Outside of Sunday mornings, small groups are the most important moment in the life of our church. Make it a priority to attend small group this Friday at 7pm in order to encourage one another and be encouraged. To care for others and to be cared for. To point your brothers and sisters to Christ and apply his gospel to their lives, and experience the same.
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:
6:30 am - French Park Grass Area
7:00 pm - Houlton, Schlieder, and Erkelens Home
10:00 am - Meeting Room: Ballroom
12:00 pm - French Park Grass Area
7:00 pm - Hopper & Burr
Eph 2:1-10 is the story of every believer's salvation. Our journey from death to life in which God took us from being drowned on the bottom of the ocean floor to raised with Christ in the heights of heaven (2:6). And all this has come to us by grace. Apart from any earning or deserving. Not because of good works, but for the purpose of good works (2:8-10). By grace we've been saved from God's wrath to live for God's glory. In the story of our salvation, God's done all the work, and we get to walk in the joy of it.
Every second Thursday, 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 the 4th Street Market patio at 7:00 pm.
Building relationally has always been a value in Sovereign Grace, and by the grace of God, it's our hope that it always will be. One of the ways that we strengthen the relationships we have among our churches is to pray for one another. It is right that we, as a family of churches, pray for one another, but it is also right that we remember who we pray to. Charles Spurgeon in his book, “The Power of Prayer in a Believer’s Life” writes: “The frail, feeble, undeserving creature is permitted to stand in the august presence of the God of the whole earth, and the Lord regards the poor creature as if there were nothing else for Him to observe, bending His ear, and His heart to listen to that creatures cry. It is essential that we know that we are speaking to God, and that God is hearing us.”
Amazing isn't it? The Lord of the whole earth bends His ear and His heart to listen to the prayers we pray for one another. What a faith-building truth! Knowing that we are speaking to God in prayer, and that He is hearing us, please consider using the attached "Sovereign Grace Churches Fourth Quarter 2023 Prayer Requests" to pray for our family of churches.
Save the date for Sunday October 22nd for the final Picnic in the Park in 2023! Get ready to eat together, play games, and enjoy one another’s company in the heart of our neighborhood. Make it your priority to invite our French Park Neighbors to join us. Send a text, knock on a door, or reconnect with someone you met at the Block Party and extend the welcome. Make sure you remind them to bring a lunch as well!
Let’s take the joy of Jesus to neighbors. After service this Sunday, head over to French Park to spend time together in the middle of the neighborhood God has placed us in. Here are the details:
It’s “BYOL” (bring your own lunch). If you forget your lunch or your favorite lunchbox isn’t clean, there are plenty of great restaurants nearby in DTSA.
Bring some folding chairs - unless you like sitting on the grass, bring something to sit on.
Expect the Lord to build existing relationships and create new ones with our neighbors.
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:
6:30 am - French Park Grass Area
7:00 pm - 4th Street Market Patio
10:00 am - Meeting Room: Ballroom
Since November 2022, Jason has been serving as a Pastoral Resident at our church. Throughout the past few years, Jason has been engaged in a process to discover if God has called him to become a pastor at Cross of Grace Santa Ana.
The process has been long and difficult, but the Lord has given him grace along the way and proven him in his gifting. After multiple academic steps, thousands of pages of books read, several written exams, an internship and a residency, he’s now taking his final oral ordination exam this Wednesday (10/11).
He’ll be sitting before a panel of pastors from churches in the West Region of Sovereign Grace Churches who comprise the region’s “nomination committee”. They’ll conduct a 3 hour oral exam to verbally assess his theological understanding of the Gospel and his pastoral instincts in real-life pastoral ministry situations.
Pray for him as he takes this final exam!
If the Church is what God is doing in the world, what makes the Church go? What energizes, fuels, and motivates the mission of the Church to extend God's grace and establish God's peace? Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:15-23 provides the answer: the Holy Spirit. The Ephesian church then, and our little church now, however ordinary, unimpressive, or in-progress we might be, are filled with the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead and exalted him to God's right hand. Listen to Sunday’s sermon to learn more about the work of the Spirit in the church.
Our next Bridge Course session is Monday, October 9th at 7pm. We’ll be diving into the topic of suffering. Suffering is one of the hardest issues we have to deal with in this life. How do we make sense of God in a world like this? And how can we trust him? We’ll explore these age-old questions and more over the course of a meal, a talk, and a conversation where every perspective is encouraged. Even if you missed the previous session, ALL are welcome to join in as we wrestle through the big questions of life. Sign up below or invite a friend and we’ll see you on 10/9 at Hopper & Burr (202 W 4th St, Santa Ana, CA 92701).
