Welcome to Covenant of Hope Ministries and our Sunday sermon. I am Rev. Laura A. Neff. This ministry shares the Word of God, the Spirit of Christ Jesus. Our ministry was created with twelve people around this world back in 2008. Each of us shares God’s Word in ways He guides us to utilize. 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 & LinkedIn
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.
- Though he’s better than he has been in a lot of ways, 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.
- One of my closest friends is going in for back surgery this upcoming week and it is unknown how long she will be laid up away from her work.
- Another of my friends has just started her first job and is having a tough time with the changes to her schedule and also other issues that add to her worries.
- Pray for my daughter, who has not been feeling well.
- We are ever watchful in regard to the weather with tropical weather and with the high winds around many places. We pray for those caught in the many devastating fires and floods worldwide.
- We continue to pray for those who suffer or have suffered from the COVID-19 chaos. Let us pray for calm skies and seas, calm voices and spirits, and also healthy outcomes for those who are affected.
- 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 who are jobless, homeless, no matter what might have ended up causing either of those. Pray that providence would find them and ease the suffering.
- 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.
- Wishing my mother a belated birthday from this past Wednesday. Wishing a happy birthday to one of my many nieces. Yesterday was her seventh birthday.
Prayer: Father in heaven, this is our prayer for today. We pray for those who have been in the throes of the dangerous fires on just about every continent lately. We pray for those who are in the eye of tropical and other storms around the world as well. We pray for the other travelers around this world so they remain healthy. We pray for the medical scientists, and physicians who battle on the front lines of the COVID-19 virus and all the other terrible diseases in this world. We pray for those who have been threatened or killed by gunmen or other methods of death. 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 I Think About the Lord ~ Christ for the Nations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovFOoBMs_4g
Sermon: I titled today’s sermon Pay Attention to What You Are Doing In Your Life – Work Hard to Be a Child of God, Adopted Siblings of Jesus Christ for a very good reason. All of us have had days where we do not think before we act, and it doesn’t matter where we are in society, high up near the top or down closer to the bottom. We’ve all been all the way up at some points and all the way down at others in our lifetimes, no matter how old, or young, we might be. We have seen so much around this world that makes us overthink, worry, even fear. These are things that everyone experiences, but God wants us to see Him, to see Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, will protect each of us who has the faith to believe. Strengthening faith is something even the Apostles and Disciples of Jesus had issues with while they lived, both before, and after the resurrection of our Lord and Savior. Of late, we are working to understand how the Apostles persevered through all forms of danger, pain, and sorrow. We continue to explore Peter’s first epistle. There is so much to be discussed in just a few sentences as shared by the Apostle Peter. Let’s start where we left off last week.
1 Peter 2:11 KJV – Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
We know what it is to be enamored by the seven troubles. We see them so often in this world, we should be able to recognize them in the blink of eyelashes. This is something that takes a great deal of practice. It’s one of those reasons so many people hear, or say, the words “practice what you preach”. This is what the Apostles also learned the hard way. This is shared in these supporting verses.
2 Peter 1:21 KJV – For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Colossians 3:19 KJV – Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.
Psalm 119:19 KJV – I am a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me.
Galatians 5:16 KJV – This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
Now we have to look at the seven troubles again. There are so many ways to recognize vanity, envy, lust, enmity, wrath, shame, and doubt in this world. Seriously, all you need to do is open your home page on the internet, turn on the television, or unfold your daily newspaper to find all seven of the little gremlins running rampant. This is what is shared in Galatia to the Galatians as Paul preached here.
Galatians 5:21 KJV – Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Paul also shared the same in different words to a different audience, this time in Rome. Let’s see what he shares here.
Romans 8:13 KJV – For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
We cannot leave the siblings of Jesus out of this conversation. Again we are brought back to the Scroll of James, known truthfully as Jacob, shared as Iakōbos in Greek, where the letter I is pronounced as a J. Here we see His take.
James 4:1 KJV – From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
Too often we forget that fighting wars, fighting amongst ourselves, even fighting our personal demons, is something that can set us back as easily as an injury can lay us up for a day, week, month, and so on. Let’s see what Peter shares in his next verse here.
1 Peter 2:12 KJV – Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
While I was growing up, in school, in church, in Girl Scouts, and other places, honesty was the best way to do anything. Lies hurt, not just ourselves, but others around us. This is something we often fail at, and it doesn’t matter how important our jobs are, how much money we have, or anything else. Lies, even the smallest of lies, can hurt us as much as they hurt others. That’s what this verse in the city of Ephesus shares, in the words of Paul.
Ephesians 3:10 KJV – To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
We, of course, go back and forth in the Word to share how much the Apostles and Prophets, Disciples and more who followed the Word of God even to this day, and find connections like this one again hearing the words of Paul in Rome.
Romans 12:16 KJV – Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.
The longest surviving Apostle, John the Beloved, shared so very much with the people around him. He worked for many, many years spreading the Word as Jesus asked. He spent nearly every waking moment sharing what Jesus taught all those years before. He worked endlessly, even to the last breath in his body, to keep working faith, sharing how strong faith can be if we work faith, test faith, just have faith. Here we see again what John the beloved has to share.
1 John 3:18 KJV – My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
Like Peter and John the Beloved, we all have to reflect on the Words Jesus shared with His Apostles, Disciples, and followers of all shapes and descriptions. Here we see His thoughts regarding our ability to share the Word of Truth through the Gospel of Matthew.
Matthew 5:16 KJV – Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Glorify your Father in Heaven. Let your light shine out of the darkness that has enveloped this world, and share the good things you do, for others around you, for family, friends, colleagues, even the homeless and beaten down. All are deserving of God’s love if they work hard to bring His Word to one and all. Remember to be humble, remember to be honest, with yourself as you face your reflection in the mirror, and with others around you.
1 Peter 2:13 KJV – Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;
We all have hard knocks in life. We all have days we wonder why on earth we’re still around, wondering if we should be or not. Every time we do this, we whittle away those good parts of us, the godly, glorious, fulfilling, loving parts of us. Jesus said something important in this line of thought. We see that in the Gospel of Matthew here.
Matthew 22:21 KJV – They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.
Give to MANKIND what belongs to MANKIND. Give to GOD what is GOD’S. There is a difference. The difference is that GOD reaches farther than any man or woman on this earth could possibly manage by him or her self alone. Someone somewhere is going to say, “Hey, wait a minute, there are a lot of phenomenal human beings on this earth, why shouldn’t we celebrate that?” Greatness is not something we humans can measure accurately. God is the only one who can do so. Jesus proved that in the words shared. Render to Caesar the things that are his. Render to God that which is Godly, Sacred only to HIM. Paul added to this thought with the citizens of Rome in our final two verses.
Romans 13:1 KJV – Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
Romans 13:7 KJV – Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.
I’m going to repeat Peter’s words in today’s sermon.
1 Peter 2:11-13 KJV – Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
Having your conversation honest among the
Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your
good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be
to the king, as supreme;
For now, the world goes on as it has for almost two millennia since the Resurrection at this point. In the days to come, our Savior is going to descend from on high, and judge the living and the dead. At that moment, we will know who has managed the hard work of remaining in the faith Jesus asked us to share, and in the Unconditional Love that God has always wanted us to recognize, realize, in our lives and share it with those around us. Now, that’s something to think about as we pray in the prayer that Jesus taught us.
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: This I Believe ~ The Creed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtUNQpu2b7Q
~ 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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