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Welcome to the website of the Anaheim Seventh-day Adventist Church. If you are looking for a place to worship, we would be honored to have you join us. We are very close to Disneyland and the surrounding hotels.
We are located at 900 Sunkist St., Anaheim, CA 92806. Our main worship service is on Saturdays at 11:00 AM. We also offer Sabbath School classes for all ages beginning at 9:30 AM. In addition we offer a Spanish speaking Sabbath School and Devotional service that begins at 9:00 AM. You can go here to see recent bulletins from our worship services.
Our office hours are Tuesday – Thursday, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM. For more information, you may contact us us via phone at 714.635.0990, or via email at anaheimsda@gmail.com.
Recent Sermons
Pastor’s Update
“The Earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The World, and all who dwell therein. To him belongs eternal praise.” Psalm 34:1-2
We live in a wonderful and beautiful world. Really, we do. We are fortunate to live every day of life. We are blessed to have interactions with family members, friends, co-workers, and church family. If you’ve ever gotten to visit a national park, a mountain stream, or even our local coast nearby us here at sunset, you have gotten to glimpse a part of God’s master work in the beauty of nature. But you don’t even need to go that far! Perhaps your own garden shows it; The sky brightens with beauty at each dawn and dusk in our own neighborhoods; even your own mirror displays God’s magnificent handiwork. I think of Louis Armstrong’s lyrics in his song What a wonderful world:
I see trees of green, Red roses too
I see them bloom, For me and you
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
I see skies of blue, And clouds of white
The bright blessed day, The dark sacred night
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
The colors of the rainbow So pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces Of people going by
I see friends shaking hands Saying, “How do you do?”
They’re really saying “I love you”
I hear babies cry I watch them grow
They’ll learn much more Than I’ll never know
And I think to myself What a wonderful world
Yes, I think to myself
What a wonderful world
I pray that your soul is thankful to God for the wonderful world he has made for us.
….
To affirm such awe-inspiring beauty, though, is not to ignore or negate the ugly, tragic parts of the world. We don’t forget that a devastating hurricane ravaged the Bahamas a week ago. We don’t forget that thousands lost their lives in the vicious terrorism attacks of New York City, the Pentagon, and Pennsylvania 18 years ago today. And we don’t ignore, as we are in Suicide prevention awareness month (and suicide prevention day was yesterday) that a staggering 47,000 choose to end their lives each year in our country, because the despair of life swallows up their hope.
This paradox of beauty and tragedy is where we find ourselves living daily. We are to neither forget/neglect the beauty because of the ugliness, nor the ugliness because of the beauty. We are to constantly “long for a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13), but we are to affirm the good that is here as the Bible does so often in the Psalms and other places in scripture.
The fact that Jesus came to us in our “mess” of a mixed-up world of tragedy and beauty tells me a lot about the character of our God. He doesn’t distance himself from our hurt and suffering, ‘quarantining’ us off, as He rightly could. Neither does he sweep in and destroy everything prematurely, as he wants to let both the wicked and the good mature together before they are separated (see Jesus’ Parables of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13). Rather, in Jesus, God comes to share this life with us. With its beauty, its tragedy, but always pointing us forward to the “eager expectation of the revealing of the Sons of God” (Romans 8:19) and eternal life with him in the Heavenly kingdom (John 14:1-6).
With God’s help, we endure. And it’s hard. God knows and sympathizes and helps (Hebrews 4:14-16). But it’s also beautiful! And God sends the beautiful, good things to encourage us along the way. As the scripture says in James: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”
I pray that we will, despite the hardships, recognize all the beauty and reasons for hope God gives us. May we be agents of hope, of beauty, of good today and going forward. In Jesus’ name, and always to God’s glory.
Blessings to you and your loved ones.
Sincerely,
Pr. Mark Tatum