Exercise Your Liberty Through Prayer

Paul issues a 3-word command in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 - a command to pray unceasingly. This verse communicates the need for a Christian to be continually postured in dependence toward God. But it also reflects the awesome reality that because Christ has made a way to access God and because God has promised that He hears those who have been purchased by the blood of His Son, we CAN express our dependence on God through prayer. In a moment in history when people’s rights and liberties are the talk of the town, as Christians, it’s an opportunity for us to consider our liberties, because liberties that we have in Christ - liberties like prayer - far exceed the privileges that any American liberty might afford you. Do you want to become a more prayerful Christian by the end of this pandemic? Do you want to be able to exercise your dependence on the Lord through prayer more frequently? Do you want to learn more about the nature of Christian prayer? Listen to this week’s sermon and respond to God’s gracious invitation to pray to Him.

Listen to this week’s sermon here.

This Friday Our Small Groups are Meeting via Zoom

We are switching things up as we head into a new month in quarantine. We will be resuming our normal monthly meetings- but they will be “meeting” via Zoom. This Friday our small groups will each have their own separate Zoom call.

Friday Night at 7pm

Your small group leader will send out the Zoom Call info to you. If you are not yet part of a small group, please email us at office@sovgracesantaana.org

A Christian’s Daily Prayer

As we continue to worship “together at home”, and persevere in this new normal, one massive opportunity we teach have in the midst of this new normal is to grow in our dependence upon God through prayer. This Sunday we will be learning from the 1 Thessalonians 5:17 instruction to “pray without ceasing”. In line with this, we’ll also be introducing a song that both serves as a framework for our petitions to God and is an actual expression of prayerful dependence upon God.

Listen to the song here.

Lyrics:

VERSE 1
As morning dawns and day awakes,
To You I bring my need
O gracious God, my source of strength,
In You I live and breathe
Each hour is Yours by wisdom planned,
Each deed empowered by sovereign hands
Renew my spirit, help me stand;
Be glorified today

VERSE 2
As day unfolds, I seek Your will
In all of life’s demands
And though the tempter tries me still,
I cling to Your commands
Let every effort of my life
Display the matchless worth of Christ
Make me a living sacrifice;
Be glorified today

VERSE 3
As sun gives way to darkest night
Your Spirit still is here
And though my strength fades like the light
New mercies will appear
I rest in You; abide with me
Until our trials and suffering
Give way to final victory
Be glorified, today; be glorified, I pray

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Learn more about our partnership with Sovereign Grace Churches and how you can participate in planting and strengthening local churches around the world.

Download the 2020 Mission Fund brochure.
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While In Person Gatherings are cancelled, we are resuming our monthly meetings via Zoom

Our Sunday morning services will continue to be live-streamed, but here is what you can expect for our other meetings:

1. 1st & 3rd Friday Nights - Small Groups (Via Zoom)

On the nights when we normally would have small group, we still be holding small group but it will be through Zoom. Your small group leader will send out the call info to you the day before. If you have not yet sent Pastor Kyle your small group preference (Houlton small group, Erkelens small group, Spanish-speakers small group), please do so ASAP by sending him an email at kyle@sovgracesantaana.org

2. 2nd & 4th Friday Nights - All Church Zoom Meetings

These will be all- church Prayer meetings- very similar to what we have been doing on Friday nights.

3. Men’s & Women’s Meetings (via Zoom)

Men’s meeting will take place on the 2nd Thursday of every month and Women’s meeting will take place on the 4th Thursday via Zoom. Zoom meeting details will be shared on our Slack pages. If you are not on Slack yet, send an email to office@sovgracesantaana.org

Sunday Morning PJ’s, Illustrated Sermon Notes and The Kids of SGSA

Thank you for sending photos and videos of your household worshipping together to photos@sovgracesantaana.org. This will continue to be what services look like for at least another few weeks, so keep sending them along to remind your brothers and sisters of the voices that are joining together with them as we sing, listen and pray on Sunday mornings.

Rejoice Always Because You Can

One of the shortest verses in the Bible is a command to rejoice. For anyone without Christ, this is a hard command. Sorrow, pain and anxiety hamper attempts at constant joy. Further, any lesser joy cannot sustain the constancy that Paul envisions in his command. But there is a single source of joy that makes following this command possible - God. God is the perfection of joy itself. Further the Gospel is a message of a Jesus who saves us into that very joy and tells of a Holy Spirit who sustains that joy. Do you want to know the not-so-secret secret to joy? Listen to this week’s sermon here.

DON’T MISS OUR WEEKLY PRAYER MEETING EVERY FRIDAY AT 7PM

Until our church calendar normalizes and we’re allowed to meet together again, we’ll conduct a 1.5 hour zoom call to receive a brief update from one another and pray together for one another and for our neighbors. This is the rare chance we get to see one another in one place. We love seeing your faces and hearing your voices.

FOR SECURITY PURPOSES, THE ZOOM LINK WILL NO LONGER BE PUBLICLY POSTED ON THE BLOG

If you need the call information, please email us at office@sovgracesantaana.org

CONTINUE TO SEND US YOUR PRAYER REQUESTS

Thank you for responding and sending them. We’re so used to knowing one another’s needs through experiencing regular fellowship. We talk to one another on Sunday morning. We share life together at small group. We host one another in our homes. We can’t do any of that right now. It’s important to know, however, how to pray for one another and to ask the Lord to guide us, sustain us and encourage us each individually in this season. Here are the prayer requests from this past week (anonymity is maintained):

1. Pray for those who are experiencing loneliness, depression and extreme isolation

2. Pray for our neighbors and members experiencing severe lack of resources and access to information limited by language and income barriers.

3. Pray for healing for Krista Alvarez as a frustrating health issue has returned.

4. Pray for wisdom for the church’s leaders in determining how best to return to meeting together again once social distancing measures are lifted

5. Continue to pray for frontline workers - Alice, Kevin, and Angie working in medical contexts, Peter delivering mail daily, Jeff serving the homeless population and others among us.

6. Pray for favor for those in need of and seeking assistance through SBA loans, unemployment and other resources

7. Pray that the Lord would strengthen each member’s communion with Him; pray that devotional patterns would be strengthened and that we each learn to trust the Lord well

8. Pray for the Houltons as they finish up foster training and prepare to receive a child into their home within the next month

9. Pray for the Lord’s favor as we seek a place to meet on Sundays, given that Heninger may no longer be an option

10. Pray for little Simon as he continues to battle cancer and for faith for his family during the trial

    KEEP SENDING PRAYER REQUESTS TO PRAYERS@SOVGRACESANTAANA.ORG.

KEEP SENDING PICTURES OF YOUR HOUSEHOLD WORSHIPPING TOGETHER

We are now entering month 2 of worshipping from our own homes. Each week, we receive the pictures you send us and it fills us with joy while also deepening how much we miss you. We’re grateful to the Lord, though, for modern technological advances that allow us to worship together despite the inability to meet in person. Thank you for sending photos and videos of your household worshipping together to photos@sovgracesantaana.org. This will continue to be what services look like for at least another few weeks, so keep sending them along to remind your brothers and sisters of the voices that are joining together with them as we sing, listen and pray on Sunday mornings. Take a look at a few photos from this livestream Sunday.