This Friday we go away on our first Retreat as a church and I cannot wait! There will be a final email coming around later this week with all the information you need, so please look out for that!
Reminder: no Sunday gathering @ Tara, we will be Crusaders Galston Gorge @ 10am on Sunday, please feel free to join us!
On March 1, our very first day of leasing Iron St, we are having a Music Team Night for all involved in the worship team and for anyone interested in joining serving in this team: music, PA, projector, song writing.
Also, for anyone who wants to come and see Iron St, and begin to dream and plan for how the Lord might use this space, please come!
Details: 7:30pm @ 27 Iron Street North Parramatta
Your LG leaders will let you know all the details!
The Spring’s Life Group is on this week and Jo and Prav have kindly offered up their house for a BYO lunch in Old Toongabbie (address given on Sunday).
Jo will have his BBQ ready so feel free to bring some meat! Drinks and some snacks provided.
See you there!
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!
Make sure you have listened to Richard’s helpful sermon, ‘Who’s Your One?’ in preparation: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/sovereign-grace-church-parramatta/id1479361917?i=1000550494539
On Sunday we continued our series on Risk and looked at this question:
Is it right to risk our riches for the cause of God?
We sought to answer it by looking at three stories: 1) the risky widow (Luke 21:1-4), 2) The Stingy Farmer (Luke 12:15ff) 3) The Transformed Tax Collector (Luke 19:1-10)
Let’s let these stories spur us on to risk our riches for the kingdom, letting our giving be goverened by the cause of Christ!
To listen to Riley’s sermon head to our Sermons page or on your favourite Podcast app.
Join us this Friday Night to pray.
Nothing fancy. Nothing professional.
Just humble, dependent, and hungry prayer.
“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. 19 Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”
Eph 6.18-20
FAILING FORWARD IN EVANGELISM
The first month of “Who’s Your One?” is behind us. It’s a good time to stop and ask: how can I fail forward at evangelism? We’re going to make mistakes. Perhaps, you made some in 2022 already. We’ll speak when we should listen and listen when we should speak. We’ll forget to pray. We’ll get too busy and never meet with the person we intended to share the gospel with. We’ll lose courage and decide not to share the gospel because we’re afraid of their response. We’ll offer Christ to people who say, “No thanks.”
Charles Spurgeon, who described himself as “addicted” to leading people to Christ, had this to say about responding to evangelism failures:
“I may be speaking to a few who have not succeeded; if so, I would recommend them to look steadily over their motive, their spirit, their work, and their prayer, and then begin again. Perhaps they may get to work more wisely, more believingly, more humbly, and more in the power of the Holy Spirit. They must act as farmers do who, after a poor harvest, plow again in hope. They ought not to be dispirited, but they ought to be aroused. We should be anxious to find out the reason of failure, if there be any, and we should be ready to learn from all our fellow-laborers; but we must steadfastly set our faces, if by any means we may save some, resolving that whatever happens we will leave no stone unturned to effect the salvation of those around us.”
What should we do when we fail at evangelism? Consider how we could improve next time. Remember that God uses imperfect messengers to convey His perfect message. And try again expecting God to bring in His harvest.
NEXT STEPS
Decide who your “one” is for March and prepare to share about them with your Lifegroup. If you failed to share the gospel with your “one” from February, feel free to pick them and try again this month!
Think through ways you’ve failed in evangelism and what you can do to improve next time. Prepare to share your thoughts with your Lifegroup.
Review the ‘Two ways To Live’ booklet (Two Ways To Live) OR re-listen to the clip viewed during Lifegroups last week on ‘how can we make sure that we have a good idea of what to say when sharing the gospel?’ (apassionforlife.org.uk/fw4-view)
May God bless our efforts this month to share the gospel with those who are lost and need to be found!
-Richie-
This Sunday we will be having Open Doors join us to help us know more about the persecuted church, share stories, and join us for our monthly mission prayer!
If you missed out on our Envision 2022 please email me and I will send you the key notes and a link to the Zoom recording.
There was a lot of exciting and important announcement shared that I do not want you to miss.