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. Add to the prayers with a need for funds required for survival for all of them.
- Pray for a dear friend of mine who is still recovering from back surgery. Pray that the pain and post-surgical issues dissipate completely and my friend heals well.
- Pray for a family friend who lost her husband a week or so ago to COVID-19. They are and were dear friends of my parents.
- Pray for my sister as she gets in tune with Georgia rules and regulations for their students. Pray that my nephew gains the assistance he needs to continue his education in the best way possible.
- Pray for several other friends who have lost loved ones in the past week.
- 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.
- 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 thank you for bringing us to this place at this time. We thank you for all the blessings that have been bestowed. We thank you for answering prayers for so many. Bring peace to those who are at war, no matter the type. Bring hope to those who are oppressed and repressed, threatened by terrorism and more. Bring faith for those who feel lost and confused. Build upon the love that people have for one another. Help those who seek safe haven, from all the various chaotic weather, fierce and fiery locations involved in wildfires, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and more. We pray for those who have lost loved ones, recently and remembered. We pray for the sick and the injured that they heal. 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: Faith, Hope, Love, Repeat ~ Brandon Heath https://youtu.be/NoO8POz2gtE
Sermon: We continue to explore Peter’s first epistle chapter four today. There is so much to learn about how Peter taught those who followed him through his time after the death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let’s start where we left off last Sunday.
1
Peter 4:4-5 KJV – Wherein
they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot,
speaking evil of you:
Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.
I know it is difficult to even imagine what it will be upon Judgement Day. Will we be ready to answer to all the things we have done? Will we even know the day has arrived? A lot of people will not be ready, and definitely will not have repented for all the things that they have done. Every moment we live changes something in the future, but is remembered in the past and present. We have to protect ourselves from the seven troubles which we speak of quite often. This is just one reference to those troubles.
Acts 13:45 KJV – But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.
Envy, one of those seven, is something that is easy to fall into. We love money, stature, things, and those shouldn’t be what we want. Peace, hope, love, those are things we should want and need in everything that happens in our lives. Peter shares something that he learned while being one of those trusted followers of the Savior Jesus Christ. It is important to see all the viewpoints the twelve had, and the families that they spent their time with every day.
1 Peter 4:6 KJV – For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
Now we see how he refers to the Apostle Paul and what we see is understanding in their faith, which would indeed help us to learn, understand, and gain wisdom from their experiences, like this one from Paul’s days with the Romans.
Romans 8:9 KJV – But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
Romans 8:13 KJV – For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
Paul added to this with his teachings in Galatia.
Galatians 5:25 KJV – If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
We know that the viewpoints of twelve men cannot always be identical, as we’ve seen that in our lives individually and collectively. However, the impression and connection between the Twelve Apostles, Jesus, and those who learned from them, remained strong, very strong, no matter that they were scattered all over the world after the resurrection.
2 Timothy 4:1-6 KJV – I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
Timothy is guiding those who have learned from him about the love and faith and hope of Christ Jesus, to do what Jesus taught him and the other Apostles to manage, teach His truth, God’s truth, everywhere possible. This is something all of us should pursue, as bringers of faith, and deliverers of hope, as sharers of peace and unconditional love. This brings us first to the Gospel of Matthew, and then to the Revelation. Both are necessary for us to understand what Jesus wants us to see, hear, and draw faith and hope from.
Matthew 24:9 KJV – Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.
In a lot of ways Jesus warns us, here and now, what life will become at some point in life. Now, this may feel like a foreboding feeling of doom and gloom. Yet, this is where we find hope in the vision that John the Beloved experienced while in exile on the isle of Patmos.
Revelation 14:13 KJV – And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.
Blessed are those who die with the belief and faith in Jesus Christ. Our works of faith will be that which saves us. Even the small footsteps of faith we have managed will help us when the Savior returns. It will be sooner than anyone believes it will be. This is how Peter refers to that.
1 Peter 4:7 KJV – But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.
Pray and be sober as you go through life. Being drunk, whether it is with alcohol, drugs, or whatever, will cause us to miss that point in time. I can say, from experience, that overdoing it in any way can mess you up inside, physically, mentally, spiritually. Remembering to do things in moderation allows us to keep our focus on God’s Unconditional Love. Keep the focus on the moment where time and life as we know it would cease and desist. This is what James, brother of Jesus, reminds us to manage.
James 5:8-9 KJV – Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.
Paul, Jesus, Luke, and John the Beloved have these thoughts to add to this.
Romans 8:17-18 KJV – And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Luke 21:36 KJV – Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
1 John 2:18 KJV – Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
Practice what you preach. That’s something many people have brought to the surface when they are confronted with sin and how it affects every person differently. It’s true, because, if all of us were identical this world would be a very boring place to live. Have faith, prove that faith, and share it so that others can help you build upon your faith, your grace, your ability to see and share that unconditional love we all need to see, hear, and feel every day. 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: Jon Micah Summeral ~ Faith Hope Love https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBjNlfJ9rpY
~ 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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