This Sunday's Worship Materials can be found in the "Featured Sermon" below. We meet in person at Harper Park Middle School, and the service is also livestreamed on our YouTube channel.

Heart Prep for Sunday, October 4th

This week we’re back together, meeting in-person at Harper Park.  I appreciate everyone’s patience as we dealt with our first covid scare.  Everyone who needed to be tested was … and they all tested negative.  Thank you, Jesus.  Mark had mild symptoms, is recovering well, and we look forward to his eventual return.

Furthermore, this Sunday, for the second time after going six months without, we’ll be celebrating the Lord’s Supper together.  Once again, we’ll have the prepackaged elements on the table as you enter the auditorium (please only take the gluten-free one if you need it as there’s a limited supply) and we’ll participate in communion and pray all together.  I know it’s not the same as our normal practice, but last month, most of us still found it to be a great blessing.

Third, since we weren’t able to do the baby bottle campaign in the Spring due to the pandemic, we’re going to do it now.  We’ll have the baby bottles in a big bin on the table as you enter the building, so please take one and fill it with your pocket change.  Return the bottles to the church by the Fall Festival on Sunday, Nov. 1st and all the proceeds will go to support the Mosaic Pregnancy Care Center.

Finally, this week we’re moving on from Gideon to David in our sermon series on “Misused Stories of the Bible.”  We’ll be in 1 Samuel 17 and the famous story of “David and Goliath.”  Growing up, this was one of my favorite stories – the little guy wins (yeah), the big guy goes down (yeah), gets his head chopped off (awesome), and the winner is named David (how cool is that?)!

Of course, I may have missed the main point of the text, having been enthralled by the action scenes.  Although, to be honest, I think many people have missed the point over the years.  There’s been countless sermons on “How to kill the giants in your life,” most of which fall into the trap of self-help moralism.  But is that what’s really going on here?  I don’t think so, which is why it’s part of this series.  And even though it does speak to us about both faith and fear, the story points us to a much bigger message.  And it’s still one of my favorite stories.  I look forward to hearing what you think about “David and His Giant.”  See you Sunday, Dr. Dave

 

P.S. – Please continue to pray for our much-loved church administrator, Andrea Pogany, who will be home from the hospital by the time you get this, but is facing another surgery later this month!