Welcome to Covenant of Hope Ministries and our sermon. You will normally see us posted on Sunday, most of the time with live sermons. 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 an urgent need for new housing as the family in dire straits there at this point in time.
- Please pray for calm, comfort, and peace for Sister Theresa Bogard who is still going through a lot of physical issues right now.
- Please continue to pray for my daughter’s grandmother-in-law, Judy, who has been in the hospital with health issues and my daughter’s mother-in-law, Suzanne, is unable to travel to be with her during this worrisome time. Pray for healthy outcomes and peace for the family.
- Please continue to pray for my friend Marci’s mother who has contracted COVID-19 Coronavirus but is doing a little better every day now.
- Please continue to pray for my friend Jeff’s father, who also has contracted COVID-19 Coronavirus and at last report was improving.
- Please continue to pray for a dear friend of mine, Paul, who lost his beloved support dog, Winston, and misses him terribly. Pray that his latest rescue animal will fill a new role in Paul’s life as he always will mourn his dear old Winston.
- We are still 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 the same five family members of mine as they go through some health issues and other 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 that their reach gets bigger with every day.
- Pray that the endeavor I have been working on for almost four years now will come to full fruition in the next year. It will be a true blessing to extend God’s reach toward willing ears, minds, and hearts.
- 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 our sick and wounded up in prayer, including Elder Cal Jennings. We pray for answers to mysteries for health issues and money issues with several members and family members. We continue to pray for our friends and family members who have been ill, with this terrible Coronavirus or any other illnesses that isolate them from friends and family. 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 First Noel https://youtu.be/yt9WXRTPPGQ?list=PLDcNxsEvjauo_a1FO4ub3D2TP-54hHlxp
Sermon: We are going to finish our voyage in Chapter five of Ephesians. Paul has led us through his time in Ephesus in great detail as to who he taught and what the lessons consisted of. It is important for us to sometimes go over these verses many, many times on occasion, just because they can mean something new each time we read, say, or share the Word of God. Let’s start here today:
Ephesians 5:30 KJV – For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
What does it mean to be members of the body, flesh, and bones of Jesus Christ? It can be an enigma, a mystery, for some when it comes to understanding this sentence. Throughout the life of our Savior Jesus Christ, He was the Word brought to life to live among us. As such, in the same way, the church that Christ built is a huge part of Him, even this long after His resurrection. He built the church through the nails that went through his hands and feet, through the beaten, bruised, and bloody flesh that was on his body at the time of the Crucifixion. We have to remember, that once we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we accept the fact that without Him in our lives, heaven would never be available to us, and neither would salvation. We have to recognize that we are all a part of the body of Christ, as Christians who love what He has afforded for us when time on this earth ends. Paul shares the same thoughts with those citizens of Corinth here in this next verse.
1 Corinthians 12:27 KJV – Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.
It is important for each of us to understand what part of the Church we fulfill. Jesus taught this in His Sermon on the Mount. He continued to explain and teach our roles in His Church through parables and patience. All of us have had to “grow up” in our Christianity. This is a lot like growing up and leaving our childhood behind as this verse shares.
Ephesians 5:31 KJV – For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
Now, to connect the Old Testament views of family and the New Testament voyage in family, friendship, and unconditional love we go back to the beginning here.
Genesis 2:24 KJV – Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
Scripture and the application of it into our lives would be a voyage into understanding of what God means to our hearts, our spirits, our very souls and our lives with all those components connected. Retaining the knowledge God wants us to hang onto, to remember, to reflect on, and to share with others around us, is very important to continue doing, no matter how old or young we would be. Knowing God is as important as knowing yourself, your spouse, your children, your passion in life, and your mission in life. Staying on that path is very important. That’s where these supporting verses take us.
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.
Paul says it’s a mystery. The church, and the love of God through Christ, and how sanctified it would be, is a mystery. This is how he shares that thought.
Ephesians 5:32 KJV – This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
I speak concerning Christ and the Church. Leaving the home of your birth and childhood is very much like Christ’s walk to gather His Apostles and disciples, away from the home He had grown up, to share what God had wanted to have shared for every corner of the entire world, so that, from that point to the end of time, humanity would finally understand what the words Unconditional Love mean, then, now, and in the future. What are the honorable, the truly good and blessed methods toward life? This is a question that gets asked all over the world and just about every day. Here is a peek at what honor, goodness, faith, peace, and all the other elements of Unconditional Love WOULD NOT PORTRAY.
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:
Jeremiah 29:8-9 KJV – For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed. For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith the Lord.
Knowing what is not acceptable allows us to narrow our focus only on pursuing the true path that lead us to Christ, to God, through the Holy Spirit. It takes time, practice, patience, and perseverance to remain fully on the path toward a bountiful, blessed, peaceful everlasting life with our Savior and the Father through the Holy Spirit. 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: Away In A Manger https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jqh0_pAMeeo&list=PLDcNxsEvjauo_a1FO4ub3D2TP-54hHlxp&index=7
~ 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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