COMMUNION SUNDAY
Tomorrow, March 7, is the first Sunday of the month, and we have the privilege of celebrating communion together. If you will be joining the service via live-streaming, you are encouraged to prepare in advance. For those of you who will be attending in person, please dispose of your communion cups in the trash receptacles.
THE HEART MATTERS
Our Lent sermon series is entitled “The HEART Matters.” Lent is a solemn time of preparation when we take inventory of our lives. Fasting or giving something up during Lent is a common practice. The custom in some churches of using ashes to form a cross on the believer’s forehead on Ash Wednesday is a tactile reminder that our sin leads to death–spiritual and physical. The solemn reflection of Lent is a way to refocus our minds, hearts, and lives on the fact that we need a Savior before we can experience the triumph of Christ’s resurrection!
LENT SERIES SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS
Please join us at 8:45 a.m. in the Narthex for our “Matters of the Heart” Sunday School class! This 6-week course encourages us to examine our hearts, our motivations, and our loves as we walk in repentance toward Resurrection Sunday.
FROM THE DESK OF PASTOR SHAUN HIGGINS
My personal thanks and appreciation: To Daryl Fuskerud and Don Page—for all of their efforts and hard work in maintaining our church building. To Dennis Brass—for his maintaining the church grounds and helping me in the disposing of furniture dumped on the premises. To the Wednesday Women’s Discipleship Group—for the wonderful meal they prepared this week, and such meaningful discussion in the Word. To Lori-Lee Morse, our office manager and children’s ministry director—for going above and beyond the responsibilities of an administrator and children’s ministry director in maintaining the highest level of dedication and service to the Body.
What’s been going on: For those of you who may be wondering why I have been participating in joint services with City of Rain and The Spirit and Truth Worship Center, I want to keep you informed so you can be praying with us. In our efforts to transition towards becoming an intracultural church, it has been a tremendous blessing for me to come alongside these sister churches and learn about the struggles, successes, and issues that they have encountered in pursuing this vision. Seeing and experiencing first-hand the fruits and efforts of two culturally diverse churches coming together in worship has truly been inspirational. It is so motivating to be able to visualize how powerful and impactful such a ministry can be! At this point in time, the Leadership Team and I are earnestly seeking the direction of where the Spirit is leading us. I am beseeching all of us to wrestle earnestly in prayer for God’s guidance and wisdom.
DIGGING DEEPER
Fill in the blanks using the words in the box below.
Last Sunday, Pastor Shaun preached from James 1. He reminded us that we, as the church, have a _______—to be sharing the light of Jesus with those in darkness. They need to know that God does not want anyone to perish, but wants everyone to ______ his offered gift of eternal life. Pastor Shaun said we need to recognize the issues that are keeping us from being the church, and we need to deal with them. “What good is the church,” he asked, “if we are allowing sin to ______ and grow, so that we are putting more darkness into the world?” James wrote, “Get rid of all moral filth, and the evil that is so prevalent.” Pastor Shaun said that every one of us has seeds of evil and death within us, and if we indulge it, we are only __________ ourselves. He asked, “What resource do we have to keep those evil _______ from taking control? We have ACCOUNTABILITY!” The goal for all of us is to uproot the evil desires within us and supplant them with good things, but it’s not easy, and it’s not something we were meant to do on our own. Yes, we need encouragement from each other, but more importantly we need ______________ from God’s Word. Verse 22 says, “Don’t just listen to the Word and then immediately forget what it says. Do It!” James 1:25 says, “Whoever looks into the perfect law and continues in it, not _____________ what they have read but doing it, that person will be blessed!” The key is to simply DO THE WORD—without omitting, dubbing down, or changing anything! Remember: There is no covering up the sin and rebellion in our hearts. There is no cosmetic spiritual surgery to _______ the blemishes of wickedness. But there is something that will put all of that wickedness to death. Like David, we can pray, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”
| forgetting receive remove deceiving instruction mission desires fester |
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE…
One mom recounts the story of her fourth grader who had to celebrate his 10th birthday on crutches, so he couldn’t carry the cupcakes into school without help. When she asked her sixth-grade son, Noah, to help his brother carry them in, he said, “I could, but I’d prefer not to.” Spotting a teaching moment, she asked Noah, “What would Jesus do?” Noah answered, “Jesus would heal him so he could carry his own cupcakes.”
PRAISES/PRAYER REQUESTS
1. Praise for our Ministerio friends and all they do to serve one another (and us) in love!
3. Pray for LaJean Rohland for quick healing from sinus surgery.
4. Pray for the Leadership Team meeting on Monday, March 8.
6. Continue to pray for protection and wisdom for the first responders in our communities (police officers, firefighters, EMTs).
SERMON SCHEDULE
March 7: Rev. Shaun Higgins, 2 Chronicles 34:1-33—“The Way We Should Go”
March 14: Rev. Andre Khilchenko, James 2:1-9
March 21: Rev. Shaun Higgins, 1 Peter 1:3-9
March 28: Rev. Shaun Higgins, Luke 19:28-44
CHURCH & OFFICE INFORMATION
The Church Office is open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Office phone number: 206-878-4861 // Office email: office@midwaycovenant.org
Sunday Morning Bible Study: 8:45 a.m. in the Narthex
Sunday Morning Worship Service: 10:00 a.m. in the Fellowship Hall (or online at live.midcov.org)
The Clothing Bank is closed.