Bulletins - Mokuaikaua Church

Hawaiian Doxology
Jesus We Love You
Gratitude
How Great Thou Art
Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus
Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ
Romans 8 part 3
I would like to continue with our new series on the book of Romans.
This book is considered Paul’s masterpiece, a very well-constructed summary of Christian Theology.
Considered by many one of the most important books ever written on the Christian faith.
Today we are on the third part of chapter 8, 31-39 of the book of Romans.
Last week we talked about the sons of God, they are led by the Holy Spirit.
Chapter 8 begins with no condemnation and ends with no separation
Today let’s talk about, “Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ ”.
I believe our Heavenly Father wants to give us a fresh revelation of His love for us.
Let’s pray

Rom 8:31 What are we then to say to facts like these? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Let me remind you of the “facts like these” Paul is talking about.

1 We began the chapter with No condemnation, for those who are in Christ, for those who are in a relationship with Jesus.

2 Jesus has set us free
Rom 8:2 For the life-giving power of the Spirit through union with Christ Jesus has set us free from the power of sin and death.

Rom 8:10 But if Christ lives in you, although your bodies must die because of sin, your spirits are now enjoying life because of right standing with God.

3 All who are led by the Spirit are Sons of God.

Rom 8:14 For all who are guided by God's Spirit are God's sons.

4 We received the Spirit of Adoption

Rom 8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

Rom 8:16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

5 We are heirs.

Rom 8:17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

6 Our present Suffering are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed.

Rom 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

7 Creation waits,

Rom 8:19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

8 The Holy Spirit is our helper and intercessor.

Rom 8:26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

1 Our Heavenly Father did not spare His own son.
Rom 8:32 Since He did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, will He not with Him graciously give us everything else?

He did not spare His son, His priceless gift, will he not gives us much more? Or everything else we need.

Some years ago I was in the country of Georgia, visiting a group of students we had sent there from Switzerland, they were attending the first Christian gathering in years in Georgia, normally churches did things on their own, but a number of them agreed with this gathering , so I went with them. The speaker, I can not remember his name, he gave a good message, but I remember that at the end of his message he said Jesus is here, and he wants to touch you, if you are sick or have any condition that you want to ask him for healing, lay hands on yourself and ask Him to heal you, if he heals you come up here and share with the church and give Him praises.
I didn’t know what to expect but soon some people begin to move toward the platform, a lady right In front of me begin to scream and jump up and down, I asked what happened and the translator said she was deaf but now she was hearing, people leaving their wheel chairs behind, others growths that disappeared, blind people saying they could see.
Salvation is all we need, but Jesus always give us much more, how many things he has done for you besides your salvation, healings deliverance, blessings.
2 Who can bring a charge against us
Rom 8:33 Who can bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who declared them in right standing;

Rom 8:34 who can condemn them? Christ Jesus who died, or rather, who was raised from the dead, is now at God's right hand, and is actually pleading for us.

The only one who has legal authority to condemn us is Jesus, and He is seating at the right hand of the Father. Interceding for us. He is our advocate.

A Prominent theme in the book of Romans is the love of God
the love of God poured out into our hearts.

Rom 5:5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Rom 5:8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
God loves you
One day this Prominent theologian well renowned was visiting a seminary, as he was sharing with the students, when one of them asked Dr Barth. from all the things you have found and written about what was the most profound thing or the greatest thought you ever had.
He paused for a moment and said.

“Jesus loves me this I know, for the bible tells me so”

That is profound as you can possibly get.
Is a theme throughout the bible!
God’s love for us
DL Moody, before the computers, and bible programs, decided to trace every single reference in the bible of the love of God, just with a concordance and his bible, and he came to a conclusion.
There is no truth in the whole bible that are to affect us, as the Love of God.

1Jn 4:8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Billy Graham, when he was alive, had Two things he said often, the bible says, and he would say God loves you.
And some asked him why did he say, God loves you!
If you knew, if you really knew that God loves you, it would change your life.

Jeremy 31 talks about His everlasting love
Jer 31:3 the LORD appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.
Before you were born, before you knew me, through your failures, before and after you die I love you!

The word Agape, Love, is used in the New Testament defined as the unconditional, unmerited self-sacrificing love of God.

The love of God is eternal but there are circumstances, things that
Challenges this reality for us.

3 No one can separate us

Rom 8:35 Who can separate us from Christ's love? Can suffering or misfortune or persecution or hunger or destitution or danger or the sword?
Who can (divorce) (Kho rid zo) us from the love of God.

Rom 8:36 As the Scripture says: "For your sake we are being put to death the livelong day; we are treated like sheep to be slaughtered."

this is What the church was walking through during his time
He was writing to a church who was about to go through two hundred years of intense persecution.

Any of these 7 things he mentions here, can leave us questioning, does God loves me? Is there a God?

4 We are more than conquerors.

Rom 8:37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Rom 8:38 For I have full assurance that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor the present nor the future

Rom 8:39 nor evil forces above or beneath, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God as shown in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Spurgeon puts this way death is not the house is just the porch.

Paul had experienced most of that and eventually he was decapitated, what brought him immediately to Jesus, it didn’t separate him. But through all he still believed in the love of God.
I’m sure you have gone through your own challenges or are going through it right now.
Remember the Holy Spirit is here and He will help us in our weakness.

Joh 16:14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ Jesus our Lord.

Have you asked Jesus to be the Lord of your life?

"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

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 Lord and savior, 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 itand 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 He also 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 thiscup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
All Hail King Jesus
Faith Speaks
Romans 10
I would like to continue with our new series on the book of Romans.
This book is considered Paul’s masterpiece, a very well-constructed summary of Christian Theology.
Considered by many one of the most important books ever written on the Christian faith.
Today we are on chapter 10 of the book of Romans.
Last week we talked about Paul’s love for his people and nation how he would give his own salvation for them.
Today let’s talk about, Faith, Faith Speaks.
Let’s Pray
I believe our Heavenly Father wants to give us a fresh revelation of how important is to confess with our mouths our faith in Jesus.
Rom 10:1 Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.

Paul begins this chapter the same way he began chapter 9 expressing his love for the Jewish people, after his 3-missionary journey, Paul spent some time in Greece where we believe he wrote this letter to the church in Rome, he was staying in Gaius house in Corinth.
He wrote Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He identified himself with them, sharing his heart with them.

Rom 9:1 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit—

Rom 9:2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

Rom 9:3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

He makes a Similar expression in chapter 10

Faith Speaks

1 From our Hearts

Rom 10:2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

Paul at one time was just like them, full of zeal but not a zeal according to knowledge, or filled with discernment, just a blind passion towards Judaism. He was saying I can relate I was just like them.

People filled with passion without discernment are scary, they are dangerous, Judas Iscariot was a zealot, The zealots were motivated by socio-economics and political factors but they also had some prophetic ideas, they made some great mistakes about the first and second coming of Jesus.
In the beginning they went along with Jesus as He brought the crowds to God but when His message changed to death on a cross, they rejected Him, now they were convinced that Jesus was a false messiah, then Satan entered Judas, and he betrayed him.

I have a great friend who led me to Christ, I loved volleyball since I was 12 years old, I met this friend when he was attending seminary, he was an excellent volley ball player and I love playing with him, he lived a life that attracted me to the things of God, so it was easy for me to welcome Jesus, he was like my friend, and my friend was good because of Jesus.
Few years went by and he join a group of intellectuals who began to criticize the local churches, of course we can find problems
In every church, but these guys were filled with zeal, it was a Sheppard group in the 90”s they became so righteous in their own eyes and so religious to the point that he no longer spoke to his Christian sister in law because she was not part of his community, she was not aloud to see his children and the grandparents were included, they were all Christians, they became pretty extreme, in one of my trips I went to visit them I was able to sit down with him and his wife and shared with them my outside view of what they were doing, and I asked them to leave the place even though they put all their money into it, a big sacrifice, but they love and respected me.
By the grace of God they did, and the whole community fell apart and once again I had my dear friend back. Zeal without the love of Jesus is destructive.

Some argue that Paul was a zealot, his approval of Stephen’s death, and his persecution of the church.
Zeal categorized Saul, anyone who left Judaism for Christ he would go after them.
Paul understood what zeal without knowing God was like.

Rom 10:3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.
God’s righteousness is not produced by men’s work is a gift we can not attain it.
When we depend on our own understand, and we don’t submit to Christ, we are asking for trouble. Zeal without submission is very dangerous.

Rom 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
The termination the fulfilment of the law, for everyone who believes you don’t have to keep any rituals, you can not earn it.

Rom 10:5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them.
Leviticus 18:5
Rom 10:6 But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down)

Rom 10:7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).

Rom 10:8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);
Deut 32:11

Faith Speaks
2 With our Mouths

Rom 10:9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Is of great importance that we confess with our mouths what we believe in our hearts specially our faith, in Jesus.

Jesus said “for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, if our heart are filled with faith, faith speaks, our mouth will confess that Jesus is Lord!

Mat 12:34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil?

For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

Mat 12:35 The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.

My life changed, something happened inside of me the minute I confessed Jesus as my Lord and savior.

Somewhere during my childhood, I became hard in my heart, and I had no emotions, it was difficult for me to feel anything, good or bad I was filled with hate, but nothing would move me to tears, I was sarcastic, would laugh of peoples tragedy.
I remember I was 12 when my grandfather died in a car crash, he was closed to us but I couldn’t cry, or have any kind of emotion.
The day I confessed Jesus as my Lord and savior, I believed in my heart and confessed with my mouth, something powerful happened and my emotions came back, now I cry very easily, but I have great compassion and faith for those who are stuck like I was.
The little boy in you if you are a guy or the little girl if you are a woman needs to be set free again and join life.

Rom 10:10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Rom 10:11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”

Rom 10:12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.
The church in Rome it was mixed, Jews and gentiles all the Jews were kicked out of Rome by Claudius around 41 AD for about 12 years the book of Acts, Suetonius and Cassius Dio roman historians refer to this event.

Faith Speaks
3 With our actions,
Evangelize
Rom 10:13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Today we are celebrating the death of Henry Opukahai’a one of the first Christians of Hawaii.
He was born here on the Big Island in Ka’u 1792 died on Feb 17, 1818 at Cornwall, Connecticut.

When he was 9 years old a major tragedy struck his family, Kamehameha the great was unifying the Islands of Hawaii and his village was not part of Kamehameha’s troops, the warriors came in and murder his mom and dad, in-front of him and as he tries to run away with his younger brother on his back they spear the brother and killed him too, he asked to be killed too but the warrior takes him to his house on the North of the Island, a year or so later an uncle of his who was a high priest finds him and ransomed him, at the age of 11 years old his uncle takes him back to the south to teach him how to be a Hawaiian high priest, and offer human sacrifice.

This was the farthest thing in Henry’s mind he wanted to leave Hawaii and all the trauma he endured; he wanted peace of mind.

In 1807 a ship name, the Triumph under captain Caleb Britnall stop here at the bay and Henry took off swimming to the ship, and he asked the captain to go with him. After the captain negotiated with the uncle, he let the boy go, for a pig.
On the ship he met another boy a little younger name Thomas Hopu from Kohala. Henry was 15, 16 years old and Thomas was 14. Christians on the ship began to teach them English.

Years later now at the steps of Yale, just one building, they were found crying, by the future Rev Edwin Dwight a senior at Yale College, they were lamenting that “No one give me learning.”
Edwin decided to help them and took them to meet his uncle, Edwin was the Nephew of Timothy Dwight the IV president of Yale.

Some time in between living with the Dwight’s and later meeting Samuel Mills and living with him Henry and Thomas came to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
He not only confessed his faith in Jesus, but now he wanted to come back to Hawaii to evangelize his people, he and Thomas would pray every afternoon for that. Now he was translating the bible into Hawaiian, he created the written words, and he was recruiting missionaries.
He died on Feb 17, 1818 from but it was through his memoir and Thomas
Hopu testimony that a group of missionaries board the Thaddeus in 1819 and came to Hawaii, to evangelize Hawaii, they didn’t know if they would be accepted or rejected, if their mission would be successful or a failure but they obey the word of the Lord and came to share the gospel and plant schools.
The rest is all part of our story, the king donated his canoe house and house, this land, our sanctuary, to be the first Christian church in Hawaii, a great revival followed where 97% of the population came to Christ. 20 years later a church in Hilo, Haili church became the largest church in the world with 11 thousand members, 1840’s
We want to see the Spirit of God moving over the Islands again!

Rom 10:14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

Rom 10:15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

Rom 10:16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?”

Rom 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Bill Johnson in one of his messages call our attention to this, is what we are hearing now, not what we heard, past tense, through the word of Christ that will release faith in our hearts.
Is what we hear believe and receive that will release faith into our hearts.

Faith Speaks
1 From our Heart’s
2 With our Mouth’s
3 With our Actions

Have you asked Jesus to be the Lord of your life?

"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

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 Lord and savior, 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 itand 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 He also 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.

1 Our Heavenly Father did not spare His own son.

2 Who can bring a charge against us

3 No one can separate us

4 We are more than conquerors.

Faith Speaks

1 From our Hearts

2 With our Mouths

3 With our actions,

Evangelize