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.
- Please pray for the friends and family of Mr. James Erv Sloan who is currently in hospice care at home with complete kidney failure. He has been a good friend of my employer for a great many years.
- Pray for my friend Faith’s mother, who is recovering after being hospitalized and also as they continue to mourn her father, who they lost two weeks ago now.
- Pray for Rev. Lisa Tyler, one of my mentors, as she continues with her family to quarantine due to COVID-19.
- Pray for my brother, Scott, who is moving to the point of twice weekly rehabilitation after his back surgery.
- Pray for my daughter-in-law’s father who is suffering a fourth bout with cancer and the reports are not good.
- We are ever watchful in regard to the conflict in the Ukraine that is still escalating between Russia and the friends and allies of Ukraine. God be with all of you.
- Pray for a friend of a friend whose daughter Everleigh is preparing for her bone marrow replacement to be managed Monday. This is tremendously good news for little Everleigh and her family.
- Pray that another friend manages to feel better and better after surgery late last year.
- 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.
* Today we celebrate my father-in-law Raymond Neff’s 86th birthday my cousin in law Martha is 58. *
Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, Today we are bringing good friends and colleagues of all descriptions up into prayer. We pray for Erv who has been a special colleague and friend for my employer and his colleagues in Kairos Prison Ministries and Isle of Hope United Methodist Church. We pray for Gregory, who has valiantly fought against cancer for many years now. We pray for their families, friends, and ministry members who are rallying behind them in this difficult time. We pray for my father-in-law Raymond who celebrates his birthday today with our family. We pray for our allies and those who are suffering in Ukraine with the invasion of Russian troops. We pray for those fighting the terrible diseases and illnesses that this world has too much of. We pray all of this in Your Holy Name, through our Savior Jesus Christ, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Great Comforter, Amen and so it shall be.
Opening Song: Tasha Cobbs ~ Gotta Believe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIjWu1UqkNo
Sermon: We continue to explore Peter’s second epistle today. We’ll start here. We see angels and more in the words that Peter shares.
2 Peter 2:11 KJV – Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.
Angels are the beings between humanity and heaven. They work with Jesus and God to bring warnings to the people here on earth. Peter shares this fact, connecting the Old Testament to the New Testament, Jesus from the past, through the present and into the future. Here is a warning he refers to from Jesus Christ, Himself.
Mark 7:22 KJV – Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
Of course, Jesus speaks of the seven troubles and what their affects are seen as. Vanity, envy, lust, enmity, wrath, shame, doubt. The synonyms of theft, covetousness, wickedness, deceit lasciviousness, evil eyes, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness would be the evil Seven Troubles. These seven are directly opposite of the Ten Commandments, and the very reason the Ten Commandments exist in the first place. Angels, Demons, Devils and Our Savior Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit and God Almighty would be who can save us, so long as we rely on their strength when our strength fails. That’s why Jude shares this reminder.
Jude 1:9 KJV – Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.
Sin is a plethora of evil brute beasts. Sin is an all-consuming plague upon humanity in so many views we often cannot recognize the evil as it disguises in so many ways as Peter shares here.
2 Peter 2:12 KJV – But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;
Distancing ourselves from the seven troubles is something we battle on a minute to minute basis because there are so many instances of those same seven daily. Keeping our conscience clear is no easy task, because it means we have to do so consciously, unconsciously, and subconsciously all at the same time. That is a serious challenge to manage. It’s the reason we so often hear the words “Give it to God” and then add to it, “Leave it with Him and don’t take it back”. The problem is, we tend to, quite often, “take it back into our lives”, which is why we make our lives that much more complicated. God gives us every reason to follow Him by following the path of Jesus Christ our Savior. Jeremiah shares this same thought here in this verse.
Jeremiah 12:3 KJV – But thou, O Lord, knowest me: thou hast seen me, and tried mine heart toward thee: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.
Many have heard the phrase, “getting to the truth is harder than pulling teeth.” This is what Jeremiah is portraying, that, even with his best efforts he knows he is imperfect, that evil can hide within us as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. We see this same thought in the next two supporting verses.
Colossians 2:22 KJV – Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?
Jude 1:10 KJV – But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
So often, while studying Scripture, I feel compelled to remember a series of monkeys sitting on a bench with each of them having a different expression, monkey see nothing, monkey hear nothing, monkey say nothing, monkey do nothing, all of which would be directly the opposite of what God wants humanity to do. We cannot ignore everything we see, hear, say, or do. We have to be diligent in our work toward godliness, and this is something we face moment to moment in our lives. Otherwise, this is the result shared by Peter.
2 Peter 2:13 KJV – And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;
Unrighteousness is not a reward we want to possess. Deceit, evil and guilty pleasure, is that what we want? No! Of course it isn’t what we want. We want to find the part of us that is all of those bad things and root them out so they cannot grow. This is what Peter is working toward our ability to see. These are the responses we want to hear as shared in the next five verses.
Romans 13:13 KJV – Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
1 Corinthians 11:21 KJV – For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken.
There is, just in these first two, a lot to be shared. Honesty is something hard for so many to maintain moment to moment. We see the reasons for that are seven troubles. We see the bad parts of that in these remaining three supporting verses.
1 Thessalonians 5:7 KJV – For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
James 5:5 KJV – Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
Jude 1:12 KJV – These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
We all have our moments, our days, where the seven troubles, or torments, toward humanity are what we should see in our lives and shove them through the door, locking them out of life. It’s not easy at all. It’s not meant to be. If it were so easy, we’d end up ignoring the devastation to our lives. Yet again, Peter warns us.
2 Peter 2:14 KJV – Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:
Adultery, a capital sin, instability, covetous practices, all make us cursed children. We see this reinforced in these two verses.
Proverbs 5:6 KJV – Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.
Ezekiel 13:18 KJV – And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Woe to the women that sew pillows to all armholes, and make kerchiefs upon the head of every stature to hunt souls! Will ye hunt the souls of my people, and will ye save the souls alive that come unto you?
We see the seven troubles in so many ways. We are warned so many times about these nagging tagalongs in life. It is yet another reason we see them mentioned by name or not, in just about every waking moment. These two verses share that as well.
Ephesians 2:3 KJV – Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
James 1:8 KJV – A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
If you haven’t seen Batman comics or movies, the character Two Face, is the exact depiction of this verse from James the Just, younger mortal brother to Jesus. It is such to the point of a doubletake because it shares so much truth to our morality and mortality in this world we live in. That’s why we have to say, think, hear, and do things with careful thought processes, not flying off the handle and destroying ourselves in the process. Peter reminds those he teaches about an Old Testament test that the ancient writers of Scripture had to share under the tutelage of Moses.
2 Peter 2:15 KJV – Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
Messages and messengers of truth and faith are important to all of us, because we should be those messengers, and we should willingly listen to and hear those very same messages from those messengers, especially in this chaotic world today. Here are those three instances in the Old Testament scroll of Numbers.
Numbers 22:5-7 KJV – He
sent messengers therefore unto Balaam the son of Beor to Pethor, which is by
the river of the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying,
Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt: behold, they cover the face of
the earth, and they abide over against me:
Come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people; for they are too mighty
for me: peradventure I shall prevail, that we may smite them, and that I may
drive them out of the land: for I wot that he whom thou blessest is blessed,
and he whom thou cursest is cursed.
And the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the rewards of
divination in their hand; and they came unto Balaam, and spake unto him the
words of Balak.
Numbers 22:21 KJV – And Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab.
Numbers 22:32 KJV – And the angel of the Lord said unto him, Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? behold, I went out to withstand thee, because thy way is perverse before me:
We see even more of this shared in the Old Testament views here.
Deuteronomy 23:4 KJV – Because they met you not with bread and with water in the way, when ye came forth out of Egypt; and because they hired against thee Balaam the son of Beor of Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse thee.
Nehemiah 13:2 KJV – Because they met not the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, that he should curse them: howbeit our God turned the curse into a blessing.
Old and New Testament prophets and priests have a great deal of information we should do more than just read about. We should share these facts of what happened so they don’t happen again. Yet, what are we doing? We are repeating all of it over and over again. All we have to do is look at what the world is managing to do now. How much more like our past can we possibly be? This is what the Apostles and the gospel writer Luke have to say to that.
Acts 13:10 KJV – And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?
Now we come up to a reference to Balaam from Numbers in the words Peter shares here. It is an interesting story that simply proves we are not paying enough attention to the world around us.
2 Peter 2:16 KJV – But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbad the madness of the prophet.
This is the reference that Peter is referring us to here in the Scroll of Numbers.
Numbers 22:28 KJV – And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?
I challenge you to read or listen to the chapter in Numbers. It is definitely giving us all something to think about in this world today. We are seeing quite a lot about the world in just a few chapters. Let’s close our sermon with this last supporting verse.
Psalm 39:11 KJV – When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah.
Of course, we have to end with those same seven troubles. Don’t wear each other down to the point where the beauty of this world is permanently damaged. Don’t pursue the seven troubles of vanity, envy, lust, enmity, wrath, shame, and doubt. Don’t give those same seven any power whatsoever in your life. Our last years, months, days, hours, minutes, on this earth could be counting down now. Are you ready? If you’re not, now is the moment to prepare. 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: Elevation Worship ~ Million Little Miracles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Viiw6tGimHo
~ 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.
