If you like growing plants, you will be familiar with clay pots. To have or to work with clay pots is a practice that is thousands of years old. Clay pots are common, cheap and fragile. However, they can carry things of great value. The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered around 1950. All of them were sealed inside clay pots, and they are among the oldest pieces of scripture on planet Earth. It's one of the most significant archaeological discoveries on Earth. Tons of fragments from books, or whole books, and they are the oldest that we have. They were contained for 2,000 years inside clay pots.

The scriptures talk about our lives as clay pots, with all of the commonness, the fragility, the weakness, but containing in them something so precious.

We're a couple of weeks from Easter. I want to think with you today about the death of Christ. But not how in it we find the forgiveness of sins. We relate much more to the death of Christ every day, whether or not we want to. I want to talk about this in this image: that we have this treasure in jars of clay, out of 2 Corinthians 4.

Extra reading: Psalm 16

Preacher: Bill Dyck

One thing that drew me to my wife when I first met her was her zeal. She didn’t do anything half-heartedly. She was all in, whether playing a game, if she was talking, or when it came to her faith. It was her enthusiasm, her energy, her conviction, her dedication. There was nothing half-hearted.

Today is the last Sunday we'll be looking at what I called "Working from the Right Scorecard". We've been walking through Revalation 2 and 3, where Jesus speaks to seven different churches in a given time and place. In it he praises them, and in it he corrects them. From that we get a sense of what heaven’s scorecard is.

Sometimes we find ourselves pursuing things that come from the world. But it is so much better to pursue the things that are on the heart of God.

Today we come to the last of the seven, the church of Laodicea, where he speaks the strongest words of correction, but he also speaks the most tenderly to draw them. Both are there, and it’s really quite something.

Preacher: Bill Dyck

Extra reading: Psalm 86:8-13

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, had a constant critic in Congress, Edwin Stanton, who humiliated him, called him names, and mocked his policies. Lincoln overlooked this and gave him his greatest trust, naming him minister of war through the Civil War. When Lincoln was assassinated and his life was passing away, Stanton was beside him and said, "Never has there been a greater leader among men than Abraham Lincoln." Through Lincoln's patient endurance, Stanton had been won by love and by respect.

We’re walking through the seven churches of Revelation, talking about living our life by the right scorecard - by the things that matter to Heaven. Sometimes we give ourselves to things that matter on earth, but they’re not even recognized in heaven. Patient endurance is a quality that all of us will have the opportunity to practice. That is what the church in Philadelphia is commended for - a church living in the fire of incredible suffering. Peter says the one who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.

Extra reading: Deuteronomy 11:18-25

Preacher: Bill Dyck

We are continuing our sermon series, Working from the Right Scorecard. Appearances can be deceiving. Have you ever bought something off of Facebook Marketplace that looked good? The seller said that it was fine, that everything was in working order, maybe it even passes your visual inspection. But you get it home and you try to plug it in and you realize that it's broken and you've been duped, you have been cheated. Have you ever been fooled by appearances like that? Something looked good, it looked safe, it looked alive, it looked like it was functioning, but in reality, it was not. In the scriptures that we're going to be looking at this morning, Jesus tells us that a whole church can be like that and that we as individual believers can as well. Everything can look fine on the surface, but the truth is, the roots are drying up, the inner life is withering away. Thankfully, we will see in the scriptures for today that Jesus loves us far too much to leave us like that. We will look at the letter to the church in Sardis from Revelation 3.

Extra reading: Joel 2:12-14

Preacher: Luke Dobrzanski

It’s thought that holiness belongs to the Pope or others in that category. The rest of us feel intimidated by the concept. It feels out of our league.

Some people looking from the outside think holiness is dull or boring. Others say those associated with it come across as judgmental, snobbish, or morally superior. To some, it just seems rigid and hopeless. But how could that be? Jesus, when he walked this earth, was holy. And yet people flocked to him. Sinful people wanted to be with him. How could that be?

We want to make sure we’re working from the right scorecard. There are things in our lives that are important to us and we keep track of, but are they the right things? These seven churches from the book of Revelation were in a real time and place 2,000 years ago, but they are timeless. They speak to us today about what's important to God. So I want to talk about why holiness matters as we look at this fourth church, Revelation 2:18

Extra reading: Jeremiah 17:5-10

Preacher: Bill Dyck

There are different types of purists. I drink whatever coffee is closest—right now that’s Tim Hortons. A coffee purist would cross town for an amazing cup, or grind their own from specific sources. That’s what a purist does.

I have a growing appreciation for purists, because when it comes to Jesus, are we purists? It’s easy to take what is pure in Jesus and add to it, shaped by our experience and upbringing. People get upset with Christians they feel have become too dogmatic or rigid, and sometimes Christians are. But there is a tolerance that’s common in society that maybe Jesus isn’t so good with. I want to think with you about that today.

We’re walking through the letters to the seven churches in Revelation, in a series called Working from the Right Scorecard. Today we’re looking at the third letter, to the church of Pergamum, and the focus is caring about truth and running from indifference.

Extra reading: Deuteronomy 12:29-32

Preacher: Bill Dyck

There is a robin on our street that has been singing all through the winter. A robin usually only comes in springtime, but this is a very optimistic robin. This robin has courage in suffering! We're walking through the letters to the seven churches in Revelation in a series I called "Working from the right scorecard". We have our own scorecards, what we value, what we put effort and strength into. But are these the same things that are on God's scorecard? These letters were for these churches 2000 years ago, but they are messages for all churches all through the ages, and for us too. What is it that God values in the life of his church? What does he notice, reward, praise? Last week we talked about, to the church in Ephesus, how we love. Unquestionably this will be top of God's scorecard. When we stand before him, he'll ask, how did you love people? This week we'll see in the letter to Smyrna another thing on his scorecard: courage in suffering.

Extra reading: Psalm 46:1-11

Preacher: Bill Dyck

I had to work hard for my grades in university. I studied very diligently. A few times, though, what I had chosen to study was not on the exam. At the time, I felt I had blown it. It was much more helpful when an instructor told us where to focus our studies. When there's a review done of our lives, when we appear before God, it would be very bad having lived our many years to find out that we focussed on the wrong thing. For things we worked hard on, achievements that meant so much to us, to not even come up in the review, while other things we hardly paid attention to get lifted up. In the next 7 weeks we'll be looking at letters to the 7 churches in Revelation 2-3, where God reviews the things he praises and criticise and calls us to. My heart's desire is for us all to be working from the right scorecard, so that when we appear before him, we won't be surprised and we'll already be leaning into what is most valuable. Today, Revelation 2:1-7. I called the message "Living in love". The top of the scorecard, guaranteed, is how did you love people?

Extra reading: Hosea 2:14-20

Preacher: Bill Dyck

I urge, invite and call you into Solemn Assembly. We love the idea of being joyful. Coming with a certain sobriety before God is itself a pathway to joy and peace. But certain things demand seriousness. Solemn assembly is a call to spiritual renewal. Jesus said that the thief, meaning his and our enemy, comes to kill, steal, destroy. He's really good at it, all over the world, in our lives. But Jesus says, "I have come to give you life and that more abundantly." That is spiritual renewal. We need that. In the new year, we're done with the feasting and family and all that. Isn't there also a season to set aside food and say honestly to God, I want you more than I do food? It's of such value to set aside something that we love and need to say to God, I really want you more than anything. Every time you feel hunger, turn your heart to God in prayer. The Lord will help us. I want to lean into the theme of spiritual renewal and unpack Psalm 85.

Extra reading: Ephesians 4:17-24

Preacher: Bill Dyck

..The two of them would create goodie bags in large numbers, like 150, to hand out to people. I noticed the incredible compassion he has for the needy, sometimes the ones who give him the most difficulty. One day I asked him, "Why is it that you have such an enduring love and commitment to this ministry?" He said, "My grandfather was one of these folks. He stumbled around the streets in his drunkenness. He wandered into a place just like this once. Someone at the front said, 'Jesus saves sinners.' And he latched onto that thought. Where would I be if there was not a place like this, if there wasn't that preacher who stood in front of an unwelcoming crowd and said, 'Jesus saves sinners'? Every time I come, it gives me an opportunity to maybe be involved in somebody else hearing that same message." Sometimes we think it's a small thing, that Jesus saves sinners, that he forgives us of our sins. We do not grasp what it means. I want to reflect with that here today.

Preacher: Bill Dyck