2020 HOSPITALITY CHALLENGE

In January, we launched our 2020 Hospitality Challenge. On the second friday of every month, we were encouraging you to reach out to your neighbors, unbelieving family and friends and invite them over for a meal in your home. Little did we know that 3 months into this year’s challenge, a pandemic would sweep the globe and limit the contact we can have with one another.

Though it may look different now, our commitment to spreading the joy of Jesus to our neighbors remains. Even in the middle of a pandemic, there are ways we can reach out to encourage our neighbors and glorify God.

Here is a list of ideas to get you started.

1. Zoom Dinners or Game Nights- Zoom can be a great tool to invite someone “into” your home during this time.

2. Offer to pick up groceries for your neighbors- you can leave a note with your number and encourage them to call you with what they need.

3. Drop off a meal, coffee, or snacks to your neighbors- sometimes it is hard to admit you need help. Instead you can simply drop off something to your neighbors with an encouraging note.

4. Donate funds to our Neighbor Relief Fund here.

5. Share Your Gifts- Love baking? Make a batch of cookies and drop them off to your friends. Have a great skill in creating Spotify playlists? Curate a fun playlist and send it out to your friends. There are ways to share the gifts God has given you with others during this time- this is a unique way to think about your gifts and use it to bless others.

This Friday is the second Friday this month. we encourage you look through this list and pick something that you and your family can do.

Coronavirus and Christ by John Piper

Coronavirus y Cristo  por John Piper

By recommending a new book every month, we’re recommending resources to you that help you to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Pet. 3:18). It is not required that you purchase or read these books. They’re mere recommendations to assist you in choosing good books that help you to make the best use of the precious time you have.

“Our Words Are Grass. God’s Word is Granite.”

May’s book of the month is “Coronavirus and Christ” by John Piper. If you’ve ever read a book by John Piper, you’ll find that this book says very little that’s new - you’ll find the essential message that “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him”. He tells you the Gospel that you need to hear. He directs you to God’s Word and reminds you of your purpose for living. This book is different only in that He directs you to God’s Word in your experience of the Coronavirus and helps us to consider God’s redemptive purposes in the midst of the specific life-defining moment. Far from being a “seen that, read that” book, this is a book you need to read. The best news? It’s free.

We Have a Hard Copy For Each of You, Courtesy of DesiringGod

Download the book for free in English here.

Purchase the hardcopy of the book in English here.

Download the book for free in Spanish here.

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

What does it mean to partner with Sovereign Grace Churches?
How is God working in our sister churches?
How can we give to support the mission of Sovereign Grace?

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.
Go here to give.

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