qualifications for our being brothers and sisters with Christ, and true children of God. That is grace. When we sing the song Amazing Grace, we are instantly brought to verses like these two in Ephesians. Paul was well aware of the learning experiences so many would never have first hand as he did with Jesus as one of the twelve Apostles. When God brings us back to the same verse at a different time in our lives, there’s always a good reason. That’s why refreshing our memories on the Word is something we all should pursue every day. We link this to Timothy’s epistle here.
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,
No matter how far from home the twelve Apostles went after Christ’s resurrection, they were always brothers in Christ and kept in contact, regardless of the danger that brought to them. Here we see where Paul reflects on his time in Rome and speaking to the fledgling Christians in the earliest years of the church.
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,
The magic of God’s Word is that it is timeless. It fits every person’s life, and every moment of that life. This is the uniqueness of Scripture. It doesn’t matter how long ago the Word was put down on paper. It was already part of our existence from the beginning and should always be part of life as we know and experience it. That’s what John the Beloved shares here.
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.
One of the many things people often wonder about is creation. The creation theory is something doctors, scientists, and many others have tried, in vain, to prove impossible. What they’ve done instead is prove that God’s Creation would be alive and well, and only as old as His unconditional love would be and the gift of Christ’s Holy Spirit, which still resides within us, even today. We are specially created individuals that have a lot in common, yet just enough differences to make us our own person. That’s the amazing gift of God’s Unconditional Love. We all have our own idiosyncrasies and yet they meet together when it comes to worshipping God and sharing Christ’s miracles with those around us.
Ephesians 2:10 KJV – For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Notice, this says exactly what was shared. We are God’s workmanship. We are in Christ Jesus as He is within us through the Holy Spirit. We are walking in His footsteps and should share our walk with Him and His walk with those around us and whomever we meet in life. Often in Scripture we see where we refer back to other verses within new verses we learn. This happens with all of Scripture. That’s why we go back to the first chapter of Ephesians here.
Ephesians 1:4 KJV – According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
We are chosen by Christ to spread the true Word of God. All of us, as Christians, are compelled to share what Jesus means to each of us. How we were brought to do what we do as part of the church that Christ built for the Father, our Father, God in heaven.
Ephesians 2:11 KJV – Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
We today aren’t Jews or Gentiles in the exact sense of the Scriptures in the Old Testament, or even the New Testament. We are CHRISTIANS. This is what it means to be circumcised in the Holy Spirit. We have chosen to follow Christ. That’s something we often have to contemplate, which direction we are being led toward as a truly faithful Christian. Some of us use words before actions. Some use actions before words. Still more let their works speak without words being necessary. The challenge is, we all have to realize this in our hearts and minds and also share that fact with each other. That’s what is shared here.
Acts 20:28 KJV – Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice. He died to prove that He lived beyond mortality. He went through unimaginable pain, suffering, and died alone hanging on that tree, the cross, in that hot sun thousands of years ago now. Those who loved Him dearly, as their brother, as their teacher, as their friend, suffered greatly spiritually and mentally on that long ago day when the world lost the Savior just to have Him usher in true salvation through the gift of the Holy Spirit. We go back to a verse where Jesus is speaking to Mary Magdalene after she finds the grave open and empty.
John 20:17 KJV – Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.
Like all of the Apostles and Disciples, Mary Magdalene was ecstatic to see her teacher even if it wasn’t fully in the flesh. Seeing Him on the verge of full resurrection gave hope to every believer, that day and thousands of years in the future. He wasn’t a ghost. He wasn’t an apparition. He was, as He is, the bringer of salvation. Learning this as newly created Christians is something that takes a lot of faith in belief to know and understand. That’s what we see here with Paul sharing his journey with Jesus with the citizens of Ephesus.
Ephesians 2:12 KJV – That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
We have to realize it is no easy task to believe just by reading or hearing the Word of God. It is no easy task to teach unless we have others willing to listen and hear. It is not easy to practice what we preach in this world today. However, if we work at it, we build our spirits to be more with God and Christ through the gift of the Holy Spirit. It takes practice, always. That’s why we teach the same verses over and over again to show the versatility of God’s Word and His Unconditional Love.
Colossians 1:9 KJV – For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
Isaiah 42:7 KJV – To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.
In the verses just shared we see there is a reason for all that they went through in Scripture, to prove to those who came after their time on earth that faith can overcome anything and everything this crazy world can throw at us. It’s not about money, possessions, or how high up that social or economic ladder we climb. It’s about being one with God. It’s about understanding what it means to fulfill that connection with God. That’s why we as teachers and preachers work so hard to share our understanding of God’s Word and the gift of the Holy Spirit that spreads within us all and is shared as we share the effect and affect of being one with the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 2:13 KJV – But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
Now we see geography being dismissed. It doesn’t matter how close in proximity we are as Christians. This is something that is definitely in focus in our world today with this virus and how quickly it can spread from one to the other. However, our faith, our belief, when we work them together even in the worst of times, brings us together, regardless of the fact that we might be anywhere from one to a thousand or more miles apart. This is something we all need to realize. God is everywhere, always. That is what we know of as OMNIPRESENCE. The fact that God is everything and everywhere and always helps us as Christians remain on the path that Christ blazed in His life, and in His resurrection. That’s where this last verse comes in.
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.
Redemption is something we all pray for when we stray from the true path Christ left for us to follow. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit that we should learn how to embrace. Faith is a journey we all can take individually and collectively as the body of Christ, the Church of God. 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: Protector ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_v3i2k6Psc
~ 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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