Grab some tissues. This is one testimony you won't easily forget...recorded at Grace Church in Peoria, AZ (one of our closest sister churches). Our God is with us, even through the darkest seasons of our lives.
We announced last Sunday that Lucas Enge will begin serving as our first-ever Pastoral Resident, effective immediately. To which the congregation stood in spontaneous applause :)
Here's some of what Lucas shared...
Our lives have been transformed.
This is what happens when you are immersed into a gospel saturated, grace loving church. I love Jesus. I love the gospel. I love his Word. I love the church. And I love Orange.
I also know you love me, my wife, and our daughters far more than we deserve. Through you, God has poured out his love on us. You’ve been generous, you’ve befriended us, and your joy in Christ has affected us.
We are in a good place.
God has allowed me to serve along side numerous pastors over the past decade. Yet, I simply can't imagine a better pair of men to learn from. If there is even the slightest possibility that God may have a plan for me to become a pastor at any point in the future, there is no other church I would rather serve, and no two men I would rather learn to serve with.
I expect this new season will teach me again how small I am and how big God is. There will be blessings and their will be challenges. So please pray for me. Thank you for being patient with me. I’m so grateful you’ve allowed me to serve and I want to serve for your good and God’s glory.
Alma shared this past Sunday...
It’s hard to describe a single event or person that led me to my faith in Christ. I grew up attending a Roman Catholic church and was curious about the devotion of the people around me. How they could believe in things they could not see?
I also never understood why He was so unapproachable and hard to love. Why couldn’t I have a direct relationship with God. Why did I need to confess and have other rituals done on my behalf in order to obtain forgiveness and love? It didn't make sense.
I had so many questions.
But I now see that my questions were the beginning of the work of the Spirit in me. God was speaking into my life and world. At times I resisted…it was like a war was going on inside me. I was hearing truth but didn’t always like or accept it at first.
It took years to trust God.
Just as it’s hard to believe other people could love me, so too it’s been hard to believe God loves me. I have learned that I am fickle but God is not. With him there is persistent grace and forgiveness. He’s been patient with me, even in my unbelief.
He waits for me.
God provides.
We rejoice this week with Angel and Sandra (and Lincoln)! After years of renting a bedroom in a house in Old Towne, last Friday they moved into their very first apartment.
Lincoln has room to play. Everyone has room to sleep. They have a kitchen and a refrigerator and even a garage for a car. It makes us happy just thinking about it. We're so happy for you.
But this is also cause for each of us to thank God for our homes. Orange County is very expensive and housing will always be a challenge. Living here means paying more and getting less. We may not have the "bare necessities" that the rest of the country expects. But God always provides.
This is our testimony.
The new apartment is great, but God was good when Angel and Sandra lived in one bedroom.
Beach Camp 2014
*Thanks for the Facebook photos everybody :)
I thought I had a pretty good understanding of what a good Christian life looked like. My relationship with God functioned a bit like Cinderella’s relationship to her evil step-mother. If I wanted His blessings, I had to meet His list of demands.
Read my bible.
Pray.
Don’t kiss boys.
The concept of grace was foreign to me in the beginning. How could God love me if I didn’t complete His checklist? But as I wrestled with this, I began to see that it wasn’t my performance which makes me righteous, but Christ’s righteousness and sacrifice. My debt had already been canceled when I first believed. I was free. I could rest in the grace I’d already received and in which I stand.
I’m a recovering legalist.
Today I still struggle to live in the freedom of God’s unconditional love. And this means I still need friends and a church that preaches grace. I still need to hear the good news over and over again and I need to observe it’s power at work in the lives of others.
That's why I'm so grateful for you, Sovereign Grace. Thanks for sharing your life with God with me. I know about God's love better because of our love for one another. I hope you can say the same.
May we continue to be a gospel-saturated community and may our grip on grace influence others who struggle with the same.
Congratulations Christopher and Rebecca.
And big sisters Alia and Claire :)
Quentin Christopher was born at 10:19am on Wednesday. Everyone is doing fine. Pray for a speedy recovery and good health.
I preached my first sermon last Sunday.
From Christopher:
I'm so grateful for you, Sovereign Grace Church. Thanks for being the kind of church that equips men to lead, study, and preach the Word. Thank you for your encouragement, both before and after the service. But most of all, thanks for being a church that makes Christ their treasure above all!
Preaching on the topic of the surpassing gift of God Himself is easier when you're preaching to people who do it. And this you do well.
Now they say the way to learn to preach is to preach. Study and observation only go so far and I can confirm this. With one sermon under my belt, I've already learned:
Preaching is hard work.
I have a deeper sense for what our pastors do every week. It really is labor. Preaching takes effort, both head and heart. They aren't just enjoying extending "quiet times" in their bible.
Preaching is not about the preacher.
Preaching is about shepherding the church and glorifying God. The preacher loves Jesus and then loves the church like he loves Jesus. Humor has it's place, but I learned humor doesn't always serve the sermon. I felt the pull to want to be funny, but that would only have given you more of me.
Preaching is about the preacher.
Paradox alert! Even though preaching has little to do with the preacher, it is a little bit about the preacher. Not that he is the center of attention or anything. But immersing yourself in the Scriptures and preparing to deliver a sermon does a preacher's soul good.
I was also really encouraged by everyone sharing how God spoke to them personally. It made me think that preachers may be those best positioned to benefit from their own sermons. Funny how it works this way.
So thank you. You made learning to preach my first sermon a real blessing. I'm amazed at what God can do with my less-than-perfect attempts at loving you.