Hey Mums & Dads! 

Miss Abi is inviting all kids across both churches to hangout and enter the SG Kids Breakout Room through this link: SG KIDS Breakout ROOM This will take you to the Wahroonga service, then you’ll need to join the “SG Kids Breakout Room” and obviously, then come back for our service!

This time (9:40 AM - 9:55 AM), is for the kids to be encouraged in song, memory verses, games & challenges. Miss Abi plans on doing this along with the SG Kids of Parramatta & hopefully in some small way, helping our SG Kids treasure Christ. 

Hoping to see many of our SG Kids joining in if they can.

See ya Sunday! 

Miss Abi (ac@sgparra.org.au)

It has been a great joy to see so many people step out in faith and invite family, friends, colleagues and neighbours to our Alpha. It begins on Monday night. We have over 10 people registered, with many more saying they will come.

Here’s how you can be involved:

1) Please pray!

There is no way Alpha can do anything to help anyone unless God moves in their lives and in our conversations.

2) Join the Alpha Prayer team!

During the Alpha Nights we are going to be praying for the Alpha leaders and participants. If you would like to join the Alpha Prayer Team Zoom please contact Riley.

3) Keep inviting!

People can still join!

4) Remind your friends!

If you have friends that have said they are coming, remind them that it is on Monday night and that they need to RSVP and register on Zoom to attend.

Finally, If you have a friend coming, you are welcome to join the first night of Alpha and be there in the foyer, so to speak, watching the video with them etc, but you won’t be put in a discussion group. This is how Alpha works and so we are going to run with that.

If you have any more questions, please reach out to Richard!

As we progress through this lockdown and as we look to come out of it, there are going to be many concerns and questions about how this takes place with regards to restrictions, vaccine passports, etc etc.

Inevitably we will all have different views and opinions as a church body ,and therefore, we need charity and grace for one another as we think about and talk about these issues (see this article that I have already shared by Ray Galea - (https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/article/vaccine-wars-and-the-church-of-god/).

But may I also encourage you in two ways.

1) Pray for our leaders, Paul instructs us in 1 Timothy 2:1-7

“1   First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. 7 For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.”

Let us be a praying people! Note what Paul commands: prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings! Let us pray for our leaders and thank God for them.

2) To participate respectfully in the democratic process.

A gift God has given us is a democratic system. Each of us has the opportunity to raise our voice, express concerns, and ask questions of our leaders. Rather than merely complaining in private. If you have a concern, raise it with your local or federal members via their “Contact” page.

I have sent many emails to various leaders asking questions, seeking clarification, or advocating for various positions.

So friends, pray and participate, and let us do it with a joyful surrender to God’s Sovereign Rule over all things!

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

I want to draw your attention to a recent article in the Sovereign Grace Journal (the one in your gift bags!), called “Trauma and the Treasure of Christ” by Andy Farmer. Andy is a friend, an incredibly wise pastor and biblical counsellor. This article deals with a very serious and sad topic, trauma. And gives us tools for how to process it personally and to help others process it, through the trauma of the cross.

You can read it here.

“Can I let you in on a little secret? There are people in your church who are struggling with trauma. Maybe you can’t see it as you gather together on a Sunday or in a small group—or these days through Zoom. But there are people all around you who have experienced something so horrific, so painful, so shameful, that it crowds into their present life, no matter how long ago it happened.

Trauma reaches out of the past and grips them with all the emotion, dread, and adrenaline-charging panic they faced when that horrible event first happened. It can feel like it is happening over and over and over. Maybe their trauma traces back to an experience of abuse or assault, maybe from a devastating event in their lives, or a violent or tragic event experienced while serving in the military or as a first responder. Whatever the original event, they may manage life despite it, but it never leaves them. They live with an unrelenting sense that they can run from it, but they can’t hide from it.

Maybe that person you know is you.”

Our Alpha course begins Monday 13th September. Alpha is a great opportunity to explore life, faith and meaning in a relaxed and enjoyable environment.

It’s been really encouraging to see your faithfulness as you step out in faith to invite people along to Alpha, already we’ve got 10-15 people coming! Some people have invited over 10 people and many have been surprised that people that they thought would definitely say “no” have said “yes!”

We’ve got 2 weeks until it begins so let’s keep praying and inviting!

Who are you going to invite? What if they said yes?

“To invite someone takes time, vulnerability, sacrifice, and the risk of rejection…but this is our call, to open our lives and to share Christ with people close to us.“

Watch the Invitation Video

Listen to the sermon here.

Matthew 16:18

“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

This promise gives us unshakeable confidence and purpose as we seek to serve the Lord Jesus and His people here in Parramatta. Jeff Purswell, Director of Theology for SGC says of this passage:

“There is no pronouncement in Scripture that I know of that pulses with greater resolve or greater certainty than this one.”

Friends, as we look out upon an uncertain and ever-changing world we can know that Jesus will build and protect His church. Therefore, we can labour with confidence AND we can give ourselves fully to serving the church because labours are never in vain or futile!

What ways might God be calling you to serve His church?

Book Review:

CJ Lick helpfully reviewed a great book by veteran evangelist, Jim Wilson, ‘Taking Men Alive’. I highly recommend this book as a great tool to help you have a heart for the lost and tools to go after them.

From 8pm we are having a mission prayer night tonight via Zoom to commit ourselves to pleading with God to bring people to know him through Alpha! If you’d like to join and don’t have the Zoom link, just email rs@sgparra.org.au to get it!

It’s so exciting to see how many people are stepping out in faith to invite people on Alpha! Already we have 10 people registered! If you are a bit stuck on what to say, here are some suggested lines you might like to consider using.

“Hey (name), how are you (and your family) going? Missing you! I wanted to reach out and let you know that our church is running a great course called Alpha…

• “It’ll be fun with great company, great conversations about life, faith and meaning. No pressure but wanted to reach out and put it out there for you to consider!”

• “You can ask questions, you can share what you think, you’ll get a chance to watch really interesting clips on the topics of faith, life and meaning.

• It’s a great opportunity to explore life, faith, and meaning, as well as to ask questions in an honest and open space.

• It doesn’t matter about your background, faith, or walk of life. It’ll be a great time to watch, chat, ask, and listen, exploring the big questions of life.

• It’s going to be via Zoom , there’s a video and then an open discussion time in small breakout rooms. It goes for 4-6 weeks but you can opt out at any time

• Starts Monday Sept 13 , 7:30pm.

• I think it’ll be fun, thoughtful , and worth your time

• Let me know what you think

• Here’s a trailer to get a feel for it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fViYK_Xb3Wg

• You can find out more details here: www.sgparra.org.au/alpha

This Sunday Henry will introduce a new song, “Christ Our Hope In Life And Death”. It’s a great song derived from some old Protestant confessions and adapted for today! From the Getty website:

“WHAT IS YOUR ONLY COMFORT IN LIFE AND IN DEATH?”

For centuries, believers have learned the Christian faith beginning with that question. It’s the first article in the Heidelberg Catechism of 1563. Why start there? Because death is our common fate. Unless Jesus returns first, we will all die. To find comfort in life, we must know how we can face death. Hope comes only in trusting the one who died to take the curse of death and who crushed the power of death by his resurrection. “Christ has been raised from the dead” (1 Cor 15:20). That is the only statement that can transform how we live each day and how we prepare for our earthly life to end.

The hope of the resurrection spurs us to sing. That’s why a group of songwriters from Getty Music wrote the modern hymn “Christ Our Hope in Life and Death.” Like the Heidelberg Catechism that inspired it, this song is honest about death. There is no need to shrink back from mentioning death in our hymns, because we know the Living One who has conquered death forever. The Christian can sing hallelujah, because Christ assures us of our glorious future. Now and ever, we confess: “I am not my own, but belong—body and soul in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.”

What is our hope in life and death?

Christ alone, Christ alone.

What is our only confidence?

That our souls to Him belong.

Who holds our days within His hand?

What comes, apart from His command?

And what will keep us to the end?

The love of Christ, in which we stand.

O sing hallelujah!

Our hope springs eternal;

O sing hallelujah!

Now and ever we confess

Christ our hope in life and death.

What truth can calm the troubled soul?

God is good, God is good.

Where is His grace and goodness known?

In our great Redeemer’s blood.

Who holds our faith when fears arise?

Who stands above the stormy trial?

Who sends the waves that bring us nigh

Unto the shore, the rock of Christ? 

Unto the grave, what shall we sing?

“Christ, He lives; Christ, He lives!”

And what reward will heaven bring?

Everlasting life with Him.

There we will rise to meet the Lord,

Then sin and death will be destroyed,

And we will feast in endless joy,

When Christ is ours forevermore.

Words and Music by Keith Getty, Matt Boswell, Jordan Kauflin, Matt Merker, Matt Papa