We are back with Life Groups this week! Your LG leaders will send you all the information you need for your Zoom meeting!
By Matt Pettett:
Is there someone who, when they pray, you always lean into a little more and listen carefully to the things that they pray, their choice of words, their heart behind the prayer? Well, here is a book that is not only filled with prayers to pray but filled with model prayers that teach us to pray even as we pray them.
The book is C. H. Spurgeon's Prayers. It is a collection of 26 personal prayers by Charles Spurgeon, the 19th Century English pastor. I use this book in my personal prayer times. It's not a book I read in addition to what I'm already doing, rather I see it as an enhancement of what I'm already doing. Here are 3 ways I think the book has enhanced my prayers - all beginning with "P"!
Pattern - Spurgeon always begins his prayers with worship of the Lord followed by requests. Learning from Spurgeon in this has helped give me words and ideas for how to adore and honour and praise the Lord in prayer. It helps me shape my prayers not only around the day ahead of me, but also around God's character and will, just as Jesus modelled for us (Matt 6:9-13).
Particulars - the details of Spurgeon’s requests are very broad so that I no doubt pray for things I'd not have thought to pray for or pray for things in ways I wouldn’t have thought to pray.
Promises - Spurgeon constantly takes the promises of God and turns them into prayers that connect with real life experiences. One example:
Grant us also the peace-speaking word of promise applied by the Holy Spirit, that “being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). Let us be forgiven and know it. May there remain no lingering question in our hearts about our reconciliation with God, but by a firm, full assurance based on faith in the finished work of Christ, may we stand as forgiven men and women against whom transgression will never again be mentioned.
The sermon at the end of the book, titled “The Golden Key of Prayer”, is filled with encouragements to pray and is a nice counterbalance to the 26 prayers because it gives some direct insight into the thinking which underpins those prayers.
C.H. Spurgeon's Prayers $8 (Amazon.au) / $8 (Kindle) / Reformers Bookshop (14.99)
You can listen to the message, ‘The Way Up Is Down’ - Matthew 16:21-28 here. In the sermon we saw that : Following Jesus means the way up is down and the only way to truly live is by dying! There were three main points to guide us on the rollercoaster of this chapter: 1) What He Must Do, 2. What We Must Do, 3. Why We Must Do It.
Also, SG Kids had an awesome time gathering with Abigail and the Wahroonga kids! This will be happening again next week.
AND! Check out the latest SG Kids TV episode here!
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.
