What is your sign that summer is ending? For me, when I start hearing on the radio that little jingle, "let's go to the Ex", that is my signal that summer is coming to an end. Also, when I drive down the DVP and I start to see that orange and yellow coming out, I'm like, "ah, fall is coming." And before I know it, it's a sea of colour. So, what's my point? Fall is a season where we get back to our routines, we think about the things that are important to us. If we have family, we are thinking about what's important for our family, what we want to make sure is in our lives and that we are doing. So, this change in season is a really good time to check in with ourselves and make sure that we've got the basics right. It's a time to make sure that our foundation is firm. And if in our faith we've got the basics, that's a very good start. So for the next couple of weeks, we're gonna talk about getting back to the basics, checking in to make sure we've got a firm foundation.

Extra reading: Psalm 1

Preacher: Leslie Shillinglaw

Psalm 134

Our service comes from Psalm 133, a psalm about Christian community. When Bill gave me this psalm to speak from, I will be honest with you, I didn't get it. I haven't had the greatest experience in church. I've felt the clickiness, the cold shoulders. I have literally been pushed out of some circles. It felt like nobody wanted me around. It hurt, especially as a new believer. It left me wondering, what did I do wrong? Aren't we supposed to be united, to care for each other? So when I read this psalm, it didn't make sense. Yet I have a strange feeling that I'm not the only one that has felt this way. I think a lot of us are still trying to figure out what community looks like. So I thought I'd share with you what I have discovered in preparing of this message, because even though I started off confused, I found three truths that spoke to me. One, we were made for community. Two, we were made to be holy. Three, we were made for blessing.

Extra reading: Ephesians 2:8-10

Preacher: Christian Bom

Trivial Pursuit used to be a popular game that tested your ability to know trivia, useless facts about everything under the sun. Some people were very good at it, and I definitely was not. Have you ever seen the power of God change a life? Change your life? It is so far from trivial. That is what we desire. It's what people desire more than anything. Nobody likes to be dragged away down a path out of control. I meet that a lot. But I've also seen the power of God change lives. And I want to think with you about it today.

Extra reading: Isaiah 53

Preacher: Bill Dyck

There's a lot of things that we find joy in. Last week, there was a car race here in the city. The indie is free. So I went there for a couple hours. I really love that. We have different things that we enjoy. But there is something that unites us, that gives us way more joy than any of those things, indie races or anything. It's the worship of God. It just tops it all. The more we know God, the more we find joy in it. I want to talk from Psalm 132 about the heart of worship. There are 15 Psalms of ascent about God's people going up to a place of worship. A number of times a year, they left wherever they were in the nation and went up to one place. In today's psalm, the folks who are on the journey are almost standing in the temple, they're right there. And so I want to talk here today from this Psalm about what worship really is.

Extra reading: Ephesians 4:7-16

Preacher: Bill Dyck

While preparing this message, I thought back to individuals in my life who have experienced great hardship in the form of opposition from people, where people have come and stood in their way and made life very hard for them. And yet, the same people are joyful and thankful, and they're resilient. It's an amazing thing. Knocked down but not knocked out. That's what I want to talk about today from Psalm 129. These are Psalms of ascent, 15 different psalms, back to back, of God's people on a journey, going up to meet with God. All of us are on a journey. I call this series Journeying Through the Seasons of Life. We find ourselves at some point in our lives in every one of these psalms, experiencing it full on. Maybe this is you right now, facing people who have made the way hard for you. Let's read it together.

Extra reading: 2 Corinthians 4:7-12

Preacher: Bill Dyck

I believe that the sin of pride is destroying the lives of so many people. And this sin has taken and will take many people to Hell. I'm not only speaking about those persons who do not know Jesus Christ. But Christians too. Pride is a very dangerous sin. The Bible tells us clearly that God hates pride. He loves humility. Humility is one of the marks of a person who is a follower of Jesus Christ. What is humility? Looking at the life of Jesus Christ, I believe that these three things define humility. One, acknowledging my dependence on God. Two, being submissive and obedient to God's will for my life. Three, valuing other people above myself. The opposite defines pride. What is pride? One, choosing not to acknowledge my dependence on God, choosing to depend on myself or on other people, or on worldly things, such as money. Two, not being submissive and obedient to God's will for my life. Three, valuing myself over other people. Now let's look at Psalm 131.

Extra reading: Philippians 2:5-11

Preacher: Graeme Ramgobin

You've probably never considered yourself a city builder. But the truth is that we all are, for good or for bad. We're walking through the fifteen Psalms of Ascents, meaning, they're going up. Every year the Jews went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. They're going up to worship. Each of these Psalms introduces a different aspect of our journey. We're journeying through the seasons of life and each Psalm meets us in a different season of our life, getting traction very specifically with where we live, but all of it is lived in the direction of God. Today we'll look at Psalm 128.

We each desire that our lives be spent meaningfully. It frustrates us if it seems like our lives are pointless, if there's a season where we feel our wheels are spinning and we're not going anywhere but we're putting in a lot of effort. We desire to have focus and purpose, a meaningfulness. If there's ever a sense that we're doing something in vain, it frustrates us to the core of our being. The psalm I want to look at today mentions the word three times, "in vain". When we disconnect from God, the activities in our lives become in vain, pointless, going nowhere. If our lives are detached, if we're not seeking God, if we're not waiting upon Him, or in the case of many people here on the earth, if we don't acknowledge God or give thanks to God, the Psalmist says that those activities are in vain. I wanna talk about that here today. We're walking through these songs of ascents, 15 different songs about going up to worship. Here's Psalm 127.

Extra reading: John 15:1-11

Preacher: Bill Dyck

There's a lot of people who like to restore things and lots of things that can be restored. You hear about people who restore phones, others who restore cars. Some like restoring houses, or leather or furniture. You can have somebody restore windows on your computer. There's all kinds of things that are sort of lost and can be restored, and some people really like to do that. But the thing is, who restores lives that have lost their way? I want to talk about that here today, why God is the one who restores lives and people who have lost their way. I meet many who've lost their way. They're in a dark, hopeless place. The future seems gone. They had dreams when they were younger, but it seems like all is lost forever. But God restores lives. The fact that he does that and how he does that is what I want to reflect on with you today, Psalm 126. How God restores a life.

Extra reading: John 12:20-26

Preacher: Bill Dyck