Matthew 25:31-46 Isaiah 58:1-12 Psalm 98 We are in the last Sunday of Lent. Next week is Holy Week, when we remember through special worship services, Jesus’ journey to the cross. To prepare us to enter into that, we normally fast during Lent. We’ve been talking about spiritual abundance this Lent because following Jesus requires sacrifice, but it results in spiritual abundance. We’ve talked about an abundance of forgiveness, an abundance of hope, an abundance of gratitude

Matthew 25:14-30 Proverbs 31:10-31 Psalm 100 We are in the fourth Sunday of Lent. This year during Lent we are talking about abundance. We have been focusing on turning to Jesus this Lent. We have been asking ourselves if we need to give something up in order to turn to Jesus or if we need to add something to our lives in order to turn to Jesus. When we enter into this discipline during Lent, we often experience spiritual abundance as a result. We have talked about a resu

Matthew 20:1-16 Daniel 3:13-30 Psalm 46 Today we have a faith sharing from Gioia K. She wrote it out and asked me to read it to you. I will begin with a short reflection on our Scripture passages this morning and then read Gioia's faith sharing to you. I love talking to you all about your faith. I love learning what you are thinking and how God is moving in your hearts and what God is doing in your lives. Last week we talked about cutting something out of our lives during

Matthew 18:21-35 Genesis 32:6-7a, 9, 11, 13-15, 20b and 33:1-11 Psalm 32:1-7 It is so nice to be back after a wonderful trip to Toronto. Many of you have been asking what the trip was about. I want to take a few minutes to tell you about it. I was on the leadership team for the CyclicalPCC Assessment. I am a trained assessor. We were assessing whether or not the participants had the skills and the calling to start new churches, or new worshipping communities. We can also s

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 Isaiah 58 Matthew 18:1-9 We are entering the season of Lent. Lent is the 40 days (but we don’t include Sundays so it’s not exactly 40 days) before Easter when we prepare to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. We begin Lent with Ash Wednesday. Many of you are probably wondering what Ash Wednesday is all about. On Ash Wednesday, we remember that we are dust and to dust we shall return. We remember that we are mortal, that we are finite, that we are

Luke 10:25-42 2 Kings 4:8-10 Psalm 143:1-11 We are in the fourth week of our Lenten sermon series. This year we are talking about deepening our roots in Jesus. During Lent we often participate in a fast. The purpose of a fast is to help us grow closer to God. Fasting is sacrifice and blessing. For example, when we do a food fast, we might sacrifice a meal (like lunch) and we would replace the time spent preparing, eating, and cleaning up the food with prayer. A fast can a

Luke 15:11-32, Proverbs 17:22, Psalm 136:1-9,26 We are in the third week of our Lenten sermon series. Lent is the time of year when we prepare ourselves to go to the cross with Jesus on Good Friday, and experience the renewal of the resurrection on Easter Sunday. It is an opportunity for us to examine ourselves in order to deepen our relationship with God. During Lent we are talking about deepening our roots in Jesus and looking at different spiritual disciplines that can h

Mark 1:29-39, Deut 5:1-22, Psalm 130 We are in the second week of our Lenten sermon series. This year we are talking about deepening our roots in Jesus. Last week we remembered that fasting is sacrifice and blessing. We remove something from our lives in order to make room for something else. Or we decide to add something to our lives and need to sacrifice something in order to make space for it. I mentioned last week that I am adding sabbath rest to my life this year.

Mark 4:1-20, Isaiah 51:1-3, Psalm 32 We are in the first week of our Lenten sermon series. This Lent, we are going to talk about deepening our roots in Jesus. During Lent we will talk about different spiritual disciplines that help us deepen our relationship with God. During Lent there is a tradition of fasting. Last year I talked about fasting being sacrifice and blessing. This means that we can remove something from our lives in order to add something. One way to do t