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. Pray for the family as they lost his uncle this past week.
- Pray for my mother’s cousin Harry who has just returned home after major surgery.
- We are ever watchful in regard to the weather with tropical weather and with the high winds around many places. 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 my dear friend whose surgery went well, but has left her in some serious pain while recuperating. Pray that her pain eases away and that everything would be fixed at long last as a result of four hours of 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.
- We send out a belated happy birthday for my sister, Emilie, who will be traveling to my end of the map next month. Her birthday was yesterday.
Prayer: Father in heaven, this is our prayer for today. Father we pray for those who have been ill in the hospital, for those who have been lost this past week, including Elder Cal’s Uncle A. H. We pray for those who have been placed into hospice care, including a friend Jeanie Catron. We pray for my mother’s cousin Harry who has just returned from the hospital after surgery and my dear friend who also has just returned home to recover from back surgery. We pray for those who have come to any form of harm around the world, by terrorism and by the ordinary as well. We pray for the ones suffering from the latest round of COVID-19 and all the other diseases that seem to be surging these days. 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: What a Friend We Have In Jesus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTpUQO0aryw
Sermon: We continue to explore the third chapter of Peter’s first epistle today. There is a great deal to learn through the eyes of the rock upon which the church that Christ told him would be the foundation stones, the twelve, with Peter and Jesus as cornerstones. It’s something that took work for Peter to first believe, and then do all he could to fulfill the task Jesus set forth for them to manage. So, with that, we see what Peter has to share here.
1 Peter 3:9 KJV – Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.
In this world that we live in right here and now, much like what the Apostles saw, there is a great deal of evil and evildoers. There is a huge amount of despair, fear, anger, all of those things that are contrary to the mandate Jesus put forward for the Apostles and Disciples to teach those near and far, Gentile or Jew, anywhere known or unknown. These are the words Jesus shared in that respect.
Matthew 5:44 KJV – But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
Christianity and those who practice it, would still, even this far forward from the day our Savior was resurrected and ascended into heaven, be surrounded by enemies of the very concept of love one another. It is something we see in millions of ways, and have experienced up close and personally on many occasions in our individual and collective lives, no matter how long or short our time has been here on this earth. Let’s see what Paul shares in Ephesus that connects to Peter’s epistle.
Ephesians 4:32 KJV – And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
You’ve probably heard the phrase “forgiveness is divine”. So many of us have a very difficult time managing forgiveness, no matter the misdeed that happens, the age we would be, too many of us carry that chip on the shoulder, that grudge, which is exactly the opposite that we should manage. It isn’t easy, and Jesus promised that it would be a heavy stone to drag with us if we simply held on to that. It’s why Jesus always said to lay down your burdens, pains, sorrows, at the foot of God, our Heavenly Father. This verse is one we share quite a lot. There is a lot to obeying the law of Love One Another, not as people do, but as God and Jesus do through the Holy Spirit for each and every human being in this world. There is a difference in how we should react between government and God. This is what Jesus shared back in the Gospels.
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.
The highest, mightiest power is not found where presidents, congresses, parliaments and money rule. People cannot hold the kind of power Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit hold as the Holy Trinity, the three in one. This is what Paul shared with the Romans.
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.
Now we’ll look again toward Peter’s first epistle. We’ll hear a similar view to James, the brother of Jesus.
1 Peter 3:10 KJV – For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile:
Now, remember in our sermons and studies how often we have referenced the Epistle of James, whose name actually translates to Jacob, the half brother of Jesus. His knowledge was gained literally at the knee of his older brother, our Savior Jesus Christ, and he was with all the Apostles and Disciples from a very young age. Remember, Jesus died at thirty-three years of age, and His half biological siblings, save one, were younger. This is what James shared in his epistle.
James 3:5-6 KJV – Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.
There is so much that is reflected by the Apostles, the Disciples, and the siblings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There is, equally as much, that shares premonitions of what would happen upon the birth of our Savior. That’s what we see in the words of David, King of the Jews, ancestor of our Savior Jesus Christ.
Psalm 34:12 KJV – What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good?
All of us want to be able to know that there is a better future to be had than our past, and for all ancestors that came before us. Everyone in the here and now would want things to be better, far better, than what we grew up seeing. Yet, so often we see just as much of those seven troubles wrath, shame, envy, lust, enmity, vanity, and doubt as our ancestors saw, and sometimes it seems to be a million times worse than it was before any of us existed. There are many who see so much despair and hatred that they can’t see beyond all the bad to find the good that also peeks through. This is why we need reminders hourly on occasion, as to how much the words love one another are actually portrayed around this world we live on. Faith is something that needs to be felt in the heart, heard in your ears, believed in your mind, and carried through your spirit and soul. It is something all of the Apostles taught their children and grandchildren, like Paul’s son Titus here.
Titus 2:8 KJV – Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.
Sound speech that cannot be condemned. What kind of speech would that be? Is it the kind that doesn’t ruffle feathers the wrong way? Is it the kind that gets whispered under the breath? No, sound speech, in this case, would be founded fully upon truth, upon faith, upon belief, and it isn’t easy to find words that don’t offend someone somewhere, even if they are verified truthful. We’ve heard that phrase, be careful who you offend, I’m sure. Well, the same can be said about actions and reactions in this world. Let’s wait, think about our actions, our words, before we speak, or do anything. It’s not easy to hold back because, after all, we are human. This is what Peter shares next.
1 Peter 3:11 KJV – Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.
What in the world does this verse actually say? I remember asking my grandmother that question when I was somewhere around fourteen, I think it was. Back then I knew little about how dramatically the English language had changed in the number of centuries since King James ordered the creation of a single Bible filled with the Word of God. So, this is what the verse actually shares.
“Let him deliberately avoid evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and bring it into being.” That’s what the verse shares, though the various translations don’t use the same words. It is a challenge that Peter delivers to those who are listening to him here. Challenges excite people that want to be good, do good, and share that goodness with others. We hear similar thoughts in the epistles to the citizens of Galatia as Paul shares.
Galatians 5:1 KJV – Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Galatians 5:13 KJV – For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
Freedom, that’s something not to be taken lightly. It takes work to remain free. It’s something beyond a country, a continent, freedom is as equalizing as it is confining for some. This is what free will can cause in this world. We are as free as we can be within the strictures of society as it surrounds us. We can share freedom with others as well as we can. It’s not meant to be easy to attain the kind of freedom belief in God provides. You see, believing and having faith in God, does so much more than three words as Jesus shared them could possibly reveal. Love one another. We hear those three words a lot. How often do we share them? How often do we care about the true meaning of those three words? How often do we recognize that it means more than words, more than actions, more than thoughts? That’s what Paul shares here.
Romans 12:10 KJV – Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;
Love, honor, protect, believe, hope, honor, honesty, all of this together is where peace lives, in Unconditional Love. These are things we need to learn about, practice with, and share with those who we meet every day, whether known or unknown, because when we can do that, we are living exactly as Jesus wants us to live. Let’s see what Paul shares here.
Philippians 2:3 KJV – Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
The amazing gift of the Word of God, the Salvation of Mankind, began as a promise all the way back to the beginning of life on this earth. That’s something we need to remind ourselves about. It’s why Jesus instructed the Apostles and Disciples during His time with them alive as a man on this earth. Listen to the words shared here and think about them today.
John 13:35 KJV – By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
Three little words that prove so much. It’s an amazing feat what three words can manage in this world. Three little words, and yet this world mangles that directive Jesus provided us all those years ago. Peter worked very, very hard to become the holy man that Jesus laid the foundation of His church upon. Righteousness takes practice, and Peter proved that. We see that in these next words he shares.
1 Peter 3:12-13 KJV – For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?
Peter references our Father, our Savior, and the Holy Spirit, all in two sentences here. He provides us the path to see Them in everything we have surrounding us. It is the ability to recognize where God is in our lives, where the Holy Spirit helps us in this life we live, and the grace of the Savior and His existence manages even thousands of years after His resurrection. Let’s see what support Paul, King Solomon, and King David have to share with us in our last verses today.
Romans 8:28 KJV – And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Proverbs 24:21 KJV – My son, fear thou the Lord and the king: and meddle not with them that are given to change:
Psalm 119:46 KJV – I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed.
Ephesians 6:5 KJV – Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;
Wisdom takes knowledge added to experience, added to faith, hope, patience, honesty, and all those good parts that exist somewhere in all of our hearts, minds, and spirits. This is what God wants us to recognize, even in our darkest days, that there is hope in the three easiest words to repeat, LOVE ONE ANOTHER. 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: Just a Little Talk With Jesus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB9kQclZDms
~ 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.
