Wednesday 8th of September 2010 | Posted by Dave Taylor
Sovereign Grace - We Have Lift Off!

For myself and all of the Church planting team, this past Sunday will be a day that we remember for the rest of our lives. After many years of prayer and preparation, Sovereign Grace Church Sydney (the first Sovereign Grace Ministries Church in Australia) finally launched. Opening it's doors to public services for the first time, this was truly a launch to remember.

From 10am people started to arrive. The team had done an amazing job of getting our venue all set up and ready by then, and so as people arrived what a treat it was to see the team welcoming them and enjoying conversations with so many. By the time we began our service at 10:30am, we had around 100 visitors present and so as we began to sing, what a sound it was as we joined our voices to sing praises to the Lord. Through songs like How Great is Our God, Mighty to Save, Lost in Wonder, Amazing Grace and Stronger we had around 35 minutes of praise and worship. Singing of the glories of Calvary and making our boast in Jesus Christ, it was truly a wonderful time.




After the notices, offering and a short break so that the children could head out to their Generations classes. We then opened God's word together to 2 Tim 1: 3-14, and I had the privilege of beginning our three-week launch series, entitled 'First Things First'. It was so encouraging to see people getting excited and effected as they were hearing about what it is to enjoy grace and run from legalism... The Gospel changes lives, and in God's kindness that's what we saw together this past Sunday.

After the service, around 12.00pm, we then got the children back in and enjoyed some good team hospitality. With cakes, snacks, fruit, tea, coffee, biscuits, it was quite a feast. As were the conversations that were taking place.




We had many people get signed up for our Starting Point course, and many expressing to us that they couldn't wait until next week as they'd "get to do all this over again". One lady said that "it has been such a long time since I've enjoyed church and felt this passionate about Jesus - thankyou so much", and another young man, a Chinese student, was in God's amazing grace drawn by the Lord and went on to make Jesus the Lord and Saviour of his life on the Monday morning. What amazing grace... Only God can do that!





All this to say - "Thankyou Jesus". His fingerprints of abounding grace were all over this past Sunday. Once again we were on the receiving end of "the riches of His grace, which he lavished upon us". What a great Saviour we serve, and as this Sovereign Grace story begins to gather pace, would all glory always be His. Soli Deo Gloria!

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