Sunday Morning Sermon: Sunday's sermon is titled “The Stones Will Cry Out” from Luke 19:29-20:19. The Old Testament reading II Chronicles 7:11-22, and the New Testament reading is Acts 4:1-12.
Live streamed Virtual Church (link) is available streaming at 9:00 AM.
Virtual Foyer on Zoom (link) at 10:15 AM.
There will be only one MCC in-person service this Sunday at 9:00 AM.
The recorded services are also available on MCC YouTube Channel (Link).
Week 46 of 52: Hebrew Words Every Christian Should Know by Dave Adamson: “Zakar” = remember. Since we finished our Torah series in the spring, it might be fresh in the minds of our congregation that “remember” was our one-word summary of the book of Deuteronomy. In the Old Testament, there is an implication that remembering involves more than just the mind because “zakar” seems to include an aspect of following with action. For example, God “remembered” Noah and rescued the inhabitants of the ark (Genesis 8:1); and God “remembered” Rachel and allowed her to conceive (Genesis 30:22).
This is a good opportunity to review the MCC approach to taking the Lord’s Supper, a patchwork combination of many church traditions. We offer Communion at the end of every Sunday worship service during the response time at the end of the service. We serve ourselves rather than being served by clergy. We have changed the way we get the Communion elements to be more careful, but we are not overly concerned with those details. Many Sundays you will hear Jared or me say, “The important part of this command from Jesus was to remember. Remember the price he paid for our salvation, and remember that he’s coming back for us.”
MCC News:
Struna update: Chris is flying to Honduras on January 19th to resume his missionary career but with a new twist. Now he will be the administrator/principal. (What will they call you, Chris? El Jefe?) Before resuming her missionary career as a nurse, Sharon is staying in Florida a bit longer for some specialized medical treatment. Please make it a congregational focus to pray for the success of this treatment and for her to have relief from her migraines. Sharon intends to join Chris in Honduras in March. In the meantime, there is an ongoing need for a loaner vehicle for her to use here in Brevard County. Please let me know if you can help with that, and also look for opportunities to connect with Chris and/or Sharon before they go. After March, I expect that we will see them only sporadically in Florida when they return on furlough and/or when our teams go to Honduras to help.
I was lit up by Jared’s message on John the Baptist and repentance last week to finish our Advent series. He captured me early with this line, “If you are going the wrong direction, there are three things you can do, but only one of them is helpful.” I am going to keep quoting that line.
I am excited about the start of a new series this Sunday, but it’s not exactly the start. We are returning to Luke’s Gospel for the third and final installment of our series that we have spread out over two years. Now we will pick up with Luke 19:28-20:19, and we will finish the book between now and Easter. I recommend all the usual advance preparation. It took me 30 minutes to listen to the Bible Gateway narrator read aloud the last 5 ½ chapters of this book. The Bible Project videos on YouTube are outstanding and brief, usually about 8 minutes. If you have not starting using Tim Grogan’s bulletin inserts along with the Sunday sermons (available on the MCC website), resolution season would be a good time to try a new thing, or maybe resume an old habit.
Please join us for worship at Melbourne Community Church this weekend, however you can. The live service begins at 9:00 AM, and it is live streamed on our YouTube channel. The full service is available on our website after that.
Our “virtual foyer” Zoom meeting is a group of attenders who connect briefly (about 45 minutes) after the worship service. Newcomers are always welcome.