4th Advent: For the Love of Joy
For this last Sunday before Christmas, we will conclude our Advent journey from Faith, Peace, and Love toward Joy and recognize, once more, how important realizing true Joy is to our humans spiritual Health and Wholeness as well as our ability to express our Divine (our Christ Nature) fully and without excuse.
Join us this Sunday for a powerful and inspiring message on one of the most inspiring Truths about what the Christmas Story has always meant to be in our lives. Celebrate with us our Divinities and share fellowship after service.
Listen & Watch
Sermon Notes
4th Advent Reading
Core Message (Affirmation)
Faith, Peace, Love, and Joy are the foundation of my spiritual awakening.
Scriptures & Metaphysics
Faith
“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)
Revealing Word (Charles Fillmore)
“Hope is the expectation of good in the future. It is a quality…of sense mind because it is subject to time.”
“Faith is the certain knowledge that our good is ours right now. It is of God; it goes beyond time and space.”
Peace
“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:7)
Love
“A New commandment that I give to you, that you Love one another, just like I have Loved you.” (John 13:34)
Revealing Word (Charles Fillmore)
“The pure essence of Being that binds together the whole human family.”
“Divine love is impersonal; it loves for the sake of loving.”
“Love is an inner quality that sees good everywhere and in everybody. It insists that all is good, and by refusing to see anything but good it causes that quality finally to appear uppermost in itself, and in all things.”
Praise, Gratitude & Love
“Praise always leads to Gratitude, which always leads to Love.”
“We do not have to feel praise in order to say praise.”
Joy
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
“Ultimately, our greatest joy is when we seek to do good for others.” (Desmund Tutu)
Revealing Word (Charles Fillmore)
“The happiness of God expressed through His perfect idea—man.”
The Book of Joy
“The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World” by Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Douglas Carlton Abrams
8 Pillars of Joy
Perspective – Taking a sacred pause and finding the widest perspective helps us solve problems with creativity and compassion rather than rigidity and reactivity.
Humility – Discover how you depend on others – your parents, those who made your clothes, or where you live, or the medications you take. You are only one of 7 billion people.
Humor – Find ways to laugh at your faults, limitation, and foibles. Laugh at yourself. Laugh at life.
Acceptance – Don’t argue with what was or is. Don’t argue with reality. “Why be unhappy about something if it can be remedied? What is the use of being unhappy if it cannot be remedied?”
Forgiveness – Tell your story. Name the hurt. Grant forgiveness. Renew or release the relationship.
Gratitude – Be thankful for what goes well and the learning and growth possible when things don’t go well.
Compassion – Loving kindness: May you be free from suffering. May you be healthy. May you be happy. May you have peace and joy. Begin with yourself, then those you love, then those you know, then those you don’t know, and then those you fear or anger you.
Generosity – Offer more and more and more to others (resources, compassion, forgiveness, understanding) and see what comes back to you.
