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.
- 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.
- We are ever watchful in regard to the weather, tropical weather and with the high winds around many places.
- We pray for those caught in the various wildfires, floods, and mudslides around this world.
- 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.
- Pray for one of my family members who has suffered a serious injury this past week. X-rays share at least one broken bone and there will be more tests to determine the best plan of action toward healing.
- My friend Mary has lost two or more friends in the past two weeks. Pray for their families.
- A close friend is preparing for surgery within the next two weeks and needs prayers that her pain levels and other issues will subside enough to get through the surgery and the recovery after that surgery.
- 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.
Prayer: Father in heaven, this is our prayer for today. We pray always for the ones suffering as a result of shootings and unrest around this world. We pray that pure truth can be seen where too many lies have filled life as we know it. We pray for those whose jobs are in a scary position due to the economic fallout from this terrible virus and the lockdowns that have occurred as a result. We pray for relief in too many views that the economies and the lives of those who are citizens of this world find a better set of paths to take than what is currently found. We pray also for family members of colleagues and friends. 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. 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: Della Reese ~ Walk With You https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CZKIrRTIRs&list=PL614A115BF39E5936&index=21
Sermon: We continue to explore the second chapter of Peter’s first epistle today. Let’s start here.
1 Peter 2:8 KJV – And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
Peter issues a warning quite a lot like several others, including Jesus’s brother Jude, and prophets of the distant past for the Jews, including this one. God speaks to His earthbound warriors for unconditional love, for bringing people an understanding of what faith and following true faith would be all about. This is why we go back to old prophets that brought the hardest truths. Isaiah was one of those prophets and this is what he shares.
Isaiah 8:14 KJV – And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Every life on this earth has come across that stumbling stone, sometimes that same one several times in their lifetimes. It’s that rock in a hard place consideration that all of us have confronted at one time or another in our lives. Like Isaiah, Jesus, and others, we too must often experience the same stumbling stones over and over again. That’s why we need to learn to pay attention. This is what Judah, brother of Jesus, shares.
Jude 4 KJV – For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
We all have received one form or another of warnings in our lives. Warnings that tell us to change the direction of our lives. Warnings that tell us “don’t go there”. These are internal warnings, without those “beware” signs that we see around us in real life. However, much like those warning signs we see on doors, along the side of a cliff, and so forth, these mental and heartfelt warnings are just as important to pay attention to. This is what Peter is sharing with those who are around him. Mainly, because he too had that very same form of warning happen to him. Let’s look at what Peter shares with us next.
1 Peter 2:9 KJV – But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;
We are the chosen! We are God’s children, brothers and sisters of our Savior Jesus Christ. A tremendous gift that Jesus prepared for us awaits. However, that doesn’t mean we forget the lessons He shares with us in His Word and through the friends that have emerged since the moment of the Resurrection. This promise brought into the forefront of life far back in the history of Scripture as shared here.
Deuteronomy 4:20 KJV – But the Lord hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day.
In the days of Moses, Aaron, Isaiah, and all of those prophets, leaders of the Jews, there is something we all need to learn. In this case we have to learn how dedicated God is toward each of us, and that we, as His children, need to be just as dedicated toward Him. It is important to keep our spiritual selves as healthy as our physical and mental selves. Each of those would be a part of the whole person we would be. Each of those are vital to our very existence. This is what Peter is sharing through the words of those prophets who had been there before. We see this through the eyes of Isaiah here.
Isaiah 9:2 KJV – The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.
Isaiah 42:16 KJV – And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.
Connecting it to the Apostles and Disciples of Jesus is just as important, that’s where we connect with Paul and the other Apostles here.
Acts 26:18 KJV – To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.
2 Corinthians 4:6 KJV – For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
There are so many things to think about when it comes to faith, and how we reach that point of faith where we recognize every inch of that faith, and where our footsteps will carry us while keeping that faith alive. Those footsteps follow through faith, toward our Savior Jesus Christ in a path He left for us to pursue with all the faith, all the love, hope, patience, peace, knowledge, understanding, and wisdom that builds within each of us as long as we are willing to pursue it with open hearts, open minds, healthy spirits and souls. This is again what Peter shares the end goal of all faith in Christ.
1 Peter 2:10 KJV – Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
Before we learn what it is to truly believe, we’re often trying to figure out what is worthy of believing, where our faith should be and what that faith consists of. Paul, while in Rome, shared still more with the Romans about mercy, what it was worth, what it portrays to those who see us deliver mercy, or being thankful for others sharing mercy with us. Love takes work, a lot of work, and Peter, Paul, and the rest proved that fact in their lifetimes and in their words which we share even today. Here we see what Paul has to say in Rome.
Romans 9:25 KJV – As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
There is, honestly, so much to learn just from a few words shared in these short epistles, letters, that would bring inspiration, faith, hope, and unconditional love to any who will listen, hear, read, understand, and share with those around them. That’s what is so important about our belief systems in this world. Sharing those beliefs with those around us is as important as it is to study what our own personal beliefs would be. Did you know God believes in us, no matter how scatterbrained our paths might be as we seek truth and faith and unconditional love? Did you know He proves it every moment of every day, for as long as there has been day and night? He proves it through the words of Hosea here.
Hosea 1:9-10 KJV – Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God. Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.
It takes knowledge of who God is, and who we are. Where does God fit our lives and How does He do so? Where do Jesus and the Holy Spirit fit into our lives? Where do we fit in with the Trinity? What part of that Holy Sacred Trinity changes every aspect of our life, as we know it, for as long as we have existed even in the smallest beginnings of creation? God gives us all types of ways to see what we individually and collectively mean to Him and His existence. We see some of that in this verse.
Hosea 2:23 KJV – And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.
Our last view of Scripture that supports Peter’s Epistle would be with the Apostle Paul in Rome as he spoke to the Roman citizens who would listen. Like the others, there are warnings to pay attention to. All of us should see every form of warning in this world as we live day by day. Let’s see what this shares.
Romans 10:19 KJV – But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you.
In the beginning was the Word, as Scripture shares in many ways. The Word was with God and was God and is God unconditionally preparing each of us for a time where all the world that is will fall away to reveal a new world devoid of troubles, devoid of pain, of sorrow, fear, and all the rest that is created through vanity, envy, lust, enmity, wrath, shame and doubt. 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: Anne Murray ~ Put Your Hand In the Hand ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY-2XHqKGuw&list=PL614A115BF39E5936&index=181
~ 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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