PALM SUNDAY MESSAGE : APRIL 10, 2022

CHURCH OF UGANDA – DIOCESE OF RUWENZORI

RUNYORO - RUTOORO ONLINE CHURCH SERVICE

Sunday 10^th April, 2022 at 3:30pm – 5:15pm (Ugandan Time)

Topic:             JESUS, THE JOY OF EVERY BELIEVER

Preacher:       ROBERT MUGISA ABWOOLI

Praise JESUS! Happy Palm Sunday!

God is good, all the time and all the time, God is good and that's His wonderful nature. He is worthy of all our praise, worship and honor. 

We thank God for the gift of a new day, life and all that he has done, is doing and is yet to do for us. Amen.

My name is Robert Mugisa Abwooli and by the grace of God, I have continued to take Jesus Christ daily as my Lord and personal Savior. In him I live, move and have my being (Acts 17:28). I got saved at the age of 13 and since then, I have walked the salvation journey.

I share greetings from my family, The Mugisas. We are grateful that God has brought us into the fourth month of the year still strong and healthy. We acknowledge that that there have been some challenges here and there but we are reminded of the Scripture in John 14 where Jesus comforts and encourages us to take heart; that he has already overcome. We are more than winners, all the time.

We stand and pray for and with those who are recently bereaved. As you may be aware, as a country, we have been through a season of mourning in relation to the demise of the late Jacob Lo'kori Oulanyah. He was finally laid to rest on Friday 8/4/2022 https://www.independent.co.ug/jacob-oulanyah-laid-to-rest/

We also remember our very own colleagues like Rev. Allan Koki Kaweesa who lost a mother. May God continue to comfort and strengthen the family (relatives and friends, the church).

I appreciate our dear Bishop, Reuben Kisembo Amooti and the Leadership Team of Ruwenzori Diocese for granting me the opportunity to share God's Word. I thank God that through such a platform (Online Service), we are able to stay connected as Church and as believers with one common purpose.

THE SERMON

KEY TEXT: MARK 11:1-10 | JESUS COMES TO JERUSALEM AS KING

1As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, ² saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³ If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’”

⁴ They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, ⁵ some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” ⁶ They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. ⁷ When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. ⁸ Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. ⁹ Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,

“Hosanna!^[a]”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”^[b]

¹⁰ “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

It's Palm Sunday! Sande eyamata'gi! It is the Sunday before Easter and it ushers us into the Holy Week. This is the day our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem as King amid shouts of joy ululation. I wonder what it would have been like if Jesus was in the present day in Uganda – the kind of crowd that would have followed him as he rode on/upon that donkey! We look at and consider the great authority that Jesus had before, during and after took the walk and grand entry.

Food for thought

·         What is the significance of palms?

·         Why didn't people carry or hold any other plants leaves? 

·         Do you have your palms? Wave them high and higher!

When we say that Jesus is the joy of every believer, we are talking about a believer who is determined in their heart to walk with Jesus all the way and to follow his commands no matter what the situation could be. He told the disciples to go to a town and untie the Colt; that they had to tell whoever they found that The Master needed the Colt. It takes so much FAITH and COURAGE to go to a place where you are not known and you untie an animal or even run after a chicken that's not yours. In this time and age, you will most likely be lynched immediately. But becsuse the disciples knew who Jesus was, they didn't question him publicly (I imagine that may be they questioned in their hearts, but still, they had to do it.

The joyful believer is one who says that "If it is Jesus saying it or instructing it, I will do it." It is time that we rise up and do the will of our Lord and Saviour. The biggest challenge I have noted of late is that as believers, we want to question everything. My boss, Why? How? Won’t it how will it appear? What will people think? Why don't we do it otherwise? The reason for all this is that we are not so sure it is Jesus or God or the Holy Spirit talking with and to us. Following Christ all the way is about having faith as little as a mustard seed (Mathew 17:20) and knowing that with him all things are possible – including speaking to a mountain and it moves!

Do you have life? Do you have Jesus in your life? He came and went through all that he went through so that you may have life. JOHN 10:10 affirms and confirms this by stating that THE THIEF COMES TO STEAL, KILL AND DESTROY BUT I (JESUS) CAME THAT WE MAY HAVE LIFE AND HAVE IT IN ABUNDANCE. Everyone who has Jesus MUST have life and not only life in abundance. There can't be any excuse if we take the Word of God, the Gospel as it is.

We must participate in walking triumphantly with Jesus because this is the only way we can testify that we were/have been with with him all the way. Let's take the illustration of people on a Charity Run. We have seen those who reach somewhere and get a Boda Boda to take them because they have grown tired and weary of the journey. That doesn't work with salvation. After all, the Scripture instructs us to WORK OUT OUR SALVATION WITH FEAR AND TREMBLING (Philippians 2:12). We must follow the path and steps in which Jesus walks so that as we all arrive with him, we celebrate the same victory (with him).

I am convinced that there is abundant JOY in the simple feeling and truth that JESUS CHRIST came to save you and me from the burden of sin. There is a way sin wears us down to the point that we sometimes feel rather irrelevant and unable to help ourselves. Joy comes from the feeling that God's Will through Jesus Christ was so perfect for us to the point if death. You remember JESUS telling His Father that if it was His Will, he wished that the cup of suffering would be lifted from him. But God, in His purpose and strategy pursued and completed the plan which resulted in the salvation of all mankind.

As we look at and to JESUS as the JOY OF EVERY BELIEVER (each of us), we have to call for and receive joy to become more of joyful believers. It’s only then that we can attract other to this Jesus of ours! When we have joy as a result of having Jesus in our lives, we shall be able to:

1.      Pray with thanksgiving

2.      Repent of our sin(s) because we want to maintain the joy

3.      Forgive those who sin against us

4.      Carry and have Faith all the way 

5.      Wait patiently to receive the Crown of eternal life

GOD BLESS YOU