Centre Street Church Sermons

Jesus Christ brought meaning back to work. Even though God didn’t remove the painful, sweaty part of work, He did replace the meaninglessness of work in and through Christ. When we embrace Christ by faith, our perspective of life completely changes - including our perspective on work.

God intended our work to be a way for us to worship Him, to bless others and to introduce others to Jesus. This sermon continues the study in the book of Colossians, showing what ‘being in Christ’ looks like in our work, how we can find joy and contentment as we work and point others to Christ through our work.

Do you know what it is like to excitedly share news of a new baby in your family? Or even to share the news of a great deal you found on the internet? When we are genuinely excited about something in our life, sharing good news comes naturally. The Samaritan woman in John 4 shares her story of an encounter with Jesus in this natural way and the whole village gets excited about her news. In this message, Pastor Ashwin encourages us that sharing about our faith can be this simple and this contagious as well.

Do you have compassion for the people around you? In this message Pastor Kent Priebe describes true Biblical compassion as seeing the needs around you, feeling the needs, and responding with action. In our world today there are many needs; people are lonely, spiritually hungry, confused, hurting, grieving, and in poverty. People need Jesus. In Matthew 9:35-38 Jesus demonstrates that our first response should be compassion and prayer. Will you prayerfully respond to the needs around you this week?

Proverbs 11:30 “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he who wins souls is wise”.

Healthy Christians are not content with just knowing Christ themselves, they have a heart burden for the lost, and are about helping them be made right with God, by pointing them to Jesus! They do this by intentionally praying and sharing with the lost around them, on a daily basis. The Greatest purpose in light of eternity for a Christian; is to introduce people to Jesus! “He who wins souls is wise”.

Where can we turn when our confidence collapses, when our self-esteem takes a beating or when our hearts get broken? God intended the family to be the people we turn to in times like this. In Colossians 3 we are given a prescription for building healthy relationships, including healthy families.

In this message we hear from guest speaker Daniel Henderson on how to pray. Using the prayer Jesus taught his disciples as a guide, Daniel demonstrates what the healthy pattern for scripture-fed, spirit-led, worship-based prayer is. Prayer is intimacy with God that leads to the fulfillment of His purposes - it can be so much more than what often takes place in our prayer gatherings!

Beginning with Colossians 3:18, Paul talks about how our new life in Christ will impact all of our relationships including those with our spouse, our family and colleagues at our workplace. The focus of this sermon is on the Apostle Paul’s instruction to husbands and wives, emphasizing how our new life in Christ impacts our marriages.

Do you find it difficult to be thankful in the midst of sorrow? In this message Pastor Ashwin presents us with an age old spiritual practice that has been sidelined in our contemporary Western churches - the practice of lament. A lament is an agonizing cry of despair uttered in the context of trust. If you don't feel like you have been experiencing the promises of God in your life, God encourages you to express your feelings to Him in an honest way. Lament gives way to thanksgiving when God lifts the fog and gives us clarity.

In the great commission Jesus instructs us to "go" and make disciples. What we often miss is that a better translation of this word is "as you go." In this message from Brad Friesen, Pastor of Global Ministries, we are asked what it looks like to live life well. As we go about our lives, are we loving God, loving our neighbours, and loving ourselves the way Jesus loves us?