Our Christmas Eve Gathering is Wednesday at 6 p.m.!

This Christmas Eve we will be gathering together to celebrate the greatest gift the world has ever been given, Jesus. At Christmas we remember the miraculous birth of the God-man Jesus Christ. We celebrate the most beautiful news that Joseph was told by an angel in Matthew 1:20-21, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

This will be our 3rd year celebrating Christmas Eve together as a church family and we hope you can join us at 6 p.m.! We intentionally shorten the gathering to 1-hour to enable people to still make dinner plans with family and friends afterwards. We also shortened our gathering because we won’t have our Restored Kids ministry available that night, but will have our kids with us in the auditorium. They will be given snacks and coloring packs to keep them occupied. While this always makes for a bit of a circus, we would rather free up our Restored Kids volunteers to be with us for the night!

As we have explained before, this is such an excellent opportunity to invite friends and family to join us on this special night. Anyone in your life who is at all interested in Jesus and Christianity will be blessed to hear the Gospel proclaimed clearly, meet our church family, and enjoy a night where they hear the grace of God magnified through the incarnation of Jesus Christ! We hope to see you there!

When: Christmas Eve, this Wednesday night (12.24) at 6 p.m.

Where: John Adams Elementary School (4672 35th St, San Diego, CA 92116)

 

SPECIAL SUNDAY WITH MATT LARSON – 12.21.14 - Give Love

Join us this Sunday (12.21.14) as we have the privilege of hearing from our good friend and church planter, Matt Larson. Matt is the lead pastor of Anthem Church in Ventura County, which is the church where Andy did his church planting residency before planting Restored Church. Matt has been one of the leading voices in our church by guiding and helping us lay a Gospel foundation.

Matt and his family, along with a few other families, started Anthem Church back in 2009. As the Lead Pastor, he is responsible for leading the Elder Team who guides the church doctrinally, shepherds the body and discerns where the Holy Spirit is taking the church, overseeing the teaching at Anthem Church, and provides vision and leadership for the overall direction of the church.

Matt has a passion for seeing Christian brothers and sisters live generous lives in light of the generosity of Christ. He will be continuing our Advent sermon series, “Hope Multiplied,” by looking at the call we have as Christians to live generously! 

Join us this Sunday as we gather as a church family to hear more about the grace of Jesus and the call he has on our lives. We will be taking our "Give Love" offering this Sunday, so please be praying about how you can contribute sacrificially! Invite your friends and family as we gather together and worship Jesus.

When: Sunday, Dec. 21st, 8:30 or 11 a.m.

Where: Adams Elementary School (4672 35th St, San Diego, CA 92116)

 

Sunday Sermon Recap – Hope Multiplied – Part 1

This past Sunday, we started a new Advent mini-series, “Hope Multiplied.” As we approach Christmas this year, we desire to be a church that hopes in Jesus alone and brings the hope of Jesus to others through our generosity! We are taking our “Give Love” offering this upcoming Sunday and are praying to raise over $15,000 to give away to our Restored South Bay Church plant and two social justice causes: Zoe International and ROLL Call.

Brad kicked off “Hope Multiplied” on Sunday by digging into 1 Timothy 6:17. “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.” He showed us 3 main things: 1. We shouldn’t hope in money because it is uncertain and breeds arrogance. 2. We should hope in God because He is our ultimate provider and seeks our joy. 3. In light of our great hope in God, we can be generous with our finances. Join us on Sunday as we celebrate “Give Love” and give generously to bring the hope of Jesus to San Diego and the nations!

If you missed Sunday’s sermon, be sure to listen to it here: “Hoping in Our Redeemer Rather than Riches”

Our "Give Love" Offering is this Sunday!

This Sunday we will be celebrating "Give Love" for our 3rd year in a row! Since Restored Church formed in 2012, we have taken the opportunity of Christmas to give above and beyond our normal giving to specific people, ministries, or places that we feel called to. This Sunday we are hoping to raise $15,000, so that we can bless 3 different ministries. We will be dividing our "Give Love" special offering in two primary ways: Church planting and social justice.

A Restored South Bay training day.

Volunteers from ROLL Call 2014

Half of the money raised for "Give Love" this year will be given to our South Bay church plant as they continue to make disciples and share the good news with the men and women of South Bay. The other half will be divided between two social justice causes that we are excited to support: ZOE and ROLL Call. ZOE is an international Christian ministry that rescues and cares for orphans and children from human trafficking. ROLL Call is a local Christian ministry that serves and blesses homeless families in Downtown San Diego by providing meals and gifts for families who do not have the resources to do so for Christmas.

A prevention story from Zoe International.

Please join us this Sunday as we take our "Give Love" offering at the 8:30 or 11 a.m gathering! If you would like to give now, click the button below.

Give Love: ZOE International

On Sunday, December 21st, we will be taking our “Give Love” offering! We are praying to raise $15,000 to give away to our Restored South Bay Church plant and two different social justice causes. As we celebrate Christmas and the greatest gift God has ever given, His very own Son, we want to join Him in His generosity by blessing others as we have been blessed. I would like to highlight one of the social justice causes we are giving to for “Give Love” this year: ZOE International.

ZOE has two primary objectives as a Christian organization. “ZOE’s first objective is to reach every person possible with the love of God and to present the gospel of Christ to people who have never heard the story of Jesus inviting them to a life transformation through Christ. ZOE’s second objective is to help rescue every child possible from human trafficking globally through our innovative and comprehensive prevention, rescue, and restoration programs which effectively transform each child from their past and give them opportunity for a better future."

We cannot be more excited to bless them this Christmas season with finances to help them continue sharing and demonstrating the Gospel by rescuing and preventing children from human trafficking. Join us this Sunday as we have the privilege of having a woman who works with ZOE with us to give a clearer picture of what ZOE does and some stories of how God has been using them!

For more information about ZOE, check out their website here: www.gozoe.org

 If you would like to give now, click the button below.

SUNDAY SERMON RECAP – THE BEAUTIFUL MESS – PART 8

This past Sunday we had the privilege of having Chris Wienand, a father to our church family, continue our current sermon series, “The Beautiful Mess,” through 1 Corinthians. Chris preached through the fourth chapter of 1 Corinthians, which gave us a glimpse into some of the difficulties the Apostle Paul was having personally with the church he planted in Corinth just a couple years prior. The church in Corinth was continually looking back to the world instead of the cross to inform their living, but Paul continued to correct them by pointing them back to Jesus and His finished work.

Wienand used the text and showed how it applies to leaders in the church who are to be spiritual fathers to the community. Like Corinth, we live in a fatherless generation. Very few of us grew up with godly parents who made it their primary objective to mature us into Christ. Most of us had parents who were absent physically or emotionally and didn’t view our maturity as a priority. But through the grace of Jesus we now have fathers, as Paul said to the Corinthians, “I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” The role of leaders/elders in the church is to father men and women into their maturity and distinct callings that Jesus has on their lives.

At the end of the gathering, Andy challenged our church family that the primary way of growing as a disciple of Jesus is being able to receive correction well. All of us have blind spots and areas in our lives where we need to grow, and through the Gospel, we now have men and women who are able to lovingly speak truth into our lives and point us back to the reality of Jesus’ call and forgiveness on our lives.

If you missed Sunday’s sermon, be sure to listen to it here: Fathers in the Faith

Restored Book Recommendation: Jesus, Continued by J.D. Greear

$11.35

By J.D. Greear

If you have been around Restored Church for some time you have probably heard us mention the book, Gospel, by J.D. Greear. We are huge fans of it and believe it is an essential book for all Christians to read as they grow in their understanding of the Gospel and seek to live in light of the good news of Jesus everyday. Fortunately, Greear just released a new book on the Holy Spirit titled, Jesus, Continued, and we think it is excellent and can’t encourage you enough to read it!

In Jesus, Continued, Greear helps us see who the Holy Spirit is and what His role is in the Trinity and our lives. Jesus made a bold promise to his disciples in John 16:7 when He said, “It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper [Holy Spirit] will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you." If we are honest, it is difficult to believe that it is better to have the Holy Spirit in us instead of Jesus beside us, but this is the very heart of Greear’s book.

Not only does Greear give us an excellent theological framework on who the Holy Spirit is, but he also spends the last few chapters of the book with very practical steps on how we are to walk with and experience the Spirit in our lives. If you feel like you would prefer Jesus beside instead of the Spirit inside you, I cannot encourage you enough to read this book as Greear shows us the reality of Jesus’s promise.

Great QUOTES FROM JESUS, CONTINUED

“Jesus believed that the Holy Spirit would be a better teacher than even he was. That may sound hard to believe, but the Spirit, Jesus explained, could apply the Word more powerfully than he did, because he could speak it into the deep recesses of our heart at just the right moments.” p.26

“The Spirit of God in the heart produces the Word of God on the tongue. Every time.” p.55

“Leading someone to forgiveness of sins, you see, is a greater work than making a lame man walk, because the latter is temporary and the former is eternal.” p.64

“The more intimate we become with the gospel, the more the Spirit manifests himself to us. The more I embrace that I am his son, the more I am filled with his Spirit.” p.105

“Discovering your vocational abilities is part of learning how the Spirit wants to use you on earth.” p.128

“When God makes you weak, it’s not because he has forgotten you. Quite the opposite. He is inviting you to lean into the power of his Spirit. And that’s the greatest invitation you’ll ever receive.” p.221

“So let’s cease to be satisfied with building big churches and instead strive to see our churches become extraordinarily effective at equipping people to move out in the power of the Spirit. Let’s cease judging a church’s ‘success’ by its seating capacity and put more emphasis on its sending capacity.” p.227

SPECIAL SUNDAY WITH CHRIS WIENAND – 12.7.14

Join us Sunday (12.7.14) as we have the privilege of hearing from our good friend and apostle, Chris Wienand. Over the last two years, Chris and his wife, Meryl, have spent quite a bit of time down here in San Diego helping us plant Restored Church, equipping our leaders, and encouraging us as we start this exciting adventure.

Chris and Meryl have been involved in church planting for over 30 years and have served as a spiritual mother and father to many new churches during that time. They have helped lay Gospel foundations in churches all over the world, from Europe to Australia to Africa and the United States. They currently lead the Genesis Collective, a Gospel-Centered leadership initiative. They are an amazing couple with a huge heart for the Gospel, mission, family and the Church!

Chris will be preaching this Sunday at Restored Church as we continue our sermon series through 1 Corinthians. He will be preaching chapter 4, which centers upon the ministry of the apostles. If you were here last time he preached, you know you will not want to miss it! Invite your friends and family as we gather together and worship Jesus.

When: 8:30 a.m. + 11 a.m.

Where: Adams Elementary School (4672 35th St, San Diego, CA 92116)

 

Give Love - 2014

As we enter this Christmas season, we reflect on the greatest gift the world has ever received: Jesus Christ. John 3:16 tells us, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." Even though we were enemies with God, He loving pursued us and gave His Son, so that we could become His beloved children forever. Because Jesus came to earth and lived the life we couldn't, died the death we deserved and rose from the dead victoriously, we can have an intimate relationship with the God who created us through faith. This is the good news that we celebrate every Christmas! As a church, we love to be generous because it is one way that we get to show the world a clearer glimpse of who God is and what He has done.

This Christmas we will be celebrating "Give Love" for our 3rd year in a row! Since Restored Church formed in 2012, we have taken the opportunity of Christmas to give above and beyond our normal giving to specific people, ministries, or places that we feel called to. This year we are hoping to raise $!5,000, so that we can bless 3 different ministries. We will be dividing our "Give Love" special offering in two primary ways: Church planting and social justice.

Half of the money raised for "Give Love" this year will be given to our South Bay church plant as they continue to make disciples and share the good news with the men and women of South Bay. The other half will be divided between two social justice causes that we are excited to support: ZOE and ROLL Call. ZOE is an international Christian ministry that rescues and cares for orphans and children from human trafficking. ROLL Call is a local Christian ministry that serves and blesses homeless families in Downtown San Diego by providing meals and gifts for families who do not have the resources to do so for Christmas.

Please join us as we seek to show the world the grace and love of Jesus through our generous and sacrificial giving!

SUNDAY SERMON RECAP – THE BEAUTIFUL MESS – PART 6

This past Sunday we had the privilege of hearing Danny Quimlat, our church planting resident, continue our sermon series through 1st Corinthians. Danny preached through 2:6-16, and we learned how the Apostle Paul defined wisdom and how we can grow in that wisdom. The Corinthian church was looking to the world for wisdom, which continued to lead to dissension and division in the church, but Paul wanted them to cast their eyes on the cross of Jesus for true wisdom. Paul had previously shown in the first chapter how God’s wisdom was displayed most magnificently through the cross, which propelled his argument that the wisest life one could live is a life lived in light of the finished work of Christ’s cross. The good news about the life of wisdom is that the Holy Spirit is the One who leads us into it by revealing the beauty, wisdom, and necessity of the cross to us; both at salvation and daily.

Danny helped us see how the role of the Spirit points us to the realities of the cross by informing and empowering us to live in a corresponding way. The wisdom of the world is to accrue as much money as possible, so that you can be independent. But the cross of Jesus shows us how Jesus became poor so that we could become rich (2 Cor. 8:9), so now we live lives of sacrificial generosity dependent on the Father. The wisdom of the world teaches us how to get as many people as possible to serve us, but the cross shows us the One who did not come to be served, but to serve and give His life as ransom for many (Matt. 20:28). The wisdom of the world tells us that suffering cannot be good for anything, but the cross shows us how God accomplished the greatest good for us through the death of His Son, Jesus. The only way to grow in wisdom is to allow and ask the Spirit to direct us back to the cross every single day.

If you missed the sermon, “The Wisdom of the Cross”, be sure to listen to it here:  http://bit.ly/1xJHlZo