The House of Hope Has a Place for You

Several months ago, our church began volunteering at the House of Hope. We’ve loved every minute. We’ve built friendships, had great conversations, and grown in our faith along the way. Good things are happening, so we’ve decided to extend our commitment to the House of Hope through May 2023. But of course, this doesn’t work without your help!

If you’ve never been, we’d encourage you to drop by and see what all we are doing. If you’re a regular, we’d encourage you to keep signing up! The details are simple:

• Meet at the House of Hope at 6:15pm

• Eat dinner and hangout at 6:30pm

• Pack up and leave at 8pm

To help us plan accordingly, please take a second and put your name on our sign up sheet. You’ll also find the full details there. Per request of the House of Hope, the address is not made public for safety reasons. Once you sign up, we’ll provide the address. We look forward to seeing you there!

Encouragement from Around the World

Sometimes, it’s hard to see where God is or what he is up to. It can be tempting to doubt his presence or activity. However, God is doing great things around the world. The list below is proof. It’s a reminder that our God is living and active despite any doubts we might have. It also encourages us to pray. This is why we post these updates. We encourage you to take a look at the list and pray for our partners. For the full update, check out the Sovereign Grace Blog.

In his book, “Brothers, We are Not Professionals” John Piper writes this compelling sentence: “Prayer is the splicing of our limp wire to the lightning bolt of heaven.” Our efforts to pastor our churches, and to advance the gospel together as a family of churches, can feel like that “limp wire” at times. We need God’s power and help. It is by praying for one another that we can splice our feeble efforts "to the lightning bolt of heaven” and God answers our prayers by giving us power to accomplish what He has called us to do for His glory.

Sovereign Grace Churches Third Quarter 2022 Prayer Requests

• Pray for opportunities to share the gospel with unbelievers in our communities and workplaces.

• Pray for Nick Kidwell and his core team that will plant Valley Creek Church in Malvern, PA this September. Ask God to draw unbelievers and the unchurched to Valley Creek.

• Pray for the churches in Dnipro, and Sinelnikovo, Ukraine that we have close friendships with. Ask God to protect them and use them to offer gospel hope as the war continues.

• Pray for our new 2022-2023 Pastors College students and their families who will be moving to Louisville, KY, asking God to provide for them.

• Pray for the Eckstein Conference hosted by the Arche Church in Hamburg, Germany, September 30-October 2 where pastors from Germany and around Europe will gather for teaching and fellowship. Also pray for the first Europe Sovereign Grace Pastors Fellowship Gathering on Tuesday, October 4 led by Jeff Purswell and Mark Prater.

• Pray for our first West Africa Pastors and Planters Academy in Monrovia Liberia where 10 men from for different West African nations are being trained to pastor and plant churches in West Africa. Pray for Dyonah Thomas, Sr. Pastor of Grace Life Church in Monrovia and Dean of the Academy, asking God to give him grace to lead and invest into these 10 men.

• Pray for Ed O’Mara and his family who moved to Italy in July to plant a Sovereign Grace church a year from now. Pray that God would use the next year to help them continue to learn the language and the culture to advance the gospel.

• Pray that God would continue to provide financially for Sovereign Grace Churches so that we can fund the gospel opportunities He is giving us throughout the world.

Thank you for praying.

Battling Boredom Within Our Faith

Boredom is a constant danger to our faith. We may loose sight of Christ in the busyness of our lives, or we may become more interested with work, school, or whatever else we have going on. Once this happens, we become bored with the gospel. However, Psalm 103 reminds us that there is nothing boring about God. Deacon Dave walks through the Psalm to help us see how Christ captives our hearts and thrills our souls. If you struggle to get excited about your faith or have lost sight of its beauty, Psalm 103 is for you.

The Joy of Relationships and Close Friends

We love community. It’s a defining feature of our church. We welcome in, get to know one another, and, if the time comes, we say goodbye well and trust that the Lord has good things ahead.

Last Sunday, we said goodbye to the Servin family. It’s been such a blessing living our lives together for many years. They are model examples of faithful church members and faithful friends. Even though we’re sad to see them go, we praise God for our time together, and we’re reminded of all the joys of community. Relationships like these are a big part of our church. They are built in our Small Groups. They’re reflected in our Membership Covenant. And they’re displayed in the lives of people like the Servins. It’s a blessing to get to know people like them. If you’re looking to get more involved, we invite you to jump in.

Put Your Creativity and Cooking Skills on Display

Our Chili Cook-off is coming up at the end of the month, and we’re calling all cooks! We want you to join us and show us what you got. This doesn’t happen without your participation and chili. Awards will be given out in three categories: Best Tasting, Most Creative, and Spiciest. If you call it chili, we will too. We’ve seen everything from classic chili to BBQ chili to chicken taco chili. The possibilities are endless!

The event is on August 28th in the Women’s Club garden right after the service. You can find all the details and register your chili here.

More Thoughts on Waiting and the Christian Life

Last Sunday, we looked at Psalm 40 and the importance of waiting well. We don’t always wait well, and perhaps many of us haven’t even thought about the importance and place of waiting in the Christian life. However, this is an encouraging, helpful, and necessary concept. We would be wise to consider it. Much has been written on this idea, and we would encourage you to check it out. A great place to start is our Statement of Faith (SoF).

Our SoF recognizes that waiting is central to our life and growth in Christ. Generally, we should be longing and waiting for Christ to return and make all things right. Specifically, we’re constantly waiting on the Lord to answer our prayers and redeem us from certain situations. All this is good for our sanctification. We have plenty of room to grow and plenty of sin to fight. This is where the gospel comes in. The gospel enables us to rejoice while we wait by assuring us that our steps are secure and that all things work together for our good. So, what do we do while we wait? Start by fixing our eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:1-3). Then, trust in the Lord (Proverbs 3:5-6), be patient (James 5:7-11), and do good (1 Peter 4:19). By God’s grace, wherever we’re at and whatever we’re going through, we can wait well. And in God’s providence, he’s given us the church. Whether it’s through friends, small groups, or pastors, our church is always here to help.

See What God is Doing Across the Globe

We primarily share updates from our Sovereign Grace partners for two reasons: encouragement and prayer. Few things encourage our faith like hearing about God’s activity around the world. These stories remind us that our God is living and active and spur us on into a deeper faith. You can find all kinds of stories on the SGC Mission Blog. Moreover, these stories remind us to pray. A list of prayer requests from our partners is below. You can find the full list here. We hope you’ll take a moment, see what the Lord is doing, and pray. We believe it’ll make a difference in your life and the lives of our partners.

1. Pray for the SG Australia Planters & Pastors Academy students as they begin their assessments to consider what’s next. Pray for grace, wisdom and insight. Pray that these men would be deployed for the glorious name of Jesus.

2. Pray for Carlos Contreras and all those involved in this year’s Fieles Conference in Juarez, Mexico, August 10-12th.Pray that all 400 coming will be encouraged, equipped and empowered in their ministry. There are pastors coming from 23 different Mexican states, representing around 110 churches. 16 of those are new churches. Also, there are around 20 coming from Costa Rica, Bolivia and Colombia. Please pray that God will be glorified, His purposes advanced and His Church edified by everything that takes place at this conference.

3. Pray for me (Dave Taylor) and Riley Spring (Lead Pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Parramatta, Australia) as we head to Ethiopia from August 19-26th to teach at the SG Pastors College there. We’ll be teaching on ‘Planting & Building Sovereign Grace Churches & Nations.’ Please pray that we’ll have a good time with the students and equip them for the future.

4. Pray for the dear folks of Ukraine. Please pray in particular for Michael Ostanin and the brothers and sisters in Arche Church, Dnipro. In the last month, their town was bombed, yet they continue to seek to be the hands of feet of Jesus to the needy in their town. Please pray that the light and hope of the gospel would shine even more brightly in the midst of darkness and suffering and that the manifold wisdom of God be revealed through His church.

5. Pray for the pastors and wives in Belarus. The government in Belarus has stepped up intensity of action against any form of dissent, and officials have been combing through social media posts of photos of anyone who attended the massive 2020 demonstrations. This led to soldiers breaking into one pastor’s home during the night and arresting him and his wife as “traitors to the motherland and enemies of the people”. The pastor sought to explain that they were only at the demonstration to pray with people, give out Bibles, and invite them to Church. He was released, but his wife remains in prison and is being threatened with a 2-5 year imprisonment. We praise God for the ongoing testimony of abiding faith this couple has shown even in these frightening circumstances. Pray with us for her release, for gospel comfort for her husband, and for their gospel witness to bear much fruit in and through it all.

A Theology of Waiting and Its Importance in the Christian Life

We’re not good at waiting. However, waiting is a primary part of the Christian life, so it matters how we wait. This is true in all circumstances, especially the bad ones. What do we do when God feels distant or bad things seem to keep happening? Dylan, a faithful member of our church, helps us see how Psalm 40 encourages the Christian while he or she waits on God’s deliverance. As God’s children, we can rest assured that God hears our cries, secures our steps, and brings delight to our souls.

Listen to the sermon here.