LCC Online Service - 05 April 2020

Welcome

Dear brother and sisters in Christ,

Today is our second Online Sunday Service. The challenge of facing the COVID-19 continues. As we heard last Sunday, we need to trust that the Lord will bring good out of this in our personal lives and in our church as a whole. We need to be strong in our faith, by reading God’s word, by spending time in prayer, and by listening to the Holy Spirit who is our comforter. Today the Christian Church around the world celebrates Palm Sunday.

Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus’ last entry into the city of Jerusalem before His death. Jesus rode on a donkey into the city to demonstrate that he comes to bring peace.

Many people who heard that Jesus was arriving in Jerusalem came forward to greet Him.

Matthew 21:1-11 (NET)
Now when they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, telling them, “Go to the village ahead of you. Right away you will find a donkey tied there, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me.

If anyone says anything to you, you are to say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet:

“Tell the people of Zion, ‘Look, your king is coming to you, unassuming and seated on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”

So the disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them, and he sat on them.

A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road. Others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those following kept shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

As he entered Jerusalem the whole city was thrown into an uproar, saying,

“Who is this?” And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.”

My brothers and sisters, in these difficult times we need Jesus for our healing and peace in our hearts, in our families, in our countries and indeed the whole world.

As a leadership we would like to encourage you in the following areas

• Have fellowship with other believers (Hebrews 10:25)

  • To encourage one another

  • To support others who are facing challenges

  • To keep in the habit of meeting

  • Please do this with wisdom in the light of the corona situation, taking all necessary precautions. Please utilize creative opportunities to meet remotely through tools like WhatsApp, Skype, FaceTime, Hangouts Meet and Zoom.

• Pray fervently for

  • One another

  • The medical services

  • The leadership in our Government

  • Please submit prayer requests to the elders or the church administrator

• Keeping in touch

  • If you know of church members and others who would like to be on the mailing list and on the WhatsApp list, please ask them to submit email addresses and WhatsApp numbers to Yvette

  • We are working to create smaller groups within the church that can fall under specific leadership members to better support and encourage one another.  This would be done remotely and can include those outside of Zambia. We are plan to be in contact with you about these groups in the following week. If you have not been contacted by an elder or a member of the leadership team and would like to a part of a group, please contact us.
    Please complete the following Google Form if you are interested in being connected to a smaller group within the Church: LCC Fellowship Groups - Google Form

Praise and Worship

Please select “play” on the image below and join with us in worshipping our Lord and Saviour. The video is a playlist so it should automatically transition to the next song.

Song List:
- This is amazing grace - Phil Wickham (printable lyric sheet)
- Raise a hallelujah - Bethel Music (printable lyric sheet)
- 10,000 Reasons - Matt Redman (printable lyric sheet)
- Great are you Lord - All Sons & Daughters (printable lyric sheet)
- What a beautiful name - Hillsong (printable lyric sheet)

Children’s story

Direct download children’s story: click here

sermon

Sermon - Ken Bowker - Perspectives of Palm Sunday

Scripture: Matthew 21:1-11 & Luke 19:28-40
Please select Play below (depending on your bandwidth it could take a few seconds to buffer and play)

If you have issues playing the sermon, you can download it directly from Dropbox here:
Sermon Download

Prayer

Let us spend this time in prayer praising our Lord and King seeking His face and asking for His kingdom to come and will to be done here on Earth as it is in Heaven.

1. Pray for all those who are fearful that they may be drawn to God's Word for peace.

2. Pray for the Government to find efficient and effective ways to manage the Country through the pandemic.

3. Pray for courage strength and recovery for Kate, Farai and Hope.

4. Pray for the Pastor Call Committee.

5. Pray for God's Mercy on Zambia.

6. Give Praise, Honour and Glory to God .

7. Give thanks for God's Word The Bible.

Please share your praises and prayer needs with any of the Elders via WhatsApp or email the church email so that we can all continue being in prayer for one another.

Giving

Our church overheads continue to accrue each month and our income is not matching expenditure. We are well aware that we are all under tight financial conditions. We pray that we as a church can join together to further the ministries of the church and surrender our finances in this way for the Lords work.

If you feel led to give to the church you can drop-off your offering at the church office during regular working hours or can use online transfer facilities. If you would like to confirm with the church administrator for a drop-off please call, text, or WhatsApp: +260966800100
If you want your offering to go to a specific person/project/purpose simply write this on an envelope and place your offering inside this.

The church bank account details are below if you would like to use online transfer facilities:

Account name: Lusaka Community Church 
$ acc #: 8700220232300
K acc #: 0150420232300
Bank: Standardchartered 
Branch: Manda Hill
Branch code: 03000
Swift code: SCBLZMLX

Thank You

This is our second week offering an online service, and we are so thankful that we are able to join together through this. We are looking at additional ways to improve the online services in the future. And are praying about ways to stay connected as a church family. Please if you find this format helpful or would like to be encouraged other ways please let us know by completing the following form (responses will only be viewed by the elders):
Feedback - Click Here

We are working to connect the Church body together in smaller groups, and plan to start connecting directly with you this next week. We plan to assigning an elder and leadership member to a group of people, mostly, divided by locations. The purpose is to be able to stay better connected and share prayer encouragements, concerns, and needs. And to follow up on everyone’s physical and spiritual well-being during this unique time.
If you are interested in this, please complete this form (contact information will only be used for LCC related purposes):
Fellowship Groups - Click Here

Reminders

We can find ourselves confused, stressed, and fearful with all the news reports being shared with us on social media and news outlets. We need to remind ourselves to set specific boundaries on when and how long we will spend absorbing the never ending information available to us, especially if it is causing anxiety and fear.

Please if you are becoming anxious or fearful, disconnect from the bombardment of information and reach out to the elders and other Christians to pray and read the scriptures with. Place boundaries in your life regarding the 24/7 news we receive in this day and age. We encourage you to shut-off your devices and spend time in prayer and meditation on the scriptures.

May we spend time meditating on God’s greatness, might, and holiness, because when we do, the fear of this world will fade away. For God is greater than COVID-19, He is greater than death, and no matter what happens in this World, we are sons and daughters of the King. He has His arms wide open to us, if only we turn and fall into them.

Benediction

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you
being rooted and grounded in love,
may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,
that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think,
according to the power at work within us,
to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations,
forever and ever.
Amen.
- Ephesians 3:14-21 (ESV) -