God's gift of Aloha 3

Jesus our gift of Joy

Jesus our gift of Joy

This is our third Sunday of Advent.

During this time of the year, we prepare ourselves to celebrate the birth of our Lord and savior and to remind ourselves that He is coming again.

The word advent in the Latin means “coming”

Christians around the world use the four Sundays and weeks of Advent to prepare and remember the real meaning of Christmas.

King David prophetically wrote about the coming Messiah, Jesus,

Psa 16:11 You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Jesus offers this same relationship to us.

Joy is defined

a : the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune. Getting what we want. delight,

The Joy (Chara) take us much deeper, we go from experiencing moments of joy, to fulness (satisfying) joy. A joy that only God can give us.

We are created for Joy.

Joy is about a life filled with excitement and passion, a satisfying life.

God’s desire is that we will enter in the fullness of his joy.

Certainly the enemy of our souls will try to rob us of our joy, every way he can.

How can we receive the Joy God has for us.

1 Let Him show us the way, 2 Be in His presence, 3 Welcome His goodness.

Let’s pray

1 Let Him show us the way

Jesus said

Joh 15:10 If you keep My commandments and obey My teaching, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and remain in His love.

Joh 15:11 I have told you these things so that My joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy may be made full and complete and overflowing.

Joh 15:12 "This is My commandment, that you love and unselfishly seek the best for one another, just as I have loved you.

Joh 15:13 No one has greater love [nor stronger commitment] than to lay down his own life for his friends.

“Joy or chara is a deep and abiding inner rejoicing which was promised to those who abide in Christ and obey his commandments. It does not depend on circumstances because it rests in God’s sovereign control of all things.”

Joy is the outcome of our obedience

The enemy of our souls is always trying to rob our Joy, he will use circumstances or people.

2Ti 3:1 But understand this, that in the last days dangerous times [of great stress and trouble] will come [difficult days that will be hard to bear].

2Ti 3:2 For people will be lovers of self [narcissistic, self-focused], lovers of money [impelled by greed], boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane,

2Ti 3:3 [and they will be] unloving [devoid of natural human affection, calloused and inhumane], irreconcilable, malicious gossips, devoid of self-control [intemperate, immoral], brutal, haters of good,

We are in the last days, people are lover of themselves lovers of money, ungrateful and arrogant, no generation before us were so entitled to everything.

We can not aloud any offense to come into our hearts.

Last week with had a very tragic event happening with one of our families, on December 03 Jeff and Quezia were waiting for the phone call of her mother, congratulating them for their anniversary, but instead they received a call to tell them that her mom and dad were victims of house invasion both of them were stabbed and her mom did not survived.

Video

As difficult as this situation is, what Jeff stated is true, the enemy wants to rob us from our joy, don’t aloud him to do it.

This family could aloud this offense to separate them from their Heavenly Father, a senseless attack, but they chose to believe in God’s love and obey His commandments.

we will have fulness of joy, when we obey Jesus and his commandments. Let Him show you the path.

Love one another including those who are undeserving.

2 Joy comes when we are in His presence.

1Pe 1:8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,

1Pe 1:9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Faith is what brings me into the reality of God’s presence

God is everywhere, he is not everything, His desire is to have a relationship with us, that’s why he sent His only Son Jesus to receive the punishment that you and I deserved.

When by faith I welcome His word, His reality, then I know without a doubt in my heart that God is present with me everywhere I go.

Ex in my early walk with Jesus, I wonder about God’s presence, was He listening when I prayed? without faith is impossible to please God, to enter His presence.

Jesus is our example, of a man walking in a close relationship with God, the same relationship He prayed that we would have with Him and the Father.

Joh 14:11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe [Me] because of the [very] works themselves [which you have witnessed].

The Holy Spirit, the one who is in perfect communion with Jesus and the Father, is the one who dwells in us, when we welcome Him, when we ask for Him.

The Holy Spirit of God is the one that will take us right into his presence, and yes He is holy, so we need to walk in holiness, and be careful to not grieve the Holy Spirit.

Eph 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God [but seek to please Him], by whom you were sealed and marked [branded as God's own] for the day of redemption [the final deliverance from the consequences of sin].

Sin will separate us from His presence, we must guard our hearts

Wherever we do, always have Him in mind, we want to always welcome His Presence

3 Receive His goodness

At His right hand there are Pleasures for evermore,

I believe our Heavenly Father is always looking for ways to bless us, to shower us with goodness, and great things.

Has the Lord being good to you?

I believe He has, all you need to do is to acknowledge, what He does for you.

2020 and 2021 has been difficult for so many of us.

For just one moment think about one thing God did for you in 2021

He provided for me and my family, he gave us health, he gave me many good things throughout the year.

He answered my prayers, delivered from my enemies, blessed me with a house to live a car or two to drive, food to eat.

If you are breathing air today the lord has been good to you.

Pleasures for evermore, we have a good, good, Father who loves us.

Don’t take things for granted, receive it, by being grateful

Luk 17:11 While Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem, He was passing [along the border] between Samaria and Galilee.

Luk 17:12 As He entered a village, He was met by ten lepers who stood at a distance;

Luk 17:13 and they raised their voices and called out, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"

Luk 17:14 When He saw them, He said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were [miraculously] healed and made clean. [Lev_14:2-32]

Luk 17:15 One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, glorifying and praising and honoring God with a loud voice;

Luk 17:16 and he lay face downward at Jesus' feet, thanking Him [over and over]. He was a Samaritan.

Luk 17:17 Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten[of you] cleansed? Where are the [other] nine?

Luk 17:18 Was there no one found to return and to give thanks and praise to God, except this foreigner?"

Luk 17:19 Jesus said to him, "Get up and go [on your way]. Your faith [your personal trust in Me and your confidence in God's power] has restored you to health."

This is the story of one thankful leper

There was no cure for Leprosy in the first century AD,

Effective treatment for leprosy appeared in the late 1930s. If you had leprosy you had to be removed to a colony of lepers. It was a horrible disease, an infectious skin disease, which would attack your nose mouth and eyes, soft tissue and nerves first, what, will cause some paralysis and deformities, in more advance stages would affect your bones. Until you finally die.

Jesus miraculously heals 10 lepers, a good thing from God to them.

Jesus made a point about the only man who returns to thank Him, because by being thankful, he acknowledged the giver and the gift, he was filled with Joy.

Don’t let the enemy rob your Joy.

1 Let your Heavenly Father show you the way, 2 Be careful to remain in His presence, 3 Welcome His goodness.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Joh 3:16

How can I receive this gift from God?

To receive Him we need to accept Him as God’s son, repent from our sins and a life of selfishness, asking Him to be your savior and Lord, not that you deserve it, but is a gift from God.

If this is your desire today, please repeat this prayer after me?

Heavenly Father I’m sinner,

I’m sorry for my sins,

I’m willing to turn away from my sins.

I receive Christ as my savior,

I confess him as Lord

from this moment on I want to follow and serve him,

in the fellowship of his church,

In Jesus name. Amen!

1Co 11:23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread;

1Co 11:24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me."

1Co 11:25 In the same manner Healso took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."

1Co 11:26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes.

1Co 11:27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

Heb 9:14 dead works, acts, sins

E mau aku ka loko maika’i o ka Haku, Iesu Kristo; me ke aloha a ke Akua, a me ka launa pu ‘ana mai o ka Uhane Hemolele ia ‘olua, a me makou apau. Amene.