When doing a task at home, there's usually a tool to make the job easier. For baking, there's measuring cups, mixers, knives, that make the job easier and more precise. For building, there are drills, saws, measuring devices, etc. When the church was born, God distributed to the church lots of tools previously unheard of, to each one who believes. The scriptures call these tools spiritual gifts. The church is a spiritual body. We've never seen our Lord in person, but we know he's real and he is meant to call the shots and be functional Lord in real time in the church and in our lives. So he gives us spiritual tools, distributing them to each one who believes. He gives to us what we need to care for needs within and to do a work in a time and community so that the church prevails and thrives. I want to turn to 1 Corinthians 12, a delightful passage about the body of Christ, and look at how to work with a very different toolbelt.

Preacher: Bill Dyck

Extra reading: Joel 2:28-32

One thing I don't think we ever tire of is getting gifts. We like getting gifts, thoughtful gifts, carefully chosen gifts. We love it. And the greatest gift giver of all is God because his gifts are so, so well chosen, so well suited. His gifts are delightful. When Jesus was raised from the dead and went to heaven, the Father sent his Spirit to live in the hearts of all who would believe him. And he gave gifts to them all and he does it for you. But often we don't understand those gifts, or we're fearful of them, or we don't develop them. But they're gifts meant to assist in a definite work that God has for us. We've been prepared to do good works, and there are works that are prepared for us to do, to step into. And God means to give us his enabling to do his works, so he gives us spiritual gifts. In these weeks leading up to Pentecost, I want to talk about making the most of your spiritual gifts. Today I will go into 1 Peter 4.

Preacher: Bill Dyck

Extra Reading: 1 Samuel 10:1-13

As children, we dared each other to do rather unwise things. Things that were beyond what we felt we had capacity for. It was a means to push a person beyond what they felt comfortable. When it comes to faith in God, when some people come to faith in Jesus, they have been longing for years for an opportunity. But for others the way to faith is fraught with difficulties. Doubts rise, or really complicated aspects of our lives that we have a difficult time working through and working past. Then there are those who've walked with Jesus a long time and then encounter challenges and there's a new batch of doubts. I want to talk today about daring to believe. When Jesus comes to us, he doesn't leave us in our doubts, questions and complications. He meets us and he urges us. Not to do dumb things like you do as a kid, but to know him. He pushes us as he did the disciples after He was raised. I want to talk about daring to believe, out of Luke.

Preacher: Bill Dyck

Extra reading: Job 19:23-27

How does one lean into uncertainty and maybe even unpleasantness with confidence and with joy? On Palm Sunday we celebrate Jesus joyfully entering the city of Jerusalem on the praises of all kinds of people for all they have seen him do and the fresh things they have heard him speak. They're full of joy because they've never experienced anything like it. As Jesus rides in, they are probably thinking, "this is so good, it can't get any better." But Jesus knows that within days things will unravel. Yet he still rides with confidence and joy. The question is, how does he do that, knowing that before the week is through, it will all turn very dark? We will look at that in the last chapter of the book of Daniel where we're talking about God in control. Daniel 12 speaks of the very end of time as humanity knows it. It's our turn to face an evil day. How do we walk into uncertainty, unpleasantness and hardship with confidence and joy?

Preacher: Bill Dyck

Extra reading: 1 Peter 4:12-19

Sometimes you will find small dogs, puny even, weighing maybe 2lbs, that have a massive bark and intimidate deeply. Much bigger dogs back away just at the size of the bark. We too are easily intimidated by things that shouldn't. We don't realize the punch we have as people bound to Christ and the effect our prayers have. We don't realize that the very thing that strikes intimidation in us really ought to be intimidated by us and is in fact. I called this message "A behind-the-scenes look at what happens when you pray". Scripture encourages us to pray and we sometimes feel guilty when we don't. Those who call us to pray have such vision for prayer and see such opportunity. There's nothing that smells of guilt in it, it's just such an opportunity to come and bring before God the things of our life and of his heart that he places upon us. And Daniel 10 paints such a picture of the effectiveness that comes with that.

Preacher: Bill Dyck

Extra reading: Ephesians 6:10-20

Growing up, on the farm immediately adjacent to ours, a man raised and trained racing horses. I would wander to the back of our farm and watch these horses just go around the track he built. He always put blinders on the horses. As a kid I wondered why. Now I see they do it in the big races too and it's probably a good thing for horses because it keeps them focused. But I think we do that when it comes to our relationship with God. God definitely wants to show himself to us in his greatness and majesty. He wants us to know him. But there's things that we do that put blinders on. We're talking about God in control, walking through the book of Daniel. Chapter 9 is a prayer and then a conversation where an angel responds to Daniel's prayer. We see four different ways we make God small in our eyes. But may God grow in our eyes and may we bring practices into our lives that welcome him to reveal himself to us in his majesty, in his fullness.

Preacher: Bill Dyck

Extra reading: Luke 11:1-13

G Campbell Morgan, a great Bible scholar and preacher from generations past, has a book called Great Chapters of the Bible. We like to think any chapter in the Bible is a good chapter, but he picked about two dozen great chapters of the Bible. And he writes this about the letter to the Philippians. "The letter to the Philippians is unique among the writings of Paul in the personal note which runs through it. The letter is one of love and song. From beginning to end full of references to his personal experiences and of exhortations to these children of his love, concerning their experiences. The word sin is not found in the letter, the word flesh only mentioned once in order to be dismissed. There seems to be no ruffle upon the calm and sunlit waters except that there would appear to have been at the same at that time, some little misunderstanding of some kind between two good women, to whom the apostle said, I exhort you to be of the same mind in the Lord."

Preacher: Ron MacKinnon

I wonder what you'd say if you were given the opportunity to see the coming years of the future of the world, right to the very end in detail. I think most of us would probably say "no thanks", a natural reaction. Many folks conjecture about days to come, but there's only one that knows. That's God. And though we're reticent to go down that path, God wants us to know, and he shares his secrets with us and brings us into his council on many things. We're walking through the book of Daniel and as we do God gives wisdom and strength to us to even think about that, so it's good for our hearts to be open to it. The theme of the book of Daniel all the way through, both in the incredible stories of the first six chapters and even in the more complex last six chapters, is always that God is in control. So I want to read chapter 8 and practice finding hope against a dark backdrop.

Preacher: Bill Dyck

Extra reading: Mark 13:24-37

On steep mountain roads they add these runaway ramps. These are are especially for big trucks going down hill in case they lose their brakes. The only way to avoid perishing with all that momentum is to drive up these ramps where the truck gets quickly bogged down in soft gravel and slows them down. When we look at world events, do we feel that way, like a truck going down? Do we wonder whether anyone is in control? The Scriptures that God is in control. We hear this but feel it's a tug of war, God against whatever whatever superpower. Sometimes one wins and sometimes the other. But there's nothing further from the truth. The first six chapters of Daniel are high drama, remarkable stories where God is in control. The next six chapters are  prophetic literature, looking through time at things before they have come to us. And still, God is in control. It is good to pause here with so much in our hearts that makes us tremble as we look at Daniel 7.

Preacher: Bill Dyck

Extra reading: Matthew 24:1-14

The goal of an interviewer in a job interview is not to know what you think or hope you can do or what one day with education and experience you will do. They want to know, like right now what can you do? I think we struggle when considering what God is able to do. There's a kids song that goes, "God can do anything, anything, anything, but fail." He can't fail, he can do anything. But when you look in practice at our lives, there's a bit of a disconnect between what we affirm theologically and what we deeply hold to in practice because we get so rattled by things, we have fear and anxiety. But in truth, he's able, he can't fail. I wanted to hone in on something that scripture says he's able to do: God definitely knows how to rescue the godly from trials. He has it in hand the trials, the fires, the curve balls that come and rattle us and knock us down. God is able to rescue. I want to look at the story of Daniel and the lion's den.

Preacher: Bill Dyck

Extra reading: 1 Peter 2:9-12