Things end in the wilderness. Old habits and patterns end. Standards of living come to an end. “The good times” as we knew them often evaporate into past as we walk into the wilderness. But as visible as what’s ending is in the wilderness, God is often using it to create new beginnings. Such was the case with our salvation. Such was the case with Paul when he was converted. Such may be the case for you in the wilderness you’re walking through.
Together with our sister church, Sovereign Grace Church of Orange, we’re offering you three distinct “classes” to answer some of the most challenging questions arising out of the events of the last four months. When should we engage in civil disobedience? What does the bible say about racial reconciliation and gender identity? What should I do when I disagree with other Christians about important political issues?
It’s time for Summer School. Come hear the pastors of these two churches engage with the bible on these topics. Bring your questions.
The titles for each class are below.
All church members and regular attenders are welcome. There’s no registration or homework. We’ll send the Zoom link out to our church directory beforehand.
If you have any questions or think your email address might not be in the directory, email office@sovgracesantaana.org
Our small groups are moving back to Zoom this week, in part, to reduce person-to-person contact in the midst of a spike in cases and while doing so, to prioritize our Sunday meeting in-person. Look to your small group leader to send out a Zoom link or invitation.
If you have any questions or concerns about small groups or need an address, please send an email to office@sovgracesantaana.org.
Keep sending us your prayer requests. We’ll keep sharing them (annomously) and share other guidelines for how you can be praying during the week. It’s important to know how to pray for one another and to ask the Lord to guide us, sustain us and encourage us each individually in this season.
Pray for those who are once again furloughed or out of work because of recent imposed restrictions
Pray for those in our community who have contracted COVID and who have friends and family members with the virus
Continue to pray for Gospel racial reconciliation in our community
Pray for opportunities on Saturday to meet and get to know our neighbors in the French Park neighborhood
Pray for those who are walking through personal wildernesses
Pray that God would continue to give our church the courage and perseverance to speak the hope of Christ into one anothers’ life situations and those of our neighbors
Pray for the requests of individuals who have shared them on our church Slack prayer channel. If you have questions about how to be added to this, email office@sovgracesantaana.org
KEEP SENDING PRAYER REQUESTS TO PRAYERS@SOVGRACESANTAANA.ORG.
Every Tuesday we will be publishing a blog to share what is going in the life of the church for that week! We hope that this serves you and helps to keep you updated.
Houlton Small Group - 7:00pm. Location (either in-person or Zoom) TBD
Erkelens Small Group - 7:00pm. Location (either in-person or Zoom) TBD
We will be doing a neighborhood canvas of French Park next weekend to get to know our neighbors and to make sure they know us. Masks will be required.
Meet and park at Hidden House Coffee. RSVP to jeff@sovgracesantaana.org
Meeting Room - Outdoor Courtyard
In response to Governor Newsom’s most recent update regarding COVID-19, we will be moving our church service outdoors to the courtyard of the Ebell Club. All other guidelines will still be in place (social distancing, masks, etc.).
We thank the Lord for flexibility of our friends at the Ebell Club to allow us to make this switch quickly and rather seamlessly and avoid having to move back to a pure livestream Sunday service.
The high this Sunday is projected at 84 degrees. So while we’ll experience the warmth of Gospel fellowship, we’ll also experience the warmth of the SoCal summer sun. We’ll be providing a couple EZ-up’s, but please consider bringing an umbrella, a small fan or anything else to make your Sunday gathering a little more comfortable.
In two weeks we’ll be embarking on a new sermon series through the book of Acts. This book introduces the mission and scope of the church. It shows us what the church is and should be doing between Jesus’ ascension and return. Few things are more important for us as the world around us changes with every passing day.
Acts is a long book - 28 chapters. You’ll be helped if you have some fresh familiarity with it when we begin to dive into it. We’d encourage you to take the next few weeks to read through Acts. If you simply read two chapters every day, you will finish by the end of July. .
To make this task easier for you, below we’ve broken up the book of Acts into two-chapter segments. Bookmark this post and come back each day to read the chapters for that day.
This Saturday we are planning a neighborhood walk-through of French Park next weekend to get to know and be known by our neighbors.. We will be distributing a bilingual flyer, meeting our French Park neighbors, inviting them to church, and praying for them.
Meet and park at Hidden House Coffee. Masks Required. We’d encourage as many as possible, include kids, to join in. Please RSVP to jeff@sovgracesantaana.org.
Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness are not about teaching us a lesson about resisting temptation. They’re not even a moral teaching about how we should endure in the wilderness.
Jesus entered the wilderness because Adam, Israel and every one of us had already entered the wilderness over and over again and at every time had failed to follow God without sin in the wilderness. In light of this, we can understand that what Matthew 4:1-11 is about is Jesus’ perfect wilderness wandering. He is the suffering servant. He came to stand in our place. Not only on the cross, but in His life, as He succeeded at every point we had failed. Listen to this week’s sermon and learn the central and most important lesson we could each possibly learn - belief in Jesus - about how to successfully walk through the wilderness.
On Wednesday, Krista Alvarez underwent a scheduled surgery for the recurrence of a health issue that came back during quarantine. Her operation was successful and she will be taking the next two weeks to rest and recover at home.
Let’s lift up the Alvarez family in prayer, as they prepare for the road ahead with Krista’s recovery. Pray for healing and good pain management for Krista, endurance, health and patience for Mike and their two year old daughter Rayanne. Don’t forget to also take this opportunity to thank God for the work he’s done through Krista and perhaps even to express your appreciation to her personally.
During this time, if you need anything you can contact us at office@sovgracesantaana.org and someone from our pastoral team will get back to you as soon as they can.
