In 2012, I lost my mother to cancer. And I remember being there in the hospital room with her during her last moments. I remember the look on her face. I remember the words she said to me before she passed. I had just started my 2nd year at the university back home. As I was putting the final touches on this message, I started to think about that time in my life. I asked myself this question: How was I able to process or cope with that type of grief? The answer: Because the Lord was on my side. At that time I was 18 years old. I had given my life to the Lord when I was younger. But I will admit that I was not fully committed to walking with the Lord. But as I look back at that time in my life, I can stand here and confidently say that the Lord was on my side, and if the Lord was not on my side, I do not know if I would be standing here in this church today. The title of the message this morning is: I know who is on my side. Psalm 124.

Extra reading: Romans 8:31-39

Preacher: Graeme Ramgobin

What are the advantages to following God? I see a lot of people's struggle and sometimes fall away. Which is a real drag. The advantages of the world sometimes seem so great that it seems we should give up on God, but really, what are the advantages for those who trust God? If somebody were to put you in a corner and ask you that question, what would you say? There's a lot of places in the Bible we could go to answer that, but we definitely find the answer in Psalm 125. Maybe there are some here for whom it's not clear why they should follow God and they could go either way. Psalm 125 is so much comfort for the one who trusts in God, but today I definitely want to make a pitch for following God.

Extra reading: 1 Peter 1:3-9

Preacher: Bill Dyck

Many of our stories have big chapters where we were mistreated, experiencing harshness, cruelty, spitefulness. It is difficult to shake off those experiences. I hear of people released from prison after they've been there a long time, 20-30 years, when evidence come to light showing their innocence. At the original hearing, a false witness swayed the jury. The Bible is full of such stories. Joseph, David. In both cases, in the end, God accomplished his purposes. But what do we do when such things come to us? I called the sermon "Following God in a grumpy world". We're walking through the 15 Psalms of ascents, each describing what each one of us comes to in a season of life. In some cases people are consumed by the injustice and have a difficult time shaking it. How do we carry on? How do we stay with the goal amid people who treat us badly? Psalm 123 is where we are at today.

Extra reading: 2 Timothy 2:1-13

Preacher: Bill Dyck

Put the big rocks in the jar first. That's what Stephen Covey said. The jar is our time, it's our energy, it's our capacity. We try to fill the jar with sand and pebbles first, those things that are not as important but that can very easily fill our time. Later, we try to put the big rocks, those activities that are most important to our success, that really make our life count. But if we fill the jar with sand and pebbles, those less important things, and then try to put in the big rocks, which are those activities most important to our lives, the jar just won't take them. The key then is to put the big rocks in first. I want to talk here today about the place of corporate worship in your life, which I want to make a pitch for is a big rock that should go in first.

Extra reading: Hebrews 10:19-25

Preacher: Bill Dyck

In a world of drunk drivers, where people blow up airports, all the unexpected things in our lives, where do we find security and protection? When we bought our house, there were a lot of locks on the door. It really struck me. But then I learned that the woman who lived there had a son who was murdered. We have these issues that come in our hearts and we seek to fortify and protect ourselves from things that are unexpected. So the question arises, where do you find security? Where do you find assurance that you'll be OK? That's what Psalm 121 speaks to. We're tracking through a series about walking with God through the seasons of life. We're all traveling through life. We have a starting point and there's an end point. There's a definite destination. And I want to read Psalm 121, the traveller's psalm, and reflect on this beautiful psalm.

Extra reading: Romans 8:31-39

Preacher: Bill Dyck

When I was young, one of my greatest fears was being misrepresented. If people were speaking lies about me or misrepresenting me, it hit something that was deeper in me than perhaps anything else. Then I entered pastoral ministry here in the heart of the city, only to find that I was face to face with that all the time. I want to begin from now till the end of June to walk through what's called the Songs of Ascents, Psalms 120 to 135. They were spoken and sung by the people when they made pilgrimage three times a year to Jerusalem. The first of these psalms, 120, is about living as a follower of God in a world of lies. When you're misrepresented, and slander comes against you. Maybe you're living through that right now. It's a painful place to be, when your reputation, which you treasure, which God treasures, is taken and is blackened. That's where we start, following God through the seasons of life because this season comes to us.

Preacher: Bill Dyck

Why dare to believe in Jesus? The simple answer is because he is so worth it. But the Easter story, straightforward as it is, isn't always straightforward. Because, the disciples, who knew better than anybody, on Easter Sunday morning were full of doubt. Daring to believe takes courage because we have doubts. We have certain experiences in our life we don't know what to do with. And we have questions too. We come with our own stories, struggles and expectations to the facts of history. I want to challenge you here today to dare to believe. But what's involved in daring to believe? I want to read part of the Easter story from the Gospel of Luke. Luke 24.

Extra reading: Matthew 28:1-15

Preacher: Bill Dyck

There are times maybe we feel like our lives are going nowhere. We might not know how we got there, but it's a very frustrating place to be. We feel stuck and there's little fruit or effectiveness. Nobody feels much passion about being there, right? It's a dark place. That's the context for Palm Sunday and our text today. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the praises of people who had seen him do so much. And when he arrives, he wants to go straight to the temple: the destination for all Jews for all the festivals and all their pilgrimages. But there he finds something that has become so stuck and literally without fruit. In the story of Palm Sunday, he's calling us from the place we feel stuck and our lives feel pointless, to a place of fruitfulness.

Extra reading: Zechariah 9:9-12

Preacher: Bill Dyck

I remember growing up in a rural community seeing barn fires from time to time. You could see them from a great distance. The wood from these 200 year old structures is dry. When they catch fire, you can't hope to put them out. The firefighters focus on protecting the buildings around. People come from great distances because you can't help see the night sky lit up. They come to help, to drag livestock out of the barn. I remember going as a kid with my dad. Men courageously go into flames to drag out whatever they can. The fires mode the heart tremble. It's hard to sleep after because of how terrifying it is. Heading home, you wonder, how can I avoid that happening in my barn? I come to a text here today in the Gospel of Mark that we tend to avoid, about things to come. Maybe we find it deepressing, or we don't know what to think. But Christ gives it to us in his love that we might prepare ourselves, to give us the chance to be responsible with our lives and loved ones.

Extra reading: Daniel 12:1-4

Preacher: Bill Dyck

We are a people who live from the heart. Our generation is one that lives from the heart. Authenticity is very important to our culture, maybe it's the most important thing. And God teaches us to love him with our heart. But he also says to love him with all of our mind. He says to love him also with all of our soul. And to love him with all of our strength. I wanna talk about that here today.

Extra reading: Isaiah 5:1-7

Preacher: Bill Dyck