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 add prayers for the family as they lost their uncle last week. May the God and Savior, and Holy Spirit be the Great Comforter and spread a blanket of hope around them.
- Please pray for a dear friend who is preparing for major surgery later this week. Pray that the doctor’s hands will be able to do all the repairs necessary, and ensure a much better year for my friend.
- Please pray for another dear friend as she continues to adjust to a new job started about a month ago.
- Pray for one of my high school classmates, Melissa, who just lost her mother yesterday.
- Pray for the daughter of a friend of a friend who has been in the hospital for quite some time suffering a near continuous fever.
- Pray for my friend Mary who has lost another extended family member.
- Pray for Covenant of Hope Ministries as we explore ensuring the thought of furthering the reach we have already both near and far.
- 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 sister and her family as they prepare for a cross-country move from their home in Arizona all the way to Georgia in the next week or so.
- Pray for my family as everyone adjusts to all the changes that are occurring this year.
- 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 have a great many things we are thankful for, jobs for those who are needing a change of pace, moves that are for better hearts, minds, and spirits. We are thankful that people are getting more jobs. We pray that 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 or are not finding jobs that fit them. We pray also for family members of colleagues and friends. We pray for those traveling back and forth around this world, so they remain healthy, safe, and secure. 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: Daughtry ~ Heavy Is the Crown https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWi4EOaBock
Sermon: We continue to explore Peter’s first epistle in Chapter 3 today. You will note by the title that we have a lot of learning to do. There is so much to learn from Peter’s writing and teaching. Let’s get started by taking up where we left off last Sunday.
1 Peter 3:5-6 KJV – Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
Now, we spoke about “lively stones” last Sunday. God expects us to all be participants in the creation and building of our future home up in heaven. He doesn’t expect us to be bumps on a log and do nothing to reach heaven. It takes work, practice, in all forms of faith and belief within that faith. In order to get even more perspective on this, let’s see what the Gospel of Matthew has to share in this regard.
Matthew 5:10-12 KJV – Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
Matthew 16:24 KJV – Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
What others think about you and your faith doesn’t matter. What God and Jesus recognize in your faith and heart, THAT matters. It’s why we are always cautioned about the evil natures of so many. For this reason we are guided to prepare ourselves to portray the best reason to walk the path toward Jesus and everlasting life. It was never promised to be an easy path. In fact, it’s probably the hardest thing we will ever have to do beyond saying good-bye. Let’s see what else supports these thoughts of our Lord and Savior.
1 Thessalonians 3:3-4 KJV – That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto. For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass, and ye know.
All of us have bad days, weeks, years even. We cannot deny that fact, as many of us have suffered a great deal in the past two years alone. We have weathered violent storms, turbulent seas, rapidly melting ice caps, earthquakes, tsunamis, bombings, shootings, and a seriously rising threat from diseases of all shapes and descriptions, just in the past year alone. Yet, we continue on. For all of us, this is what trying the spirits and trying the inner strength of each of us would be. Remember, Jesus warned us and promised us, most of the time in the same sentence as shared by the Word, and through the writings of revered men, including John the Beloved, and also just like this specific verse.
1 John 3:16 KJV – Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
The Love of God is perceived by the ordinary human here on earth because the biggest, and best, display of unconditional love, godly love, was portrayed in the heartbreaking, fear-inducing, crucifixion of Jesus Christ, almost two millennia in the past. All of the Twelve Apostles had to be willing to suffer the same as Jesus did on that long ago day. Nearly all of them did so, too. They did so for a single reason alone. Unconditional Love and the promise within that, an eternal life with Jesus and God.
Revelation 12:11 KJV – And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
Who would John the Beloved be speaking of here? Who is it that was standing in the way? Satan, the Devil, the Harbinger of Evil, that’s who would be defeated by the blood of the Lamb, our Savior Jesus Christ. Life matters, but what we do with our lives matters more. If we just go blindly through each day, what purpose does life have? A goal, the ultimate goal, is peace, hope, faith, patience, perseverance, wisdom, earned by the work of the heart, the mind, the spirit, and shared through the soul. Those all equal Unconditional Love, which is what Jesus expects us to realize and recognize. It is what God wants and has wanted since the expulsion from the Garden of Eden. We see some of that here.
1 Peter 3:7 KJV – Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,
The foundation of human existence was made in the Garden of Eden, and spread beyond that point due to disobedience. It’s not easy to be fully obedient, that’s what makes us human. We all know that we fall short, but Jesus made up for those shortcomings, and, so long as we believe and share that belief, we are made perfect through Him.
1 Corinthians 12:23 KJV – And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.
It doesn’t matter how we look on the outside. What matters is what we do with what’s on the inside, heart, mind, spirit and soul. What matters is how we prove our faith and belief with those around us that know us and those who would be strangers. We all have to learn all the footsteps of faith before we can pursue that walk with full knowledge, full understanding of what lays ahead of us in life. When we are born we aren’t created with a collegiate education already. We must learn the simple things at first, as children do, and pursue our knowledge, and understanding with the thirst, the curiosity, the purity of a child even as we become jaded and scarred by the cruelty found all over this world. This is what Jesus insisted we had to do, and so we must learn and re-learn with hearts and minds as clear as a child’s with eagerness and excitement rather than dread and fear.
Job 42:1-6 KJV – Then Job answered the Lord, and said, I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.
Job has a good question for God, here in these words. How do we get people to see from our personal perspective what is required to be understood of any particular situation, especially when they are bad situations? How do we focus our thoughts, words, and actions, to where everyone around us understands the reasons for those words, thoughts, and actions? It’s something that many people wonder about every day somewhere in this world. Just because you understand with everything in you about some situation, does not mean the person standing right beside you experiencing the exact same thing sees it your way. We all have experienced that. This is why God spoke to those who had been friends with Job in this manner.
Job 42:7-8 KJV – And it was so, that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job.
Job lost everything, his wife, children, property, livestock, all of it, to the point where no one was willing to even speak to him, or hear his words. Job didn’t do so because he didn’t believe, have faith, but because he didn’t realize that if he didn’t share his belief, share his faith even when others don’t see or understand as he did, then he wasn’t truly believing and having faith. It’s not easy to believe in a world filled with hate, sorrow, the wrong kinds of fear, enmity, wrath, shame, doubt, vanity, envy, and lust, all together can be a formidable blockade toward righteousness, and, as a result of the trials and tribulations Job suffered through, he realized just how hard it really can be to avoid those seven troubles, and to teach others how to avoid them too. That would be something his friends realized, albeit, a little later than they should have. A promise was made many, many years prior that righteousness, and all the parts of that righteousness, would wipe away all seven troubles and whatever comes with them. This is what is shared by Paul to the citizens in the city of Corinth.
2 Corinthians 5:21 KJV – For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Jesus was an innocent when He was crucified on the cross, died, and was buried. He bore ALL of the sins in this world, past, present, and future. That is a whole lot of pain, carrying every ounce of vanity, envy, wrath, enmity, lust, shame and doubt there would be throughout this world, then, now, and in the future yet to be. It’s a whole lot to bear on one set of shoulders, in one mind, one heart, one soul, and yet, Jesus did just that, for all of us. That’s what makes the path hard to find even now, because, even now, the seven troubles are found to be fruitful and multiplying throughout this world. This is what Peter cautions about in this next verse.
1 Peter 3:8 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.
Sure, we have bad moments, days, years, sometimes even bad decades individually or collectively. There’s always light at the end of the tunnel created by those bad episodes. That light is the unconditional love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is what all of the Apostles and Disciples truly wished then and now for Christians to see, feel, hear, know, understand and teach others out of that understanding to gain wisdom in Unconditional Love. This is what Paul shares to add to that.
Romans 4:25 KJV – Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
Now we will see prophecy and fulfillment of prophecy as shared through the prophet Isaiah and also the Gospel of Luke.
Isaiah 42:7 KJV – To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.
Luke 23:46 KJV – And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
Isaiah 53:4 KJV – Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
Jesus endured a lot as He hung there on the cross thirty-three years after His birth. The moment He gave up the ghost, was a moment that shook the entire earth. However, it was not enough to make all believe right then and there. Seeing, for far too many, would be believing. Truthfully, believing will help us see exactly what God wants us to know, to be, and to share with 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: Daughtry ~ I’m Alive https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZmM8fP0WMI
~ 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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