Welcome to Covenant of Hope Ministries and our Sunday sermon. You will normally see us posted every 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 calm and peace for Sister Theresa Bogard who is going through a lot right now.
- 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.
- Continue to pray for many of my family members as they go through some dramatic changes in some cases.
- Be thankful for each day we live as we do not know what tomorrow brings.
- Pray for all of 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.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: My granddaughter, Maria Kaye Howerton, is one year of age today.
Suzanne Pirdy, Maria’s paternal grandmother, also has a birthday today.
Ministry member Bernadette Ennis is celebrating her birthday today as well.
Prayer: Father in heaven, this is our prayer for today. We pray for answers to mysteries for health issues and money issues with several members and family members. We pray for clear mindedness, memory recall, and faith for several members, family and friends. We pray for the three who celebrate their birthdays today. 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 week. We pray for those in our outreach ministries that their reach gains momentum and their needs are met. 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: The Walk ~ Stephen Curtis Chapman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0znonswTnYQ
Sermon: We are starting our work through Chapter 5 in Ephesians. This will be a lesson in linguistics because there are a lot of words that are no longer in today’s language. We start with the first two verses of this chapter.
Ephesians 5:1-2 KJV – Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
In the days when sacrifices were the normal thing to do, there were rules as to which types of creatures could be sacrificed in order to be considered good choices for God as an offering. It was much different then than it is now when you consider tithes and the amount to tithe in this world today. The simplest way to figure that out is one sentence in Scripture that has been repeated thousands of times. Ten percent is that consideration. That’s based on earnings every week, and not always meant to be money. We have a lot of work to do in this world to prevent falling off the path Christ blazed for us. This is another verse that shares that reality for us.
Jude 24 KJV – Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
Now, you may, or may not, recognize the author’s name of this particular Scroll. Jude was the youngest human sibling of Jesus. Though this is the anglicized name given that younger brother, much as James would have been. Jude, as his parents and siblings, supported Jesus and His teaching. Unlike some, Jude and his siblings truly understood the meaning of Jesus’s life and what was set to pass with His life, teaching, and eventually His death and resurrection. Jude, like James and the twelve Apostles, taught because it was what he knew was the right thing to do. Being faultless is impossible on our own. That’s what Jude and James shared, but we have to remember to do our very best. With Christ we can do anything, everything is possible with Him in our hearts and minds, guiding our spirits and souls.
Leviticus 1:9 KJV – But his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water: and the priest shall burn all on the altar, to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord.
When we commit to following Jesus and God, we are baptized, as we grow in His love we gain the ability to share communion with Christ and then we are confirmed in His love as we reach adulthood, or we profess our faith to Him alone. This is the point where we have to watch ourselves, so we don’t fall off that path with Him. It’s easy to fall off that path, all of us have at one time or another in our lifetimes. Here is a warning from Paul to the Ephesians about what can destroy our journey if we don’t recognize what we are doing is wrong.
Ephesians 5:3 KJV – But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
Here we are seeing, basically, a repetition of the Ten Commandments, and added to that a serious lesson on morals. Fornication – or illegal sex in the eyes of God, wanting something more than we should, whether it be goods, or a separate person that is not your wife, husband, or child, is a sin, it makes us unclean. Even today we hear about prostitution, and other forms of fornication, and yet we have no full ability to rid this world of those sinful natures on our own. Never fear, that’s why Jesus died for us. Yet, we should not pursue these things.
1 Corinthians 6:18 KJV – Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
It’s not easy to keep our personal temples, our bodies, wholesome and pure in this world. Everywhere we see ads filled with junk food and all the addictive things we have. All of us fall away from this purity in one way or another, whether it is what we eat or drink or how we exercise, sleep, and even play. The doctor for our souls, our spirits, our bodies and minds, is not the doctor you visit in a hospital or office. The doctor that takes all the sins away is named Jesus, known as Yeshua in Hebrew. He cautioned all of His Apostles, Disciples and other followers, and it was those followers who passed this information along for the generations that came and went after His resurrection. We see that here in the words of Paul in the city of Thessaly.
1 Thessalonians 4:3 KJV – For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:
It is easy to be swayed toward the things that will make us sin and cause us to be sinful. I know that sometimes the vocabulary utilized by King James can often throw us for a loop. Here is the New Living Translation version of Ephesians 5:3 as well as 1 Thessalonians 4:3 for easier understanding.
Ephesians 5:3 NLT – Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people.
1 Thessalonians 4:3 NLT - God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin.
The reason to be careful what we do with ourselves would be in the fact that we are, all of us, the body of Christ, the church body, and this is the reason this supporting pair of verses should be shared in connection to the first two and, in fact, should include both verses as opposed to one.
1 Corinthians 12:27-28 NLT – All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it. Here are some of the parts God has appointed for the church: first are apostles, second are prophets, third are teachers, then those who do miracles, those who have the gift of healing, those who can help others, those who have the gift of leadership, those who speak in unknown languages.
There are a great many ways we can share the Word of God with others, preaching is just one of those. That’s why there are so many types of people who bring the truth of God’s Word to others. Linguists, those who know languages that the normal person wouldn’t know. Apostles, Prophets, Teachers, Miracle Makers, Healers, Helpers, Leaders and Elders all have a part to play in the church that is in Christ Jesus. These are the ones who teach us to recognize what is shared in this next verses.
Ephesians 5:4 KJV – Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.
Romans 1:28 KJV – And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
1 Corinthians 6:16 KJV – What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
There are many views as to what a harlot is. In Scripture, a harlot is a person who forsakes God and worships idols. This particular verse is one that worries many who are wanting all of us to be of fluid gender, and accept marriages between two men or two women, all of which is against the Word of God. It is not our job to condemn someone for their beliefs or their lifestyles, but it is our job to follow God’s Word and make sure we stay on that path and not stray from it. Not easy in this world of yes, yes, yes as opposed to do this and not that. This next verse shares more in this truth.
Ephesians 5:5 KJV – For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
The ideal that all our sins can be forgiven is something we all know. However, once we turn away from that sin, we shouldn’t just fall off the path created by our love for Christ, and return to this plethora of sinful behaviors. Honor is something very important to Christianity. We should be honored that He chose us to continue the teaching and sharing of God’s Word here on this earth. Judgment is solely the arena of God and Jesus, for it is they who will judge us in the last days as shared here with these three verses.
Hebrews 13:4 KJV – Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
Revelation 22:15 KJV – For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
Colossians 3:5 KJV – Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
All of us have to be aware, and wary of these sinful things that can corrupt our journey toward being one with Jesus. None of us is exempt of that. We all need to pay attention, because when that knock on the door comes, we might not even recognize that fact. 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: I Have Decided to Follow Jesus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8jvfdDtoqY
~ 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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