This past Sunday we welcomed a number of new members to our church. These are individuals who, after attending Starting Point and meeting with a church leader, have committed to labor together at Sovereign Grace for as long as the Lord wills.
Left to right: Eddie, Jon, Julia, Caleb, Omar, Israel, Bethany, Connie, and John
We welcomed Jon and Julia as new church members this past Sunday. Here is part of what they shared...
Julia: I was blessed to grow up in a Christian home. Both my parents were missionaries in South America and I had heard the gospel many times. Yet my story is like many of yours. I loved the things of this world more than I loved my creator. God wasn't something I was interested in. I lived for myself.
It is by grace that I was saved. God won my heart and showed me how beautiful the gospel truly was.
Jon: I was also blessed to be raised by parents who faithfully shared the gospel with me. I knew the gospel and I knew the Bible but I didn’t buy it. Even as a kid I loved myself and my sin more than I loved God. I tried to leverage Jesus as my ticket out of hell and for relief from a guilty conscience.
In spite of all this, God was rich in mercy towards me.
In the years since God first brought us to faith in Christ, there have been many ups and downs. There have been seasons when God seemed distant and we doubted our faith, seasons of struggling to trust God with our future, seasons of learning to sacrificially love each other and those around us, and seasons of growth when we grasped the gospel more deeply and were filled with joy to be on mission with God. Through it all God has been faithful to keep us.
One of the primary means God has used to grow us in Christlikeness has been His people, the church. That’s why we are so thankful that God led us to Sovereign Grace. Even on our first Sunday we saw how central the gospel was to everything you do. And as we’ve gotten to know you over the past 6 months we’ve seen a genuine love for Jesus that is open about failures, serious about change, and wholly dependent on God’s grace.
We are grateful that because of Jesus we can call you family. We look forward to getting to know all of you better, to sharing more details of our stories, and laboring with you for the spread of the gospel here and to the ends of the earth.
God is telling us the story of who he is through the lens of the things that he has created. This means your humanity is a big part of the storyline, for you have been designed sexually (we are made male or female). Your sexual appetite is therefore a marker, a reflection of the reality that we were made to enjoy a pleasurable relationship with God.
Good sex is therefore very good. The kind of sex that occurs within the bounds of a relationship that also reflects who God is and what He has accomplished through the cross. Marriage.
We are planning baptisms for this coming Sunday, February 7. Stay around for a few minutes after the service to witness a beautiful celebration of lives publicly identified with Christ.
Pastor Eric preached last Sunday on the incompatibility of sexual immorality and our union with Christ. We belong to Jesus, body and soul. We are his bride. And our sexuality is a very important way in which we demonstrate this truth.
Last Sunday Pastor Eric was preaching from 1 Corinthians 6:1-11 and referenced our official statement regarding conflict resolution within the church. You can read it here.
Please keep in mind that although the Scriptures strongly discourage a Christian from suing another Christian, this does not mean that a Christian should never engage in the legal system. Even the Apostle Paul himself utilized the law to protect his rights as a Roman citizen.
More info coming soon. Church members and regular attenders should watch their inbox for more information on how they can participate in this special evening service.