After 400 years of utter silence from God. After 400 years of the world getting darker and more corrupt and more broken. We suddenly hear God's voice, once again. But it isn't through a prophet and it isn't through a burning bush. It isn't one of judgement or condemnation as one would expect after hundreds of years of unmitigated human sin and spiritual destruction. It's the voice of love, of comfort, of hope. And it comes to us through a young, unmarried girl, who has not a penny to her name and not a single word to say to the Lord but a humble and reverent "Your will be done."

Who is this God of love and mercy? Join us through this season of Advent as we look towards the birth of our Lord and Saviour.

So what is the final answer? After weeks of studying "the book of questions" we wrap up this week with The Final Answer.

It's pretty easy to spend the 1.5 hours we sit in church thinking about everything but God. So many of us fall into a routine of going to church that we sit and hear the words coming out of our pastors mouth aren't actually fully listening. Despite our best intentions, our internal dialogues are pretty insistent that we focus on anything but the gospel that is being preached. But we need to check ourselves here.

God is the Most High God, the Holy of Holies and He deserves our utmost and fully present praise and worship. We are called to humble ourselves within the walls of our churches or homes where we worship so that our heart posture is properly aligned. We are there to listen and to hear from God as His word is preached. Not to run through our to do list, not to be distracted by distracting children and not to be caught up with our own wants and desires from God. Join us this week as Pastor Mark walks us through Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 which instructs us to guard our hearts and have the right headspace when we head into Church Sunday morning so that we may properly worship our Lord.

When we give to someone else, it's always nice to know that there will be a return on our investment. It could be as simple as getting a 'thank you' from someone you let go ahead of you in line, to a promise of a favour returned. It could be your bank account grows a little faster with interest earned or it could be that the child you sponsored ends up becoming a doctor and becomes integral to the area they live in. But none of this is guaranteed. Not a single bit of the investment you put out into materials or time spent or people helped is guaranteed to come back to you in the end. So why even bother? Find out more as we unpack Ecclesiastes 11:1-6.

One of the most common questions regarding God and the problem of evil is: if God is a loving God, why does He allow evil in this world? It's a legitimate question, one that is asked by believers and unbelievers alike. This week, we dive into the topic of evil and injustice and what it means to live in a world where tragedy befalls us and despicable people seem to get away with doing despicable things.

We don't have a single ounce of control over our own lives. No matter how much we try and fight the fact, the reality is that everything that happens in our lives - from our first breath to our last - is ordained by God. A loving God who loves and cares for us, despite what it may look like from our earthly perspective some days. Join us for this beautiful sermon on God's Providence as we look at Ecclesiastes 3:1-14.

"Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions." - Jesus

Is money the root of all evil? How are we to think about the resources that have been given to us? Join us this week as we unpack the Question of Money.

This week we take a break from our Ecclesiastes series and look at the story of the 10 lepers that Jesus healed. It first glance the message of the story seems fairly obvious, but upon closer study, we learn there are more layers to this story than meets the eye. Join us to hear more!

Everybody's workin' for the weekend. But is the weekend worth it? Is anything actually worth working for? God thinks there is and it's definitely not "the weekend". Take stock of what you are working for in your every day to day tasks and responsibilities. Whether you're a student, or you work at home with your kids or you build complex computer systems for multinational companies, we're all working towards something. But only one thing is worth our focus and priority and that is how to fulfill God's purpose for us here on earth. Tune in this week to learn more about what God says about work and what our priorities ought to be.

~KT

The problem isn't that we can't get no satisfaction. The problem is that we can't keep no satisfaction. There is nothing on this earth that will ever completely fulfill us and even if it does, it's going to pass away or decompose anyways. Fun, right? But human beings are created to have a desire for endless happiness and comfort and neverending goodness. That's why we find ourselves perpetually chasing after things that we think will make us feel content. New cars, big houses, super fit bodies, new partners, new clothes, fat bank accounts. All of it stems from a desire for more, more, more. But the writer of Ecclesiastes reminds us how utterly meaningless the hampster wheel of hedonism really is. We've all heard the saying "you can't take it with you when you die", right? It's true! Continually chasing after the wind will literally drive you mad. But there is a better way.

Join us as we unpack what the Bible has to say about the pursuit of pleasure and how we can start to set our minds and hearts on the one good thing that really will last for eternity and completely fulfill our deepest needs - our eternal salvation in heaven through Jesus Christ. www.gracevalleychurch.ca