Every second Thursday of the month, the men of our church gather together to sit under God’s word and spur on each other’s walk with Christ. All guys, 15 years and older, are invited to participate in a conversation where "men talk like men" about God. Join in at Hopper & Burr (202 W 4th St, Santa Ana, CA 92701) at 7:00 pm.
This upcoming Sunday, we have the privilege of welcoming new members into our midst. These are people who have committed to participating in the life of the church and performing the “one anothers” of Scripture with this local body of Christ. They’re also individuals whom we, as a church, commit to do the same with and for. We praise God for his grace and the advancement of his gospel in Santa Ana.
This Sunday, September 15th, we’ll be hosting our annual “Festival of Nations” celebration. Coinciding with Fiestas Patrias and Dia De La Independencia, we’ll celebrate what God has built in our church through the gospel - a gathering of people from different nationalities and heritages into one new family in Christ.
Bring a dish (entree, dessert or side) representing your national heritage or cultural background. Bring your best effort. The results will be judged and the “Best In The World” award will be given to the individual whose dish impressed the most. Multiple dishes per family are ok!
Join us at 4pm on Sunday, September 15th in the Madrigal backyard.
Every Tuesday we publish a blog post to lay out in one place what’s going in the life of the church for the upcoming week. See below for a snapshot of what’s on the calendar this week:
6:30am - French Park Grass Area
7:00pm - Hopper & Burr (202 W Fourth St, Santa Ana 92701)
10:00am - Meeting Room: Ballroom
4:00pm - Madrigal Home
7:00pm - Hopper & Burr (202 W Fourth St, Santa Ana 92701)
Registration is open through the course - invite a friend anytime!
On September 14 and 15 the city of Santa Ana is putting on the Fiestas Patrias festival recognizing Hispanic and Latino culture and marking the independence of various Latin American countries. There will be street fair festivities that include live music, food, cultural exhibitors, carnival rides, and more! The event takes place from 12 p.m. to 10 p.m. each day on 4th Street in Downtown Santa Ana. Grab a friend and enjoy some time in this vibrant city the Lord has called us to.
Isaiah 53 takes us into the depths of God’s love - that he’d crush his Son for us. But right on its heels, Isaiah 54 confronts us in the depths of our doubts that this is truly God’s heart. Because we know we don't deserve this love. We see ourselves in the people of Judah, portrayed in this chapter as an estranged wife. Separated and sent away on account of her compromise and unfaithfulness. With no children to show of her union. She’s empty. She’s ashamed. She can produce no reason as to why God should take her back. To one such as this, and to sinners just like us, the prophet declares that God's words of comfort are no empty words, but a sacred and solemn oath he'd never fail to keep. Amazingly, to the very one who'd broken her vows, he makes an unbreakable promise of uncompromising love. What Isaiah calls the "covenant of peace," (54:10) - a new and better covenant that God's people could never break. One that would be sealed by the very blood of the Suffering Servant when he gave his life upon the cross (Mt 26:28; 1 Cor 11:25; Heb 8:6-12). We rest in the good news that God does not love us because we are lovely, but because he is so gloriously loving. We don't deserve it, but it's better this way. Because if we can't earn it, we can't lose it.
Small groups continue every 1st & 3rd Friday of the month and make up the most important moments in the life of our church, outside of Sunday mornings. Make it a priority to attend one of the three groups meeting throughout the city this week in order to share in the joy of Jesus, care for one another, and apply the gospel to each other’s lives. We’re confident you’ll come away encouraged.
Our fall 2024 Bridge Course begins Monday, 9/9 at 7pm! We’re excited for 10 weeks of sharing meals and building relationships with our neighbors as we wrestle through some of the biggest questions of life. Over the course of this journey, we’re going to ask the following questions & learn what the Bible has to say about them:
Am I a good person?
Why doesn’t God forgive everyone?
How can God allow suffering?
How could God send people to hell?
Can we really trust the Bible?
Is Jesus really the only way?
Why did Jesus have to die?
Why do I matter?
Is Christianity really worth it?
Why should we care about the church?
Do you know someone who is looking for answers? Isn’t sure what they believe? Has doubts or is investigating Christianity? Bring them to Bridge! The course is entirely free. No homework or preparation is needed. And your guests will never be pressured to participate more than they’re comfortable. It’s a safe place to explore the Christian faith and enjoy community along the way.
When and where does it take place?
Dates: Mondays from September 9, 2024 - November 11, 2024
Time: 7pm-9pm
Location: Hopper & Burr, 202 W 4th St, Santa Ana, CA 92701
Dinner provided!
Bridge is starting soon! So don’t wait, invite your friends & neighbors today!
We’re nearing the end of our journey through Isaiah, and we’ve recently arrived at the very heart of the book. We’ve encountered the figure known as “the Servant of the Lord” - the champion of God’s people who would deliver them (and us) from the greatest threats they faced.
Long before the days of Judah’s exile and collapse, the people of Israel had been chosen to be the servant of the Lord (Is 40:8-10, 42:18-19, 44:1-4, 44:21, 45:4). They were called to love the Lord their God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength. To keep God’s good and righteous Law. To be a Kingdom of priests who were distinct from all the peoples of the world. To be a city on a hill that would shine forth the beauty of the Lord and draw the nations to Zion in devotion to him. But they failed.
Instead, they had “forsaken the Lord” and “despised the Holy One of Israel” (Is 1:4). Broken his Law and believed their ways were better than his. Become so much like the world that Isaiah called them “Sodom” and “Gomorrah” (1:9-10). And their city on a hill had become a desolate ruin, drawing the nations to Zion not out of devotion to their God, but for the destruction and discipline of his people. And all their failures extend to us as well. Like them, we too have fallen short in living in God’s world God’s way, glorifying him in all that we do, and enjoying him as our greatest treasure.
For this reason, God would call an individual out of the people of Israel in order to save Israel - and us. He would be the True Uncompromising Israel. The One who would do everything God’s people were meant to do. The One who would pay the price for all their failures.
We encounter him in 4 passages commonly referred to as the Servant Songs. Passages which answer the burning question of Isaiah: “How can a people so sick with sin (1:4-6) be reconciled to a “holy, holy, holy” God (6:3)?” Passages which compellingly showcase God’s utter rightesouness and unwavering commitment to his people perfectly converging together. Passages which anticipate the saving work of Jesus Christ in the most gloriously and gut-wrenchingly vivid details.
Here’s a quick summary of each song to help you understand Isaiah’s amazing book and lift your gaze toward Jesus Christ:
Is 42:1-9 - After beginning his courtroom showdown against the idols of the nations in Isaiah 41, God presents the true source of his people’s help. In 41:29, he spoke of the idols, “Behold, they are all a delusion; their works are nothing; their metal images are empty wind.” But then, in the very next verse, he says, “Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights” (42:1). Contrary to the idols who are just an empty wind (Hebrew ruah), this Chosen One is full of God’s own Spirit (Hebrew ruah). The former is just a bunch of hot air, the latter is fueled by God’s own life-giving, world-sustaining breath (see Gen 1:2; Job 33:4; Ps 104:30) He is the Spirit-empowered Servant who will establish God’s Kingdom in the earth (42:1-4). He will do what Israel should have done and be “a light for the nations” (42:6). He will demonstrate his superiority over all the idols of the nations and prove he is the only one worthy of the people’s trust (42:8-9).
Is 49:1-7 - Contrary to the kingdoms of Babylon and Assyria and all the empires of the world, the Servant will conquer the world with his words (49:1-2). He will faithfully declare that the God of Israel, the God of the Bible, the God fully and finally revealed in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, is the True God of gods - and his proclamation will pierce hearts like an arrow bulls-eyeing its mark. In his speaking and his living, he will glorify God by being everything that the people of Israel were meant to be (49:3). Contrary to the people of Judah then and us now, he won’t bow down to idols but will trust unreservedly in God (49:4-5). The Lord will vindicate him and honor him and demonstrate that his uncompromising life was well worth it as he raises him up to be exalted, not only among Israel, but all the way to the “end of the earth” (49:6). Building upon 42:1-9, this Spirit-empowered Servant will extend his reign to the farthest reaches of the earth and kings and princes, peoples and nations, and every knee that can bow (and that means all of them!) will bow before him and declare that “Jesus Christ is Lord” (Phil 2:11).
Is 50:4-11 - But the Servant’s path to exaltation would come through humiliation. 49:7 told us he’d be “deeply despised, abhorred by the nation” and, in the words of Is 53:4, “esteemed not.” But now in this third song, the opposition escalates. This One who came as the true, uncompromising, and perfectly obedient Israel (50:4-5), would be beaten and mocked by his own people! Though he “was not rebellious” (50:5), he tasted the rebellion of human disdain and disregard for God in the form of blows upon his back and spit upon his face (50:6). Even so, he’d stay the course and obey God in the totality of his life…even unto death.
Is 52:13-53:12 - Which brings us to the final song. The opposition reaches its horrifying climax in the death of the Servant of God. Here, that One who did everything his people were meant to do and fulfilled everything his people were meant to be would pay the price for every one of their failures. He’d take upon himself the punishment for all the good we’ve left undone, all the faithfulness we’d neglected, and every moment of cosmic-treasonous, God-belittling compromise we every gave ourselves to in our actions, affections, and attitudes. We know from the previous songs that the Servant came to establish God’s Kingdom, but here in this song he confronts the problem, that: left to ourselves, we don’t belong in God’s Kingdom! Therefore, it’s not until these verses which seem like they could have been written from the foot of the cross, that the burning question of Isaiah is answered, our greatest problem is addressed, and the core of our compromise is dealt with. The very One who would be raised up above all thrones, powers, and dominions and given the name that is above every name would be brought down to the lowest of lows (52:13-15). The conquering Servant of the Lord is simultaneously the suffering Servant who will establish God’s Kingdom and defeat our greatest enemies of sin, death, and Satan, through his own seeming defeat upon the cross. That place where he’d bear our “griefs,” “sorrows,” “transgressions,” and “iniquities,” upon himself (53:4-6). Considered to be cursed in the eyes of men, while truly bearing our curse in the eyes of God (53:8-10). Satisfying God’s uncompromising wrath toward all of our compromise so that we would never have to drink the Father’s cup of wrath, experience the judgment of hell, or know anything other than his love for us. He’d pour himself out as a once-and-for-all “offering for guilt” (53:10), God would be pleased with his sacrifice, and demonstrate that this redeeming work was done when he raised him up to endless life (53:11). A life he’s given, sustains, and will one day perfect in all who have been forgiven of theirs sins and “accounted righteous” through faith in him (53:12). Amen, and amen!
We’ve just barely scratched the surface of these passages. But we hope you’re seeing them clearer, the glory of Christ is shining brighter, and your heart is eager to sing the Servant’s song: “Hallelujah! What a Savior!”
Every Tuesday we publish a blog post to lay out in one place what’s going in the life of the church for the upcoming week. See below for a snapshot of what’s on the calendar this week:
6:30am - French Park Grass Area
7:00pm - Houlton, Erkelens, and Schlieder Home
10:00am - Meeting Room: Ballroom
7:00pm - Hopper & Burr (202 W Fourth St, Santa Ana 92701)
Invite a friend, register, or volunteer today!
