Covenant Of Hope Ministries: Time Is Closing In On His Return

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.

- Pray for the citizens of Ukraine who are fighting for their lives and their country. Pray for those who have lost their lives and the survivors in their families.

- 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.

- Pray for a friend of a friend whose daughter Everleigh is still fighting leukemia.

- Pray that a good friend does not get bad news in a week or so.

- Pray that my brother does well in physical therapy after his back surgery went well.

- 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 continue to pray for the ones suffering as a result of shootings and unrest around this world. We pray for those who are on the front lines in Ukraine and their allies. We pray for peace. 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 for the refugees who are seeking safety and shelter. We pray for the travelers around this world so they remain healthy. 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. 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: Gold City Acapella ~ His Name Is Wonderful https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EA24iJr_bZk&list=PL614A115BF39E5936&index=11

Sermon: We continue to explore Peter’s second epistle and will complete chapter two today. Let’s begin where we left off last week.

2 Peter 2:17 KJV – These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.

2 Peter 2:17 NIV – These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.

Peter, of course, is speaking about sinners and how iniquities of all forms can not only lead us to darkness, but keep us there. This is something that we often do not realize is happening, until it seems like it’s too late. God is listening, watching, and knows everything going on at every moment on this earth. He recognizes when we struggle. We just have to remember to call out for that help. God is our soul’s version of emergency services. Peter is merely warning us that if we don’t seek out God’s truth, we will fall to the wayside as a result. Here we see how the Hebrews fit into this.

Hebrews 12:18 KJV – For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,

Hebrews 12:18 NIV – For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom, and storm;

We aren’t hidden under a landslide, burning up by fire, consumed by darkness, if we have God in our hearts, minds, words, prayers, thoughts, and all of that. God provides us with His Holy Spirit as a gift from Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior so that we would manage understanding what He wants us to know and share with others to bring true faith and hope and peace to each and every one of us. Let’s see what the younger brother of Jesus has to share to add to this.

Jude 1:12-13 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; Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.

Jude 1:12-13 NIV – These men are hidden reefs in your love feasts, shamelessly feasting with you but shepherding only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried along by the wind; fruitless trees in autumn, twice dead after being uprooted. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

Jude, being as much like Jesus as James the Just, had lived the literal gospel his entire life. He proved that the beacon of light Jesus left behind here on earth can shine brighter and do more than anything evil and wickedness can shell out. Jude is warning us that the demons and other beings associated with Satan are as thick as fleas and mosquitos in the heat of summer. He’s proving that there are ways for us to combat them and get them out of our lives. They come in all shapes and sizes obstacles that might be a small nuisance or as big as a mountain without a decent ledge. We get back to Peter and his words of wisdom for situations like these.

2 Peter 2:18 KJV – For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.

2 Peter 2:18 NIV –For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error.

The minions of Satan are many, legion, as we are often warned. Their words are filled with the seven troubles causing vanity, envy, lust, enmity, wrath, shame and doubt to rear their ugly little heads into life as we know it. They get in the way far too often in this world we live in. Finding our footing takes special attention. That’s what we see in these verses here.

Psalm 73:8 KJV – They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily.

Psalm 73:8 NIV – They mock and speak with malice; with arrogance they threaten oppression.

Ephesians 4:17 KJV – This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind.

Ephesians 4:17 NIV – So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.

We have to walk the path Jesus walked, Christians one and all. It is not easy, and isn’t meant to be. In fact, the main purpose of His Word is to keep us on our toes, vigilant in a world filled with so much chaos, corruption, disease, and devastation around every corner. Peter again warns us in this next verse.

2 Peter 2:19 KJV – While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.

2 Peter 2:19 NIV – They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.”

Promises, promises, but does anything ever come of them? Jesus made a promise. He promised that He would be back and help us route out all the evil that is, was, or will ever be. All we have to do is seek His path, and stick to it, no matter what might be thrown in the path ahead. Be willing to help those who are struggling with the Word and its truth, and also be prepared to get help for yourselves in times of need. Ask, and it shall be given to you. That’s what Jesus said. Jesus also had this to say in regard to sin.

John 8:34 KJV – Jesus answered them, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.”

John 8:34 NIV – Jesus replied, "Truly, truly, I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.

Slaves to sin? Yes, far too many of us are exactly that in this world. We don’t even have to have television, radio, or a newspaper to prove it either. All we have to do is open our eyes and look around us. Too many of us have forgotten what it means to share the Word, study the Word, live IN the WORD. In HIS WORD there is ETERNAL LIFE and UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. Anywhere else, there is death and destruction. Let’s see what these supporting verses from Luke and Paul have to say.

Acts 19:16 KJV – And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

Acts 19:16 NIV – Then the man with the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. The attack was so violent that they ran out of the house naked and wounded.

Romans 6:16 KJV – Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

Romans 6:16 NIV – Do you not know that when you offer yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one you obey, whether you are slaves to sin leading to death, or to obedience leading to righteousness?

Evil can cause us to do things we aren’t even realizing we would be doing. Take, for example, the man with the evil spirit as shared in Acts. Paul warns that we will be slaves to evil so long as we let evil into our lives. Once evil takes root, it is hard to weed it out and destroy the roots of that same evil.

2 Peter 2:20 KJV – For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

2 Peter 2:20 NIV – If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.

Pollution, Peter says. How interesting to make that reference toward Sin. In the NIV it speaks of Corruption. Aren’t Pollution and Corruption basically the same? One, for many of us, references polluting nature, including the air we breathe. The other is something that wickedness brings, corruption, destroying truth, faith, hope, and unconditional love and all of their components together. Ezekiel has something to say about that.

Ezekiel 33:13 KJV – When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.

Ezekiel 33:13 NIV – If I tell the righteous man that he will surely live, but he then trusts in his righteousness and commits iniquity, then none of his righteous works will be remembered; he will die because of the iniquity he has committed.

Be careful what you pursue in life as you live it. Think, then speak, do, or act as a result of those thoughts. Think, but remember to take all aspects of anything and everything before reacting. It’s important to gather all possibilities before we screw something up to the point of being irreparable. Jesus warns of these wicked potentials in the Gospel of Matthew and Luke here.

Matthew 12:45 KJV – Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.

Matthew 12:45 NIV – Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and dwell there; and the final plight of that man is worse than the first. So will it be with this wicked generation."

Luke 11:26 KJV – Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.

Luke 11:26 NIV – Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and dwell there. And the final plight of that man is worse than the first."

We add to the Word shared by Jesus with that of the Apostle Timothy. There is a lot of truth in these words. Much of this warrants wariness in our lives and especially with current events being what they are. The Hebrews have their own cautious views as well.

2 Timothy 2:4 KJV – No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

2 Timothy 2:4 NIV – A soldier refrains from entangling himself in civilian affairs, in order to please the one who enlisted him.

Hebrews 10:26 KJV – For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,

Hebrews 10:26 NIV – If we deliberately go on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins remains,

James the Just, human brother of Jesus, had this to say.

James 1:27 KJV – Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

James 1:27 NIV – Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

God knows that we have a lot to learn in a lifetime, whether it is short or long. Some of us take our time to understand. Others are eager to gain the knowledge and put it into practice. Preparing ourselves for the future where Jesus will come back to judge the living and the dead should be our singularly most important goal in life, whether we are still alive upon His return or not. We should pursue the path and work hard to do what we can to stay on the path, in order to be in that mass with standing room only. Here is what Peter shares next.

2 Peter 2:21 KJV – For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.

2 Peter 2:21 NIV – It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.

Preparedness is one thing. Knowing what the truth is and purposely ignoring it creates more problems than we will ever know what to do with. The sacred vow of righteousness and the pursuit of it would be the rockiest of pathways. It is a minefield of dangers for our Spirits to navigate, our minds, bodies, hearts, all need to survive it as well. We were warned that it would become increasingly more and more difficult as time went on, as Satan and his minions crawled through humanity to corrupt everything to the point where truth and falsification would be nearly impossible to separate. This is why we often will see prophets and priests from the Old Testament peek through as we see in David and Ezekiel’s thoughts here.

Psalm 85:8 KJV – I will hear what God the LORD will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.

Psalm 85:8 NIV – I will listen to what God the LORD will say; for He will surely speak peace to His people and His saints; He will not let them return to folly.

Ezekiel 18:24 KJV – But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.

Ezekiel 18:24 NIV – But if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and practices iniquity, committing the same abominations as the wicked, will he live? None of the righteous acts he did will be remembered. Because of the unfaithfulness and sin he has committed, he will die.

Paul, Timothy, and the Hebrew theologians, ministers, and so on also have a bit to say in this regard. Be there for each other. Hold each other together, because we can’t do everything alone by ourselves. Even Jesus needed help. That’s why He gathered twelve Apostles and other disciples toward Him while He lived on this earth for those thirty-three years.

Galatians 6:2 KJV – Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Galatians 6:2 NIV – Carry one another's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

1 Timothy 6:14 KJV – That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Timothy 6:14 NIV – Keep this commandment without stain or reproach until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Hebrews 6:4-6 KJV – For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

Hebrews 6:4-6 NIV – It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit,who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming ageand who have fallenaway, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.

We have come to our last verse from Peter in this second chapter of his second epistle. There is so much to cover in such a short amount of writing that we often have to read, re-read, listen to and listen to again what is shared and said.

2 Peter 2:22 KJV – But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

2 Peter 2:22 NIV – Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”

There is an old saying that we’ve probably all heard in our lives. That is: “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink it.” It’s true, in all views, not just a horse being led to water, but humanity as well. We can read the Word, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to take it to heart and do as much living within it as possible in our lifetimes. We can preach it in a pulpit or at a desk, in writing or out loud, but that doesn’t mean we will listen to our own words, or others will believe them, listen, and hear them as well. We have a tendency to walk in circles, literally and proverbially, as humanity has proven. We prove it in the fact that we have wars that destroy everything as it was once known. The current events on the other side of the globe prove that, as they have for millennia. We see that here in these verses from King Solomon and John the Beloved.

Proverbs 26:11 KJV – As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.

Proverbs 26:11 NIV – As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.

John 10:1-6 KJV – Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers. This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them.

John 10:1-6 NIV – “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.

We have to pursue righteousness the way Jesus taught His Apostles and Disciples to do two thousand years ago. We have to be willing, in this world today, to do so, even if it goes against everything people are thinking, hearing, or doing right here and right now on this earth. It’s a whole lot to take in, especially in light of current events just this past 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: Steven Curtis Chapman ~ Beauty Will Rise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6sGtkhpqeA&list=PL614A115BF39E5936&index=33

~ Shalom ~

Rev. Laura A. Neff

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Elder Calvin Jennings

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Covenant of Hope Ministries Main Site: 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.

Covenant Of Hope Ministries

MESSENGER

Sunday, March 6, 2022

Time Is Closing In On His Return_ Are We Ready

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