We are back with Life Groups this week! Your LG leaders will send you all the information you need for your first week back in person!
On Sunday we launched a new series for a new year to set the vision. It is entitled: ‘Risk Is Right’. This title is creatively stolen from John Piper’s book: ‘Risk is Right’! You can read his book for free here: https://www.desiringgod.org/books/risk-is-right or listen to John Piper’s awesome sermon here.
To listen to Riley’s sermon head to our Sermons page or on your favourite Podcast app.
Let us join with the risk takers of old for the cause of God and say:
“Therefore, it is right to risk for the cause of Christ. It is right to engage the enemy and say, “May the Lord do what seems good to him.” It is right to serve the people of God, and say, “If I perish, I perish!” It is right to stand before the fiery furnace of affliction and refuse to bow down to the gods of this world. At the end of every other road—secure and risk-free—we will put our face in our hands and say, “I’ve wasted it!” But at the end of the road of risk, taken in reliance on the blood-bought promises of God, there will be fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore.” John Piper
On Sunday Joel Seric helped us see the important place the lament song of Psalm 88 has in our understanding of how to suffer and to be (or sing!) with those who are suffering. As we looked at the three cycles in the psalm we saw how to press into God in dependence and trust, taking our cries to Him and wrestling with Him - even when it feels like approaching death or abandonment of friends is causing a great darkness in our soul. If you missed it, you can listen to the message here.
May it bring you comfort and give you words to cry out to God when life hurts, and may it remind you of the hope we have in Christ that God is present and working for the good of those who love Him, even in the darkest moments of our days.
On Sunday we were challenged and encouraged by Sam Davidson’s great sermon on Psalm 137. In what at first appears to be a psalm so removed from our time and circumstances, we saw how applicable God’s living Word still is to us today. Sam helpfully unpacked how this psalm paints a picture of how to live as faithful exiles in this world - with godly grief, a commitment to joy and a cry for justice. May we continue to spur one another on as we live as exiles in this world and look forward to our true eternal home that awaits us!
There is a training night coming up on 22nd of February for all the SG kids leaders - a great time to learn, pray and grow in leading the precious children in our care at church each Sunday. Please mark your calendars and plan to join us if you serve at SG kids.
On Sunday Jan 30th, in the evening, we will have our Church Family Meeting, which we call “Envision”. To give us updates on how things have been going (ministries and finances) and to give you a vision for what our year is going to look like! We will also eat a quick Pizza Dinner at 4.30pm so please come early!
Please make this a priority as there will be important and exciting announcements that won’t be repeated!
Times:
4.30pm: Church Family Pizza Dinner
5pm-6:30pm: Envision Meeting + Kids Movie
Where: Tara Anglican Junior School
Read the following update from our denomination’s executive director, Mark Prater, and then watch the video below. God is working through our partners in Sovereign Grace Churches! I have visited this church in their School Hall and so I am excited to see this amazing provision of a building!
“We are excited to share with you the story of one local church experiencing the grace and blessings of God through the generosity of regular church members. Jim Brown, senior pastor at Crossway Community Church in Crestview, FL, shares a bit of how they found their church building and the extraordinary generosity God used to help them settle into the building.
As you watch, join us in thanking God for his provision and care for this local church. And if you are inspired to give, visit our give page. Your contributions make a difference in the advancement of the gospel in local churches all over the world!”
Watch it here: https://vimeo.com/661495866
Dear Church,
We are looking forward to our planned 2022 Retreat in Feb!
Church Retreat is an opportunity to head away to encounter God together, to sing together, to fellowship together and to make some memories together as a church family. It is our hope that we will have almost the entire church come on our Retreat, as that has been our previous experience, it makes it all the better to have the whole family there! If you know of people who may also like to check out our church and would like to come along, this would be a great way to experience our church community!
How kind of the Lord to give us this opportunity as a Church Family?! And so here are the details…trusting that this time we are able to go ahead!
DATE:
25-27 February – Friday 7PM – Sunday 1PM
VENUE:
We will heading to the beautiful and relaxing bush based Crusaders Conference and Recreation Centre at Galston Gorge, 8 Crusader Rd, Galston NSW 2159
SPEAKER:
This year we have our friend Dave Taylor (Pastor of SG Sydney and Director of Emerging Nations for Sovereign Grace Churches) coming with his family to serve us with the word from Colossians Chapter 1, the theme will be: ‘The Supremacy of Christ’.
PROGRAM
Friday PM – Registration, Coffee + Dessert, Session 1, Optional Night Activity
Saturday AM – Breakfast, Morning Tea, Session 2 + SG Kids
Saturday PM – Lunch, Free Time, SG CUP!, Dinner, Session 3 + SG Kids Movie Night, Optional Night Activity
Sunday AM – Breakfast, Morning Tea, Session 4 + SG Kids
Sunday PM – Lunch, Camp Photo, Pack Up
PRICING:
We will be having two retreats this year! Our second one being our TOGETHER CONFERENCE (SG Australia Combined Churches) July 29-31st @ The Collaroy Centre (pop this in your calendars now!) Because of this, as a Church we’ve decided we’d love to cover the cost for the SG Parra Church Retreat so that everyone can afford to come to both!
The entire cost for the Feb 2022 retreat will be a simple booking deposit:
$50 per adult
$25 per child (over 2 years old)
Max $100 per family.
Please make out your payment to:
BSB: 032-170
ACC:436436
Reference: LASTNAME RETREAT
REGISTRATION:
In order to register you need to complete two steps:
Fill in this registration form from us and pay your booking deposit:
Fill in the registration form that will be automatically sent to you from Crusaders soon –
NOTE: in this form you will need to indicate your exact dietary needs, if you fail to do this, your dietary requirements will NOT be accounted for.
There is also a ‘hardship fund’ should it be needed to help you with these costs and so please don’t hesitate to ask if you are in need to help here.
ROOMING
Because we are not yet big enough as a church to exclusively book out the site, our rooming arrangements will need to be flexible. Families will stay in a room altogether, everyone else will be placed in rooms with the same gender.
DIETS + DETAILS
As mentioned, a link will be sent to you automatically for you to complete your registration details.
In this form you will need to indicate your ‘Diet’ for yourself and any children.
QUESTIONS:
Jordan Pangan will be helping with all things Admin, If you have any questions, then please contact Jordan – jp@sgparra.org.au
Our Starting Point Course is designed to help you understand what we believe and how we function as a church, as well as a chance to meet the Pastor and new members before joining the church.
Starting Point begins at 9am on Sundays before the Service, childcare can be arranged if needed.
We began the New Year as a church worshipping our great God for who He is and what He has done. Psalm 111 instructed us to see that God’s great works inspires great worship from us. I made three application points:
1) Study His Great Works: have you got a plan for 2022 for how you are going to study His great works as recounted for us in the Scriptures? Perhaps you could be helped by the list generated by Ligonier here: https://www.ligonier.org/posts/bible-reading-plans. Personally, I am using this new resource, ‘Be Thou My Vision’ and the McCheyne Bible Reading plan that goes with it, it’s not very everyone but it’s rich and varied.
2) Worship Him Wholeheartedly: the Psalm begins by vowing to worship God with his whole heart, which means all of life, all of soul. Our worship should not be relegated to distinct slots of time or moments (like Sunday or a quiet time) but should span throughout all our day. How can you worship God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength this year?
3) Walk in Wisdom: The Psalm begins and ends in worship, the worship of verse 10 commends us to ‘fear the Lord’ and to walk in wisdom. Fearing God is all encompassing, a joyful trembling before his majesty and his grace which results in a changed life. It will be impossible for you to have great worship in 2022 if you are walking in known sin. Are there any sins you need to repent of and change in for 2022?