A combined SG Churches Australia event for all the men to jump on and think seriously and soberly about our purity.
When: May 8th - 8pm
Where: Online via Zoom or Youtube - details to come
What: a session of worship followed by a Q + A panel: Riley, Brendan, Patrick.
Who: the men!
We had a great night on Sunday discussing how do we battle and fight for sexual purity during our isolation season. Brendan has written a great post here with heaps more resources and ideas if you need help in this area.
https://www.sovgrace.org.au/blog/all/resources-to-fight-for-purity
We have another special guest joining us this weekend for our online service! I can’t wait for you all to meet him, if you haven’t yet already!
A number of us have been gathering on Fridays on Zoom at 12pm to pray for our church and the world during COVID-19. This is open to all. You can fast or not. You can stay for the whole hour…or not. You can just sit in and listen to others praying. Or you can pray and not be on the Zoom at all! But please be praying! See you then: https://zoom.us/j/199220859
Prayer this week will be for our church in particular.
On Sunday we looked at an overview of the ‘Household Code’ in Ephesians 5:21-6:9 and I gave an overview of what the big picture of the jigsaw looks like. I hope that God has inspired us all with a vision for our households. That we are an ordered, fruitful, force for the global glory of Jesus!
Listen to the message here: https://sgparra.org.au/sermons/eph52169-riley-spring
If you have any more questions or want any extra resources on this topic, I would love to talk with you about it!
Abigail has been doing a truly fantastic job of making epic SG Kids Parramatta TV episodes and so she is going to take a break to rest, catch up on Uni, and plan for future weeks.
Here are some resources you can use to help you fulfill your calling from God, Ephesians 6:4 “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” It is our privilege, and our responsibility alone to train our children the gospel and how to live in God’s world.
1) Read the bible and pray with your kids for five minutes.
Plain and simple. Pull out the kids bible or even the real deal and choose a story, read it, ask 1 or 2 questions, pray. Done. We all know that we need daily feeding of the word to live, well, so do our kids! Let’s not deprive them of the Word of God! Here is a good challenge put out by Youthworks, the 5-5-5 challenge.
If this is something you don’t yet do everyday, now is the time to start, not tomorrow, not when they are older, start now. Sow the seed and in years to come you will reap the fruit. Don’t wait until they are old enough to understand, or still enough to listen, or mature enough to engage in discussion. This is what God says in Deuteronomy 6:6-9
6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently 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. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
2) Watch good stuff.
There is lots of stuff to watch. Watch good stuff.
Rewatch old SG Kids Parramatta episodes!
City on a Hill have their own online kids show, City Kids TV, just like ours, but not as good ;)
Kids Talks with Colin Buchanan
3) Listen to Good Stuff
Keep listening to awesome kids music that is biblically true and engaging. Here a few recommendations
4) Read other good stuff
Buy or borrow good kids books that teach a christian worldview
I recently bought this book on prayer and have been going through it with the kids, it is short, simple and helpful: ‘What every child should know about prayer’ - Nancy Guthrie
Other ideas: RC Sproul has kids books, Kevin DeYoung, Chronicles of Narnia, etc.
5) Find out how other parents do stuff.
We aren’t alone in the joy and privilege of parenting. Let’s keep working together as a community of parents helping our kids to know and treasure Jesus. We don’t have to copy each other and we can’t make rules about THE way to parent…but we also need to realise we all need help and can learn from each other.
Here is an example of what we try and do as a family, again, i only share this as ONE example not THE example! It doesn’t have to look like this…but it has to look like something.
We aim to do a 5 minute family devotion in the morning before i start work, with bible reading and prayer.
Before starting homeschool Maddie will often do another bible time with the kids
At dinner we sing grace (e.g. Doxology), and talk about our days, trying to bring God into it.
Before bed we read a bible story from the kids bible.
While putting them down we get each kids to pray TSP prayers, (Thankyou, Sorry, Please)
We pray for them and sing them a hymn/song.
I hope all this helps you! Let’s saturate our kids in God from morning to evening and as we do that, we will find ourselves encouraged and refreshed as well! It ain’t easy, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can do it, and me must do it!
Much love,
Riley
If you are able to help, the City of Parramatta Council is helping organise an extra collection of non-perishable items for charities which are running low due to the panic buying etc.
Head to https://www.cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au/living-community/covid-19-donations to find out more information and to see how you can help.
Recently, the Gospel Coalition Aus published an article on the biblical role of Government. It is short, thoughtful and balanced and may help you. Read it here.
How do we process this pandemic? John Piper has written a new book to deal with trusting in the sovereignty of God during this trial. There are two aims: 1) to see that God is in control through the Coronavirus; 2) to see what God is getting done through this trial.
Desiring God has graciously given us free paperback copies of this because of John Piper’s friendship with CJ Mahaney! So I have a copy to give to each of us! Check your door step in the next week for your copy!
You can also access it electronically in a few different ways:
1) Free e-book download for your e-reader of choice (or simple PDF)
2) Free audiobook via the Ask Pastor John Podcast
1) Pray for our Sovereign Grace Global Family:
Taken from what Dave Taylor (Emerging Nations Director) wrote in the Emerging Nations Newsletter…
1 Corinthians 8. 1-5, ‘We want you to know brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches in Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own free will, begging us earnestly for the favour of taking part in the relief of the saints - and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.’
I started last months ‘things to pray for’ post with exactly the same verse, making comment on the wonderful interdependence that we experience in Sovereign Grace, and how we really are family, understanding that we can do far more ‘together’ than we can ‘alone’. Since then COVID-19 has affected us all, economies are crashing, lockdown for most of us is a reality, and borders have been shut. We can no longer just get on a plane to go and support our global churches, we can no longer go just go and visit… But here’s what we can do, we can pray, and oh my, what a glorious faith-building reality that is!
Over the last few weeks I have been able to reach out to all of our global partners, to encourage them, listen to them, care for them and let them know we’re with them. In all of the countries we are serving in, there is either a key Pastor or Pastors that we are working with. Some of them, in turn, care for a number of Churches themselves, sometimes in upwards of fifty, and so please pray for each of these men, their families, pastoral teams, churches and countries. We may not know all that the future holds, but we do know the One who holds the future...
Australia - Myself, Dave Taylor - Sovereign Grace Church, Sydney
Bahamas - Cedric Moss - Kingdom Life Church
Belarus - Sergie Lukyanov - New Covenant Church
Bolivia - Jorge Del Castillo - Iglesia Gracia Soberana
Brazil - Fabiano Silveira - Igreja Graca Soberana de Sao Paulo
Brazil - Emerson Soares - Igreja Nova Vida
Colombia - Jacobys Aldana - Iglesia Soberana Gracia in Santa Marta
Costa Rica - Allan Monge - Gracia Soberana de Cartago
Croatia - Mario Vucenovic - Church of God’s Grace
Cuba - Juan Vineta - Iglesia Biblica Emanuel
Cuba - Eddy Cambria - Iglesia Biblical de a Gracia
England - Nathan Smith - Grace Church, Bristol
Ethiopia - Michael Granger - Sovereign Grace Church Plant
Germany - Christian Wegert - Arche Church
India - Jayaprakash Ravuri - Calvary Gospel Church
Ireland - Ray Clancy - Calvary Galway
Italy - Lee Walti - Verita di Grazia Church
Italy - Giuseppe Fortuna - Chiesa Grazia e Verità
Jamaica - Joel Bain - Grace Family Church
Liberia - Dyonah Thomas - Grace Life Church
Mexico - Carlos Contreras - Gracia Soberana de Cd Juarez
Nepal - Pastor/Church name concealed for protection purposes
Pakistan - Pastor/Church name concealed for protection purposes
Philippines - Nilo Ebo - His Dwelling Christian Church
Philippines - Jeffrey Jo - Church of the Chief Shepherd Gospel Ministries
Philippines - Pete Valdez - Sovereign Grace Church of Tagbilaran
Puerto Rico - Josue Caceres - Iglesia Redimodos
Puerto Rico - Richard Gonzalez - Torre Fuerte
South Korea - Songhwan Kang - Lord’s Grace Church
Spain - Gabriel Reyes-Ordeix - Sovereign Grace Plant (Preparation)
Thailand - Pastor/Church name concealed for protection purposes
Turkey - Pastor name concealed - Sovereign Grace Plant (Preparation)
Venezuela - Eduardo Oistochea - Iglesia Cristiana Biblica Palabra Viva
Zambia - Wilbroad Chanda - Christ Community Church
… May His grace and mercy abound to us all. The whole world is in His hands.
2) Pray for Frontline Workers
Mark Prater has asked all SG Churches to join in praying on April 17 for Frontline Workers. See below from him:
We want to pray for men and women who transport food, stock grocery shelves, and work at checkout counters that make it possible for us to purchase food. Men and women who provide public transportation, and men and women who work in police and fire departments around the world providing essential emergency services. This is not an exhaustive list, so when you pray, add anyone you know who is serving on the frontlines. As Thessalonians 5:17 exhorts us, let us “pray without ceasing” for them. Here are a few ways you can pray:
Ask God to protect these frontline workers from being infected with the COVID-19 virus.
Ask God to heal those frontline workers who do contract the COVID-19 virus.
Ask God to give them strength and endurance for the long hours they need to work.
Ask God to comfort them when they need to spend time separated from their families or need to self-quarantine because of risk of exposure.
Ask God to give them wisdom for any difficult situations they may face.
Ask God to use Christian frontline workers as a voice of gospel hope for the hopeless.