Jim and Angie shared last Sunday about our recent Crisis Pregnancy Counseling Course. It was just one more reminder of how our city is hurting and we have been called to help.

We must love Orange.

One way you can participate in our effort to serve our city is by contributing to our Expecting Mothers Gift Bags. We'll be collecting the following items this Sunday to wrap and deliver to Living Well Pregnancy Center:

Onesies

Receiving blankets

Pacifiers

Baby Books

Baby Soap

Small toys

Drop these items in the boxes this Sunday in the lobby and if you are interested in joining the ladies in assembling the gift bags on March 5th, email Angie for the details.

Ps. Don't forget to register for our Mercy Ministry Luncheon this Sunday too!

Every Sunday we gather to sing a message that seems unbelievable. You can be completely forgiven, completely accepted, and completely loved...not because you go to church or do good deeds, but because Jesus Christ was nailed to a cross.

As Dustin asked us last Sunday, "Do you believe that the Christian message is ridiculous?"

Father, I can come to You
And boast of deeds I’ve done
In my pride I strive to earn
The favor Christ has won
He alone pleads my acceptance
All my works aside
So I come with empty hands
And I cling to Christ

"God changed my heart without my permission."

We are in this life together.

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.

I want to live now so others might see.

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. 

You have been so encouraging to our faith.

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.

"The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

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Israel Carbajal

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John Yom

"Sex is very good."

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.

Listen to Pastor Eric preach from 1 Corinthians 7:1-9.

Space is limited. Register now.

Join Pastor Eric and Ian McConnell (SGC Director of Church Planting) for a lunchtime discussion regarding the priority of mercy ministries and social justice in the life of the local church.

We'll provide the lunch. You bring your questions. Maximum 2 persons per household. Space is very limited.

Sunday, February 21st, 1:30PM at the church offices.