Series Title: Hell Sermon 2/2  Introduction:  “It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt,It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills,It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.”Today we are going to finish our conversation about eternity without God, what happens to those who choose to live without God in control of their lives. Well the Bible can be vague about how death works, it’s really clear about what happens to us when we die. We either spend eternity with God, or without him.Last week we talked about fire. That an eternity without God is like being burned and destroyed for our sins. It means standing up to the full wrath of god on our own human power. An eternity without God is one of torment based on our own wicked natures. This week, we are going to talk about Darkness. Eternity without God is like being cast into the darkest of places with no light or hope.It makes sense that the Bible uses darkness as a metaphor for eternity without God, everyone at some point in their lives is afraid of the dark. In the dark, we don’t know what dangers are out there. In the dark, we loose control. Fun Fact: My wife is still kinda freaked out by the dark. If I turn of the lights in the basement while she’s still in there I’ll get yelled at to turn them back on every time. With these metaphors of Fire and Darkness the bible is trying to explain the unexplainable. They are like the different facets of a diamond. All true, yet none of them the complete reality. We don’t know what eternity without God will look like but we do know what it will be like. Section 1: Darkness for our Children So our new metaphor, Darkness, is another favourite word of Jesus throughout the Gospel of Matthew. To best understand the use of Darkness we are going to keep coming back to one passage Matthew 22:1-14The story starts by explaining that a king invited people to a banquet, yet the chosen people ignored the king and even killed his messangers! So the king decided to ignore the chosen and invite everyone, the good and the bad. From he lowest beggar to the nobles that weren’t invited. The interesting part is at v. 11“But when the king came in to meet the guests, he noticed a man who wasn’t wearing the proper clothes for a wedding. 12 ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how is it that you are here without wedding clothes?’ But the man had no reply. 13 Then the king said to his aides, ‘Bind his hands and feet and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 “For many are called, but few are chosen.”  So whats going on here? Why would the The king, who supposed to represent God, throw this man out for not wearing the right cloths? What is Jesus trying to say. Well, if you look at the other times that “Outer Darkness” is used within the book of Matthew, you’ll begin to see a pattern. The Outer Darkness Metaphor is reserved for those who think they should be apart of God’s kingdom “And I tell you this, that many Gentiles will come from all over the world—from east and west—and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast in the Kingdom of Heaven. 12 But many Israelites—those for whom the Kingdom was prepared—will be thrown into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”Jesus is trying to say that eternity with God is not hereditary. It doesn’t matter if you think you deserve to be in God’s kingdom, what matters is living in submission to him. In the story, the guest who wore the wrong clothes knew he was being offensive to God, yet he thought he could get away with it. He was noble, he was chosen, he was prophesied over, obviously God would overlook his dress? Not so. Jesus is saying that an eternity without God is for all who don’t live in submission to God. Being chosen, being born into the right family doesn’t mean anything. It’s our choices as indiv

Hell Series  Sermon 1/2 Introduction:  “From even the greatest of horrors irony is seldom absent”That’s a quote from H. P. Lovecraft, one of the greatest horror writers of the 20th century, perhaps all of time. If the man knew nothing else, he knew how to terrify people. See, lovecraft was an agnostic who believed in “cosmic indifference”. basically lovecraft thought that if there was a higher power in the universe, it would destroy us without a second thought, just like how we might destroy an ant without thinking. He saw the world as this cold and unfeeling place. And that is so different that what Christians believe in. We believe in a God is loving, just and kind. Who, like we talked about last we, wants a relationship with each of us. He wants to KNOW us. He’s a God who works to fix what we broke, who wants to dwell within us. However, we have a problem. One small nagging problem that, at least for me, I would prefer to ignore. This one problem that makes H.P. Lovecrafts works seem like child’s play in comparison. Christian’s have the problem of Hell. Our loving, just and kind God brings people to a place were they are tormented for eternity. Rather then Cosmic indifference we have an all powerful entity focused on our actions. And honestly, it’s hard to talk about hell. Not because it’s uncomfortable but because of our culture. We are both desensitized from horror from two different extremes. On one side, with technology people have come up with millions of different ways to scare us. From gross out movies to psychological terror we have turned being horrified into an industry. The fires of hell seem dim by comparision. On the other side we’ve sterilized horror. Everything happens on the other side of a computer screen. It might be scary, but its safe. Wars and famines and natural disasters happen in other places. The news is constantly bombarding us with tragedies that we care nothing about. So today we are going to look into hell, into what the Bible really says hell is like. I’m going to try to shock you, to make you uncomfortable. Hell is a real place and it’s were people we love are going. Now to be clear, i’m not interested in getting into the mechanics of death. We’re not going to talk about how dying works. We’re not going to talk about the grave or paradise or hades or anything like that. The things we need to know are that the final destination is eternity with God or eternity without God. So instead we are going to spend the next two weeks talking about what Eternity without God is like. See, the Bible uses two different Metaphors to describe what Eternity without God is like, what an eternity of torment will be… Fire and Darkness. Section 1: Valley of HinnomSo first Fire. This one most of us have thought of before when it comes to hell. Fire and Brimestone. A place with little red devils that torture people right? Well, not quite. As we explore we will see that the fires of hell have a rich history in the Bible.Understand that hell, or the fires of hell, is a phrase that is used again and again in the gospels. Specifically by Jesus. He’s the only person who refers to hell as hell. Peter calls it “eternal fire” well John Calls it the “Lake of Fire”. Throughout the Gospels Jesus uses the word hell to describe what happens to those who reject living by God’s definition of right and wrong, also know as the kingdom of God. But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell.So if your eye— even your good eye— causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hellDon’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in he

Series Title: Heaven and Earth The Temple Garden  Proposition: Jesus makes us a place where Heaven and Earth MeetInterrogative: How does Jesus effect heaven and earth overlapping?Key word: meetIntroduction:  One minute of Silence So I have a question, how patient are you? What’s the longest you’ve had to wait for something? For me, it was for my wife. In our last year of Bible college I was trying to find the perfect Christmas gift for Beth. We were both exhausted and overwhelmed from school. All I wanted to do for her was get her a gift that she would love, that would make her forget for five minutes. Thing is, we didn’t have a lot of money. I had less then a hundred dollars to spend and let me tell you, buying gifts for beth is aweful. She’s just too content! Everything is good, but she doesn’t really LOVE anything. Luckily these little retro Nintendo game systems came out. They were cheap and I knew Beth would LOVE it. So I went to the store the day they released and lined up an hour before they opened. And I failed. When I got there there were over a hundred people in line! I was frustrated to say the least. So for the next month after classes I would go from store to store for HOURS tying to find this thing. Eventually I did and Beth loved it! Mission successful. By the way, that silence at the beginning was only a minute long. I don’t know about you but it felt like forever to me. I hate waiting. and more then anything I hate silence. it makes me uncomfortable. Last week we talked about God’s mission to unify heaven and earth. That heaven is God’s space where he defines what is wrong and earth is our broken space, where we define right and wrong. Where there is tragedy war and loss.  About how adam and eve broke the world and God in his love created a plan to fix our mistakes. Well the paradise of Eden was lost God created the temple to be a place were heaven and earth reunified in a small way. Where some of the intimacy guidance and relationship was restored.Unfortunately, the temple was destroyed, broken to the foundation by one of Israels enemies. A second temple was created, but God’s space didn’t dwell in it in the same way. It wasn’t a space where God’s space and our spaces overlapped. Then came the waiting. if you thought waiting for a minute was bad, try waiting over four hundred years!After the second temple was built God was silent for 400 years! After thousands of years of God fighting on their behalf, after thousands of years of miracles God went silence. Could you imagine living in that time? Could you imagine waiting that long for God to show up? Yet our God is a god who is all knowing. He knew the temple would only be a temporary solution. That the reunification of Heaven and Earth would require a much more drastic solution. Today we are going to finish our series by looking at the New Testament and how it changes everything. Section 1: Tabernacled among us“In the Beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth” Most of us have heard that before,That’s the first line in the Old Testament. I want to read you a portion of the gospel of John “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” …then down in verse 14… “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”“In the Beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth” & “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”That seems… intentional? What’s going on here? Well, the gospel of John is an account of Jesus’ life, but it was originally written for the ancient greeks. The greeks had this idea called the Word which was the rational principle by which everything exists, and which is of the essence o

Series Title: Heaven and Earth Sermon 1/2 Introduction:  So, after last week, watch Kevin get every to participate I felt inspired and I want to start with a little game. There are even prizes! I’ve borrowed some chocolate from Beth’s secret stash. This is how it works. I’m going to say a word and the first person to shout out the common pair word wins. For example, If I Hot I would be waiting for…. Cold. Let’s see how you guys do.Salt (pepper), Light (Dark), Good (bad), Ketchup (Mustard), Men (Women), Fork (knife), High (Low), Heaven (Earth)We often pair Heaven and Hell, but that actually shouldn’t be so. If you read through the Bible, front to back, you would find that Heaven is rarely paired with Hell. Instead, you see that Heaven is paired with Earth. For example “Our Father who is in Heaven, Holy is your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.” Over even in the first line of the Bible “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth”.  Thanks for every who helped play by the way.I know that Heaven and Earth might seem like a weird topic, but its really important. In fact the union of Heaven and Earth is what the story of the Bible is all about. It’s what Jesus’ mission was all about. It’s why we call the Bible “Good News”. The next two weeks should change not just how you see yourself, but also how you see the world around you. Heaven isn’t just something for the future, but also for right now. In the next two weeks we are going to try and look through the bible from front to back and examine how Heaven and Earth collide and why it should matter for you today. Section 1: Eden To start, we need to be on the same page about what Heaven is.  Sometimes its called a realm, or a dimension, or different plane of existance. In the simplest terms, Heaven is “God’s Space”. One Metaphor you could use is a house. Austin’s house is “Austin’s space”. It’s where he is in charge. In Austin’s space he is the boss and can choose what to do or not do. Like finishing his kitchen!God’s space, Heaven, is where he operates. It’s where God is in control, where everything is right and good and just according to God’s definitions. Earth meanwhile is our space. Its the world around us. It’s where we operate and exist. Unfortunately it is a place where, right now, we are in control. People define what is right and good by our own definitions. Its where there is war and death and sorrow. This wasn’t always the case though! Originally Heaven and Earth overlapped completely. Kind of like those colour disks that kids used. You’ve overlap yellow and blue to make green right? Both colours, both spaces are still there, but they make something greater together. Heaven and Earth used to be like that. God created Heaven and Earth to be in complete union. “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. That’s what Eden was, a perfect garden that God built where Heaven and Earth Completely overlapped. God’s space and our space together. But what does that look like? What does a place where we live, but God is in charge look like? One author says it like this “In essence, Adam and Eve are free to do anything except decide for themselves what is good and what is evil. Yahweh reserves the right (and the responsibility) to name those truths himself. This is Adam and eve’s perfect world. Not just ruin and fig leaves, but an entire race of people stretching their cognitive and creative powers to the limit to build a society of balance, justice and joy. Here the sons of Adam and the daughters of Eve would learn life at the feet of the Father, build their city in the shadow of the Almighty, cr

Series Title: Easter 2018 Introduction:  (Hello! My name is Pastor Nick). Have you ever thought you understood something but you really really really didn’t? Have you ever gotten that embarrassing shock of realizing you’ve been looking at things completely wrong? It feels like someone poured ice water directly onto your brain, like your seeing the world fo the first time. Maybe you haven’t, in which case I’m kind of envious of you, because this has happened to me a ton. Maybe its just my personality. I get so focused on what I think is important that sometimes I make preconceptions of how things are. Sometimes I just don’t really see. (NEED STORY)My goal today is to challenge your preconceptions. Maybe you went to Sunday school as a kid, maybe you’ve never been to church or maybe your a regular attender here. I want to show you that maybe you don’t know the bible as well as you think you do. Maybe there is more to Christianity then you realize. See, to really understand the Bible, you need to let go of your preconceptions. Forget everything you think you know. Try to see from a new perspective. Here is our idea: You do not have a soul. Section 1: All souls on boardThat’s right, you don’t have a soul. Nowhere in the Bible does it teach that you have a soul, at least not in the way that you think you do. In english when we think of soul we think of this immortal immaterial part of us. This disembodied essence of you that exists beyond our physical life and endures after our death, going to God for eternity. Often people think that Christians believe our physical existance is less then the spiritual. That we are souls trapped in flesh. Fortunately, thats not an idea from the Bible at all. It’s actually from great philosophers like Plato and Aristotle. If you take the time to read the Bible you’ll see that soul is used completely So lets start to break down preconceptions. In the Old Testament the word that is always translated as Soul is the Hebrew word Nephesh. Nephesh shows up 750 times in the Bible but well Nephesh is often translated as soul, it isn’t always See, translation is tricky. When we try to translate a word we have to understand its range of meaning words don’t translated one to one across languages. For example love in english is one word, while there are three different words for love in great. While Nephesh is sometimes translated as soul, its broader meaning will help us to understand what it really means. In fact, Nephesh is a really broad word. It gets translated into over 50 different english words.Nephesh gets translated as the following words “life, soul, me, living, I, heart, themselves, you, people, anyone…”Maybe this will make it more clear. Another way we can figure out what Nephesh, soul, means in the Bible is to look at its root. If you were to pull out a Hebrew dictionary and look for the most basic form of the word Nephesh you would see that it means throatPsalm 42 “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul (Nephesh) for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  When shall I come and appear before God?”If this is all really confusing, thats exactly how I felt. Nephesh might literally mean throat, but it’s not often used that what. Instead, its a part of the body that is used to represent the whole person. Kind of like how we “count heads” in english. The Hebrews would “count throats”. So a persons Nephesh referred to their entire physical person. “life, soul, me, living, I, heart, themselves, you, people, anyone…” Does that make more sense now? You don’t have a soul, you are a soul. When the Bible talks about a soul it is referring to your entire physical life, not simply to some disembodied essence of you. We use this language today still, but only in one place. On ships and planes. There are 150 souls on board. Here are some more examples to prove my point. In the Old testament kidnappers were literal

Series Title: Be Relational Sermon 3/3 Introduction:  “Warning, the following content may contain elements that not suitable for some audiences, viewer discretion is advised.”When I was a kid, I watched a lot of TV.  It was a really unhealthy time for me. I would watch show after show after show. We had a ton of channels, so there was always something to watch. Every once in a while, as I was surfing through channels, I would come across this warning. “Warning, the following content may contain elements that not suitable for some audiences, viewer discretion is advised.”As a kid, I would always get super excited. This was something I wasn’t supposed to see, a glimpse behind the curtain. Whenever I saw that warning, I’d look out my door, make sure my parents weren’t around, and watch. Sometimes, I would learn something. As a kid, I wanted to understand everything. Sometimes the show would just have serious elements to it. Other-times, I exposed myself to stuff I shouldn’t have seen. After a while I learned that the warning was there for a reason. There are somethings that are just too much for me.Today, were going to finish our series on Being Relational, on what sharing the gospel with others look like. We’ve been looking at Jesus’ life and how He creates relationships with people to invite them into eternal life. As we have seen Jesus creates relationships with those on the fringe of society, those who are unwanted and unloved. Being relational means crossing boundaries. We’ve also seen that sharing the gospel means trusting God, listening to the supernatural wisdom of God. When God calls us to be relational in a way that is crazy to us, we should do it. Our final lesson in being relational is from the final day of Jesus’ life. To completely understand the lesson, we are going to look at some extremely mature content. We are going to examine the horrible physical and psychological abuse that Jesus went through leading up to his death. I’m going to warn you right now, this is going to be uncomfortable. It was uncomfortable for me to write this. If you’re like me, this story is going to make you feel incredibly guilty. It might even make you angry. The final day of Jesus is a story for mature audiences. So here’s your one warning… “the following content may contain elements that not suitable for some audiences, viewer discretion is advised”Section 1: BetrayedTo often we forget that Jesus wasn’t just fully God. He was also fully human. Just like you, Jesus had hopes. He had friends. He dealt with people. He was, as far as anyone could tell, just a normal guy. So, as we look at his final day, “it is important to understand from the beginning that Jesus would have been in excellent physical condition. As a carpenter by trade, He participated in physical labor. In addition, He spent much of His ministry traveling on foot across the countryside. His stamina and strength were, most likely, very well developed. With that in mind, it is clear just how much He suffered: If this torture could break a man in such good shape, it must have been a horrific experience.”As we begin the feast of passover, a national celebration, has been happening within the city of Jerusalem. As the festivities draw to a close, Jesus brings his closest friends to a small garden overlooking the city. Jesus is desperate to pray. He goes off a little ways a way and talks to god. Anyone looking at him would have seen the anxiety on his face. being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.”The sweat poured from Jesus’ face. He knew the pain that was coming. Yet he was a servant of God. This was the path he must take. Jesus prays throughout the night. Anxiety and mental anguish stealing his last chance to sleep. In the morning Judas, one of Jesus’ disciples arrives. He has betrayed Jesus to the  Jewish leaders. The guards seize Jesus and blindfold him. They make him

Series Title: Be Relational Sermon 2/3  Introduction:  On August 13th 2016, Beth and I got married. Well are wedding was about as stressful as they came, it was a good day. On our drive home we stopped at McDonalds and 7-11 still in wedding clothes. We were exhausted. The next day, we were off to Mexico. Beth’s parents had gifted us a trip to an all inclusive resort as a wedding gift. We were going to have a week of peace and quiet away from our families for the first time in a while. I was honestly looking forward to it. At this resort they had restaurants. And as newlyweds we got to go to one for free. To be honest, it was aweful. But whatever, free date. What could go wrong?Apparently, everything could go wrong. I got food poisoning from that meal and spent the entire week in the washroom. I refused to go to the hospital because I didn’t trust it. So Beth had to sit with me the entire time, not knowing what to do with me. It was 35 degrees that entire week. The worst part of the whole thing was the hallucinations. I wasn’t in my right mind. As I’d fade in and out of consciousness every moment was torture. I couldn’t tell what was real and what my cooked brains was coming up with. I don’t know about you but loosing control of my mind, of my ability to reason, is terrifying. Not being able to think and interact with the world around you is a horrifying experience. Today we’re going to continue our series on being relational, on what sharing the good news of Jesus looks like. Just like the Samaritan Women last week, Jesus is going to interact with an unwanted person. Jesus is going to be relational with a man who has lost control not just of mind, but his whole life. Someone dangerous and beyond redemption in the eyes of Men.  He is going to show us the power of the Lord and how sharing the Gospel means listening to God’s Direction. Section 1: All authorityThis story comes from the Gospel of Mark 5:1-20. Just like the Samaritan women, this is well into Jesus’ ministry. Our story begins with Jesus putting his feet on dry land. See, Mark 5 takes place right after one of Jesus’ most famous miracles.Jesus calming a storm with only his voice. Well crossing a lake, a great storm came about the disciples boat. The disciples panic, thinking they are going to die. They wake up Jesus, and stops the storm with only his voice, proving he has authority over nature. Remember that, it’s important to the story. As Jesus puts his feet on dry land, he has just proved he has even more authority.  By the way, Jesus has just arrived in the region of Gadara. This was a gentile, non-Jewish land under Roman control. It wasn’t Jewish in any way. Other then the fact that some of those who lived there were Jews they were leaving in an unclean land. Unclean by the mean simply means something sinful. Things of God were clean while things that weren’t of God were unclean.When Jesus climbed out of the boat, a man possessed by an unclean spirit came out from the tombs to meet him. 3 This man lived in the burial caves and could no longer be restrained, even with a chain. 4 Whenever he was put into chains and shackles—as he often was—he snapped the chains from his wrists and smashed the shackles. No one was strong enough to subdue him. 5 Day and night he wandered among the burial caves and in the hills, howling and cutting himself with sharp stones. Could you imagine that? This man was completely out of controlled. Possessed by a demon this man was living among the dead. Imagine for a minute this small town. Farmers and swine-herders trying to go about their lives. And trying to ignore that sound. In the middle of the day, in the middle of the night, ALL THE TIME. This crazy, broken, insane man was screaming. He was cutting himself and screaming like a wild animal. When the men of the town finally had enough they tried to bind him with chains like a wild animal. Yet the demon possessed man’s strength

Be Relation SeriesSermon 1 of 3  Introduction:  I want to make a confession today… Missionaries, as a group, freak me out. They are always so intense about missions! I don’t know if its all missionaries, but the ones I’ve spent time around are always obsessive about reaching outside the church. For a lot of them, your not being a chrisitian unless your telling people who don’t know Jesus about his life, death and resurrection. There is one missionary I really admire though. His name is Pastor Allen, but we just called him PA. He is the missions director at Vanguard College and he was always able to get you excited to share the Bible with people. Maybe that word, mission, is new to you. Well PA had a great definition about missions. Simply put being missional meant to Be relational. If one wanted to be a Christian who did mission, then he was someone who created relationships with those around them to share the Good News of Jesus. PA thought that being being relational was key to being a good Christian. I’m pretty sure he used the phrase “be relational” every ten minutes. You want to be a pastor? Be relational! You want to be a banker? Be relational! You want to come to church on sunday and have no-one bother you? TO BAD, BE RELATIONAL! PA was certain that if you were a christian you needed to be relational with others. To be a christian means you MUST invite people to encounter Christ. But what does that mean? How do you be relational? What does that practically look like? What are the best ways to invite people into a relationship with God? Well, for the next three weeks, we are going to examine the life of Jesus. We are going to examine how Jesus himself invited people into the kingdom of God. Jesus lived a perfect life, so he is the perfect example of how to “be relational”, of how to be a Christian who is focused on mission. My hope is show the extraordinary lengths that we must go through to share Jesus in Rocanville. Section 1: Broken SilenceSo here’s the setup. Jesus is already into his ministry. He has a following of believers that is growing quickly. He has been healing and calling to repent, to ask God for forgiveness for the wrong they’ve done. However the Pharisees, the leaders of the Jewish temple, have caught on. They see Jesus as a threat and a rebel. They won’t stand for this growing “Kingdom of God” movement. So, before the Pharisees can catch up with him, Jesus leaves the region of Judea and begins to move towards the Region of Galilee, To make this Journey, Jesus had a choice. He could either cross the Jorden River and travel through Gentile, none Jewish, territory or he could shorten his to about a three day journey by traveling through Samaria The thing is, Most jews HATED the Samaritans  While the Samaritans were techincally Jewish by blood, they rejected the writings of the Prophets (including the histories [1–2 Samuel, 1–2 Kings, 1–2 Chronicles]) and wisdom literature (Proverbs, Psalms, etc.) because of these writings’ emphasis on Judea and David’s line centered on Jerusalem. Their Scriptures were limited to the Pentateuch (Genesis through Deuteronomy). In addition the Samaritans had refused to help rebuild the temple and helped Alexander the Great enslave the Jews. Basically, while the Samaritians were Jewish, they were despised for good reason. So Jesus decides to take the shorter route, through Samaria. On his way he stops at a well and waited, his disciples were off buying food. As he waits there a Samaritian women approaches. Now understand not only is she a women, she’s a women coming to the well alone. Just like today, women in Israel travelled in groups. A women by herself meant that their was something WRONG with her, she was unwanted.  She is a woman bearing the history, language, religion, and attitudes of people on the far margin of Judaism. He is male, single, religious, and Jewish, and clearly defined social boundaries ought to keep hi

Vision Series part 3 of 3

Sermon part 2 of 3