We are back with Life Groups this week! Your LG leaders will send you all the information you need for your Zoom meeting!
We just finished week 4 of our current Alpha Series and it has been going great! There’s been many good conversations, deep questions, and a general enthusiasm for it.
Please keep praying for the leaders involved and for the participants!
As announced on Sunday, as we look ahead to potentially regathering as a church family we are aiming to uphold all of our biblical principles. As I have studied, prayed and sought counsel I’ve realised that this is a wisdom issue and that there’s no one perfect way of handling all the competing biblical values. If you take one of the values and make it supreme you run the risk of silencing other parts of Scripture. For example:
We are called to Love God and worship Him as a gathering of believers (Heb. 10:24-25) in song and in person (Col. 3:16), we’re also called to Love Neighbour which means keeping each other safe and healthy (Matt. 22:37-40), maintaining the priority of biblical fellowship (Heb 3:12), and upholding unity (Eph. 4:1-6), and we are called to Make Disciples preaching the gospel freely to all (Matt. 28:18-20) and acting in a wise way toward outsiders (Col. 4:6, 1 Pet 2:12), we’re also called to submit to our governing rulers and authorities (Rom 13:1-7, Titus 3:1-2, 1 Peter 2:13-17).
So, as to best uphold those principles here is our roadmap:
Church: begin regathering in person from 80% vaccination rate (hopefully 31st October) so that all can attend regardless of vaccination status.
Life Groups: begin regathering in person from 1 December so that all can attend regardless of vaccination status.
Retreat: postponed until late February (23rd to 25th)
Social Events: We won’t be planning any official church social events until we can all gather and attend. However, if you’re able to and would like to meet up socially, please go ahead and organise things personally. Obviously, this will cause some level of mess and awkwardness with regards to vaccination status, but I encourage you to be big hearted and gracious on both sides, communicate if you feel upset, and do all you can to maintain unity!
If you have any questions, concerns, or queries please do not hesitate to contact me.
May God keep us unified, joyful, and healthy!
In this sermon on Sunday we saw that at times we are called to surrender like our Saviour for the sake of others.
We saw that as Jesus surrendered to the authorities to pay the temple tax, which he did not have to do, that there is a glory in surrender. Jesus highlights again that His Kingdom is an upside down world. And now we are to wisely and judiciously follow his advice to surrender our rights for the sake of others, to prevent them stumbling or sinning and to win more to Christ.
I highly recommend reading 1 Corinthians 8-10 and Romans 13-15 for Paul’s in-depth treatment of how we are meant to forgo our rights for the good of others. Also if you study 1 Peter chapters 2 and 3, you’ll see how this practice of Jesus informed his counsel for persecuted Christians.
Rebs did a great job reviewing Tim Keller’s sermon turned into a pamphlet sized book, ‘The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness”. It is short, captivating, and life changing.
I read this whilst at Pastor’s College and my life was turned upside down as I was confronted with more species of pride than I cared to admit.
I highly recommend it. Read it yourself and read it with others and discuss it!
This week there are some two majorly exciting things happening!
Firstly, Alpha round 2 on Monday night at 7:30PM please be praying for it!
Secondly, Richard Song will be preaching as I (Riley) will be on leave this week. Please pray for Him as he continues in his preparation.
There are no Life Groups or Growth Groups this next two weeks but feel free to organise times to hang out with each other in person or online if you are keen and able!
Prayer is such a wonderful gift God has given us. We have an invitation to speak to the Lord and He promises to hear us.
We read in James 5:16 - “Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous person has great power as it is working”.
At SG Parra, we want to be a church dependent upon God, pleading and praying to our God. Prayer is an act of faith and is dependent upon faith. Faith that God hears, listens, and is able to act.
Here are some ways you can be prayed for or get involved in prayer:
If at any time you’d like prayer, please email: prayer@sgparra.org.au and this will go straight to Riley’s inbox so that he can pray for you as your Pastor.
Pre Church Prayer. Join us from 9.15am for pre-service prayer, sign into our service like usual and join the break out room - Pre Service Prayer, we’d love to pray with you.
Prophetic Impressions. If you believe you have received a prophetic impression from the Lord that you think could serve the church (1 Cor 14:1-4) please contact Riley or email him at rs@sgparra.org.au to share it with him before the service.
Post Church Prayer. If you would like to be prayed for, please join the Post Church Prayer breakout room, after the service. Riley and some other key leaders will be there to pray with you and for you.
Alpha Prayer. If you would like to join our Alpha Prayer team, then please set aside 30 minutes on Monday nights for the next 2-3 months from 8.15pm-8.45pm to pray. A team of us will be praying on the Alpha Zoom, you can sign up for it here (it’s the Alpha rego that guests use.)
Life Group Prayer. Finally, let me commend you to pray systematically and consistently for all the members of your Life Group, taking notes during LG and GG and then praying for what people share.
Here is what we know, Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace in our time of need.”
What a incredible gift prayer is. Please consider letting us know how to pray for you, or consider joining us for prayer.
What a blessed 2 years it’s been at Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta! We thank the Lord for all the incredible gifts He has given us over the past couple years, and for His continual provision again and again!
Though it’s not how we thought we’d celebrate our 2nd birthday, we praise God for the blessing of technology and Zoom! We cannot wait to gather again soon and enjoy fellowship together as a church family!
1 Cor. 1:23-25
‘...but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.'
Prayer is such a wonderful gift God has given us. We have an invitation to speak to the Lord and He promises to hear us.
We read in James 5:16 - “Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous person has great power as it is working”.
At SG Parra, we want to be a church dependent upon God, pleading and praying to our God. Prayer is an act of faith and is dependent upon faith. Faith that God hears, listens, and is able to act.
Here are some ways you can be prayed for or get involved in prayer:
If at any time you’d like prayer, please email: prayer@sgparra.org.au and this will go straight to Riley’s inbox so that he can pray for you as your Pastor.
Pre Church Prayer. Join us from 9.15am for pre-service prayer, sign into our service like usual and join the break out room - Pre Service Prayer, we’d love to pray with you.
Prophetic Impressions. If you believe you have received a prophetic impression from the Lord that you think could serve the church (1 Cor 14:1-4) please contact Riley or email him at rs@sgparra.org.au to share it with him before the service.
Post Church Prayer. If you would like to be prayed for, please join the Post Church Prayer breakout room, after the service. Riley and some other key leaders will be there to pray with you and for you.
Alpha Prayer. If you would like to join our Alpha Prayer team, then please set aside 30 minutes on Monday nights for the next 2-3 months from 8.15pm-8.45pm to pray. A team of us will be praying on the Alpha Zoom, you can sign up for it here (it’s the Alpha rego that guests use.)
Life Group Prayer. Finally, let me commend you to pray systematically and consistently for all the members of your Life Group, taking notes during LG and GG and then praying for what people share.
Here is what we know, Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace in our time of need.”
What a incredible gift prayer is. Please consider letting us know how to pray for you, or consider joining us for prayer.
Our Alpha series kicked off last night with over 20 new people joining us to explore life, faith and meaning. It was an encouraging night! We had so many people join that we needed to start 4 discussion groups, which was more than we were anticipating.
If you would like to join our Alpha or you know someone who would like it, you can still register by heading to: www.sgparra.org.au/alpha!
A big thank you to our key volunteers who are helping making the nights happen: Richie, Rebs, Matt, Prav, Joel, Jamie, Marcus, Ian, Sammy, CJ, and Sam!