***Update: if you would like to go the dinner but the cost is prohibitive, there is a donor who would like to buy you a ticket! Please let Arbie know and it will be organised!

Every year we partner with ICM (International Care Ministries) to help support their work with the Ultra-Poor in the Philippines. One way we can stay up to date and connected with their ministry is to go to their annual dinner.

It promises to be a great night with a fun auction and heart warming stories. It is an opportunity to hear how ICM innovated, adapted, and continued to help those in ultra-poverty throughout the past year.

Arbie and Lavinia Magno will be going along and are organising a table with our sister church at Wahroonga! Please contact Arbie to book a table!

You can watch a video of their recent work here: https://vimeo.com/527176258

When: 4th of June

Time: 7:00 PM till late

Where: Aqua Luna Waterfront Dining 

Cost: $120 pp or $960 for a table of 8

Dress Code: Cocktail & Business attire

I am excited for Sunday as it is a great opportunity to honour and celebrate mum’s and motherhood!

A few notes to help us do that well given the new restrictions in Sydney (see: https://www.nsw.gov.au/media-releases/covid-19-restrictions-update-6-may):

1) We are going to have the service outside (weather permitting), so that we can sing publicly. Masks are not required for outdoor services, though you are free to wear one!

2) Please bring a mask with you. Anytime you go indoors, you need a mask on. And it will become clear on Sunday why everyone still needs a mask!

3) Be mindful of social distancing

4) Be proactive with signing in.

5) Kids will be joining us for the singing and notices time, so Dad’s in particular please be proactive and take care of your kids during that time, so that the mum’s can enjoy the singing. Also everyone in the congregation, please help serve any families you know well!

Also, if Mother’s Day is a hard day for you due to your season, circumstance, or history, please reach out and ask for grace, ask people to walk with you in it. As a church we’re always in the tension of the already and not yet, celebrating and lamenting, rejoicing and grieving.

Last Sunday Riley preached from Matthew 9:18-38 and helped us see that at the heart of Christian mission is having the heart of the healer.

Riley’s two points were:

1. See His Heart - come to Him

2. Sync Your Heart - become like Him

You can listen to the message here:

www.sgparra.org.au/sermons

Also, here is the excerpt he read at the end of his message, from Amy Carmichael’s “Things as they are”

 The tom-toms thumped straight on all night, and the darkness shuddered round me like a living, feeling thing. I could not go to sleep, so I lay awake and looked; and I saw, as it seemed, this:

I stood on a grassy sward, and at my feet a precipice broke sheer down into infinite space. I looked, but saw no bottom; only cloud shapes, black and furiously coiled, and great shadow-shrouded hollows, and unfathomable depths. Back I drew, dizzy at the depth. Then I saw forms of people moving single file along the grass. They were making for the edge.

There was a woman with a baby in her arms and another little child holding on to her dress. She was on the very verge. Then I saw that she was blind. She lifted her foot for the next step . . . it trod air. She was over, and the children with her. Oh, the cry as they went over!

Then I saw more streams of people flowing from all quarters. All were blind, stone blind; all made straight for the precipice edge. There were shrieks as they suddenly knew themselves falling, and a tossing up of helpless arms, catching, clutching at empty air. But some went over quietly, and fell without a sound.

Then I wondered, with a wonder that was simply agony, why no one stopped them at the edge. I could not. I was glued to the ground, and I could not call; though I strained and tried, only a whisper would come out.

Then I saw that along the edge there were sentries set at intervals. But the intervals were far too great; there were wide, unguarded gaps between. And over these gaps the people fell in their blindness, quite unwarned; and the green grass seemed blood-red to me, and the gulf yawned like the mouth of hell.

Then I saw, like a little picture of peace, a group of people under some trees with their backs turned towards the gulf. They were making daisy chains. Sometimes when a piercing shriek cut the quiet air and reached them it disturbed them, and they thought it a rather vulgar noise. And if one of their number started up and wanted to go and do something to help, then all the others would pull that one down. “Why should you get so excited about it? You must wait for a definite call to go! You haven’t finished your daisy chains yet. It would be really selfish,” they said, “to leave us to finish the work alone.”

There was another group. It was made up of people whose great desire was to get more sentries out; but they found that very few wanted to go, and sometimes there were no sentries for miles and miles of the edge.

Once a girl stood alone in her place, waving the people back; but her mother and other relations called, and reminded her that her furlough was due; she must not break the rules. And being tired and needing a change, she had to go and rest for awhile; but no one was sent to guard her gap, and over and over the people fell, like a waterfall of souls.

Once a child caught at a tuft of grass that grew at the very brink of the gulf; it clung convulsively, and it called—but nobody seemed to hear. Then the roots of the grass gave way, and with a cry the child went over, its two little hands still holding tight to the torn-off bunch of grass.

And the girl who longed to be back in her gap thought she heard the little one cry, and she sprang up and wanted to go; at which they reproved her, reminding her that no one is necessary anywhere; the gap would be well taken care of, they knew.

And then they sang a hymn. Then through the hymn came another sound like the pain of a million broken hearts wrung out in one full drop, one sob. And a horror of great darkness was upon me, for I knew what it was—The Cry of the Blood. Then thundered a Voice, the Voice of the Lord: “And He said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me from the ground.”

We are back with Life Groups this week! Your LG leaders will send you all the information you need!

This Sunday we get to celebrate the wonderful gift of Mother’s! Join us Sunday morning for a special morning as we celebrate the gift and role of motherhood. There will be a light morning tea to follow our service!

37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Matthew 9:37-38

As we were encouraged on Sunday, we need to have the heart of the healer, a heart of compassion that overflows into earnest prayer for labourers into the harvest.

One way we seek to do that as a church is through setting aside one night a month for ‘Mission Prayer’.

During our Mission Prayer Nights we usually spend some time eating together, singing, a short devotional, and then an extended time of guided prayer. You don’t have to be a super prayer to come, you don’t even have to pray out loud! Just come!

If you haven’t yet come, why not?

This is not to guilt trip you or anything, it’s just a good question to ask yourself. It may be that: the time doesn’t work, you have no energy on Friday’s, you send one out of your household, you’ve already got committments, but it may be other reasons. It is worth thinking it through!

---

I recently read an encouraging blog from one our sister churches in the U.S., Sovereign Grace Church of Orange, and thought i’d share it to encourage even more of you to consider joining our Friday prayer nights!

“There are few things more important for a church than to pray together. As Christians, we’re pardoned, accepted, and welcomed into our Father’s presence. He hears our prayers and responds. What a gracious God!

Here are 5 things that can only happen when we pray together:

1. God meets us in unique ways when we’re together. He promises his presence to his gathered people (Matt. 18:20, Eph. 2:22, Eph. 5:18-21). 

2. Corporate prayer displays corporate dependence. Praying together makes our reliance on God visible.

3. Praying together builds consensus. The Spirit plants the same desires in our hearts: for the church to grow in love, for the lost to be found, for the broken to be made whole, and for God’s glory to be revealed. As we listen to each other pray we get the opportunity to say, “amen!”

4. Hearing others pray provides a window into their life with Christ. We’re encouraged by the good work we see him doing in them and our love for them deepens.

5. Praying for one another is one of the primary ways we bear burdens (Eph. 4:1-3, Gal. 6:2). It’s much more effective when we do this in-person.”

Are you excited yet? We hope so! Join us on Friday 21st May

Ladies Coffee morning will be on this Friday at Caber Park from 10-12pm! Contact Maddie Spring for more details.

We can’t wait to gather again to know, apply, and proclaim the gospel in our smaller groups!

Last week as we ran out of time i had to hurry through the application points, but i think they are worth thinking through some more, so if you have time, ponder these more fully. We are called to humble ourselves and trust Jesus no matter what:

1.    Humble yourself and Trust him in the natural realm

Trust him in Sickness, storms, strife – As the diagnosis comes in, the disaster ruins your possessions, the market dips, death ravages.

Of course, it is best to walk through the highs and lows of life with a resolute confidence, if we can walk knowing: “all things work together for my good”, we will be firm and strong, we can go to sleep in peace, like Jesus in the boat, knowing God has got it…

but the reality is, we are more like the disciples on any given day, crying out in fear, shaking God – “WHY ARE YOU ASLEEP!”

When you see the waves rise, or the shadow of darkness creep overhead,

Cry out in humility and trust: “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.”

Your little faith, in the great Jesus, will save you!

Don’t try self-salvation projects, don’t run to other gods, and Jesus as a last resort. Go to him!
 

2.    Humble yourself and Trust him in the super-natural realm

There is a war – but he is in charge

Do not run to horoscopes, mediums, palm readers for comfort, or knowledge, or power in the spiritual realm, you are dealing with dangerous beings

Instead, when fear of the future hits, when accusations and thoughts come into your head, do not try and battle it alone

Humble yourself, and trust in in Him – put on the armour he has given you.

• Ephesians 6:10-13

  • Eph. 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.

3.    Humble yourself and Trust him in the mess

Remember, the Gadarenes sent him away cause his presence is too costly, they preferred pigs over people.

ILLUSTRATION: Jesus is good but he is not safe – Aslan

Mr Beaver: “Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion."

"Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"...

"Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”

Jesus saves messy people, which creates messes! We like order, we like predictability, we like safety, but we aren’t promised this!

He will mess up your life! He will mess up your plans, your finances, your time, your holidays, your entertainment, it will ALL be for your good, but at times it will hurt and be confusing, and you’d wish he would just go away.

But trust Him in it, he is GOOD but he is not safe! 

4.    Humble yourself and Trust him with your sins

Your greatest need is your most vulnerable point: your sins.

Allow him to determine how we are to live, he is the King, we may have ideas about how to be saved, but in the presence of the Son of Man, we must let him call the shots.

Read Luke 18:9-14

 Luke 18:9   He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Ladies Coffee morning will be on this Friday 10-12pm! Contact Maddie Spring for more details.