Time to change...

​… your clocks… (and your heart??)   Don’t forget that Saturday night we change over to Daylight Savings Time. “Spring forward” to have one hour less sleep before church…yippie! But then, let’s meet to discover the heart change that God can bring when we are willing to surrender all our ambitions to the One who knows far better how to get us to our best life! More on this in Deeper Thoughts below…
 
 BUT first…a few updates…

• LAST Sunday, our Covenant Partners voted unanimously to proceed with the next stage of our facility expansion. This begins an approximately 9-month journey of developing detailed technical drawings (blueprints) for the expansion, obtaining a minor special exception to county zoning regulations, and securing all necessary building permits from Loudoun County. It’s getting real as we move forward… keep seeking the Lord for His wisdom, guidance, and provision!!

 

• Teens: TOMORROW Saturday, March7: FIRE Worship Night, 6:00 - 8:30 p.m. Dinner, connection, music, devotional and discussion. We will focus on what it means to BELONG in the Body of Christ. Friends are welcome!

 

• Youth Group after service on Sunday, 11:30 – 1:00 p.m. to connect, re-cap, and discover more in God’s Word. Jess and Jameson will share a quirky story never heard before! Snacks, too!! Let us know if your student needs a ride home.

 

• Ladies: Join us NEXT Saturday, March 14 at 4:00 p.m. for a special service project to nursing home residents. Help us make flowers and Bible verses to share; travel with us to present these to the residents and share in a time of worship and devotion. Click here for more info and to RSVP!

 

• Are you interested in being baptized? Join us for an orientation to baptism Sunday, March 29, right after church. For those who decide they would like to be baptized, we will schedule their specific baptism for a Sunday in the days ahead!

 

• Please stay vigilant against ongoing email scams some bad guys are attacking our Mt. Hope email list with. I will NEVER email you to ask you to do something for me because “I am in a meeting and need your help….” Our online church directory has been hacked, and they are using sophisticated means, fake email addresses, and my picture to trick you into thinking I am reaching out for help. If I need help from you, I will call you. Do NOT respond to personal email requests for help!

 

• NEW Daily Six content THIS WEEK!! Join us for six minutes each day, Monday through Friday, as we continue our character-by-character study of how to find the heart of God… click here for our Daily Six webpage to find new content on Monday morning, OR… click here to sign up for our daily email reminders (if you’ve not already done so!).

 
 
OK… that’s it for today for you email skimmers and those who hate long emails…
 
BUT…
 
 
Some Deeper Thoughts
 
There is a type of heart that God wants for us. Some of us are there, some are not. All of us can gain this heart… it’s a heart that God Himself will forge in us if we let Him.
 
Jesus explained the heart problem we have. He used soil as the illustration, revealing that our hearts are found along a spectrum of hardness to softness. Read all about it in Matthew 13:1-23.
 
Heart problems are serious. In the physical realm, hardened arteries lead to big difficulties. Stuff gets hardened enough, the surgeon needs to go in and replace a few things.
 
In the spiritual realm, the greatest of all Surgeons promises a full-blown heart transplant: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26).
 
Do you notice who is the one replacing the heart?
 
Often in Christian spirituality, people hear teachings about the things in our hearts that have gone wrong. We hear that we need to surrender destructive patterns in our hearts—pride, ambition, controlism, etc. We hear teachings like we’ve been reading about King Saul and King David where God “does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). We hear all these things, and then immediately go to work trying to change our hearts. We try to fix what we’re told is broken inside.
 
But what if the role I play in a spiritual heart change is not what I think it is?
 
It might sound really silly, but can you imagine me assembling all my tools by the bathroom mirror and planning to handle my own clogged artery bypass? Not possible, correct?
 
In the natural realm, the only role I could play in my own heart surgery is to show up for all the appointments and surrender to the surgeon. Lay down. Surrender my plans. Clear the calendar. Submit to the surgery. And it would save my life.
 
In the spiritual realm, the surgery is no different. I have no more power to change my spiritual heart than I do my physical one. The Great Heart Surgeon alone has the skills and ability to do the transforming.
 
But I do have to show up for the surgery. First, I must recognize the need to see a doctor and be diagnosed (spiritually: Be in the Word of God to learn what is unhealthy about me). I must attend the pre-op appointments to learn what needs changed (spiritually: Be in the Word and learn what a clean heart looks like). I must accept the Surgeon’s authority and wisdom to renovate my heart (spiritually: submit to the Lordship of Jesus over everything I value, believe, and desire… let Him change my mind on all manner of ideas). I must clear my agenda for the many weeks of the Surgeon’s work and recovery (spiritually: surrender my plans and ambitions to the Lord). Then I must show up and lay down in the operating room (spiritually: get on my face before the Lord… go to the altar… surrender).
 
Friends, we need profound change in our hearts. We all do. But those changes cannot be driven by us. We play a huge part—we must show up and surrender to the surgeon. But the change of heart belongs to the Lord. And if we show up, He promises us He will do the surgery.
 
As we study the Old Testament characters of Saul and David, we are looking in on the very messy lives of Israel’s first two political leaders. Men of great power, the pressures and temptations they faced were astronomical. Both were men that God could have worked with to accomplish great things for His people. But only one had a heart that was ready to respond.
 
Join us this Sunday as we continue our new mini-series exploration of “Finding the Heart of God.” We will see some parallel patterns we likely have with their story… but not so we can come away with a heavy heart and assemble our own surgery kit by the bathroom mirror. We won’t be able to fix ourselves… nor do we need to. We have a Great Physician who promises us SO much better care!
 
I can’t wait to be with you all on Sunday, 10:00 a.m. sharp… Don’t be late… bring your Bible and a pen!!
 
Much love to you all…
 
Chris Eads
Mt. Hope Pastor
Friend
[email protected]
703-999-4845 (c)