Sovereign Grace Community Church

08/26/2026

08/25/2026

Daily Bread
I often ask Christians about their daily worship practices. Almost invariably, the answer is, “I rarely read my Bible. I pray sometimes.” Let me encourage all such: it’s totally possible to make prayer and Scripture reading a habit. With God’s help, it is a practice full of blessing.

We see the principle of daily private worship all across Scripture. Job offered up a daily sacrifice for his children (Job 1:5). Moses commanded parents to teach their children God’s word daily: “You shall teach [God’s word] to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deuteronomy 6:7). The Psalmist speaks of the blessedness of the man who makes God’s law his meditation “day and night,” that is, morning and evening: all day long! (Psalm 1:2).

In the New Testament, the Berean church is commended for searching the Scripture daily to see whether the things they heard from the apostles were indeed so (Acts 17:11). Jesus himself would wake up early to pray (Mark 1:35). He is the one who taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:10). One implication is that we need to pray daily for God to grant us all we need for body and soul.

If daily private worship is a struggle for you, let me give you this advice: think of it as worship. Not merely devotions, or Bible reading, or “quiet time,” but worship. When you begin to read, and to pray, fill your mind with thoughts of the God of Scripture: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is the one who has revealed Himself to us in Christ. What a joy that He is pleased to meet with us every time we wish to meet with Him!

08/10/2026

Our Intern Austin Loewen was busy last week helping our sister church, First OPC Sunnyvale, with their annual teen camp. Good work, Austin!

08/05/2026

That’s a wrap for the 2026 Hughson National Night Out. We were thankful for several conversations with people including those wondering about the answer to our posted question, “What is truth?” Thanks to those who helped!

08/03/2026

Lord of All
Romans 10:9 describes two related things required for salvation: the one external, the other internal. “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord,” it says, and if you “believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

On the one hand, God is looking for an open confession of your faith in Jesus as the Lord of your life. On the other hand, God wants that public confession to be the fruit of a sincere belief in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. If those two things are true of you, the promise is also true of you: that you are saved from your sins.

Yet, we must not think too lightly of what it means to confess that Jesus is “Lord.” To confess that Jesus is “Lord” is to acknowledge Him as your King. It is to acknowledge His word as the final authority for your life. As the Creator of all things (Colossians 1:16) and the Redeemer of His people (Matthew 1:21), Jesus Christ is objectively the Lord of all. He works all things according to His good, holy, and wise will (Ephesians 1:11). Christ does not become your Lord when you believe in Him; He is already Lord! One commentator said it poignantly, “Christ is Lord of all, [but] Savior [only to] those who bow to him as such.”

Sometimes Christians have incorrectly said that Jesus is Savior of all and Lord only of those who acknowledge Him as Lord. But it’s the other way around. Jesus is already Lord; He is already enthroned in heaven at His Father’s right hand. The question is, what have you done with His Lordship? Is He your Lord and Savior, too?

May Christ reign in our hearts, through faith, every day!

08/03/2026

Tell your young adults about the next ABIDE event coming up August 29 at the Tullock Reservoir. This is a great opportunity for them to build godly friendships among like-minded young people from Reformed and Presbyterian churches on the West Coast.

We will bring paddle boards, canoes, kayaks, and water guns. Enjoy the lake and the beach!

07/29/2026

Being Bereans
Mark Twain reportedly said, “The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.”

Whether Mark Twain said it or not, the sentiment is worth remembering. According to the National Literacy Institute, 54% of US adults today read below a sixth-grade level, and 64% of our country’s fourth graders do not read proficiently for their grade. The Institute also reports, “Illiteracy has become such a serious problem in our country that 130 million adults are now unable to read a simple story to their children.” Reading, of course, involves more than sounding out letters or recognizing words. It includes understanding what you read and being able to explain it in your own words.

As a pastor, I find these statistics especially concerning because they suggest that many people struggle to read their Bible with understanding. The English Standard Version (a translation commonly used in many churches) is written at approximately a 10th grade reading level. In theory, everyone who graduates High School should be able to read it just fine. But the statistics show otherwise.

Jesus calls His people to be like the Bereans. The Bereans are described in Acts 17:11 as people who “received the word [of the gospel] with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” These people used their eyes to examine what they heard with their ears. They read their Bibles for themselves. That is the goal!

As the school season approaches, my prayer is that parents and church leaders would recognize the spiritual value of education. May we all work diligently to see the next generation excited about reading good books, and especially the Book of Books, the Bible. Knowledge won’t save us, but without knowledge, we will perish (Hosea 4:6).

07/29/2026

“Christians are people who talk to God like they are Jesus Christ... Christian prayer is a family thing, and it is open only to sons of God. We pray by borrowing the sonhood of the true Son and talking to the Father."

Fred Sanders, "The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything," pg 224.

07/22/2026

Enhanced Sermons?
A recent article caught my eye: “Pastors Using AI to Help Write Sermons Grapple with Where to Draw the Line.” It continues: “A divide is growing over AI-assisted preaching in American churches; ‘Martin Luther is rolling over in his grave.’”

Compare that article with another recent event: the May 24, 2026, Enhanced Games in Las Vegas. According to its website, the Enhanced Games is “a new global sports competition where elite athletes push the limits of human performance.” The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency says, “The Enhanced Games is a planned international sports event…where athletes are encouraged to enhance themselves and their performances by using performance-enhancing substances (PEDs) and methods."

How much difference is there between a pastor using AI to generate a sermon and an athlete using performance-enhancing substances to swim faster, run farther, or lift heavier? Not much.

We are facing a reckoning where congregants will need to hold their pastors accountable for laboring in study over a Biblical text and delivering sermons that come from their own heart. Satan wants to encourage shortcuts. Yes, there may be legitimate uses for AI in research. But when it comes to the finished product, we must remember artificial intelligence doesn’t have a soul. It doesn’t have the qualifications of a pastor as listed in 1 Timothy 3. It does not possess God’s promises attached to the faithful preaching of God’s word.

Someone once said that preaching is “truth mediated through personality.” It is time for a new generation of preachers to preach Christ, to preach the whole counsel of God, and to hold nothing back. In the short run, the AI-generated sermon might sound snappier. But the old-fashioned gospel, delivered by an ordinary, fallible man, himself captive to God’s word, is still the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.

07/22/2026

"One of the first signs of apostasy is the abandonment of the Lord's Day. Keeping the Lord's Day reveals a longing for Christ to return and affords us a foretaste of heaven, our eternal rest."

Reformation Heritage Study Bible, comments on Jeremiah 17