https://fb.watch/5nJGFlJQ0k/
Welcome to Covenant of Hope Ministries and our Mother’s Day Sunday sermon. 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. 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 and they have been pretty bad lately.
- Please pray for calm and peace for Sister Theresa Bogard’s sisters who are going through a lot right now. Sister Theresa Bogard may be getting more surgical assistance in repairing damages sustained in a hit and run two years ago and more. One of her sisters may finally get her answers for injuries she sustained at work. She is heading for surgery soon as a result. Please keep her up in prayer that she heals well.
- 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.
- Please pray for several of my family members. Four of the five of us have since retested for COVID-19 and came back negative. I too tested negative as of this past Thursday, glory be to God. My family is asking for prayers for our parents, as my father is declining rapidly since his bout with COVID-19 back in February. Be thankful to manage being with your loved ones as often as possible, because one day they will be gone.
- 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 pray for those affected by COVID-19, and those who have survived to tell the story. We pray for their healing well and able to return to normal life. We pray for an end to this terrible virus. We pray for our families far and wide, that they are healthy and able to spend as many moments together as possible, even virtually. We pray for those who have been affected physically or otherwise by the terrors and disasters that have occurred this past week. 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: When Mama Prayed ~ Randy Travis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnWr07WuMM8
Sermon: We are celebrating Mother’s Day, in a slightly different way this year. There are many reasons for us to celebrate mothers on this day around the world on what is a tradition in the United States more than nine other countries in this world, and none of them celebrate on the same day of the year. How are mothers celebrated in Scripture? Here is a verse from our previous study of Ephesians. It shares quite a bit in regard to celebrating mothers.
Ephesians 6:2-3 KJV – “Honor thy father and mother” which is the first commandment with promise “that it may be well with thee and that thou mayest live long on this earth.”
Our parents are only with us for so long on this earth. All of us learn this lesson in a sometimes brutal way when our parents pass away. Something several of us at Covenant of Hope Ministries know all too well. As a result, I am continuing from where we left off last week as I was led to continue in the study of the Scroll of Jude, written by the brother of Jesus, Judah.
Jude
10-11 KJV – But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what
they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after
the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
Judah is showing how easily evil hides. We’ve discussed how evil hides within quite a lot of the good things we learned in this world. See how Judah expresses what evil appears to be like? Brute beasts that corrupt themselves! What is a Brute Beast? Well, that might surprise some, but for those of us who adore studying Scripture, a Brute Beast is a soothsayer, a false teacher. Judah is warning those around him that there are false teachers everywhere, hiding as wolves in sheep’s wool. That’s where this next verse comes in.
Revelation 20:13 KJV – And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
There is no need to doubt what the future brings for every person on this earth. At the point where Revelation meets Reality, we will be judged by our works of faith. This next verse shares still more, from the son of Paul, Titus. All of us need to reflect on every part of Scripture, sometimes more than once, which is why we have a repetitive series of Scriptures and sayings from all the prophets, kings, queens, and saints.
Titus 1:15-16 KJV – Unto
the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is
nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.
They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable,
and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.
What does it mean to be defiled? It means to be marred, marked as sinful. Everyone has gone through a time where they have been scarred by sin in their lives. No one is exempt. These scars are easily seen by our Savior, and our Heavenly Father as well. These scars are the reason Jesus willingly died on that cross at the age of thirty-three. For that, we all should remember why we made it this far in our lifetimes. Otherwise we will see our lives turn into what this next verse portrays.
Psalm 73:9 KJV – They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.
We’ve all heard the phrase “open mouth, insert foot” at some point in our lives. When we hear those soothsayers, those false prophets around this world, we see this verse in living color, so to speak. It’s why Jesus and the Apostles and Disciples of God had to repeat the process so often in their lifetimes. This is what we see here in the words of Paul at Corinth.
1 Corinthians 10:5 KJV – But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
1 Corinthians 10:12 KJV – Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
We all have to be watchful. We have to listen and hear. We have to watch and behave ourselves accordingly. Our mothers taught many of us while we were growing up, to behave accordingly. We may not all have been Christians at the time, but we all learned at our mothers’ knees as we learned at our fathers’ as well. Judah again begs for us to be cautious with our do’s and deeds throughout our lives.
Jude 12 KJV – These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
Fear is something we hear about a lot in Scripture. As most of us who have studied the Word of God have learned, there are good types of fear and bad ones. The good ones keep us on that straight and narrow path Jesus blazed for us to reach and attain eternal life. Then there are those that end up as the vine and branches, plucked up and burned in the fire. This is what Judah is sharing with us. These Old Testament verses that follow are further proof that humanity needs to listen and hear the voice of God and pay attention to what He is teaching us.
Numbers 14:29 KJV – Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward which have murmured against me.
Numbers 14:37 KJV – Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord.
John 8:42-44 KJV – Jesus
said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love
me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he
sent me.
Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye
will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth,
because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his
own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Jesus was teaching in this passage, frustrated that the Apostles and Disciples did not understand what He was teaching and why we was doing so. Evil corrupts even the saintliest person on this earth, and Jesus was working to teach His Apostles how to discern this. That’s why we repeatedly explore the Gospels and the rest of Scripture. If we don’t work hard to learn it, we won’t be able to share what God’s Truth really means to ourselves and our children on in the future. This next verse continues the warning through the words of Peter and also of John the Beloved.
2 Peter 2:4 KJV – For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
Revelation 20:10 KJV – And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
When we understand that all of us, every last human being who ever lived on this earth and are living still, will be judged, and that judgment will be swift by a judge who doesn’t wish to be one. That’s a reason we have songs like our closing song today. Honor the Mothers around you whether through prayer or a phone call, a hug, or any other method today as we celebrate our Savior’s Mother, who was well cared for even long after Jesus had died on the cross and was resurrected up into heaven. 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: Mother’s Knees https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9szeiHBLsaQ&list=RD9szeiHBLsaQ&start_radio=1
~ 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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