Welcome to Covenant of Hope Ministries and our Sunday sermon. For those who do not recognize me, 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 winter 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 pray for calm skies and seas, calm voices and spirits, and also healthy outcomes for those who are affected.
- Pray for my friend Lori’s niece who is having complications after surgery this past Tuesday.
- Pray for a friend of a friend whose daughter Everleigh is still having issues with her leukemia.
- Pray that another friend continues to get back to normal after a serious injury.
- Pray for my brother, he’s needing surgery as a result of a fall breaking a vertebra in his back.
- Pray for my friend Faith and her family, who lost her father to COVID last week.
- 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 many friends and family members to pray for this week, Scott, Faith, Everleigh, Jeff, Reverend Lisa Tyler, Dena, Elder Cal Jennings, and many more. Ease their pain and sorrow. Help with comfort and healing for each and every one. Please help us as friends or family to bring human comfort. Help our world reduce infection and heal the nations worldwide as a result of this pandemic. We bring the homeless, the jobless, up into prayer as well. We thank You Lord for being part of our lives and for guiding us in the right direction. 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: The Wynans ~ Tomorrow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUQQukbJr_s
Sermon: We continue to
explore Peter’s second epistle today. Now, when I first began my meditation on
this sermon, I was seeing us finishing this first chapter, but God has other
plans apparently, in order to get more in depth with these chapters, which
normally means there’s a lot to pay attention to in just a few words. Let us
begin with the verse where we left off last Sunday.
2 Peter 1:16 KJV – For we have not followed
cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
Now, in today’s world it might not seem difficult to
preach gospel and share the life of Jesus, the existence of Almighty God, and
the gift of the Holy Spirit. However, regardless that there are 2.4 billion Christians
in this world, there are those who choose only to believe some in place of all.
The inborn ability to choose, a gift of God from the very beginning, which is
known as free will. It was because of this that Peter shared these words
wherever he preached the gospel of the Savior. The inspiration of Jesus simply
pours out of the twelve Apostles. Here are moments through the four gospels
that prove Peter’s passion for sharing the truth through faith and belief.
Matthew 16:27-28 KJV – For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with
his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which
shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.
Matthew 17:1 KJV – And after six days Jesus
taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high
mountain apart,
Mark 9:2 KJV – And after six days Jesus
taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high
mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them.
Mark 13:26 KJV – And
then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and
glory.
Mark 14:62 KJV – And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right
hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
Luke 1:2 KJV – Even as they delivered them
unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word;
There is so much packed in a few words, and, as we have
learned together over the past decade or more, it is an observation that requires
us to pay attention. This is a very important consideration in Peter’s writing
and actions in his preaching during the careful beginnings of Christianity.
These next words continue his thoughts.
2 Peter 1:17 KJV – For he received from God
the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the
excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Peter is reflecting on the day when John the Baptist
baptized Jesus. Although he was not present at the time of Jesus being
baptized, the moment has to be reflected upon by all the Apostles because there
was such an obvious sign from God with the presence of a dove coming down and
the booming voice of the Almighty saying “This is MY Beloved Son in whom I am
well pleased,” as is shared in the words of the four gospels as noted here.
Matthew 17:5-6 KJV – While he yet spake,
behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud,
which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.
And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid.
Mark 9:7 KJV – And there was a cloud that
overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my
beloved Son: hear him.
Luke 3:22 KJV – And the Holy Ghost descended
in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which
said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.
With all of this, there are so many who do not realize
how much it means to believe and to have faith that counters everything evil,
corrupt and wrong in this world. Belief does something about that. Having faith
in that belief proves that unconditional love can survive anything Satan can
dream up to throw in the path for us to stumble. He proves it in the words he
shares with His apostles and disciples.
John 5:20 KJV – For
the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and
he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.
The ministers of Jesus’s Word reflect on this fact as
well in these words.
Hebrews 1:3 KJV – Who being the brightness of
his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the
word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the
right hand of the Majesty on high:
It is important that we truly study the words Peter wrote
during his ministry after the resurrection. You see, it was against the law,
against Caesar and the Jewish leadership, to even mention the name Jesus
Christ, as King of Kings, Lord of Lords. Regardless, the apostles and disciples
of Christ, and all of His siblings, shared the truth of Christ, regardless that
they were in mortal danger as a result. The unconditional love of God through
the salvation of Jesus Christ and the blessing of the Holy Spirit was, as it
is, as it will always be, far more powerful than any evil that exists. It is
for that reason we are still studying His words.
2 Peter 1:18 KJV – And this voice which came
from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.
Now, we must reflect on the moment Peter speaks of. There
are a few mountains considered holy, sacred, to the Jews, and subsequently
Christians as well, Mount Sinai and Mount Tabor are just two of them. Peter, in
this case, was speaking in regard to the meeting the Apostles had with Jesus on
Mount Tabor. Here is the designation of this mountain and its importance as
shared in the Old Testament.
Exodus 3:5 KJV – And he said, Draw not nigh
hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou
standest is holy ground.
Joshua 5:15 KJV – And the captain of the
Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place
whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.
Holy
ground is something we really, and truly, have to realize, is more than a
single mountaintop. Peter wants us to all see that fact. The path toward God’s
promised eternal life begins anew with each new dawn because we do not know
what tomorrow brings until that tomorrow is today. Remember that there is no
promise of tomorrow, only a promise that there is hope to come in whatever the
future may bring. 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: Owen Mack ~ If Jesus Comes Tomorrow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=966Vcxqn5FI
~ 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 © 2022 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.
