https://fb.watch/8pwV6Y_B60/
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.
- Pleases pray for the family, friends, and former USS John F. Kennedy crewmates of Durel Mammen from St. Pete Beach, Florida, who served VA-75 back during the Lebanon War.
- 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 and they continue to mourn the loss of his uncle just over a week ago.
- We are ever watchful in regard to the weather with tropical weather and with the high winds around many places. Let us pray for calm skies and seas. Let us pray for those locations worldwide that are suffering from volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, wildfires, hurricanes and other tropical weather.
- We continue to pray for those who suffer or have suffered from the COVID-19 chaos. Let us pray for good decisions, relief, 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.
Prayer: Father in heaven, this is our prayer for today. We pray for those who have suffered terrible losses in this world. We pray for more faith and understanding. 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. We pray also for family members of colleagues and friends. We pray for those traveling back and forth across this country for whatever business or family related necessities there would be. 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 patience and peace amidst the anger, angst, pain, fear, and sorrow. 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: Los Lonely Boys ~ Forgiven https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3jlQmKHYsY&list=PLzDg5sf9OJ8Ojv3yrykcT2gzwaTukc3eX&index=26
Sermon: We continue to explore Peter’s first epistle, just about in the middle of the third chapter. There is so much Peter shares in his work, in just five chapters. We see this pattern several times through Scripture. There is quite a lot packed into just a few words. This is where we begin today.
1 Peter 3:14 KJV – But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled;
Christians everywhere far back in history, here and now today, and on into the future need to see these individual followers and their experiences during the life of our Savior Jesus Christ, and carrying on after His resurrection into glory. It wasn’t easy to be a follower of Jesus back in the days Peter and the rest lived through. In fact, they were definitely the outcasts in too many ways. Today, the same can be said in parts of this world. We all together have to work hard to get the truth embedded into the Word of God out there with all the confusion, the fear, along with the seven troubles of wrath, enmity, vanity, envy, lust, shame, and doubt. It is no simple task to create a path through all the bad things in this world that has accumulated since shortly after the earth repopulated when Noah and his family were sent out to the four corners to do as God instructed. We know that Jesus was a phenomenal teacher, minister, of the Word, and that rubbed off on His family, friends, and followers. We see this in the words of His younger brother James, as shared here.
James 1:12 KJV – Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
Temptation is EVERYWHERE. It can be just a tiny amount or as great and grand as the longest, tallest wall you ever saw. In all ways, giving in to temptation is far too easy, which is why it takes so much to remind ourselves to avoid it. This is something that all the prophets, the Apostles, and every follower of God and Jesus would have wrestled with, most of their lifetimes, and we do the same, otherwise we wouldn’t have to be reminded of the fact. There is a way to ease the conflict within us, and this is what Peter shares in this next verse.
1 Peter 3:15 KJV – But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
It all starts within, our spiritual, physical, heart is just one part of us that needs God just to survive all the terrible temptations in this world. Our mind, spiritual, intellectual, physical needs God to get through all the physical and mental pain and strife we go through hourly sometimes. The good that comes from our picking a fight with temptation shows in ways that will make God smile and cheer us on, just as Jesus saves us in every way possible. Take these words from King David to heart.
Psalm 119:46 KJV – I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed.
Paul’s sons also learned at the knees of Jesus and the twelve Apostles. It is something that should bring inspiration to each of us as we learn what they have learned both as a group and as individuals. As we all know, faith is something we absorb individually but celebrate collectively, as family, as friends, just as Jesus asks us to manage.
Titus 3:7 KJV – That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Now, let’s see what Peter brings from his experiences with Jesus and how much of that knowledge, that wisdom in the application of knowledge was managed. It’s very important to listen and hear, act and react, in ways that Jesus instructs us all to manage. That’s what we are working toward understanding. With learning added to understanding and added to putting that to work we gain the wisdom Jesus wants us to manage. So let’s go from here.
1 Peter 3:16 KJV – Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.
Ah, and now we get to the part of the mind that regularly gets tested, your conscience. In this case, Peter shares how evil can invade our thoughts, and so forth. Fight that urge you get to retaliate, because their evildoings will be their downfall, do not allow yourself to get sucked into that potential. This is what Peter is sharing here. It’s something we all have to work at, and that can be a serious challenge with all the various temptations around this world. It sounds, without hiding the thought, as though persecution is easier to manage than pursuit of truth. This is why Jesus warned His Apostles and Disciples here.
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.
Imagine all the trials and tribulations that have happened, just since the day you understood what faith in God would be. Imagine all the trials and tribulations that occurred around this world to every person that would dwell here. That is a lot, a whole lot, of potential persecution, falsifications, unrighteousness, all of it together. It’s a terrible thought that we are seeing so much today, as it was yesterday even in different points of view. This is a bit of wisdom Peter shares.
1 Peter 3:17 KJV – For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.
It isn’t easy to be virtuous, righteous. That’s why there are, as there were, plenty of ways to make up for lost time, to ensure that we can find the true path, specifically the path Jesus left for us as shared here.
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.
There is so much to learn when it comes to God’s Word and how we should put our own thoughts and experience with what we learn from Scripture. A lot of things studied often, sadly, will be read but not remembered, spoken but not heard, written but easily erased. It takes dedication, testing our faith. The hope is right there for us to embrace. We find this hope reflected in this next verse written by Paul for the citizens of Thessaly.
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.
Have you ever considered sin to be an affliction? The definition of affliction is a cause of mental or bodily pain, as sickness, loss, calamity, or persecution. Accurately so, the thoughts of Paul and Peter both share just what sin should feel like to us. It is something that pulls us down, holds us back, and it is not easy to fight it off. Much like the flu, or other illnesses and health conditions can manage, affliction can do the same to our faith, our belief, in God’s Word, in the salvation through Jesus Christ, and even in the gift of the Holy Spirit. Our advantage is that Jesus Christ absolved our sins by suffering for it and dying for our salvation.
1 Peter 3:18 KJV – For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
John the Beloved shared it as well in his teachings both early and late in his lifetime. We see this here in these two verses.
1 John 3:16-17 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. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
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.
Always we see where the New Testament men and women brought forward the wisdom of the elders, the prophets of the Old Testament years. It’s important to see these peeks back because wisdom is something that takes work, learning, which they did at the knees of their parents and the elders, from the history of all Judaism and on forward to Christianity. That’s where our last three verses take us today.
Isaiah 53:9 KJV – And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
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.
Romans 4:25 KJV – Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
There is so much to learn from the Apostles, the Prophets, Kings, Disciples of God and Jesus. There is still more to learn within ourselves as we absorb this knowledge and apply it to life as we know it. Let the gift of God’s Unconditional Love fill your hearts, minds, and spirits throughout this week. 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: Heaven ~ Los Lonely Boys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvkzoqQ5Oak
~ 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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