3/16/2025 Sunday Announcements

1. *WELCOME to HOSANNA! – *Warmest welcome to all of you, especially if you are visiting or re-visiting! Please let our Welcoming Team give you our welcoming gift of a t-shirt and beige multi-purpose bag! Fill-out a yellow newcomer’s contact card so that we can keep in touch! We welcome you into this family of Christ’s loving arms and remain here for you as His body to grow and flourish together!
2. *DISMISSAL of children (kinder to 5th grade) to Children’s Ministry! – At this time, children from kindergarten to 5th grade can head over to Minister Sewon Cho’s children’s ministry – please proceed to the children’s chapel down the hallway to the left! *Preschool worship children should already be in the preschool worship room with Director Rachel and assistant Ashley, and will continue to begin simultaneously at 10:40am in the preschool worship room.
3. *2025 LENT CONTINUES! – The forty days leading-up to Easter, known as the Lenten season, has begun. *Today is Day 12 – break day – and tomorrow (Monday) is Day 13 (reading Matthew 25-26) as we follow the Bible Reading Plan (https://www.biblegateway.com/reading-plans/lent). During this holy season leading up to Easter, spend time praying and fasting from a usual routine, leisure, entertainment etc. to spend time reading Scripture and renewing your heart with the sufferings and resurrection of Christ.
4. *SIGN-UP FOR THIS YEAR’S HONDURAS SUMMER MISSION TRIP BY MARCH 30 (SUNDAY)! – In co-partnership with Bethany Korean Church, we have had a longstanding investment and mission work in Honduras over many years, having planted Iglesia Evangelica Bethania, Templo Gran Luz, alongside several other churches. This year, we continue to partner with Bethany in a one-week summer mission trip from Monday (6/30) to Saturday (7/5). We are looking for volunteers to join this year’s Bethany Honduras team. Cost per person: $600-$700 airfare. Lodging and food provided. 50% of costs covered for college and youth. *There may also be opportunities for Hosanna to help subsidize costs, as able. *Please do not worry about the cost, but pray and consider this sacrificial offering of mission work to the Lord in local evangelism, children’s Bible camp, village worship nights and breaking of bread ministry to the rural residents in the mountains of Honduras. *Missions training to be conducted in April. Inquire with Elder Heather Lee and sign-up by March 30 (Sun)!
5. *CONTINUING TODAY (3/16), BREAKOUT DISCUSSION GROUP MINISTRY TEMPORARILY MOVING TO THE GYMNASIUM – Continuing today, we are temporarily moving our Sunday breakout discussion group ministry into the gymnasium, to see if that will work better for us. We thank each of you for participating in this ministry. Let us continue to breakup larger common groups and breakout into smaller groups to discuss the life-giving truths of God’s Word. **Immediately after-Sunday service, let us seek to exit the Chapel and be in the gymnasium with our group numbers by 12:05pm. Sit at your group number table and may the Lord bless our discussions together!
6. *TODAY (3/16) STAFF GATHERING, 1:15pm @ Corner Conference Room – Pray for our honored staff as they gather to strategize, pray, and bless His Kingdom work here at Hosanna.
7. *THIS SATURDAY (3/22), JAMES families life group, 4pm-7pm @ Ezra Chapel – Our JAMES families life group will be gathering at 4pm this Saturday to continue their study on Faith, Doubt, and God’s Mysterious Timing with Shepherd and Deacon Chong.
8. *STARTING NEXT SUNDAY (3/23) MARCH BAPTISM/CONFIRMATION ORIENTATION, 1:15pm @ Corner Conference Room – Pray for those considering baptism and confirmation of faith (if infant baptized). We ask for all those being led to faith (little children to adults) or those confirming their faith to consider receiving this sacramental grace from the Lord. Inquire with our Pastor.
9. *PRAY FOR APRIL’S LAUNCH OF HOSANNA LORD’S DAY SUNDAY BREAKING BREAD MINISTRY (4/6, Sunday)! – In April, we will attempt to launch our own Sunday breaking of bread ministry coinciding with our breakout discussion group ministry. More details to be shared by the Deacons. Pray that through this ministry, we can nurture more flourishing discipleship relationships after-service with an extended time together, kindle deeper discussions around the Word of God, inspire genuine community time with one another, fuel a posture of praying for one another, and increase a love for new faces/visitors we may only see on Sunday’s as a missional body of Christ.
10. *KINGDOM EXPANSION PRAYER – This week’s Kingdom expansion prayers will focus on 2025 season of lent/preparation leading up to Easter Sunday

 
Scripture:
 
“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (MATTHEW 6:16-18)
 
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (MATTHEW 4:1-4)
 
“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. (JOEL 2:12-13)
 
 
Prayer (by Pastor Chester):
Heavenly Father, we lift up to You this sacred time of preparation for forty days leading up to Easter, preparing our hearts and live again to behold the resurrection of Your Son. According to Your great mercy, You have caused us to be born again into a living hope through Easter. Refresh us again and again that Jesus has risen and is alive from the dead, so also we too can rise today and will rise at the last day to be with Him. Let us not be gloomy, but refigure our faces through your gift of fasting to hunger for the risen Christ again. Let fasting not be done for the eyes of others, but for You alone in secret. Give us a refresh hunger and thirst to be led by Your Holy Spirit, even into the wilderness. Just as Jesus fasted forty days and forty nights, although His hunger drove Him to His physical limits, He did not turn stones into loaves of bread to obey the Tempter, but to obey Your living word. Let us not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from Your mouth through the Scriptures. Even now, Lord, let us return to You with all our hearts with fasting, with weeping, with mourning. Let us offer our hearts and not our garments. Let us look inside and not just live for the outside. Let us return to You as our God alone, for You are gracious. You are merciful. You are slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Lift us up to Your Son’s resurrected life, through Jesus Christ risen from the dead, our powerful Savior and Lord we pray, amen & amen.