Men’s Growth Groups are on this week! Your LG leaders will let you know all the details.
Some groups will go through this Podcast episode: The Interdepend Leader - Grace and the Adventure of Leadership
In my walk as a Christian I have found no spiritual discipline more helpful than the combining of Word + Prayer in the practice of Biblical Meditation. Think of it like chewing gum, but as you chew more and more flavor is released, rather than it going dead and flat! Just reading the Bible is like popping a tea bag in water and taking it out again versus let it steep and brew and then drink it! The results are vastly different.
Joshua 1:8 “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
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In Donald Whitney’s book, Spiritual Disciplines For The Christian Life, he advocates 17 different ways to meditate on Scripture. This is not exhaustive, nor do you need to do them all, but we are all wired differently and so the variety may serve you. Here are most of them:
Emphasize Different Words in the Text: e.g. take John 11:25 and slowly work your way through each word ““I am the resurrection and the life.”
Rewrite the Text in Your Own Words
Formulate a Principle from the Text—What Does It Teach?
Think of an Illustration of the Text—What Picture Explains It?: E.g for Romans 6:12-14 you may want to picture a soldier on a long mission with orders from his General to complete the tasks.
Look for Applications of the Text: How am I meant to respond to this text?
Ask How the Text Points to the Law or the Gospel
Ask How the Text Points to Something About Jesus
Ask What Question Is Answered or What Problem Is Solved by the Text. E.g. Take Romans 3:21-26 as the answer, what is the question that made Paul right that answer?
Pray Through the Text: I love doing this with the Psalms. I often put my prayer list and a Psalm together and pray for whoever I am praying for with the words in that Psalm.
Memorize the Text: memorization is not meditation, but it can easily help it. As you memorize, ponder the wonders, chew on them, pray through them, and then use the memorized words as a prayer. E.g. I pray through Romans 5:1-2 every day. I say Romans 5:1 aloud “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith we have peace with God” and I re-preach the gospel to myself and try to rejoice in the goodness of God again to me. Then verse 2 says, “through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand…” and I remind myself, I don’t have the power to live for Jesus in myself, but I have full access to the throne of grace to ask for this power. So I then go through my main life roles: Christian, Husband, Father, Pastor; I run through the demands and duties for each of those roles in a process something like this: “Lord, I am a follower of Christ, you have called me to deny myself and take up my cross today, in my flesh I don’t want to nor can I do that, but I stand in your grace, and so I ask, please give me the power and grace to do this for your glory…” and then I move on to my calling as a husband to love my wife, etc etc.
Create an Artistic Expression of the Text: I never do this…but go for your life!
Set and Discover a Minimum Number of Insights from the Text: i.e. determine that you will read Romans 6:1-10 and find 10 insights, then another 10, then another 10 and keep going til you run out! Here’s a great story on putting this practice to work: “I’ve had at least four friends confirm a legendary assignment each experienced in a seminary class on Bible study methods taught at Dallas Theological Seminary by professor Howard Hendricks. He would tell his students to come back to the next class with at least twenty-five observations on Acts 1:8. Having done so, they would be required in the next class to return with twenty-five more observations on that verse. Finally, they were given the assignment to make as many observations as they could beyond the original fifty. Most were thinking they had almost exhausted Acts 1:8 by that point, until Hendricks exhorted the class with, “Oh, by the way, the all-time record is over six hundred.” Whitney, Donald S.. Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (p. 66). The Navigators. Kindle Edition.
Ask the Philippians 4:8 Questions of the Text
What is true about this, or what truth does it exemplify?
What is honorable about this?
What is just or right about this?
What is pure about this, or how does it exemplify purity?
What is lovely about this?
What is commendable about this?
What is excellent about this (that is, excels others of this kind)?
What is praiseworthy about this?
14. Finally, if you read multiple chapters a day, look for a thread or common idea that runs between them all.
I hope this help and bless you! Let me know what fresh insights and experiences you have!
If you haven’t already done so, please follow the instructions below to subscribe to our church calendar to stay up to date with important events within the church.
For iPhone users:
If clicking on the link below doesn't do the trick, then try this on your phone:
Settings > Calendar > Accounts > Add Account > Other > Add Subscribed Calendar > Paste link. Repeat for each calendar.
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Life Groups are back this week! Life Groups are so vital for us as a Church as they allow us to take the joy of Sunday and work out in smaller communities where we can know each other more deeply and help each other out more personally.
As much as is possible, it’s our aim for every member to attend Life Group or Growth Group, every time it’s on! This isn’t a rule or a new law, rather, we’d love that these special times go in our calendars first because they’re so good and so vital for our growth AND they are a key way we each play a part in serving each other in the church.
For some, this is made difficult because of shift work, travel, or baby sitting needs. To help you, we’ve attached the Term 3 Schedule below so that you can look ahead to when your group is on and organise your calendar/sitting around that if possible.
It’s so great when the most amount of people can be regularly be at group where possible!
I hope Life Groups and Growth Groups bless you once again this term!
The next G2G will be on this Friday 26 July, 6-8PM! It will be held at 27 Iron Street, North Parramatta.
This will be a Parent Participation month, where we will be having Dave and Emma Taylor visiting to share their insights based on a wealth of experience around the area of discipleship and training in parenting through the teen years. You don’t want to miss out on this! So please lock the date into your calendars.
We look forward to seeing you there!
In Christ, we want to continue to grow in our love for one another, and in doing so, we’re a testament to the power and glory of Christ: John 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
To love more richly, knowing and understanding one another better is helpful, and a great way to do this is by informal conversations around food and smashing some golf balls into a driving range!
For our next social, we’re going to go to Swing City Golf & Entertainment in Bella Vista:
2-6 Norbrik Dr Bella Vista NSW
2153 1300 320 604
info@swingcitygolf.com.au
7:30pm, Saturday 3 August
We’ll kick it off with some food from the bistro at 7:30pm.
Then, we’ll go to some group bays and hit some golf balls – don’t worry, you don’t need to be a golfing pro (I’m certainly not!), just have some fun! There’s ‘a range of game options powered by inrange+ technology’, too.
Cost $13.30pp
I need to prebook so RSVP to me (Joel) by this Friday by 5:00 pm, transferring the money to the church account with description “Men’s Social”.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
As mentioned on Sunday, the Serics will be leaving for the US in less than a month to attend the Sovereign Grace Pastors’ College.
As a way to bless and honour them, we will be holding a special morning tea on their final Sunday after the service. We would love it if you could bring something to share as we celebrate and farewell the Seric family.
When: Sunday 4 August (after the service)
What: Pot-luck Morning Tea (Please bring label for your dish and specify if it is gluten/dairy free. We also ask that anything you bring be nut-free.)
Thankyou!
On Saturday we had our first ‘Marriage Morning’. It was a really helpful time for us as married couples to reflect on our marriages and in particular, our communication. Already I am hearing stories of just how important this morning was. If you missed it, or you are preparing for marriage one day, I wanted to make the materials available to you.
They are two talks given by Pastor Rob Flood from our Sovereign Grace sister church in Philly. The first talk is biblical principles for how we are to communicate and the second is a very practical and pastoral look at how to put this into practice. Most of the content is widely applicable in other spheres of life too.
Also, there are some very searching discussion questions here to help you and talk outlines.
If this brings up anything that is too hard for you to work through alone, sit down with another couple in your Life Group or one you trust and start talking about it. Additionally, if you like Pastoral Counseling please do reach out to me.
May God bless our marriages!
The late and esteemed theologian, J.I. Packer, says this in the Foreword to the book I most want you to read on the Spiritual Disciplines, ‘Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life’ by Donald Whitney
“I was asked to write a foreword for this book before I saw it. Having now gone through it, I would in any case have volunteered for the job, so that I can go on record as urging all Christians to read what Don Whitney has written; indeed, to read it three times over, with a month’s interval (certainly not less, and ideally, I think, not more) between each reading. This will not only make the book sink in, but will also give you a realistic picture of your seriousness, or lack of it, as Jesus’ disciple. Your first reading will show you several particular things that you should start doing. In your second and third readings (for each of which you should choose a date on the day you complete the previous reading) you shall find yourself reviewing what you have done and how you have fared in doing it. That will be very good for you, even if the discovery comes as a bit of a shock at first.”
Buy it here: https://koorong.com/product/spiritual-disciplines-for-the-christian-life-donald-s_9781615216178
Here is a list of all the Spiritual Disciplines he recommends in his book:
The Spiritual Discipline of Bible intake…for the purpose of Godliness
which includes: hearing, reading, studying, memorizing, meditating, and applying the word.
The Spiritual Discipline of Prayer…for the purpose of Godliness
The Spiritual Discipline of Worship…for the purpose of Godliness
The Spiritual Discipline of Evangelism…for the purpose of Godliness
The Spiritual Discipline of Serving…for the purpose of Godliness
The Spiritual Discipline of Stewardship…for the purpose of Godliness
The Spiritual Discipline of Fasting…for the purpose of Godliness
The Spiritual Discipline of Silence and Solitude…for the purpose of Godliness
The Spiritual Discipline of Journalling…for the purpose of Godliness
The Spiritual Discipline of Study and Learning…for the purpose of Godliness
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Don Carson has written helpful of the danger of not keeping the gospel central as we pursue the Spiritual Disciplines, I ran out of space to include it in my sermon, so please read it here.
“The gospel is not a minor theme that deals with the point of entry into the Christian way, to be followed by a lot of material that actually brings about the life transformation…Preaching the gospel, it is argued, is announcing how to be saved from God’s condemnation; believing the gospel guarantees you won’t go to hell. But for actual transformation to take place, you need to take a lot of discipleship courses, spiritual enrichment courses, “Go deep” spiritual disciplines courses, and the like. You need to learn journaling, or asceticism, or the simple lifestyle, or Scripture memorization; you need to join a small group, an accountability group, or . . . Bible study.
Not for a moment would I speak against the potential for good of all of these steps; rather, I am speaking against the tendency to treat these as postgospel disciplines, disciplines divorced from what God has done in Christ Jesus in the gospel of the crucified and resurrected Lord. . . .
Failure to see this point has huge and deleterious consequences. . . . First, if the gospel becomes that by which we slip into the kingdom, but all the business of transformation turns on postgospel disciplines and strategies, then we shall constantly be directing the attention of people away from the gospel, away from the cross and resurrection. Soon the gospel will be something that we quietly assume is necessary for salvation, but not what we are excited about, not what we are preaching, not the power of God. What is really important are the spiritual disciplines.
Of course, when we point this out to someone for whom techniques and disciplines are of paramount importance, there is likely to be instant indignation. Of course I believe in the cross and resurrection of Jesus, they say. And doubtless they do. Yet the question remains: What are they excited about? Where do they rest their confidence? On what does their hope of transformation depend? When I read, say, Julian of Norwich, I find an example of just how far an alleged spirituality may be pursued, in medieval form, directly attempting to connect with God apart from self-conscious dependence on the substitutionary death and resurrection of Jesus—the very matters the apostle labels “of first importance.” Wherever contemporary pursuit of spirituality becomes similarly distanced from the gospel, it is taking a dangerous turn”
D. A. Carson, "What Is the Gospel?-Revisited," in For the Fame of God's Name: Essays in Honor of John Piper (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010), 164-165
P.S. Another quote I left out on Sunday….Trevin Wax at the Gospel Coalition has written a similar warning:
“In the spiritual formation wave, it’s far too easy for the gospel to be assumed instead of explicit, for Scripture to take a backseat to experience, and for the church to become a sideshow to one’s individual journey.”