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 Rev. Lisa Tyler’s sister, Mary, who has had lung issues and is in the hospital in an induced coma. It isn’t COVID-19 related. Please pray that the LORD heals her and brings her smile to her face once more. I have not heard anything regarding her status at this time.
- 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 while planning her wedding for later this summer.
- I have a dear friend who is going through a lot of constant pain right now and is working hard to get to the point where she can have surgery to solve the issues that cause this unrelenting pain she is suffering. Pray that her strength builds and the surgical solution comes sooner rather than later.
- 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 four of my family members as they work hard to find solutions to things that have caused so much chaos over the past four to six months.
- 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 several very dear friends of mine. We pray for answers to mysteries for health issues and money issues for them. We again bring up in prayer 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 all of those in our outreach ministries that their reach gains momentum, building up their spirits in Your name, 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: Let God, Let God ~ Jack Cassidy https://youtu.be/7SJ97-_v5U4
Sermon: We are working our way through the many verses that show good and evil and how to discern both. Today we are going through the Scroll of Romans and see this subject through Paul’s eyes. Today, we’re going to broaden the scope just a bit and focus on a single chapter in Romans. You will see the reason to choose this chapter to focus on today.
Romans 3:1-6 KJV – What
advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?
Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of
God.
For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God
without effect?
God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That
thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art
judged.
But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say?
Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)
God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?
Paul is proving to us that we all miss out on the sight of our slipping off the path of righteousness. Each and every person on this earth has to practice how, why, who and what to believe and so forth. Notice there are four of the five classic questions to solve mysteries. God’s unconditional love is not a mystery. How His unconditional love works within each of us can be, even to each individual. Why that unconditional love would surround us, no matter who we are, where we live, and so forth, has us often asking the questions, “Why?” “What am I supposed to be doing in life?” It is our questioning nature which often makes this next few verses pop into our minds.
Romans
3:7-9 KJV – For
if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet
am I also judged as a sinner?
And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we
say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.
What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved
both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
Jesus Himself told us that ALL of us will be judged when that time comes. There are NO exceptions in that fact. Why is that? Well, it’s simple in some ways, difficult in others when it comes to explaining this fact. We all know what Original Sin is, and the tendency to be “human” is easily seen in all sorts of ways. That’s why we strive to do our best in becoming more godly human beings in this world. We work through study, interaction with others, and so forth. Understanding how evil can skew anything and everything in this world to the wrong side of the fence. God wants us to strive for the best parts of this world, and our lives within it.
Romans
3:10-18 KJV – As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there
is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit;
the poison of asps is under their lips:
Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
Their feet are swift to shed blood:
Destruction and misery are in their ways:
And the way of peace have they not known:
There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Without Jesus’s ultimate sacrifice over two millennia in the past, there would be no redemption for any of us. However, we can’t just open the gates of heaven and walk in the second we leave this life behind. Without Jesus in our lives, we would not be able to manage that feat on our own. Jesus is our light at the end of the dark tunnel. He is our rainbow bridge as seen when the bow of colors touches the earth and reaches to the sky, to disappear into the clouds. It is God’s unconditional love that brings color to life in this world. All colors are His to bring to brilliant reality. Skin color doesn’t matter to God. Eye color doesn’t matter. None of that matters. Our hearts, minds, spirits, souls, those matter, and should matter, to all of us, always. It’s something that Paul drills home in this particular chapter.
Romans
3:19-26 KJV – Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to
them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world
may become guilty before God.
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his
sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed
by the law and the prophets;
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and
upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus:
Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the
forbearance of God;
To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and
the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Now, there are some unusual words to be shared in this set of verses. The redemption Jesus brought to this world is a PROPITIATION through FAITH from God for US. God’s Son knows, even now, that humanity has so much good within each individual, that it can counter anything evil, so long as we practice being good, righteous, just human beings. Now, I promised a definition for PROPITIATION. This comes from the root PROPITIATE, which is defined as to make favorably inclined; appease; conciliate.
So, what does that mean in the grand scheme of God’s Word? What does it mean in relation to the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus? It means that the sacrifice Jesus made two millennia, two decades, and one year ago at the age of thirty-three, transformed all of us who believe in this fact of the resurrection, and gave us a favorable inclination toward righteousness, assisting in removing the blight of original sin from our mind, our body, our spirit, and our soul, individually and collectively. It is the reason we have to listen and hear the truth as it is spoken and shared through Scripture. It’s why we have to return again and again to the Word and keep it written not just on a page in the Bible, but on our hearts, in our minds, always. We conclude our study of this amazing chapter in Paul’s writings with these verses here.
Romans
3:27-31 KJV – Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works?
Nay: but by the law of faith.
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the
law.
Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the
Gentiles also:
Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and
uncircumcision through faith.
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the
law.
Remember when we were studying James and we were warned to shut our mouths and hold our tongues? Well, Paul said the same thing right here. It is noted in the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as well. If all we do is talk just to talk, ramble on and on about anything that gets us nowhere, then we’re not going to stay on the true path of righteousness. In fact, we’ll get lost in the desert like the Israelites all those centuries ago. The LAW is GOD. It is RIGHTEOUSNESS completely unharmed, unblemished, clean and clear. Our voyage toward righteousness might take detours once in a while, but we can stay on the path of righteousness, even if we stumble and fall. Because God gave us the perfect road map. He is the WORD MADE MANIFEST. He is our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST, the BREAD of LIFE. 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: There was Jesus ~ Dolly Parton & Zach Williams https://youtu.be/37wV6D49iEY
~ 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 © 2021 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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