Welcome to Covenant of Hope Ministries and our sermon or midweek study. You will normally see us posted on Sunday. 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 having issues with his pain, vision, and memory. Add to the prayers with a need for new housing as the family is in dire straits there at this point in time.
- Please pray for health, faith, and hope boosters to help bless Sister Theresa Bogard as she continues in her recovery from her ulcer and this week after a swollen and painful knee that barely lets her walk some days.
- 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.
- Pray for those who are celebrating this weekend in the United States for Labor Day weekend that they be aware and safe on the roads and amongst family, friends and colleagues.
- 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.
- Pray for four of my family members as they go through some dramatic changes in some cases. They asked not to be mentioned by name, but God knows who they are.
- Be thankful for each day we live as we do not know what tomorrow brings.
- Pray for our outreach ministries with Pastor Stephen Okoth, Pastor Robert Nganwa, Pastor Simon Peter Javaji, Rev. Lisa Tyler, and all the others who have joined us.
- 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 that truth is revealed where falsehoods have been shared around this world.
Prayer: Father in heaven, this is our prayer for today. We bring several of our members up in prayer today, including Elder Cal Jennings. We pray for the leaders of our outreach ministries and their congregations, including Pastor Simon Peter Javaji and Pastor Robert Nganwa. We pray for answers to mysteries for health issues and money issues with several members and family members. We pray for our poor and desolate, our brothers and sisters who have been brought devastation due to the terrors around this world and all of the natural disasters, storms, and so forth this past month. 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: Rise and Shine and Give God the Glory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trJoI8zRSJE
Sermon: We continue where we left off last week working through Chapter 3 in Ephesians. All the Apostles, by the time Jesus was resurrected from the dead and rose into heaven, knew quite well how dangerous it was to be Christians following God and Jesus. Even today there are many places in this world where Christianity is being choked out. Yet, here we are, following the heart of God and Jesus with our hearts, minds, spirits, and souls. That’s the most important part of our belief, our faith, in the power of God, the strength of Jesus Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit. This is where we start today.
Ephesians 3:10 KJV – To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
Paul is speaking to the citizens of Ephesus about the gravity of being followers of Jesus and God and what it means for us to believe heart, mind, spirit, and soul in the teachings of Jesus. Every person is a believer in different ways that lead to the same result. This is all because God gave each and every person on this earth the ability to use free will. Yet, even with that gift and the promise of eternal life, there are many, many believers who willingly risk their lives to continue on, even two millennia in the future. We, even as devout followers, forget certain aspects of what it means to be Christian. This supporting verse shares that reminder we often need in our individual lives.
2 Corinthians 4:2 KJV – But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
Many of us who have been part of Sunday School, or Catholic and other Christian schools have been learning about God from very young ages. It is not easy, in some countries, to preach about God and Jesus, to just have quiet studies together in this world today. So many live in countries where it is forbidden to even see the Bible, sing hymns and pray for one another where others might see or hear. Yet, because we are willing to risk this potential, we are literally doing exactly what Jesus taught us. We see another point of view here in these verses.
Colossians 1:18-19 KJV – And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
Romans 11:33 KJV – O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
1 Corinthians 2:7 KJV – But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
What we teach as Christians is what matters, as much as how we teach it. Yes, like everything in this world, there would be a right and a wrong way to preach and teach. We see it all over the world with the boastful and vain sights and words shared. Jesus wants us to be humble, be truthful, be the quiet voice that speaks truth over the loud and boisterous because, many times the quiet voices, are the ones we need to hear the most. This is our eternal purpose in this world today. Let’s see how to use that part of ourselves as shared in this next pair of verses.
Ephesians 3:11-12 KJV – According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.
Years ago, long before I even thought about being a full-time minister, I was part of a small group of seven men and women who taught and preached Scripture far differently. We did so in clown face, with a completely different method toward teaching, using fun, gags, laughter, and the hearts of children. This is exactly what Jesus wants us to feel like, children in our exuberance about His love, like adults in our actions and reactions, together, because we always should have the faith of children and the wisdom of experience in one combination. There’s a reason for that and it is shared here.
Hebrews 4:16 KJV – Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
It doesn’t matter how old or young we are, worry exists in our lives. Fear is always somewhere below the surface. Many have said they are terrified about what might happen. However, even in the face of ultimate danger, we shouldn’t show fear or worry for a simple reason. That reason is summed up in one word – FAITH. Having faith, and sharing that faith, can, and often will, erase all our fears and worries in life. This is what Paul says about that.
Ephesians 3:13-14 KJV – Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Three words we have to remember at all times. Yes, just three words. Those words are GOD’S GOT THIS. Why would He? Well, that’s easy. If you give it to Him in prayers filled with hope and faith, then that worry, that fear gets erased. We just have to remember that once we give it to God, we don’t wrestle it back on our side of the line. Give it to God and glory be. That is something my great grandmother would say many years ago. My grandmother, her daughter, and also an ordained minister, once looked at me with her brow all scrunched up when I said, after she had gotten frustrated over something someone had said and done, Give it to God and Glory Be. Her first question was, “Where on earth did you learn that?” I laughed and said we had been in the same room almost ten years before and her name would have been Lora Ethel Scott. She was my great grandmother, and that particular grandmother’s mother. It was the last birthday celebration we had with a family reunion that had our great grandmother’s house filled from one end to the other with all sorts of family members, most of which are gone from this side of life now. Even now it fascinates me what God’s Holy Spirit will bring to mind when writing a sermon or studying the Word of God. That’s why this supporting verse says so much.
2 Corinthians 1:6 KJV – And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.
Do we know the name we have in God’s house? Well, in God’s house our name is the same as we have been given our names by our parents, but there’s more to it. Years ago, our family was baptized Catholic and, as I grew up in that style of worship, I learned a great deal regarding giving it to God and to God is the glory. I didn’t just see it from my perspective. I watched as my whole family had to pull together to help one of our family members who was often excluded from so much. But it was the last time I walked anywhere near a Catholic Church that I realized exactly what my great grandmother meant all those years ago. All of us have a place waiting for us in heaven. All of us are family, because we are all children of God. That’s what Paul is sharing here.
Ephesians 3:15 KJV – Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
We are, all of us, the Body of Christ. We are ONE BODY IN CHRIST. It does not matter where we are living. It doesn’t matter how much food we do or do not have. It doesn’t matter if we have a house made of stone, wood, glass, mud, straw, or cloth. It doesn’t matter if we have an army of family and friends or are alone. We are ONE BODY, ONE MIND, ONE SPIRIT IN JESUS CHRIST. Open your eyes, all of you, all of us, and see His truth. Find the Light that is our Salvation from this world we live in. One last verse to bring that endeavor into focus.
Acts 26:18 KJV – To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.
Sanctification is something that is integral in our belief in God and Jesus through the Holy Spirit. When we take our thoughts and worries, our trials and tribulations and break them down to where they are lessons learned and glory given, we’ll understand everything Jesus taught in His Words and His Life, Death, and Resurrection. Remember, learn, reflect on both, and carry on. 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: Glory to God Forever https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h64opCwLZCw
~ 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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