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 with the high winds around many places where wildfires would be. We continue to pray for those who suffer or have suffered from the COVID-19 chaos. We pray also for those who have been through earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, flooding, and more. Let us pray for calm skies and seas, calm voices and spirits, and also healthy outcomes for those who are affected.
- Pray for a friend of a friend whose daughter Everleigh is back in the hospital with too many cancer cells due to Leukemia.
- Pray that another friend gets good news in two weeks regarding their healing process, pray that it continues to go well.
- Pray for my employer’s wife who has been doing very poorly of late and pray that my employer’s chest cold gets better soon as well.
- 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.
REMINDER: Next week clocks go back in the United States, so we will broadcast an hour earlier.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Today is my sister-in-law Allison’s birthday.
Prayer: Father in heaven, this is our prayer for today. We pray for all those who suffer from diseases of all forms including cancer, like a friend of a friend’s daughter, little Everleigh, who is back in the hospital with too many cancer cells in her blood as she fights Leukemia. We pray for those who are fighting to survive all cancers, illnesses, and other ailments. We pray for patience and peace in those places where there is too little of either. We pray for those who have suffered losses from flooding, earthquakes, or volcanic eruptions around the 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: Lincoln Brewster ~ God of the Impossible https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKBj457ILUo
Sermon: We continue to explore Peter’s first epistle chapter four today. There is a lot to talk about so let’s begin here.
1 Peter 4:8 KJV – And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.
What is the meaning of charity? For most of us it is to give to others freely without expectation of something in return. This is exactly what Peter is sharing. Being charitable can be a lot of things. Donating clothes, money, food, those are the obvious types we see the most. Others include donating your time and experience for things that need done. For instance, helping a neighbor, relative, or friends with rebuilding after a devastation, rescuing after a fire, storm, or whatever. We see the truest meaning of charity less and less in some places around this world. That’s a sad thing. It truly is. James adds to this thought with these words of wisdom.
James 5:20 KJV – Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
As Peter shared, James also shares the same. It is not easy to overcome a multitude of sins in our world today. There is so much we often barely see light at the end of a tunnel of pain, sorrow, debt, and destruction. There are always ways to overcome, and one of them is faith in your belief in God, in Jesus, in the Holy Spirit, and what the Trinity can do for hearts, spirits, and souls. This is why we get reminders like these three verses provide.
Acts 20:28 KJV – Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
1 Corinthians 9:17 KJV – For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me.
1 Corinthians 13:7 KJV – Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Have you ever gained a houseguest while under protest to do so? If you have a heart that is too big, the possibility is there. It is very hard sometimes to be hospitable for long periods of time if those who we are offering the charity toward would not offer something in return, not necessarily money, but taking care of things themselves so as to get back onto their feet. We all have felt the pressure of this consideration at least once in our lifetimes. This is what Peter shares about hospitality toward each other.
1 Peter 4:9 KJV – Use hospitality one to another without grudging.
In this world today, anything and everything can disrupt life as we know it. We’ve seen it in living color all over the world lately. Peter and Timothy both share what it is to be on the right or wrong side of this consideration. Let’s take a look at two verses from Timothy’s epistles.
1 Timothy 3:2-3 KJV – A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;
1 Timothy 3:8 KJV – Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre;
What is LUCRE? It is illegal money, gain, or reward. This is something we must be aware of, and leery of as well. It is unknown to some how the trap of illegal actions and activities can hit you even with you completely unaware. That’s why we have to learn to pay closer attention to who we deal with, offer charity toward, and so forth. There are a lot of reasons to not trust someone in a situation. It’s something even Scripture has the ability to prepare us for. We see here in the scroll of Hebrews what we should pay attention to.
Hebrews 13:2 KJV – Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
Hebrews 13:16 KJV – But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
Feed a hungry stranger once in a while. Help house a person or neighbor who lost their home in some way. Give clothes to others who may need them. Anything of excess should be utilized for those who have nothing. All of us have had those moments at some point where money was scarce, jobs were threatened or lost, disasters have occurred in one form or another. We’ve seen a lot of this just in two years with the fires, flooding, earthquakes, and rampant disease or contagion that spreads far faster than any of us are prepared for. The gifts of excess should be shared where there isn’t any. This is what Peter shares here.
1 Peter 4:10-11 KJV – As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
God’s grace is a huge gift for those who have nothing, and whose spirits have been beaten or broken by life as it is lived. Those of us who can share our faith freely and willingly can bring smiles to those who most likely haven’t smiled in far too long. Praying with someone who is in dire straits can often give hope where they see none. That’s yet another thing shared through most of Scripture, and we see it here in our final four verses.
Ephesians 4:29 KJV – Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
Romans 12:6-8 KJV – Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.
Hebrews 13:20 KJV – Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
Luke 12:42 KJV – And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season?
All of us have the opportunity to be mean, stingy, greedy, and evil, or the antithesis of these, being friendly, giving, patient, and loving. On this day, All Hallows Eve, in the year 2021, we have the opportunity to pay attention to the gifts Jesus and God have given us through sacrifice and spirit, love and hope, faith and peace, forgiveness and friendship. It’s up to us to share those same gifts with those around us, friend or foe, known or unknown. 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: The Belonging Co ~ Where Would I Be
~ 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.
