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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. Also pray that his new venture pays off as he does what he loves to do within it.
- 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.
- We pray for those suffering from various cancers, including little Everleigh and my friend Jeff’s father who has been given six months at this point in time.
- We pray for a friend of a friend who is suffering in the hospital right now.
- Pray that another friend gets good news regarding their healing process going well so that they might return to work at long last.
- 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 pray for all the travelers headed off to different destinations to celebrate the Christmas holidays with family and friends.
- We send out birthday greetings to my brother Scott Newman who celebrates his birthday today.
Announcement: I will not be broadcasting live for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day this next week. I will, however, be broadcasting on the 26th, which is next Sunday.
Prayer: Father in heaven, this is our prayer for today. We pray for the jobless during this Christmas season. We pray for our homeless as the cold and strange weather take hold at this time of year. We pray for our travelers during the pandemic that continues its hold on this world that they may be healthy as they travel and healthy as they return to their homes. We pray for our doctors, nurses, paramedics and EMTs around this world as they work to save the lives of the sick and the suffering. We pray for those suffering cancer and other diseases, that the joy of the holiday will ease their hearts and minds for just a little while. We pray for those who are working hard to return to healthy individuals including my daughter-in-law’s father and several others at this time. 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: Josh Groban ~ What Child Is This? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brmRUlKbF7g&list=PLAV7hQToHN7SJMTk2_Q8vFJTJfZRBTPow&index=31
Sermon: We are studying the Gospel of Luke in preparation of the Christmas holiday. We will continue where we left off last week.
Luke 1:18-20 KJV – And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years.
And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings.
And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.
Unbelief, disbelief, are hard and bitter pills to hold onto. Zacharias was filled with both. Faith is what we need to build, which transforms doom and gloom into hope and more. In order to see the blessings of God’s miracles we have to believe that the impossible to us is not so. It is quite a difficult thing to remove the thought of impossible out of our vocabularies when it comes to faith and the gift of Unconditional Love. This is what the angels are portraying for Zacharias. Add to that, now we see what shocked surprise hits the family. Not only is this elderly man and his wife to become parents, but another impossible thought, by human measures, would be happening to Elizabeth’s cousin, Mary. We see that here in this verse from the Gospel of Matthew.
Matthew 1:18 KJV – Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
We have to explore the full understanding of this miracle that is occurring. All of us feel as though we have heard or seen miracles at one point or another during our lives. True miracles occur every day, if we pay attention. God loves us purely because we are miracles of creation. God proves that in many ways. One of those has to do with some early words He spoke here.
Genesis 7:1 KJV – And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
The days of Noah and the ark were quite difficult. The depravity, disobedience, was such that even God had lost all hope for His people and the earth itself. It is why He made the single most difficult decision to cover the earth with water and wash everything away. Renewal of the earth and a hopeful future for mankind. This is what God wants us to recognize as shared by Solomon, son of David.
1 Kings 9:4 KJV – And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and my judgments:
2 Kings 20:3 KJV – I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.
Notice, God is speaking to Solomon in the first verse and then Solomon shares that he has done as his father would, and as God wished. It’s important to listen to God when it comes to life and how we live it. We forget, and give in to temptation, and that’s not good for us, body, mind, soul, or spirit. Now we’ll get into greetings from the Apostle Paul in Corinth and Philippi.
1 Corinthians 11:2 KJV – Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.
Philippians 3:6 KJV – Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
Watch what you say, do, or think, when you pursue each day, because everything can backlash on you. I’m sure you’ve said it or heard it when bad things occur that people would rue the day. Well, this is Paul sharing just that. Be careful in how you approach anything in life, because anything can lead you down a blind alley and get you lost in the wilderness of those seven troubles that exist to torment us. These next two verses prove that as well.
Daniel 9:23 KJV – At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.
Judges 6:12 KJV – And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.
Gideon is who the angel spoke with at the time and hearing the voices of angels can be startling to anyone. We see that fact with Zacharias, and here with Gideon as well. It’s not a typical occurrence in any person’s walk through life. That’s what makes them significant enough to speak about. We see that with Elizabeth, Zacharias, Mary, and Joseph. Let’s see what else is shared in times past.
Exodus 30:7-8 KJV – And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it. And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations.
Honoring God is the whole point of everything that is taught in Scripture. Honoring God takes work, because it means we have to ensure that we see Him through His Unconditional Love in ways that some may not realize or understand. It is learning His Word, practicing in the use of His Word in daily life, where we will be able to grow our hearts, our faith, our hope, and our love, in order to quash all the troubles that surround us. Sharing that with those around us will then help those people to build up their confidence in the faith that dwells in the heart, no matter how small that light would be. Some light in our tunnel of pains and sorrows would be better than none. This is what Zacharias and Elizabeth learned when they found she was expecting a child as a much older woman. We see that here in these next verses from Luke’s gospel.
Luke 1:21-25 KJV – And the people waited for Zacharias, and marvelled that he tarried so long in the temple. And when he came out, he could not speak unto them: and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple: for he beckoned unto them, and remained speechless. And it came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house. And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying, Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men.
Believing is something so many don’t truly understand. There are songs we hear about belief and believing in God. There are movies where we see people who do not believe and whose hearts are changed by the circumstances of life to finally see that truth in ways they never expected to manage, that miracles do happen and that they are important to pay attention to, learn about, and work to understand them. Miracles are everywhere in this world, at every moment of every day, a miracle occurs. One of those is the miracle of life. Believing is more than seeing and experiencing things. Believing is proving that to others as well. All of us have seen miracles, simply by opening our eyes to greet a new day. Here is one such miracle, for Rachel, all the way back in the first Scroll of Scripture.
Genesis 30:22-24 KJV – And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb. And she conceived, and bare a son; and said, God hath taken away my reproach: And she called his name Joseph; and said, The Lord shall add to me another son.
Believe, that’s all we have to learn how to do. Believing isn’t about seeing the occurrence. It’s about having faith that this moment happened and it happened for a reason. This is what we learn from Rachel, Abraham, David, Daniel, Zacharias, Elizabeth, Joseph and Mary. All of them saw miracles in one form or another at some point in their lives. Those miracles were such that everyone thought them to be impossible to manage. Yet, God can prove to just about anyone who wants to see the potential, that miracles occur every day if we pay attention and are willing to see them as such. Now we are exploring the lead up to the birth of the biggest miracle to ever occur, a virgin about to give birth to God’s only begotten Son.
Luke 1:26-27 KJV – And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.
Faith can manage things that most would not want to believe. The birth of the Son of Man, through Immaculate Conception for a virgin woman is a huge, huge, miracle that people would never be able to explain, much like with Elizabeth and Zacharias and their son. We see this view of Mary and Joseph through the eyes of the Matthew here, as we shared last year during the weeks before Christmas.
Matthew 1:18 KJV – Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
Blessings are found in interesting meetings. The meeting between the angel Gabriel and Zacharias was one. Now, the same can be said for Mary when she found herself pregnant.
Luke 1:28-33 KJV – And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
So, of course, Mary was scared witless because she was pregnant, without a husband, out of the blue, in a society that frowns on everything that the pregnancy she was experiencing would entail. There are still places today that prove to be cruel to women who would be pregnant out of wedlock. We see the blessing of this miracle through the words of the gospel as written by Matthew.
Matthew 1:21 KJV – And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.
The miracle is exactly what was needed then, and continues to be needed today. We all need to believe that miracle happened, and all the steps that were taken ahead of the miracle of Christ’s birth and on through His death and resurrection. Why? Because there is more to life and living life, than birth, growth, and death. There is more to life than breathing, existing, in this world. That is what God is showing us through the eyes of ancient kings, gospel writers, priests, and all manner of ordinary people. We see all about the Church of God’s Unconditional Love as shared here in Jesus’s own words.
Matthew 12:42 KJV – The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.
This is a teaching moment. Jesus is teaching about how wisdom plays a part in every miracle that occurs. Wisdom takes a part in every good and just thing that might occur on this earth. Jesus is describing His existence and the importance of belief in exactly who He would be. We see this through the eyes of the theologians that wrote with the heart of the Hebrews held close.
Hebrews 1:2 KJV – Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
Hebrews 1:8 KJV – But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.
Forever is a long time, or a short one, depending on how much you consider forever to be. Love is forever. It lasts long after someone dies, in the hearts of those who were left behind. Most of us know this fact for whatever reason and with whatever occurrences have been managed in our lifetimes. We see quite a lot of this through the eyes of Samuel, Isaiah, Daniel, and Micah.
2 Samuel 7:11-12 KJV – And
as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have
caused thee to rest from all thine enemies. Also the Lord telleth thee that he will make thee an house.
And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will
set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will
establish his kingdom.
Isaiah 9:6-7 KJV – For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
Daniel 7:14 KJV – And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
Daniel 7:27 KJV – And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.
Micah 4:7 KJV – And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever.
When any miracle is foretold, most, if not all, who are given an inkling ahead of time, would be skeptical. This is a classic view of the trouble we know of as doubt, and it plays a part in too many portions of Scripture as a learning point, a teaching tool, to help us prevent the nagging troubles from erupting into life as we know it today. This is what Mary, the mother of Jesus, went through when finding herself pregnant, as shared here in the Gospel of Luke.
Luke 1:34-38 KJV – Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.
Okay, first, she’s pregnant, not by normal human means. Second, she’s not married at all, merely betrothed at the time. Third, she knew without thinking twice what her parents and the rest of her family would think and how they would react. Of course, Mary is terrified. She doesn’t know what to think, or how to tell someone, and whether they would believe here was also an enigma for her. That’s not a good state of mind or condition to be in for anyone, let alone a young, pregnant, woman in those days. This moment is something she realizes will change every moment from that point forward. She had no idea just how much of an impact it would have for her, or for any of those who surrounded her. We see the early verses of the various Gospel writers echoing this thought.
Mark 1:1 KJV – The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;
John 1:34 KJV – And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.
Miracles, have you experienced any? The miracle of life itself. Miracles of survival. Miracles can be anything that is beyond the ordinary. They come in all shapes, sizes, and descriptions, and are never exactly the same. Miracles can occur with anyone or anything, and often without any realization that they would be just that. We see that in this Old Testament view and its more contemporary sight through the Gospel writer Matthew.
Malachi 4:5-6 KJV – Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
Matthew 11:14 KJV – And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come.
The promise of Elias, or Elijah, is something heard by Elijah’s son as the prophet Elijah was carried away in a chariot of fire off into the heavens so he would never experience death as most humans would. Jesus is the resurrection of Elias, as a man walking the earth. Upon His birth, growth, baptism, time as a teacher and preacher, on up to His crucifixion, He pursues life and truth the way Elias had done, proving the words Elijah had written so very long ago. Portraying what disbelief, what unbelief, can destroy as easily as fire can gut a home, or destroy a forest.
Believe, during this time of Advent, that miracles can occur, that faith can grow in the most unusual of places, that hope can exist even in the worst echoes of despair. This is what God wants us to see this Christmas season, this third week of Advent. 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: Silent Night ~ Kelly Clarkson, Reba McIntire, and Trisha Yearwood https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BRVkgaIcaE&list=PLAV7hQToHN7SJMTk2_Q8vFJTJfZRBTPow&index=52
~ 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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