Welcome to Covenant of Hope Ministries and our 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. 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’s sisters who are going through a lot right now. One of them 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 all the members of my family as we prepare to mourn my father’s passing. J. Mark Newman was 76 years of age upon his passing. His eight surviving children, wife of 53 years, grandchildren and great grandchild are all in mourning. I, as the eldest, will be traveling to my mother’s home once again to bid my father farewell until the Lord brings us all back together again.
- 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 up into prayer the entire family for John Mark Newman, as they all mourn his passing. We pray for safe travels for the children and family members as they voyage to Arizona this week. We pray for my father-in-law who also suffered from COVID-19 and spent almost three weeks in the hospital. We pray his strength will return into his body and he will remain on this earth for the benefit to his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. So many people are being infected with this deadly virus, we pray for their healing well and able to return to normal life. We continue to pray for an end to this terrible virus. We pray for family, friends, and colleagues affected by COVID-19. We pray for healing, and an ability to return to work. 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: On Eagle’s Wings https://youtu.be/MvpjxfWrjzY
Sermon: We are continuing our study in the Scroll of Jude. As long as we have worked together we have realized several things. One of those is that each sermon is as unique as it is alike based on the chapter and verse we would start with. We find ourselves halfway through the Scroll of Jude and this is our first verse to study.
Jude 13 KJV – Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
Now we know that the words Judah shares here are a warning to those who are following Christianity back while he was alive to share it. Judah had seen quite a lot of the chaos with his own eyes as his younger brother Jesus was preaching to all who would listen. The verse refers back to another prophet who foretold quite a bit of this world’s chaos while he was young.
Isaiah 57:20 KJV – But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
Wickedness, we’ve studied quite a lot as to what this one word contains in all of Scripture. How are the wicked singled out? Well, their own actions often paint them in that light. We’ve seen it many times even if we didn’t recognize it fully. Now we get to see John the Beloved’s interpretation of heaven and what would occur when Armageddon was in full swing.
Revelation 8:10-11 KJV –
And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning
as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the
fountains of waters;
And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters
became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made
bitter.
A falling star. Many of us have wished upon falling or shooting stars in our lifetimes. It’s something we should always put into context. This star is something very different, and it is named Wormwood. It poisons the waters and creates a bitter taste upon drinking that water. There are many contaminants in this world’s water supply as it is. So often there are many who ignore the warnings that are right in front of us in this world. One of those prophets was named Enoch, and here Judah is referencing that very special friend of God.
Jude 14 KJV – And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
Now, remember, Adam was Enoch’s father, and the first man to live on this earth. Note something interesting as well. Enoch was his seventh son. The appearance of seven in Scripture can be found in names, dates, and other parts and pieces we learn. We have a lot to learn from Scripture. It takes time and practice to do so, but the more we do, the more we take the Word to heart in a literal sense. While Paul was teaching the members of Galatia, a city in what today is modern Ankara, Turkey. He was describing our Savior to these men, women, and children who had never heard of the wonderful existence of our Lord and Savior Jesus.
Galatians 2:5 KJV – To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.
The truth is different for everyone, because how a person recognizes truth is as individual as anything else within our lives. Knowing the truth, and portraying truth can sometimes look very different if you ask those around at the time what they saw or heard. It is why we always have several viewpoints during events that warrant asking every person there what they heard or saw. It also warns us quite a bit like this verse.
Zechariah 14:5 KJV – And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
Zechariah was the eleventh of twelve minor prophets in the Old Testament. His life was important in the full spectrum of Scripture because he showed the people of Israel how important completing the temple was at that moment in time, for one day the Lord Jesus Christ, Savior of all, would preach within the walls of that very temple. His work ensured that the moments would be remembered by all in word and in spirit. His work also revealed that there were far too many false prophets, false teachers, and they would not be stopped until something cataclysmic happened. Here we see how Peter and Paul react to that thought.
2 Peter 2:1 KJV – But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
Romans 9:22 KJV – What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
Both Peter and Paul share something interesting when it comes to signs and symbols. While the world of seven deadly sins would be surrounding them, they could still see through them thanks to the patient, calm, steady, knowledge of God’s truth provided. This is why we have to learn how to use that longsuffering, or patience, to our advantage. God wants us to learn, even if we must repeat the stimuli many, many times. Sometimes we need that repetition to get through all the armor we tend to build up in our hearts, our minds, and even in our souls. The last thing we might want to think about is this next verse. However, if we keep in mind what this verse shares, we can prevent our stepping foot into that trap left by Satan.
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.
We can’t avoid judgment, because everyone and everything will be judged on that final day. This is something we all should prepare ourselves for. It’s more than an old song called “Standing Room Only” can prepare us for. It’s much, much more. This is what Judah shares here in these next few verses.
Jude
15-17 KJV – To
execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of
all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their
hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their
mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because
of advantage.
But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of
our Lord Jesus Christ;
Now, we have spoken of godliness, and a great many of us have heard the word cleanliness is next to godliness. Godliness is what helps us shed that mantle of sin, maybe not fully, but enough to make it easier to see what evil and wickedness is in this world we live in. Judah is telling us to pay attention and to use our heads and hearts simultaneously as we navigate life in this sometimes insane world we live in. We have two more segments of Scripture to think about this day. We are seeing exactly what the seven troubles of vanity, envy, lust, enmity, wrath, shame, and doubt can manage upon this earth and within all who live within it. That’s what the next passage shares.
Psalm 73:1-9
KJV – Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.
But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.
For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.
They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.
Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a
garment.
Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.
They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily.
They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue
walketh through the earth.
Notice how much David’s writing can be shared in the New Testament, referenced quite often. This should cause every person who listens and hears to pull out the Bible and start tracing the paths each verse would contain within it. Not only will you understand more about God’s plan, but you’ll also see how you fit within that plan. At one point in the future, Satan, the False Prophet of all False Prophets, will pay for what he has assisted in through the entire time he has been of this earth. That’s what this last verse today shares.
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.
Deception is seen all over this world today. Sometimes led by many a False Prophet. We need to, especially in this world filled with doubt, pay attention to what is happening and keep learning what Scripture means to each of us in the here and now, and in generations to come. 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: Amazing Grace https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDdvReNKKuk&list=PL614A115BF39E5936&index=89
~ 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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