Matthew 7 Proverbs 3:5-8 Psalm 37:1-6, 23-24 We are continuing to follow Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. We have been focusing on Jesus’ humble beginnings. This is our third week in the Sermon on the Mount. In Jesus’ sermon on the mount, Jesus teaches us the root of following Him. The root of following Jesus is humility. The first week in the Sermon on the Mount, we learned that when we suffer or make sacrifices we are blessed because God is with us. Last week we learned

Matthew 1:1-25 Isaiah 7:10-14 Psalm 136:1-9,13-14,23-26 Today is the fourth Sunday of Advent. During Advent we have prepared to celebrate Jesus’ birth by focusing on hope, peace, joy, and love. Today we will talk about love. We are continuing to follow the Narrative Lectionary. Today the lectionary shifts from a focus on the Old Testament to a focus on the New Testament. As many of you are aware, there are four Gospels in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. E

Ephesians 3:14-21 Hosea 11:1-4, 8-9 Psalm 114 (was supposed to be Psalm 116) Today is the third week of our four week series on the letter to the Ephesians. There are two things from the previous weeks that it is important for us to know in order to really hear our passage from Ephesians 3 this morning. First of all, we learned that we are assured of our salvation in Christ because, through Jesus, God loved us from the foundation of the world, God loves us now, and God will

John 15:9-17 Eph 1:15-23 Psalm 47 I will be away next Sunday because I will be at a conference in Pittsburgh called Reimagining Faith and Community Engagement in the 21st Century. I am excited for all I am going to learn and for all I will be able to share with you once I have time to digest it. We are continuing to follow the lectionary texts for the next several weeks. This morning in the Presbyterian Church in Canada we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus. In our assurance

Isaiah 58, Isaiah 62:1-5, Eph 4:1-6, 5:1-2, Psalm 51:1-17 In the letter I sent, I said that I would talk about fasting as preparation to become the bride of Christ, the church, but the sermon evolved differently than expected. We will still be talking about Ash Wednesday & Valentine’s Day, which seem like opposite things. On Valentine’s Day we celebrate our sweetheart, the love in our life. Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. Lent is the forty days leading up to Easte

Luke 1:26-56, Isaiah 54:9-10 We are continuing our Advent series on Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. This week is the week for Love. Love, is both, the simplest, and the absolutely most complex virtue in the Bible. Jesus says that all the law and prophets can be summarized by loving God, loving others, and loving ourselves. And yet, loving is difficult. When we talked about peace two weeks ago, I said that the heart and root of peace is forgiveness. I think that the heart and