Covenant
of Hope Ministries Sunday Sermon_3_30_2014
Good
afternoon, and welcome to this Sunday Sermon for Covenant of Hope Ministries. I
am Rev. Laura A. Neff. The ministry knows me as the Rainbow Minister. Find us
posted on Sundays and studies on Wednesday. Our locations are online only:
Our Main Video Feed: Covenant_of_Hope
We
have email (instant messenger if you need me) through Facebook every day. These
are now extremely variable. We’re still working this out between the two of us
as to what will happen, our Elder, Cal Jennings and I. I will inform you
further regarding changes. These changes were made due to health reasons. The
sermon length has shortened dramatically. We are unsure as to when there might
be video presentations.
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 has grown from last week. This is our current prayer list for this week.
- Please keep Elder Cal Jennings in your prayers as his health
doesn’t know where it wants to be. He has had many bad days over the past many
weeks and months tested over his faith.
- Please pray for the relief of trials and tribulations suffered
by our member Brother Wayne Bartosh. He has suffered many griefs in the past
year or more, and is losing the sight in at least one eye. Let us pray that the
family issues and more would find resolution soon.
- Please keep a friend, Debby, in your prayers for a swift and
continued recovery after major cancer surgery.
- Continue your prayers for Phoebe Fair’s family as they
continue to grieve her loss.
- Please pray for my friend Teresa’s sister who is in stage four
cancer. Keep Teresa and her daughter in prayer for many other things that have
been weighing down on their hearts, minds, and spirits.
- Please keep others known by any of us up in prayer for
whatever they might need.
- Please keep my friend Heather in prayer for patience and safe
haven.
- Let us keep those who have suffered from the weather in
prayer, as they continue to weather the storms, the cold, and the dangers that
can be found within them.
- Please keep my whole family in prayer for the pain, suffering,
and chaos we are going through. Pray that answers and remedies might be found
for as many as are meanto to have them.
- Pray that the adversity and the pain we have seen around the
world would be relieved, and swept away. May we find common ground in many
ways, even if we start with just one step.
- Remember those who have been lost either violently or
peacefully this week.
- Keep the ministry in your thoughts, each member, no matter
their location, their circumstances, because a group of friends, a ministry,
should support one another.
- There are many in our ministry who are searching for more in
regard to our presence with my health, and with the health of others. We pray
that there would be health found once more, and that we have answers to all and
for all.
Prayer:
Father in heaven, we thank You for this day and for these who
are here to share it with us.
Opening
Song: Shake
Heaven https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKld0A6_YQo
Sermon: We’ve been talking about being happy, positive. It has been difficult for many of us, if not all of us. I have heard from ten at least. Three of those are from our ministry. That is beyond my self and the health and other chaos I am surviving. It is very difficult for us to find that happiness, that positive nature buried deep in our pain and sorrow. Yet, if we look for it, we won’t find it. How do we do so? That’s why we have friends of course. When Jesus was preaching He spoke of friends as family, and family as friends. If we think of life in that point of view, we’ll realize there are people with similar thoughts and reasons for their pains and sorrows. It is when we join together to find ways to counteract the sorrow that surrounds us, fills us, that we find what it truly means when we speak of the unconditional love God promises. It is within us, and spreads out around us when we work hard enough to raise the spirits of those around us. You realize, if you reach out to those suffering in any way, you’ve brought a bright spot to your day. Take a look here at the first of our verses. James 5:13 KJV – Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
Prayer,
and music, now there’s an interesting connection. We sing prayers many times.
We pray with music in our hearts. Yet, few realize that’s exactly what would be
happening. The thoughts we have in the midst of prayer are there to snap out of
our misery, to let go. Music does the same, it takes that misery and shoves it
aside so we can hum, whistle, or sing along, no matter how well, or not so
well, we would do so. The fun part, truthfully, is to push that pain, sorrow,
anger, fear, all of it aside. It brings joy, happiness, and a positive view
that may have been hidden for far too long. Let’s look at this verse to see
what it adds. Proverbs 17:22 KJV – A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken
spirit drieth the bones.
When
our spirit gets to the point you feel like you’ve been smacked down, and run
over by a team of horses or a steamroller, we see our spirit drying out,
vanishing before our very eyes. In a child’s book there is mention of a
character known as the “Grinch”. There is another character known as “Scrooge”.
When our spirit dries to that point, many may wonder if we would fit these
characteristics. We might do the same. Finding our merry heart is the best
medicine. If we remember the song, “a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go
down” we’ll remember that spoon is full of love and happiness, joy, shared
inside and out. Laughter is the best medicine, that’s the view of many. Doctors
share that view more than many may think about it. There is one doctor known
for his choice to create laughter while treating those who are sick. He built a
special hospital just to prove that laughter, a joyful view of love, can change
the health of anyone, if they’re willing to try.
Proverbs 15:13 KJV – A merry heart maketh a cheerful
countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.
The
other day I sent a photograph to my father because it has been so hard on me
with my health issues. You want to know what his first thought was? He asked me
a single question. “Where’s the smile?” It made me realize how I hadn’t done
much of that at all. I can laugh, but it never seems to reach my eyes as it
should. Did you know if you have a smile from your mouth to your eyes you’ll
find it in your heart to? That proves that you’ll find happiness within the
love that would be found. When you get to the point you can do nothing more
than bury your head under pillows or hide in a corner and cry, find a friend
and talk, or chat via the computer and notes back and forth. You’d be amazed how
much it can bring that spirit to where it should be. Rainbows can live in our
hearts sharing love from friends and family in thousands of ways. One of them
is remembering what a smile, laughter, a good friend, and a family member
willing to sit and talk for just a little while can do to bring that spirit out
of the basement and up into the clouds where it should be.
II Corinthians 7:13 KJV – Therefore we were comforted
in your comfort: yea, and exceedingly the more joyed for the joy of Titus,
because his spirit was refreshed by you all.
Have
you ever hit the refresh circle on your internet browser? Think of life in that
view. When someone, friend or stranger, would spend just a few moments with us
our sorrow, our pain, can be shoved aside. We get that refreshing view of what
life can be, if we let it be so. You see, if we remember that there are bright
spots even in the worst of times, we can smile a little, laugh a little, share
a little love as well. God has interesting ways to pull out the sweet from the
sour.
I Corinthians 7:30 KJV – And they that weep, as though
they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they
that buy, as though they possessed not.
We
need to live life with as much joy, happiness, and love as possible. Life only
lasts so long. We are born, we live, we die. While we live, let us remember
that there would be the happiest of times in the midst of our lives. That’s why
we often remember the good times, the fun times, those moments we were laughing
and more. We do so more than we remember the bad times. Some would say this is
a defense mechanism, a method to keep the bad, the sad, and so forth out of our
thoughts. Well, truthfully, that’s what it is. God gave us that ability for one
specific reason. He wants us to laugh our sorrows away. He wants us to sing our
pain straight out of our bodies. Did you realize why? It does a whole lot to
cure part of our pain, part of our illness, and still more of our spirits can
be lifted up. We often don’t realize this is exactly what our hearts need.
Ecclesiastes 3:12 KJV – Wherefore I perceive that
there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for
that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?
The
things we do accomplish, even though they may have bad results, still you got
them accomplished and you should be glad that you did so. The fact that you
trudged through, persevered, even in the worst of circumstances is worthy of
celebration. If we don’t, all we do is live in misery. That’s why we have love,
smiles, music, and laughter.
Ecclesiastes 11:9 KJV – Rejoice, O young man, in thy
youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the
ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for
all these things God will bring thee into judgment.
Let’s
think about something. Notice that God will bring us into judgement. Why would
He do so? He wants one thing. He wants us to pull the good out of the bad and
smile, laugh, enjoy the fact that we can do so. You see, if all we do is dwell
on the bad, the sorrowful, the pain created because of them, we’ll feel like we
live under the wheel of a steamroller that never stops rolling over us. If we
learn to pull that good out of the bad, the steamroller can’t reach us. We’re
flying in the joy and happiness and out of reach. Let’s see what else can be
shared in regard to keeping the joy and happiness in our lives.
II Chronicles 9:7 KJV – Happy are thy men, and happy
are thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom.
How
can they be happy? Why are they so? Many times we wonder how or even why others
can be happy. The next verse shares that memories of the good times can pull
the spirits up, especially when seen in the eyes, the actions, of others that
surround us. There is another song titled ‘Put on a Happy Face’. It may be
hard, sometimes feel impossible to do so, but it can be done. Last week I put
in a song titled ‘Happy’. When I first heard that song I thought about it for a
minute and was, after the second time listening, actually singing along. It has
been a long time since I could sing at all. Even with a voice barely above a
whisper, I can still sing. That was something that brought joy to my heart.
This is exactly what God wants all of us to find, a method to bring that joy
right back to where it is supposed to be.
Psalm 68:3 KJV – But let the righteous be
glad; let them rejoice before God: yea, let them exceedingly rejoice.
Well,
look here at this one. If you’ve ever been to a Christian concert, or some of
the churches, you’ll find members jumping up and down, swinging and swaying,
with their hands raised high. You’ll see them singing with all they’ve got,
sharing a joyful noise for all to hear. I stood in a huge crowd at a church
service just like that, having to stand on a chair so that I could reach most
of their shoulders, but singing just as loudly as they, as joyfully, and
smiling the whole time as I sang right along with the one at the pulpit, and
those in the choir. When I was part of a choir, I sang just like that as well.
I even, during the Christmas season, used Sign Language to help the deaf sing
as well. You all have a voice, the blind, the mute, the deaf, all of us have a
voice with which to sing. That voice is in our hearts. Now that’s something to
think about as we pray in the prayer Jesus taught us saying: After this manner therefore pray ye: 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 KJV)
Closing
Song: The
Happy Song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeW6Sd2qp6Q
~Shalom~
Covenant
of Hope Ministries
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 © 2012 http://covenantofhopeministries.blogspot.com/
Our mission for Covenant of Hope Ministries and
Poetic-Expressions is not to exploit fear, but to conquer it, and overcome all
that is created through fear together as the rainbow in the darkness.
