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The Second Epistle of Peter: Back to Basics – July 21, 2024

2 Peter 1:16-21

Life is unpredictable. We might have some clues for what’s coming up next, but there’s no way to know for sure. That’s a challenge for me, because I’m trying to raise my three young kids and I think a lot about the future and the kind of world that my kids will grow up in. It looks like they’re going to grow up in a very different world than the one I grew up in. For sure, my kids will have some advantages. They’ll probably be better adjusted socially than I was, and their technology will be a lot better than what I had. However, my kids will also have more temptations, and a lot of ways to go wrong. With the way things are going, it feels our world is getting more unpredictable than ever.

We start a new series on the 2nd book of Peter in the New Testament. My big question today is: how can we navigate our unpredictable world?

The answer I want to show you today is, we need to follow God’s words in the Bible. We need to follow God’s words because they are TRUE, and we need to follow God’s words because they are WISE. That’s what our Bible passage is about.

Job: Godliness in a Broken World – July 14, 2024

Job 31:13-23

Everyone has a reason to do the right thing. Some people do the right thing for practical reasons like if you want to make friends, it probably best to be kind. For other people, there’s a social pressure to do the right thing because we want people to like us.

But these motivations aren’t always fool proof because sometimes social pressure encourages people to be mean. Sometimes it feels good to do the wrong thing like getting revenge. We need a better moral compass, not based on our feelings because feelings change quite often- need something consistent

So, my big question today is: where do Christians get their moral compass from? Our Bible story teaches us that our moral compass comes from being consistently aware of God’s coming judgment (now some are uncomfortable with judgment, but we went in depth with it during our Revelation series, so check it out on our YouTube channel).

Remembering the coming judgment (that we are accountable to God) helps us commit to both fairness and generosity. That’s what we learn from our Bible passage today. Let’s read fom Job 31:13-23, here we find Job explaining why he’s committed to doing the right thing.

Sermon notes

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Job: Godliness in a Broken World – July 7, 2024

Job 2:11-13

Every single one of us is going to one day witness a friend or family member lose someone they love. We will see people experience tragedy and suffer loss. So, my big question today, what can we do when someone is grieving?

That is what our Bible story is about today, our passage today comes from Job 2:11-13, and we’re going to see what Job’s friends did when they found Job grieving terribly.

  1. Mourn with them in silence
  2. Mourn with them by offering kind words

Job: Godliness in a Broken World – June 30, 2024

Job 38

We’re starting a new series on one of the best literatures on suffering. It’s an ancient epic collection of poems called, the book of Job.

Now the way Job is written is that major themes are drawn out and weaved throughout the entire book, and so its conclusions are all found at the end of the story. And so because of that, our series won’t really be going through the book chronologically because then we’d have 5 sermons with zero answers to our questions and the one sermon with 5 answers. So instead, we’re going by themes.

AND SINCE this is the case, I’m starting all the way at Job 38, which means we have to summarize the previous 37 chapters. So let’s do it!

What truths do we need to hold in order to suffer positively (meaning, in a positive trajectory).

  1. God’s presence is in the suffering
  2. God’s perspective gives hope to the suffering
  3. God’s purpose redeems the suffering

Arguing with Jesus – June 16, 2024

Mark 2:23-27;3-6

The Bible gives us instructions for a good life under the reign and love of God, BUT it has a lot of rules. And no one likes rules. For example, there’s something very wrong with my soul here but if I was about to grab an apple to eat, and my mom said, “Yeah! Good! You have to eat apples everyday”, I will not eat that apple anymore. I hate rules.

But what if God gave us rules because he knew what he was doing? Let’s say God isn’t just powerful and divine and stuff, what if he was also smart? Smarter than any business person. Smarter than any scientist or influencer. Smarter than Andrew Huberman and Elon Musk and whoever else you look up to. Would we dismiss his rules and his words as fast as we do, IF we assumed God was smart?

What if, instead of being a list of restrictions meant to oppress us, Jesus’ way of life and God’s rules for living with Him and with others was made for us to thrive in the best life possible?

What if? Let’s explore that today.

How can God’s rules lead us to abundant life? The answer that we find today is when we honour the INTENT of God’s rules because:

1. Rules use wrongly are weapons
2. Rules used rightly are gifts

Arguing with Jesus – June 9, 2024

Mark 7:24-30

Most Christians know about God’s devotion to us. We believe this. If we’re honest though, sometimes it doesn’t feel like he loves us. Sometimes when we ask God for help, he doesn’t help us in the ways we might expect and its frustrating.

It feels like God doesn’t care and he is doing nothing. So, my big question today is: How can we get help from God? That’s what our Bible story is about today.

Our passage today gives us two keys for finding help from God:

  1. Seek his presence boldly
  2. Work with what He gives you.

Arguing with Jesus – June 2, 2024

Mark 6:30-37

Problems in our work, and problems in our relationships. Problems are everywhere. And problems matter/ Even ordinary problems matter to God, because for a Christian every problem is connected to the stuff of eternity. Everything we do is meant to be part of God’s work, and it’s all meant to be holy. And when we have that mindset, we can experience the presence of God and the power of God even when we’re doing ordinary things.

So my big question today is: how should we respond to problems?

My big idea today is:

1. We should start with faith
2. We should continue with faithfulness.

Arguing with Jesus – May 26, 2024

Mark 12:18-27

Everyone has a different story when it comes to their journey toward faith or away from faith. We all know people who are like James Wallace who come from a skeptical background. So, it naturally creates some tension in our conversations because our skeptic friends don’t want to believe.

Yet, as Christians we really want to help our friends find Jesus. So, my big question today is: How do we talk to skeptics?

Fortunately, the Bible is no stranger to skeptics. Our Bible story is about some skeptics who have a conversation with Jesus, and when we study this conversation, we see a good way to talk to a skeptic.

My big question today is: How can we answer skeptics? Our story teaches us two things we need to expect in those conversations:

  1. Expect apparent contradictions
  2. Expect brilliant resolutions

Arguing with Jesus – May 19, 2024

Mark 12:13-17

I want to ask: what is the best way to manage all of our responsibilities? I’ve found an idea in the Bible, and it works really well for me. And the Bible’s answer helps me to stay calm and optimistic even when life is really busy. My answer is: we need to focus on giving everyone what we owe them. More specifically we need to give people what we owe them, and we need to give God what we owe him. And we’ll see this answer in our Bible story today.

Today we’re starting a new sermon series called Arguing with Jesus. And over the next few weeks we’ll be following some of the toughest conversations that people had with Jesus in the Bible. And we’ll see brilliant answers from Jesus that still mean a lot today.

Barnabas: Moral Excellence – May 12, 2024

1 Corintihians 9:3-14

Moms are the best! So, I want to reflect on how much mother’s or mother figures are a gift from God. Now, I understand that some of us have great relationships with our moms but for others, Mother’s Day can be a painful experience.

Some of us have a broken relationship with our mothers or maybe you’ve lost a mother, so we want to acknowledge that, and we are here for you. But for many of us, some of the most excellent people we know are moms or the maternal figures that God brings into our lives.

And it’s worth thinking about what makes them so excellent because it will make us more grateful, and it will give us ideas for how to be excellent ourselves. So, my big question today is what does personal excellence look like?

That’s what our Bible passage is about. Our Bible passage is part of a letter written by Paul to a church in the city of Corinth. Paul wasn’t their mom, but you might hear some of that motherly tone in our passage.