Welcome to Covenant of Hope Ministries and our Christmas Eve sermon. 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 calm and peace for Sister Theresa Bogard who is going through a lot right now.
- Please pray for my friend Dena's daughter, who is in the hospital and in a lot of pain right now.
- Please continue to pray for my daughter’s grandmother-in-law who has been in the hospital with heart issues and my daughter’s mother-in-law, Suzanne, is unable to travel to be with her during this worrisome time.
- Please continue to pray for Jerry Verduft who has just tested positive for COVID-19 Coronavirus. Pray for the family as well as they wait and watch for healing and healthy outcomes. My longtime friend Jeff asked for prayers.
- 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.
- Continue to pray for four of my family members as they go through some dramatic issues and 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.
Prayer: Father in heaven, this is our prayer for today. We bring our sick and wounded up in prayer, including Elder Cal Jennings and Dena's daughter. 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 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: Do You Hear What I Hear ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdnYjKC19n4&list=PLAV7hQToHN7SJMTk2_Q8vFJTJfZRBTPow&index=104
Sermon: We are proclaiming the glory of the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ this evening in preparation for the glorious dawn of Christmas Day. We will be sharing the story of what came to pass right before the birth of our Savior beginning here in the Gospel of Matthew.
Matthew 1:17-18 KJV – So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
A paraphrase of this moment of realization as the lineage of Christ occurs in the Gospel of Luke as shared here.
Luke 1:27 KJV – To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.
Now, when Joseph chose to go forward with marriage to Mary as arranged, even after learning she was with child, it was almost unheard of for this idea. Most times the unwed mother would have been stoned to death and the child would die with her. Joseph reflected on the history of the Jewish accord far back in the scroll of Deuteronomy and made his choice.
Deuteronomy 24:1 KJV – When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.
Joseph could have simply done this and walked away, but God gave him a reason not to. It all came to Joseph in a dream when the angel of the Lord descended as we see here in these next two verses in the gospel of Matthew.
Matthew 1:20-21 KJV – But while he thought on
these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream,
saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife:
for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.
And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he
shall save his people from their sins.
Joseph was set to see a true miracle with his very eyes. He was to usher in a period of grace and blessings for all of the Jews, in the birth of the Savior Jesus Christ. It is for this reason that Joseph accepted the challenge and the duty to be the earthly father to the divine being of Jesus Christ, our Savior. It is no simple task, to be raising a son that would end up being the enemy of all those in higher echelons of the Jewish hierarchy simply because He portrayed and demonstrated God’s truth with honesty and humility. We see in the Scroll of Acts, as shared by Luke.
Acts 5:31 KJV – Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.
There is a lot to learn from the Gospel writers, even outside of their gospels. In this view of Luke’s writing, we find the awe and inspiration that Christ’s birth and life managed for so many of the Jews and Gentiles that may only have heard of Jesus through word of mouth. In the months when Jesus was born, His earthly cousin, John the Baptist, son of Elizabeth and Zechariah, was quite the historical man himself. It would be these two cousins who would transform everything for every man, woman, and child, in this world during their lifetimes and far beyond the moment they each died. This is what is shared by Luke here.
Acts 13:23-28 KJV – Of this man's seed hath
God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus:
When John had first preached before his coming the baptism of repentance to all
the people of Israel.
And as John fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think ye that I am? I am not
he. But, behold, there cometh one after me, whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy
to loose.
Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you
feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent.
For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not,
nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day, they have
fulfilled them in condemning him.
And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he
should be slain.
So the birth of one little boy, tiny and precious, known as Yshua, Jesus, Emmanuel, Son of God and Son of Man all in one, made flesh and bone through the Holy Spirit, would bring about changes that were only the barest of thoughts and hints all the way back to the days of Noah and then on to Abraham and Sarah. That’s where this verse takes us.
Matthew 1:22-23 KJV – Now all this was done,
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,
Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they
shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
God With Us, Emmanuel, our Savior, Jesus Christ, Yeshua ben Yoseph in Hebrew, the One who sacrificed everything, up to His very life, to ensure that all of us had the opportunity for eternal life. On the day when He was born as a tiny infant, everything from the point of this verse in the Scroll of Hosea shares.
Hosea 11:1 KJV – When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham, prophet of God, father of nations, was given the name of Israel because he was a great warrior for God that believed with all his heart, all his mind, all his spirit and soul, in what God was guiding him toward. It is this man of God who brought forth the generations toward and after David, king of the Jews.
Isaiah 7:14 KJV – Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
The prophecy of a Savior for all the Jews and all the Gentiles that would follow Jesus the Son of God, was one that was shared many times prior to His actual birth in Bethlehem centuries later. It all leads us to this verse in the Gospel of John the Beloved.
John 1:14 KJV – And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
On this night, Christmas Eve, we celebrate the moment when our Savior was born as a tiny infant, wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger to be watched over by Mary and Joseph, the cattle, and other barn dwellers, the angels proclaiming His birth as the miracle it would indeed be. On Sunday we will speak about the three wise men and the three shepherds who came to visit our Savior Jesus Christ, for one simple reason. They did not arrive at the stable where Jesus was born until a few days after, following the star, the very same star, that lights our skies right now. It was their beacon toward the knowledge that our Lord and Savior was born of the Virgin Mary and raised by His earthly father, Joseph. 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: Joy to the World ~ Dolly Parton ~ https://youtu.be/9ZhFVA4UW84?list=PLAV7hQToHN7SJMTk2_Q8vFJTJfZRBTPow
~ 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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